Having been formed by the German residents in that city, "without regard to political or religious parties, as their constitution expresses it,-with the object of exciting among themselves a fraternal spirit; to supply the needy and newly arrived with advice and employment, and the sick and feeble with pecuniary assistance;" the society has succeeded in fostering, among its members, a lively feeling of sympathy, and a strong impulse to advance its object, by establishing an intelligence office, "for the purpose of advertising for labor and laborers, and of collecting and communicating all possible information in regard to the intercourse of the German emigrants and the native Americans.”

It is owing to this intelligence office, and to the advertisements connected with it, that many new and important ties have been formed between them and their American fellow citizens, and that they have been encouraged and animated to persevering efforts in discovering and relieving their suffering countrymen. As soon as an honest journeyman or active laborer happens to be thrown out of employment, or as often as a German emigrant arrives from another part of the country, and is capable of satisfying the Board in regard to his character, the society pledge themselves to the public in regard to his conduct and capacities, and in general, obtain very readily a suitable place for him. They thus confer a greater benefit on the community and

the individual than could be done by the most munificent donations; for, as President Wayland justly observes, "in general those modes of charity are to be preferred, which most successfully teach the object to relieve himself, and which tend most directly to the moral benefit of both parties. And on the contrary those modes of charity are the worst which are farthest removed from such tendencies." Again, by receiving not Germans only, but also native Americans as members, the Society has opened a way by which the foreigner is introduced at once into the bosom of the community, in which he is to play an active part. It is by this regulation, that many little prejudices to which various foreign customs may naturally give rise are effectually removed; that the intelligent and cultivated among the German population are enabled to become the interpreters—not of the language only— but of the true meaning of many national peculiarities in the character of their countrymen, which the American sometimes regards as dangerous merely because they are different from his own. Thus the honest man who, perhaps, has been falsely accused or calumniated by some unprincipled countryman who envies his success, is freed from every suspicion, and enabled to go on without obstruction in his honest labors.

But if in this manner the society seems to have taken very judicious steps in order to in

crease and strengthen the sympathies between its members and that community by which they are immediately surrounded, they have likewise taken some preliminary measures to form a regular intercourse with other German societies in the different parts of the Union; so that those Germans, who wish to exchange one place for another, or to emigrate to the West, may not be entirely beyond the reach of their friends, if their situation should call for their assistance. "The Germans," we would say with Professor Mühlenfels, "will be found admirable fathers, virtuous members of society, loyal subjects, eminent scholars, but-careless citizens;" referring thus to their political character;—but we would add at the same time that they are far from being incorrigible; that it is in our power to make them useful also in this respect, and that those Charitable Societies are an important means in realizing this object, by uniting the emigrant and his host in labors of love. Indeed, it seems hardly possible that by his own endeavors the foreigner should become capable in the short space of five years to discharge faithfully the duties of a citizen of the United States, after he has lived for thirty or forty years under a monarchical form of government, and when arrived in this country, has been separated to a great extent from the rest of the community by a difference of language, or prevented by incessant labor from acquainting himself with the peculiar character of this

government. It seems impossible, I say, in regard to the German emigrant, who is generally capable and willing to assimilate with his neighbor, without divesting himself of his individuality, and it is certainly impossible in regard to those foreigners, who with an unbending and exclusive spirit keep aloof from every change in the national views and peculiarities which they imbibed in their own country. "Let the Americans beware, (says a well-known foreigner,) of extending the rights of citizenship indiscriminately to foreign emigrants;" and although there is often something in such laconic warnings addressed to a whole people, which savors of Shakspeare's "I would croak like a raven, I would bode! I would bode!" it cannot prevent us from adding, that until the naturalization laws shall be changed-which indeed may never be the case—let us engage in enlightening those to whom we extend these privileges. It is likely, indeed, that in less than half a century the Germans in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia will be almost entirely absorbed by the AngloAmerican population, as has been the case partly with the Dutch in the State of New York, and with the Swedes in Delaware; but it will be caused by very different reasons. It is not owing to an entire ceasing of new arrivals, but to the fact that the great mass of the emigrants now direct their course to the far West, where this division of language and feeling must be perpetuated.

But in tracing the consequences of the entire neglect of these strangers, we cannot shut our eyes against many favorable indications, which show us with how much interest this subject is generally regarded. Men of the most different views in religion and politics have shown a perfectly catholic spirit in regard to the duties which Americans owe to themselves with reference to the foreigner. You meet now with one who has adopted the gifted child of some indigent family, with another who is rather a friend than a master to his German servant, and with a third who devotes his leisure hours to the instruction of the foreigner. They cannot forget, that in this free country there are many who, from causes over which they have no control, remain strangers even to the meaning of the word Freedom; they cannot regard the mere physical well-being of the emigrant, nor the fact that he has formally abjured his allegiance to every foreign power, as sufficient to make him a useful citizen in a republic.

It will be readily understood that the Stranger is much more able to become acquainted with the wants of his countrymen than with the means by which these wants may be satisfied; and it is therefore with diffidence that he closes this chapter with the inquiry, whether the usefulness of the Public Schools in the principal cities of the Union might not be greatly increased by the addition of