[Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker.] 
EYES AND GLASSES. 
In- a late Rurai., some variety of eyes and the 
glasses adapted to thorn, and even necessary for dis¬ 
tinct vision, were mentioned. Of the two, short - 
sighted or longsighted, children or young persons, 
the latter are more 
convex glasses they need for their benefit. 
likely not to get. the strongly 
“ * ‘ "t, Most of 
those who sell glasses do not understand the defect 
or the abnormal condition of their eyes, and hence, 
they fear the convex glasses will prove injurious in 
the end. I have known the seller, in his good inten¬ 
tions, discourage their use by young persons. While 
children of fourteen years or a little older arc made 
by the glasses of their grandfather of seventy years 
to see perfectly well, I have never heard ot an 
instance where they proved injurious in after years. 
Indeed, it. cannot lie shown on any reasonable 
ground that their use is at all dangerous. The good 
fact too is, that such eyes gradually become better or 
more like the normal, and hence they will need less 
convex glasses in after life, as old persons who had 
normal eyes need the more convex till they reach 
eighty years or move. 
The immediate cause of those abnormal eyes is 
not as obvious. Some children are born near¬ 
sighted, and others long-sighted. In some cases the 
rlramrf. has been the result of disease. I knew one 
WINTER SCENE — SKATING AND ICE-BOATING ON 
thick buffalo skins, the ladies and gentlemen find 
happy amusement. It is a beautiful sight to see 
twon ty of these boats, crossing and re-crossing each 
other’s tracks on the wide hay, each of them attended, 
by a knot of skaters, reminding one of the troops of 
small birds which are frequently seen hovering in 
the wake of a falcon. 
by means of which the ice-boat may be turned with 
the utmost certainty and rapidity. The velocity 
with which these boats are sometimes driven by the 
wind, exceeds belief. It would be a match for an 
express locomotive, running at its highest speed, to 
overtake them, at times. Seats are arranged on the 
ice-boats, and there, covered comfortably up with 
teeth of the wind as a sloop, and its motions are 
demonstrable on the same principle of the resolution 
of forces, as the sailing ot a ship. 11 consists simply 
of planks nailed together, upon the bottom of which 
skates or pieces of thin iron are fastened. A mast 
is then erected in the fore part, and large -sails 
attached. An oar is stuck out behind for a rudder, 
the safety or the existence of a nation, depend on the 
accident of a merely personal and pecuniary litiga- 
Moreover, when the judgment of the Prize Court 
upon the lawfulness of the capture ol the vessels is 
rendered, it really concludes nothing, and binds 
neither the belligerent. State nor the neutral upon 
the great question of the disposition to I si made ol 
[Ik, ntniured contraband persons. That question is 
still to be really determined, if at all, by diplomatic 
arrangement or by war. 
One may well express his surprise when told that 
the law of nations has furnished no more reasonable, 
practical, and perfect modi, than tills of determining 
questions of such grave import between sovereign 
powers. The regret, we may feel on the occasion is 
nevertheless modified bv the reflection that the dil- 
firulty is not. altogether anomalous. Similar and 
equal deficiencies are found in every system or 
municipal law. especially in the system which exists 
in the greater portions of Great Britain and the 
United Slates. The title to personal property can 
hardly over be resolved by a court, without resorting 
to the fiction that, the claimant has lost, and Ibf 
possessor has found it; and the title to reai estate is 
same light, and had assumed the same attitude us 
Great Uritain. * 
It. had been settled by correspondence that the 
United states and Great Britain mutually recog¬ 
nized us applicable to this local strife, these two 
articles of the declaration made by the Congress of 
vessels ot war. revenue vessels, ami mere mini ves¬ 
sels. The Trent falls within the latter class. What¬ 
ever disputes have existed concerning a right of 
visitation or search in time of peace, none, it is sup¬ 
posed, has existed in modern limes about the right of 
a belligerent in time of war to capture contraband 
in neutral and even friendly merchant vessels, anil 
of the right of visitation and search to determine 
whether they are neutral and me documented as 
such according to the law of nations. I assume in 
the present,case, what-us 1 lead the British authori¬ 
ties, is regarded by Great Britain herself as true 
maritime law, that She circumstance that the Trent 
was proceeding from a neutral port to another 
neutral port does not modify the rights of the bellig¬ 
erent captor. ( 
The third question U whether (Jap tain Wilkes ex¬ 
ercised the right, of search in a lawful and proper 
manner. If any doubt hung over this point, the 
case wna presented in the statement of it adopted by 
the British government, I think it must have already 
passed away before the modifications of that state¬ 
ment which' I have already submitted. 
I proceed to the fourth inquiry, namely: Having 
found the suspected contra''and of war on board the 
Trent, had Oapt. Wilkes a right to capture the same? 
Such a capture is the chief, if not the only, recog¬ 
nized object of the permitted visitation and. scorch. 
Thu principle of the law is, that the belligerent 
exposed to danger may prevent the Contraband per¬ 
sons or things i'ruin applying theimtplves, or being 
applied, to the hostile uses or purposes designed. 
The law is so very liberal in this respect, that when 
contraband is found on a neutral vessel, not only is 
the contraband forfeited, but the vessel, which is the 
vehicle of its passage ov transportation, being tainted, 
also becomes contraband, and in subjected to capture 
and emitistation. 
Only the fifth question remains, namely; Did 
“ Light of our firmament, guide of our Nation, 
Pride of her children, and honored afar, 
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation 
Scatter each cloud that would darken a star! 
Up with our banner bright, 
Sprinkled with starry light. 
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore, 
While through the sounding sky 
Load rings the Nation's cry — 4 
Union and Liberty! one evermore!” 
to the Emperor Of the French, and George Eustis 
was chosen Secretary of Legation for that simulated 
mission. . . „ , , 
The fact that, these persons had assumed such 
characters ban been since avowed by tin- same Jef¬ 
ferson Davis in a pretended message to an unlawful 
and insurrectionary Congress. It was. as we think, 
rig1it.lv oresumed that these Ministers bore pro- 
I'H 
We are in- 
An Extbnbive Library. —There was once in a 
certain part of India such a voluminous library that 
a thousand camels were requisite for its transport, 
and a hundred Brahmins had to be paid for the 
care. The king felt no inclination to wade through 
all this heap of learning himself and ordered his 
well-fed librarians to turnLsh him an extract for his 
private use. They set to work, and in about twenty- 
years’ time produced a nice little encyclopedia, 
which might have been easily carried by thirty 
camels. But the monarch found it still too largo, 
and had not even patience enough to read the 
preface. The indefatigable Brahmins began, there¬ 
fore, afresh, and reduced the thirty Cargoes into so 
small a substance that a single ass marched away 
with it in comfort; but the kingly dislike for reading 
had increased with age, aud his servants wrote at 
last on a palm leaf, ‘-The quintessence ot all science 
consists in the little word Perhaps! Throe expres¬ 
sions contain the history of mankind: they were born, 
they suffered, and they died. Love only what is good, 
and practice what you love. Believe only what is 
true, but do not mention all that which you believe.” 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., JANUARY 11, 1862 
rightly presumed that these 
tended credentials and instructions, and such papers 
are. in the law, known as dispatches. We are in¬ 
formed by our consul at Paris that these dispatches, 
having escaped the seach of the Trent, were actually 
conveyed and delivered to the emissaries of the in¬ 
surrection in England. Although it is not essential, 
vet it is proper to state, as I do also upon informa- 
lion and belief, that, the owner and agent and all the 
officers of the Trent, including the commander, Wil¬ 
liams, had knowledge of the assumed characters and 
purposes of the persons before named, when they 
embarked on that vessel. 
Your Lordship will now perceive that the case be¬ 
fore us, instead of presenting a merely flagrant act of 
violence on the part ol Capt. Wilkes, as might well 
ho inferred from the incomplete statement "f it that 
went up to the British government, was undertaken 
as a simple, legal, customary and belligerent pro¬ 
ceeding by Captain Wilkes, to arrest and capture a 
neutral vessel engaged in carry big contraband ot 
war for the use and benefit of the insurgents. 
The question before us is. whether this proceeding 
was authorized by and conducted according to the 
law of nations. It involves the following inquiries: 
THE WAR’S PROGRESS 
conceiving and executing the proceedings in ques¬ 
tion, acton upon his own suggestion of duty, without 
any direction, or instruction, or even foreknowledge 
of it, on the part ol this government. No directions 
had been given to him, or any other naval officer, to 
arrest the four portions named, or any of them, on t he 
Trent, or any other British vessel, or on any other 
neutral ^ossel, at the place where it occurred or 
else w he*. 
The British government, will justly infer from 
these facts, that the United States not only have had 
no purpose, but even no thought, of forcing into dis¬ 
cussion the question which has arisen, or any other 
which could affect in any way the sensibilities of the 
British nation. It is true that a round shot was fired 
by the San Jacinto front her pivot gun when the 
Trent was distantly approaching. But as the facts 
have been reported to this government, the shot was 
nevertheless intentionally tired in a direction so ob¬ 
viously divergent from the course of the_Trent as to 
bo quite as harmless as a blank shot, while it should 
be regarded as a signal. 
So also we learn umt the Trent was not approach¬ 
ing the Sau Juncinto slowly when the shell was fired 
across her bows, but on the contrary, the Trent was, 
or seemed to lie, moving under a full head of steam, 
as if with a purpose to pass the San Jacinto. 
We arc informed, also, that the hoarding officer 
(Lieutenant Fairfax,) did not, board the Trent with 
a large armed guard, bat bo left his marines in his 
boat when ho entered the Trent- He stated his in¬ 
structions from Capt. Wilkes to search for the four 
The True Thing. —The end of all learning is to 
make us wise. Wisdom is not a one-sided, but com¬ 
prehensive culture of heart and mind, soul and 
body. The end of wisdom is use, If it does no 
good it is not .wisdom, but something else. Wisdom 
comes from a good natural understanding, enriched 
by the dressing of large and wise thoughts. Good 
books there be, which nourish the mind, as food 
does the body. In morbid states the stomach may 
lie consumed by the precise activity of the very 
secretions and chemical agents which give it power. 
This may serve to intimate to us that the mind, 
without its lit nutriment and proper digestion, by 
which it should act, and obey its natural law, may 
consume itself away. Get wisdom by thought, by 
observation, by reading, by action. 
• L11• *i*vriii„ -’ r 
board and in presumed possession ot the contraband 
dispatches, had ho a right to capture the persons? 
5 lli. Did he exercise that right of capture in the 
manner allowed and recognized by the law of 
Don’t Read with Tired Eyes. — The moment 
the eyes feel tired, the very moment you are con¬ 
scious of an effort to read or sew, lay aside the book 
or needle, and take a walk for an hour, or employ 
yourself in Borne active exercise not requiring the 
close use of ttie eyes. 
To prevent fatiguing them, rest them frequently 
for half a minute or so, while reading or sewing, or 
looking at small objects, by looking at things at a 
distance or up to the sky. 
