AMONG the marked occurrences of the month which has just elapsed, the assembling of this Convention will hold a prominent rank, as well from the extent and importance of the objects which prompted it, and the extraordinary numbers who attended it, as from the entire unanimity, yet withal decisiveness, of the voice it uttered; the principles it holds forth, and the organization which it adopted to carry those principles out, and to render them living and operative in the future political contests of the Union.

It falls, therefore, quite within the scope of a Review which professes to give a living impress of leading political events, and especially of such as may be supposed specially to illustrate and advance the political principles which it is alike our duty and our pride to inculcate and sustain, to render some account of this great Convention, so thoroughly whig in its aims, although studiously and designedly divested of any mere party organization.

The new states of the west, as well those around the great lakes as those in the valley of the Mississipi, had become impatient under the repeated disappointments of their just expectations of aid from the federal government, towards the improvement of the rivers and harbors, upon the secure and uninterrupted navigation of which, the growth and prosperity of those states, and necessarily, therefore, the growth and prosperity of the whole country, so materially depend.

In a former number of this Review, we pointed out the rash and unjustifiable use made by successive Presidents of the veto power, in order to defeat the appropriations for those rivers and harbors, made by both Houses of Congress, and we ventured even then to assume that eventually the whole region interested in such improvements, would necessarily be driven to unite, as upon the one great common interest, in such a determined line of policy, as would compel from candidates for public favor, a compliance with the reasonable wishes, at once, and obvious interests, of those states.

At an earlier day, and in a more decisive form than we anticipated, this course has been taken.

The idea of a general convention, at which delegates should be invited to be present from all the States in the Union, which felt interested in extending the means and facilities of intercourse between the fertile west and the Atlantic coast, had long been floating in the public mind. A fixed form and character were given to it at a meeting, accidentally and hastily gathered, of Western men, at Rathbun's Hotel, in New York, in September of last year, and then it was resolved that a convention should be invited to assemble, during the present summer, either at some city on the lakes, or in the Mississippi valley.

The suggestion was well received, alike on the sea-board and in the interior, and Chicago and St. Louis competed for

the honour of holding and entertaining such a convention. Considerations of greater accessibility from the north and east, decided the choice in favour of Chicago, and St. Louis gracefully yielded her claim, and lent all her influence towards rendering the assemblage in Chicago as imposing as possible, alike by numbers, and by the character and intelligence of the delegates.

Chicago, a city of yesterday, as it were, springing from the wilderness within the last fifteen years, entered at once with earnestness, and in a liberal spirit, upon the work. A committee of its leading citizens, without distinction of party, prepared the programme of the Convention, appointed the time, and addressed invitations to prominent friends of the cause, throughout the Union, urging their attendance and assuring them of a welcome. The fire spread-and in seventeen states and territories, meetings were held, and delegates were appointed to attend the North Western Harbor and River Convention, to be held at Chicago, on the 5th July;" and from all these states and territories delegations did attend. At the time appointed, Chicago, which is a city of some 15,000 inhabitants, found itself literally besieged by an army of delegates, arriving at its call, to co-operate with it in such measures as should be deemed wisest and best for the promotion of a great common cause. So great was the number, that up to the day of committing these lines to the press, no official return had been made of them. They were variously computed at from 3 to 4000, and they were deputed by the following states and territories

the full organization of the Convention, to designate each its foreman, by whom the vote of the state should on such occasions be cast. It may be stated here, as decisive of the subsequent unanimity of the Convention, that not a case occurred, during the whole deliberations, where a resort to division by states was necessary-all questions having been carried by acclamation that amounted almost to absolute unanimity.

It would be no ungrateful task to the writer, who was one of that distinguished delegated body, to describe at some length here, the admirable, liberal, and tasteful arrangements made by the citizens of Chicago for the accommodation and due entertainment of the vast crowd attracted by such an occasion to their city, but the requisite space could not, we are well aware, be spared us in the columns of the Review. We must say, however, that nothing could be better arranged, or better adapted to the ends in view, than the preparations and accommodation for the Convention, both while assembled as a body, and when scattered amongst the various public and private houses in the town.-A magnificent tent, lofty spacious and airy, was erected in the public square, and beneath it were placed temporary benches, capable of seating more than 3000 persons. On one side was raised an elevated platform for the presiding officers, speakers and reporters, and all around was open.

The day named for the assembling of the Convention, the fifth of July, falling on Monday, the commemoration of the national anniversary was not unfittingly blended with the ceremonial of inaugu rating this, in its true and best sense, National Convention-and one derived lustre and interest from the other. The whole population of the neighboring counties of Illinois seemed to be poured into Chicago for the occasion, and highly honorable indeed was the conduct of the dense crowd. Under a burning sun, and amid all the natural excitement and exuberance of spirits on this great festive occasion, it was the observation of all, that no indecorum, no intemperance, no wrangling, were any where seen or heard. The military pageant, the firemen's pageant-the latter unsurpassed for admirable keeping and effect—and the civil pageant, all swept past, without an accident to mar, or an excess to stain, the great holiday.

The whole parade was conducted to,