MY LIFE IS LIKE THE SUMMER ROSE.

BY HON. RICHARD HENRY WILDE.

My life is like the summer rose
That opens to the morning sky,
But ere the shades of evening close,
Is scattered on the ground to die.
But on that rose's humble bed
The sweetest dews of night are shed,
As if heaven wept such waste to see-
But none shall weep a tear for me.

My life is like the autumn leaf

That trembles in the moon's pale ray;
Its hold is frail-its state is brief-
Restless, and soon to pass away:
Yet ere that leaf shall fall and fade,
The parent tree shall mourn its shade.
The winds bewail the leafless tree-
But none shall breathe a sigh for me.

My life is like the print of feet
Left upon Tampa's desert strand;
Soon as the rising tide shall beat,

The tracks will vanish from the sand: Yet, as if grieving to efface

All vestige of the human race,

On that lone shore loud moans the sea

But none shall e'er lament for me.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE

JUDICIAL STATION.

BY HON. CHARLES WATTS.

It is an

THE duties of a Judge are those of painful responsibility, even when supported by a consciousness of rendering great public service. It is his duty, as a minister of justice, to look to the God of justice for guidance, direction and assistance.It has been well said, Judicare est orare, that to judge is to pray, for there ought to rest upon the mind a solemn religious sense of duty, in meting out justice among our fellow men. awful and responsible duty, and those who most feel its responsibility, least aspire to court its labors. The station and office of a Judge of the Supreme Court, of a court of last resort, is, in any country, an honorable, an important, and a difficult station. It is emphatically and peculiarly so in Louisiana. The court is entrusted with a revision of the rights of parties, not only on all

branches of the law, but also as to questions of fact, and, in the complication and conflict of Spanish, French, English and American law, and by reason of the various legislative enactments, to modify and adapt them to our social and political institutions and feelings, much delicate responsibility and great extent of power have devolved on the Judiciary-and in that branch of the administration of the Government it was and is peculiarly necessary to have honorable, upright and inflexible men, in whose judgment, capacity, integrity, and power of discrimination, his fellow citizens should repose with implicit confidence. If the public do not repose with confidence in the integrity, ability, virtue and character of the judges, there will exist a restlessness-a vague apprehension of evil-an uncertainty and discontent, which poisons and embitters the enjoyment of life-more particularly with a people so sensible of, and justly valuing, their personal, political and social rights, as are the citizens of Republican America.

It is this confidence, and the consciousness of usefulness, and not the pecuniary compensation, which rewards the judge, and sustains him under his load of labor and responsibility. How im

portant, then, is a just discharge of the duties of this high station!-how important that the persons who fill it should possess the public confidence! How transcendently honorable and praiseworthy must be the life and character of that man who, on closing a long career in such a station, receives the unanimous approbation, commendation and regret, of his fellow citizens, of all classes, ranks and parties, among a population composed of the descendants of the nations of France and Spain, and of emigrants from every portion of Europe, and from every state in the Union.