THE UNITED STATES.-The first prominent event of the last month was the opening of the Second Session of the Thirty-third Congress, and the delivery of the President's Message. This being the short session, it commenced on the 4th of December, 1854, and will terminate, by constitutional limitation, on the 4th of March, 1855. In the absence of Senator Atchison of Missouri, President of the Senate and Vice-President pro tempore, Gen. Cass was temporarily elected. On the following day Hon. Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, was chosen permanently...

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE to this session was looked for with unusual interest. The organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, by which the restrictions laid upon Slavery by the Missouri Compromise had been removed, and involuntary servitude thus virtually admitted into that virgin territory, had been justly regarded as the most prominent measure the Administration had carried at the first session of this Congress. The fact, also, that this same measure had since been passed upon by the "sovereign people" at the ballot-box in nearly every northern State, and by them overwhelmingly rebuked, placed expectation on tip-toe to know what our President would have to say on the great question. Yet, the over-anxious public were doomed to disappointment. The Chief Magistrate found twenty-nine other topics to discass of which the bombardment of Greytown came in for over one-sixth of the space allotted to the whole message -but not a single word on the KansasNebraska fraud! That the Administration has been zealously engaged in a scheme for the acquisition of Cuba, is no secret. Everybody knows the general fact. The diplomatists of France and England, Russia and Austria, are well informed of its chief details. Was it not reasonable that the American people-more deeply interested than all others should have had some light on the subject? Yet President Pierce carefully avoids an allusion to it! We have a negotiation going on with St.

Domingo-in which that celebrated strong-minded woman "Cora Montgomery" (Mrs. Gen. Cazneau) plays the part of diplomat-in-chief with her usual extraordinary abandon-yet there is no notice of it in the message-no explanation of its objects-no reasons given for it not even a hint of its progress? And, if we are to believe the newspapers, the Sandwich Islands are on the eve of being annexed to the United States by negotiation. The message was looked to for a little light on this topic also a very grave question by the way-yet we find not the slightest allusion to it! With these omissions and a due allowance for Greytown exaggerations—or apologies for that outrage the message is a reasonably well written document, and contains a large amount of valuable information. We regret, however, to see the Chief Magistrate of a Christian people, in the middle of the nineteenth century, favoring an increase of the army and navy. We had hoped the day for recommendations of this kind had passed by. We want to engage in no aggressive or unjust warfare. The people would not sanction it. A large army and navy are otherwise useless. For defence, this country has something more reliable than the armies and navies of all

the despotisms of Europe. It can always be found in the prosperity and patriotism, the happiness and gratitude, of her people. If President Pierce has apprehensions of any encroachments from foreign powers upon our rights and liberties, every intelligent American can assure him they are visionary, and cannot, under any circumstances, justify his call for an increase of the army and navy: the first alarm-note of such aggression would rally an army of freemen-citizen-soldiers of undaunted bearing-whose invincible courage in defending the "land of the free and the home of the brave" might well excite both the admiration and the envy of a Napoleon or a Nicholas. But if the Administration, in the vaultings of an unhappy ambition, should determine to rob Spain of Cuba, in defiance of

England and France, then, an army and navy will indeed be needed; for Americans, whose proclivities as a Christian people are for peace, will ever be found averse to engaging in a bloody contest of doubtful justice. And may the blessed Prince of Peace perfect this sentiment in every heart until we hear no more of recommendations of an increase to the army and navy....... THE PROCEEDINGS OF CONGRESS have thus far been marked with nothing of special interest-business there being usually dull during the holidays. An attempt was made to pass the River and Harbor Bill in the House, over the President's veto of last session, which failed by a vote of 95 to 80-not a constitutional majority. The bill for the better protection of life on the Long Island and Jersey coast has, we are pleased to say, been passed, and we hope its provisions will be at once carried out. Mr. Walbridge, in a very interesting and able speech, advocated a repeal of the duty on foreign coal. He examined the coal statistics of the country, compared the facilities for its production here with that of other countries (showing them to be largely in favor of American miners,) together with the prices, the increasing enormous demand, and the extravagant prices now demanded, concluding that every principle of justice demands that the shackles on this trade, which the existing tariff imposes, should be stricken off, and that the traffic in this important necessary of life should be opened to the freest competition. The Slavery Agitation will creep into Congress in spite of all precautions real and feigned to keep it out. In the Senate Mr. Seward moved that a chaplain of a different denomination be elected from the one in the House, who, as well as the old Senate chaplain, Rev. Mr. Slicer, belongs to the Methodist Church, South. This motion was at once assailed by gentlemen of the South as a covert attempt to foist an abolitionist upon them! and called forth a pretty warm discussion, after which Mr. Slicer was re-elected. In the House the war was opened between Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, and Mr. Stephens, of Ga., the latter of whom denied that the late elections of the North were a rebuke to the authors of the Nebraska bill. On this point Mr. Campbell proved too strong for his adversary, when Mr. Richardson, of Illinois, and others, flew to his rescue. Mr. Mace has given notice of a

bill to restore the Missouri Compromise, and the indications are that Slavery discussion will occupy a good deal of the time of the session........ FROM KANSAS We have had exciting news. The first battle between Slavery and Freedom was fought there on the 29th of November in the election of a delegate to Congress. Gen. J. W. Whitfield, the pro-slavery candidate, was elected by a large majority over Hon. R. P. Flenniken, opposition. The election appears to have been carried by the Missourians, who sent over large numbers to outvote the actual settlers. This was done by an organized movement led off by Senator Atchison-which may account for his absence from Congress at the opening of the session! Gov. Reeder has decided not to order an election for a territorial legislature this year, because no census of the inhabitants has yet been taken, and there is no fit place to hold a session. The Missouri slaveholders don't like this decision, as they had made arrangements to carry that election in the same way as they did the one just held, and thus secure the legalization of Slavery in the Territory. The excitement there seems to run very high between the contending parties... IN UTAH, affairs are verging to a crisis. The term for which Brigham Young was appointed governor has expired, and the President has nominated Col. Steptoe, of the U. S. Army, as his successor. The Colonel

has been at Salt Lake city for some time, in command of a detachment of United States troops, destined for service in California or Oregon. It is thought that the wintering of these troops in the Mormon city was not accidental. Brigham Young has frequently boasted that he would be governor of Utah until the Almighty should say to him, "Brigham, you needn't be governor any longer." The issue will soon be made direct, and the question settled whether the decrees of the Mormon polygamists or the laws of the United States shall govern the people of that settlement.......THE result of the election in New York, so long in doubt, has been finally decided by the State canvassers, Myron H. Clark, the Whig and Temperance candidate, having a majority of 300 over Seymour, opposition. This is regarded as a great triumph by the friends of Temperance in that State, and will secure the passage of a stringent prohibitory liquor law this winter.

THE official recommendation of Postmaster-General Campbell to increase the rates of newspaper postage, in order to enable that Department to meet its own expenses with its own income, does not meet with public favor. No such proposition to increase the tax upon the diffusion of knowledge should be tolerated. There is no more reason why the Post Office Department should support itself than the War Departmentnot half so much.......THE Prohibitory State Central Committee have called a mass convention of the friends of Liquor Prohibition, to meet at Harrisburg on Wednesday the 17th of this month, to agree upon some plan of action in the present crisis.

It will be an important meeting......THE closing month of the year has been a very good specimen of winter throughout. We write under the music of the merry bells of the icy-footed sleigh. Happy hearts, in their gay holiday costume, are preparing a merry welcome for 1855. A Happy New Year to you all, dear readers!

Nore. It is designed to include in the RETROSPECT several matters not found in this numberamong which we may mention a glance at the affairs of OUR NEIGHBORING STATES-Canada. Mexico, South America, Cuba, Sandwich Islands, etc. Indisposition prevented us from giving that attention to it which was desirable, but our readers will no doubt find it interesting-and we promise them that it shall be more so in future.

G.

THE OLD WORLD-The news from the seat of war has been most exciting, and the arrival of each mail steamer has been looked for with the most intense interest. The boast of the Allied Powers of the ease with which they would take Sebastopol has turned out to be idle rant. The prediction of that great statesman, Kossuth, is being fearfully fulfilled. He made a speech at Edinburg, directly after the expedition to the Crimea had been agreed upon, in which he held this language: "To take an entrenched camp, linked by terrible fortresses, and an army for a garrison in it, and new armies pouring on your flank and rear, and you in the plains of Crimea, with also no cavalry to resist them, is an undertaking to succeed in which more forces are necessary than England and France can ever unite in that quarter for such an aim. Ask about it whichever staff officer who has learned something about tactics and strategy. And in that position is Sebastopol thanks to your Austrian alliance, which, having interposed herself between you and your enemy in Wal

lachia, made the Czar free to send such numbers to Sebastopol as he likes. You will be beaten, remember my word! Your braves will fall in vain under Russian bullets and Danubian fever. Not one out of five, immolated in vain, shall see Albion or Gallia again." These remarks were made by Kossuth on the 5th day of July-ten weeks before the Crimean expedition embarked. On the 30th of November he made another speech at the Anniversary of the Polish Revolution, in which he thus refers to facts terribly verifying his prediction: "All I have wanted to quote from public reports is these words-'The question is no longer whether we shall take Sebastopol or not; the siege, though not raised, may be regarded as at a standstill. We are reduced to the defensive!' Such is the situation-the leaves have turned: Russia is the besieger-you are the besieged. And at what price has this situation been purchased ? *** Now it is a sad reality. Number your dead, your wounded and your disabled -more than 20,000 men out of 30,000 are already lost. My sad anticipations are literally fulfilled. And here, at home? Why here the number of widows and orphans applying for support to patriotic charity amounts to 11,000." Such is a true glance at the state of the Our readers must gather the details from the newspapers. And terrible enough they are! The last contest, the battle of Inkerman, is claimed as a victory by the allies-and they did succeed in repulsing the Russians with a loss of 10,000 men-but one or two more such victories would ruin the victors! Their loss was between 4,000 and 5,000, including much of the flower of the army.......IT is sad to contemplate the character of the war in the East. The active parties in the bloody drama are the representatives of the three great Christian powers of the world. The English represent the Protestant church-the French the Roman Catholic-the Russians the Greek Catholic. The quarrel also-it is sad to remember it-began about the spot of ground where the Prince of Peace proclaimed " peace on earth, good will

war.

towards men"-the Roman Catholics denying certain superstitious privileges to Greek Catholic pilgrims to the Holy Land, which Russia insisted upon. The infidels (Turkey) being unable to settle the dispute, the three great Christian powers have taken the matter into their