would be an object of pride and exultation to the people of the whole State. But this, unfortunately, is not always the case. Country members too often entertain towards her a feeling of jealous hostility, which leads them to thwart or hamper measures most beneficial for her advancement, and to advocate other measures which are direct aggressions upon her property and political rights. If this jealousy has arisen from a dislike for the manners, or from a belief in the incompetency, of some of the New York representatives in times past, those from other portions of the State, who have occupied seats in the Senate during the past two sessions, must appreciate the courteous bearing, scholarlike attainments, and prompt business habits of the Hon. Smith Ely, representative from the fifth Senatorial district.

Beginning life with a view to following the profession of the law, Mr. Ely devoted four years to mastering the depths of the science, at a time when the code, in an attempt to simplify its intricacies, had not yet produced that interminable confusion, the extent of which is only hereafter to be realized. So great was his devotion to this pursuit, that impaired eye-sight warned him to abandon it. He at this time amused his leisure by giving the public the benefit of his varied reading, in some miscellaneous articles, eagerly published by the Reviews of the day; many short poems, some of them of peculiar merit, were also contributed by him at this time. It is not unusual to meet these waifs still making the circuit of the magazines and weekly papers.

Various reports, which have been presented to the Senate by Mr. Ely, exhibit marked literary ability, and give evidence of a comprehensive and statesmanlike breadth of view, and great political sagacity. Among these, we may allude to Reports upon bills involving conflicting interests between the State and City; to a Report in opposition to a Registry law a scheme devised solely to affect the exercise of the elective franchise in the metropolis; and to the Report upon the Sanitary Condition of the City of New York, made by a select committee of the Senate, of which Mr. Ely was chairman.

Although Mr. Ely refreshed the study of the dry profession of the law by occasional devotion to literary pursuits, he avoided giving them that exclusive attention which unfits a man for active political life. That literature, when followed as a profession, does unfit its votaries for what might, at first sight, be considered a kindred pursuit, is proved by the numberless examples in England, where literary men, introduced into Parliament under expectation of their producing great results, have, with the exception of Disraeli, signally failed; and even