Wm. H. Vanderbilt has given $500,000 to the New York City College of Physicians and Surgeons. The gift is wise and generous, and it breaks a disagreeable silence. It is only by such gifts that very rich men can satisfy our moral sense. The vast wealth can be justified only as a stewardship for one’s fellow men; and we want to see the proofs that the stewardship is righteously exercised.
A Chinese pamphlet, instigated by the French invasion, and designed to inflame the passion of the celestials, says that Europeans are not human beings at all, but wild animals descended from monkeys. We fear that an imperfect copy of Darwin has fallen into the hands of this pamphleteer; but he gives us a chance to see ourselves as others see us.
October is the month of political parades in the political almanac. This year the display at some points was magnificent. Broadway, New York, with from thirty to sixty thousand men in line, in the picturesque costumes of contemporary politics, is the most imposing sight in the world. And our sober-sided people seem to like and enjoy this single form of public theatrical effects.
Now and then a good man is plentifully advertised as “a man with a conscience.” Would it not be easier and more wholesome to morals to confine this kind of advertising to the men who are without consciences? The men who have consciences must be very numerous.
The appointment of the Hon. Hugh McCullough as Secretary of the Treasury reminds us, not only that President Lincoln nominated him to the same office, but also that he returns to the most arduous office in the United States at the age of seventy-three. His health is perfect, and he has the vigor of middle age. The old men are holding out in American public life about as well as they do in English politics.