The Express. — London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

ionic is still ressada by dames with the sad enthusiastic affection. The return of the Archduke Albrecht to Hungary Rill be immediately followed by the publication of the itcw o rganisation for that country. Already a coun cil have been named to advise wuh him iu CAWS of ijo i,,lt c , 'file President is understood to be Count Franz Licht'. A great d.al of excitement still continues on the E ic h citi ce a Vienna, and foreign bills bear the al oe high premium which the uncertainty of affairs to Paris is by no means likely to & m asc. But we do nut advise any of or Ka h l e who may be so unlucky as to hold Aus bias s.curities to grow too much alarmed at the p r esent state of things, and by no means to sell at Dle present rates. Oast anxiety is felt for the first news from Asucrica. Ti l e railway in Gallicia, between I.enherg and Bothnia, is to be commenced next spring. The works w ill b e begun simultaneously in both places. On the "2 h ult. a new opera, called Der Mecr rist." was produced at Prague with complete sue cm,. The composer is M. Strauss, leader of the baud a t the theatre there. 'sac marriage of the Archduke Rainer with his cousin is to take place next carnival. The cere cm,y of thc_betrothal, to which great importance is A withal in Germany, is already over. proposal of. ou the part of Austria, for a frt-sh At Ilrestlen, tar the discussion of the customs q s,..tion fur Germany, but it is as yet ouly a rumour. _ AI:STRIA AND ITALY. The o,l"gme Gazette states, from Vienna, that prime schwarzenberg has desired the Sardinian fr mment to receive an Austrian garrison into a ki.dmonti,e fortme. This news is corrobtrated by the Tulin correspondence of the same paper. To this must be added the news from Bologna nt the estmonlinary movements in the Austmn gorti•am on either side of the river I'o. Two regi- E wif. of the garrison of Bologna have been ordered to ;shame on the road to - Rome. From Trieste la:gc detachments of troops have sailed for Ancona, whence it is presumed they will also march upon Bowe. MUNI/ DUCHY OF BADEN. The Caton Grattte has a telegraphic despatch few Ftcyburg ;in the Brvisgau) of the 1:Ith instant, Mating that the Alsace Railway was threatened in sonic place or places. The troops from Grusshun ingen have marched. It is nut stated where they marelad, and fur what purpose, or what the nature of the &urger was which threatened the Alsace COLONIAL. VICTORIA. Melbourne p►pers to the 19th of August are chiefly tilled with details of the gold diggings. The Lieutenant-Governor had issued a notice cautioning against gold digging without taking out licenses issued by the government. At Iluninyong, 50 miles from Geelong, there were eight cradles at work, and parties were realising from half an ounce to two mimes. Gold had likewise been found at Major Newman's property, Deep Creek, and at Ileidelburg, mar Melbourne. Gold has been discovered on the Yarn, on Mr. llawdon's property, by the proprietor, who, having lately returned from Twofold Bay, where he discovered gold in abundance, fancied he perceived a geological resemblance in the two localities. He subjected a handful of clay to exami nation, and discovered three grains of gold. A number of labourers were instantly employed at this spot, which is but four miles from Melbourne. Gold Lao also been discovered in the very heart of Mel bourne by two children. while rooting about for amusement iu the soil. The sample found weighed half an ounce and ten grains, and had a piece of milk quartz adhering to it. A bed of dark quartz, about fifteen inches below the surface, had been subse quently discovered, which it was expected would prove productive. Of the Victoria diggings, sixteen miles from Melbourne, it is said that the most pro ductive spots were those where the slate formation abounded, from the interstievi of which several small nuggets had been extracted. The slate averaged about two feet from the surface, and the lower the miner penetrated the more successful he proved. The death of the Rev. James Forbes, of the free church, is recorded; he was the senior minister of Melbourne, and laboured in that city for fourteen years. The deceased was much respected, and his funeral was attended by his Excellency the governor, most of the officers of government, and clergy of all SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Adelaide journals have been received to the end of ; September. Owing to the frequent occurrence of severe floods, which bad destroyed the standing crops, the unusual quantity of rain, and the low lying buds having been under water so long, meowing I was prevented. Anxious to compensate for the de- , struction of a portion of their corn crops the farmers were turning their attention to the cultivation of maize. l'ublic attention was also drawn to the state, working, and effect of the existing tariff. The Cham ber of Commerce and many of the colonists had me morialised the Legislative Council on the neces sity of revising existing . imposts. Some of these duties arc oppressive in the extreme. The . principal changes suggested arc a reduction on Spinto from 10s. to ss. per gallon ; on tobacco, 2s. to is. per lb.; on cigars, of ss. to 2s. per lb.; and the substitution of a general rate of 5 per cent. ad Talo n'', instead of the present scale of duties on mer cluLlise. Wine is retailed in Adelaide at a higher price than in London, where the duty is about 300 per cent. more than in South Australia. The Aus tralasian League ii firm in its determination to oppose the continuance of convictism. On Sept. let a large Meeting was held at the Commercial Exchange, at which about 1,000 persons were present, when a se ries of resolutions were carried by acclamation, de nouncive of the system. These resolutions were forwarded to the local government, to be sent to the Steretary of State; and in the letter that accom panied them the council pointedly remark, " Could by any possibility his lordship Earl Grey have wit nessed the enthusiasm displayed by the vast as semblage, and listened to the stubborn facts as stated by Alderman Bell, and the eloquent and feeling remarks of the Rev. Mr. West on the horrors and crime not fit to bo mentioned engendered by transportation, his lordship Earl Grey would Cr ever have set his sign manual against a conti nuance of so abominable a system." The address to her Majesty originating with the meeting was for warded by Sir Henry Young to the Secretary of State, per ()mega, to Bombay and overland. Governor Young has earned for himself unenviable notoriety bp instituting a government prosecution. A Mr. bloorhouse applied through the Advocate-General to the Judge of the Supreme Court for a rule, which was granted, to show cause why a criminal informa tion should not be filed against G. A. Anstey, Esq., for wiling Mr. M., when acting as a returning o tt er at the Yutala election, "a sneak." The new Legisla tive Coun c il had m e t ; after three weeks it was fairly bl.iwn," and was necessitated to adjourn to enter upon committee business, every member being on sonic committee or otherwise employed. LATEST FOREIGN PARIS BOURSE. Ter /mow. PARIS. Doc. IS. Tor 9 Mosey. Opening Mewl. Lowest. Ckoin. 3PeT — CAirtk n Per l'eht• lOO 00 ' .1 104 SO 103 90 100 U 100 30 3 Der Cents. New Loan ... •I ... ... ... ... 4 Po Unto,. 4 . Ow emu, i se_ Ez 40171 01, um Landon : st 0010, ss ori ; 00 dai . o, PS. —'•'", '• lOW lOO3 *my N s Mats 100 73 Moory. bo. 1, 1311 ....., ~. Souza L 330,1331 73 ... Do. 11 ''''" °o .. t 3 p.a.. .." sa 0 . .7. Soak Maras Me ... , E, ,1414 Dir. lb.— hers als' (right beak), 280; ditto 4'""" 1 0. VS 75; 34j ond Orleur, UP Paris end lirtil*,•4 6 o I. 40 1 limy% 017 S 0; Moorlileo asid Arlon. SO Mr& ..._,.. ir and Bole. 17130 ; Centre 435; &Woo* and MOM Si; .un. sod 461 50; Northern. 40730; P.O. ash Nor bur. /.... , -.•—; Tours sad &atm 27: 30; Waterloo sad Tow% loo; ..`Plte sad Faun% SOS ; 31. Germain, 445. NIADRID, Dec. 11.—Three per Cents., 371; Ate 801an,37k c., Ip. Four per Cents., • after Bobs, --. Fire per C en t s ., 16i ; after Bolo;, 16:. Con , —; after Bob., Bp. Passives, .5 9 16 ; after °a Lu WI, —. Bank of St. - Ferdinand, 99. Exchange ndon, 50,50, NAPIA-4, Dec. 9.—Neapolitan Fives, 101. Ex change on London, 581. THE NEW REFORM BILL. (Flows the Dad, News.) Portman Estate, through Manchester and Cavendish-' squares, across Regent-street, and up Oxford-street, we go, till we reach, my lord, St. Gdes's Church. In a straight line the distance is a good two miles and a half, through squares and streets of mansions ; past shops which tempt the passenger with every luxury that England makes or imports; and abodes which speak the wealth that all this trade accumulates. Rave we got to the end of our journey ? By no means. Up Tottenham-court-road—better known, no doubt, to Queen Elizabeth than you; down the New-.road; past Euston-square, to the station of the Northern Railway ; then up Gray's-inn lane, as if entering the City, until somewhere about the Sessions-house, at Clerkenwell, the map informs us that the limit of " St. Marylebone" is reached in that direction, and that we must turn again to see the rest of it. tip Gray's-inn-lane again, my lord, and past St. Fencing church ; through the Regent's Park or `Somers-town; through Camden-town or over Prim rose-hill; through Kentish-town (if you prefer the former road); up Highgate-hill until you reach the summit, where sitting down to rest in the church yard, as rest you must after a ten mile walk, you may survey, so far as eye can reach, the miles of streets and houses which you formed into a borough, and designated " Marylebonc." Yes, from St. ellles'e Church to the Westbourne Cemetery—from Kensington Palace to Highgate Hill—extend the limits of the borough I have faintly attempted to describe to you! But what is this to FINSBURY ? Finsbury, which your lordship supposes is somewhere in the vicinity of Islington! My lord, do you know Holborn bars ? What will you think when I tell you that Finsbury begins there? Aye, Holborn-bar, the western limit of the city which your lordship repre sents, is the southern boundary of your borough of Finsbury! The northern boundary—for we may as well jump to it at once—the northern boundary is somewhere out at llornser. Five good miles you have to walk to reach it; and if you take a cab the driver will charge eight shillings, and think it moderate. In the other direction Finsbury extends from St. Giles's Church to St. Luke's Hospital, in Old-street-road —fit place for those who could have mapped out such a borough, and who fancy that its 300,000 people will remain content with the share of re presentation which they have. Your lordship knows something more of WEsr missree ? You have lived there all your life, and your family are the largest proprietors in that great city. Well, look at the extent of Westminster. It runs due west from the Temple-gardens out to Ken sington. North and south you have to travel through it from Cliclaca Hospital to Soho-square. Lamas:tat—Lambeth, which your lordship looks at from the windows of Mr. Barry's palace, and which appears, therefrom, a very dirty, gloomy, low locality. My lord, Lambeth extends from Waterloo bridge to Forest-hill, which Mr. Bradshaw's distance table tells me is five miles from the Ibames, in the straight line the railway runs. 'Transversely it rims from the boumlaries of Clapham to the boundaries of notherhithe, taking in upon the road more than half a million people, and three-quarters of a million of rated property. My lord, these are strong, very strong, cases; but they arc mere foils to that lam approaching. Your lordship does not know the TOWER HAMLETS. I should wonder if you did. I should like to meet with the member of the House of Lords, or Com mons, who has ever been through the Tower Ham lets; I should like to see the medal he would have obtained as a prize member at the Great Exhibition. The Tower Hamlets!! Why, my lord, excepting the live counties of Middlesex, Devonshire, - Staffordshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, there is no single county in Great Britain that ap roaches within 60,000 the population of the Tower Hamlets! The Tower Hondas contains at this present time nearly :150,000 souls. It has 76,873 inhabited houses. Its rateable property is valued at 1,266,972/. Devonshire, which is the fifth largest county in Eng land in point of population, contains 570,000 in habitants, 99,000 houses, and its entire property is assessed at 2,0243,0001. Yet Devonshire returns 22 members, whilst the Tower Hamlets, is only repre sented by two! Contrast another county—Hamp shire : Let us examine the two cases in a tabular form. Population. Property. Houma The Tower Hamlets 523,762 £1,266,000 76,875 All Ilampshire 41.2,034 1.400,000 74,588 Number of members returned for Hampshire.. 19! Number of ditto fur the Tower Hamlets Contrast another county :—Wiltshire. Population. Property. Houses. The Tower Hamlets.. 543,762 £1,266,000 76,375 All Wiltshire 241,003 1,243,000 49,061 Number of members for Wiltshire 18! Number of ditto for the Tower hamlets 2! ' With these startling facts before you, doubtless your lordship will be anxious to know something more of the Tower Hamlets—this great county of itself —this group of small counties in one borough ? Sup pose we go down the river by steamer to Greenwich, and cross over from the Hospital-stairs to the new town Mr. Cubitt is erecting on what was once called the Isle of Doge. Hero among the tall warehouses which now line this part of the river side, commences the Tower Hamlets. We go north, my lord, through the large parishes of Poplar and Limehouse, to Stepney and St. George-in-the-East—north still through Mile-end New-town, Whitechapel, and Spitalfields to Bethnal green. On the east, we here have the great parishes of Shoreditch; on the west, the parishes of Bow and Bromley. Through Bethnal-green we go, and reach the populous hamlets of Haggerstone and Houton. For several miles to cast and west the borough now extends. We get to Hackney, a large and populous and increasing town. From Hackney to Dalston ; thence to Clapton and Stamford-hill, the far north-east of the bills of mortality. We have long passed Stoke Newington, which may be fairly considered as the most northern suburb of our city ; and curiously enough, we have also crossed the " old coach road to Newmarket," and got far beyond the commencement of the mile stones. At length, on the summit of a hill which commands a distant view of Hertfordshire and Essex, we stop, fairly tired out, and survey, fading in a hazy distance, the boundary of the borough which you call "The Tower Hamlets." Suppose we go round them. What a journey ! From Blackwell up the river, in a steamboat, to the Tower. From the Tower, round the boundary of the City of London, to Old-street. From Old-street, by a zigzag up to Islington. From Islington to Stoke Newington; from Stoke Newington to Stamford hill; from Stamford-hill away due east to Essex; along the river Lea to the village of Old Ford; from Old Ford to Bow, from Bow to Bromley, and from Bromley, through the marshes where they feed the foreign cattle, to the wharfs at Blackwell, where they land them. Take, my lord, the parallel of St. Paul's : draw a straight line through the ball, due east and west. That line will run a little south of the Commercial road, which as any one who looks at the map may see, is in the Tower Hamlets. Measure with rour compasses the limits of the Tower Hamlets, and'you will find that they extend five miles, as the crow flies, northward of the parallel and nearly two miles to the south of it ! Fancy a borough extending in a straight line over seven miles of London houses! To one who is not familiar with the localities of London this description may seem tedious; to those who do know London I will answer for it that it will be astonishing. But let me suggest to people who know London, as well as to those who do not, a good way to see a part at least of the borough of the Tower Hamlets. There is a railway called the East and West India Dock Railway, which runs half round London, and carries passengers, every quarter of an hour, for 4d. or thereabouts, from the City , by a circumbendibus, to Camden Town. Now, let any ' one step into one of the carriages of this railway at Mark-lane. The platform is only a short distance from the boundary of the Tower Hamlets. He will reach that boundary even before ho gets beyond the station. Well, he stops at Stepney, a densely crowded district, bordering upon the river :—that's within the borough. He reaches Limehouse, still within the borough; he turns off north-east to Bow; gets out of the smoke into the fields; stops at a sta tion near the back of the Victoria Park ; passes over an immense bridge that spans the street at Hackney; stops there and next atDalstsn ; and, indeed, until he reaches Islington, never once quits the limits of the borough of the Tower Hamlets! In the journey I need not say that he will meet with people of every grade and representing every sort of interest. The shipowners of Blackwell ; the bock labourers of St. George's; the retired seafaring population of THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 17, 1851. TO LORD JOIN RUSSELL LEITER 111. MY Lout), It has been said of your lordship that your parlia mentary leadership is so bold that there is nothing you will not undertake, trout moving au adjoin , meet to managing a nation. It could be wished that there was more truth than there really is in what was intended to be pointed as a sarcasm. But, un fortunately, as a public man, you are occasionally as deficient in enterprise as the rest of those about you. There are times, indeed, when no attempt seems too magnificent for your ambition, and when no peril daunts your daring. But there are other occasions when, to the eyes of the world, you seem too apathe tic to avail yourself of an opportunity, and too insen sible to right to act upon the principles of justice. If you had been firm, my lord, when you proposed the Reform Bill to the parliament of England, whnt a glorious measure might you not have associated with your name! Looking forward to the difficul ties of next session, how forcibly must it not now conic home to you that, at that time, you shrank from the difficulty, and, instead of acting on the right, cowed to the expedient. Had you been bold then, there would have been no difficulty to be fronted now. Had the national machine been at that time put in thorough order, there would have been no corrupting element to impede its progress; nor would you now be obliged to stop the train of' improvement, whilst the engineers are once more trying to tinker at the boiler. - - Nly lord, it was a great opportunity that you lost, a mighty public sentiment that you sacrificed. To the bewailuigs of your own order you consented to surrender your own sense of right, and a great share of what you intended for the people's benefit. This was shown in the way in which rotten borough after rotten borough, condemned by your first Reform Bill, and w•. 13 restored to its position at the re monstrance of its patron . It was shown by the enormous addition you consented to make to the influence of the aristocracy in parliament, by increasing the number of county members in Eng land and Wales from 94 to 158, whilst you dimi nished the borough members from -119 to 312. But, above all was it shown by the way in which the large towns were sacrificed; which you did indeed enfranchise, but after a fashion so inadequate to the necessity, and so far below what justice would have dictated, that one cannot but regard that part of the Reform Bill as, like most other whig measures, a mere delusion and a snare. My . lord, I might dilate upon the gross injustice and indignity of giving Paisley, with a population of 50,000 ; Alierdeen and Dundee, each with 65,000; or Salford, with its 10,000 residents, a single mem ber each. When we see such contemptible villages as Buckingham and Thetford returning two mem bers a piece, whilst these great cities only return one, the disproportion, which you once told us was to last ter ever, becomes absolutely ludicrous. But 1 will not condescend to take my stand upon these transparent cases. I will boldly meet what your lordship has called a difficulty, and direct your at tention to the representation of this Metropolis, in illustration of the glaring injustice of the present system. The Reform Act, my lord, added eight representa tives to the metropolis of the world. It gave two mem bers to the Tower hamlets, two to Finsbury, two to Nlarylebone, and two to Lambeth. The City, West minster and Southwark were enfranchisedpreviously ; and the group of towns in the county of bent, which go by the name of Greenwich. no more constitute a metropolitan borough than does Chatham or does Windsor. You gave the Metropolis, then, eight addi tional members, making 16 altogether ll ell, my lord, the Metropolis by the last Census exhibits the following statistics: Population 2,361,640 Inhabited houses Rateable property—Middlesex, £6,648,668; Southwark and Lambeth £1,248,931 £7,707,500 This is the London district, which reurns the 16 members. Let us contrast it with another district given in the census tables; the district called the „ Borth Western Division," and which comprehends the five counties of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset. Now, the following arc the statistics for the South Western Division: Population 1,303,706 Inhabited houses 333,'J26 Rateable property The London division returns 16 borough members; add four for the counties of Middlesex and East Surrey, and we may say 20. How many members arc returned for the South Western Division, which has half-a-million less population, more than half-a million less property, and only a greater number of houses because mere cottages are so enumerated in the one case whilst palaces are only so styled in the other. Let us take stock of the number of members in the South-Western Division. Wiltshire returns Dorset „ Devon Cornwall „ Somerset „ Total S3! Eighty-three members for less population and less property than that Metropolis which, including the two members for East Surrey, can only be found to return twenty! If your lordship, as a reformer, de mands representation for the people, here surely is a case for you. lf, as an aristocrat, you demand re presentation in proportion to property. pray let the Metropolis have its share in your new Reform Bill. My lord, I am dealing kindly by you. I have absolutely put the case in a disadvantageous view to MielE I could make it infinitely stronger in ano ther way, if my ease were a weak one and wanted to be strengthened. I could show you that there are no less than twelve counties in England which, in the aggregate, contain 100,000 less popu. lotion, and a million and a half less property than the Metropolis, and which yet send 69 members to parliament beyondthe number sent by this great city ! But it is not necessary for my purpose to put the case in that way. I state it, as the report of the Census Commissioners affords me the most ready opportunity of stating it, and if your lordship does not like my mode of putting it, take the divisions of England in any other shape you please, and you will arrive at precisely the same result—namely, that in propor tiou to the population and the property of any other portion of the country, London has not one-fourth part of the representation that it ought to have. My lord, do you know London? You will think, perhaps, that I am putting a foolish question in a foolish way. Pardon me ;—I believe I can show you in a few moments that you know nothing about London. Your lordship represents London ; you were elected at the head of the poll at the last elec tion—the first member of the first City in the world. I will not ask you if you know your own constituency —of course you do not—it is impossible that you should. But if your lordship cannot tell me the boundaries of the City which you represent, do you know the limits of any one of the other Metropo litan boroughs ? Your lordship has doubtless some glimmerings upon the subject. Marylebone Wu associate, perhaps, with Portman - square; estminster you connect with your patrimo nisl property in Covent-garden ; Lambeth, it occurs to you, is on the other side the river, ex tending, perhaps, from the Archbishop's Palace to that soap factory of Mr. Hawes, which, worse luck for him, he relinquished to attend to what he does not understand so well. Finsbury-, you will say, is up towards hlington ; or perhaps you may know that " Russell" square is in it. As for the Tower Hamlets —eh ? oh !—they are' out at the eastern part—somewhere down the river, you believe—near the Tower, doubt less. Your lordship rings the bell and sends for Colonel Fox, who, you remember, once re resented the constituency, and who may possibly know something of the neighbourhood. My lord, so little is known of the Tower Hamlets at the Trea sury, that, with deference, I have my doubts whether even you may not occasionally fancy that the Tower Hamlets is a rotten borough. Now, I propose, my lord, with your permission, to take your lordship for a little walk through town. Perhaps you would first like to surrey MARTLEBONE? We will commence at Kensington Palace Gardens, just at the border of the suburban town of Bays water. Through the whole extensive range of Pad dington, through all the terraces and squares on the Bishop of London's property, through the great Stepney; the tradespeople of Whitechapel; the weavers of Spitaltields ; the pigeon-fanciers of Beth nal-green ; the clerks who lodge at Haggerstone ; the suburban residents at Hackney ; the stockbroker who lives at Clapton ; the merchant who has his villa upon Stamford-hill—classes the most dissimilar, interests the most diverse, arc all mingled together in this amazing district. That they should ever unite in returning a member to parliament at all, only showe, I think, how little interest the bulk of them can really feel in a representation which must neces sarily be so ineffectual. Amid such a multitude, the most influential man must know that his voice won't'. be as nothing. Ile consequently refrains from taking any part; the representation goes a begging, ; and tso often the least qualified man gets it. I My lord, you may have electorates too large as well as too small. In times of difficulty an indiffc rent electorate is almost as dangerous to the nation as a corrupt electorate. In the cases I have cited and also in a number of other cases, you have indif ferent electorates. It was an indifferent electo rate that allowed Sir Francis Burdett to tri- umplt in his apostacy on the Westminster bus tings in 1537. It was an indifferent electorate that allowed Colonel Fox to sit for the Tower Ham lets for seven years. It was an indifferent election that returned Lord Teigntnouth for Marylebonc, in MN; and, my lord, in another sense of the word, it will be an exceedingly indifferent electorate indeed that allows your lordship to rule this nation after if you do not do something to remedy the cry ing injustice which is now done to the mighty in terests of these enormous boroughs. I am, my lord, your lordships most obedient, ItUNNYMEDE. THE KAFFIR WAR.—The following is an extract of a letter from an officer of rank at the head-quarters of Sir Harry Smith, dated King William's Town, Oct. 19 : " The lancers and rates have just arrived. Both of them appear a very fine body of men, and are in high spirits and full of ardour to attack the enemy. The Rifles are already gone out on patrol, and the former will do $0:05 soon as they get mounted, as the horses, such as they are, arrived before them; but, notwithstanding this addition, Sir Harry Smith does not feel himself capable of taking the field with that prospect of succere which is so necessary in the present war fare ; indeed, the liatfires act with the greatest bold ness and effroutery, and actually come close to our sentries, and fire into our very tents. To show you an instance of this it was only last night, when I was going my rounds, my orderly, who was only a short way behind me, was fired at by a Kaffir, and both he and myself narrowly escaped afterwards, as one or two shots were again discharged close to us. I of course reported the circum stance; but, as it was nothing unusual, no notice was taken of it. The heat here now is dreadful, especially in the tents, but I luckily have had a hut lent to me by our of the offi cers on patrol, which is w great luxury, although it re sembles the worst kind of Irish cabin. Even Sir Harry Smith's habitation, which is considered a very nice house here, is far inferior to what you would give your game keeper in England. I have now got three horses; though they are thought goal ones in this country, they are not much larger than a good sized pony at home ; and the Lancers will dud it very difficult to get horses strong enough to carry those men who are tall and of much weight. This regiment is less than -100 strong, audit is said is to go imme diately to the Orange River, with two inf intry regiments, a distance of 500 miles from this ; hut how Sir Harry Smith can •hink of weakening his present force here by sending till such a detachment to such a distance is beyond my com prehension, for even by his own words, lately expressed, he thinks, and we all think, that we should have double the number of troops that are now in the colony before any thing effectual can be done; and you in England may de pend upon my word that, unless at least another cavalry regiment and five more of infantry are imme..iately sent out, in 6 or 7 months the Kettles and their allies will require sonic 20,000 men to subilte them. There is one thing that everyone complains of, viz., that the enemy is made perfectly aware of all our movements, and consequently are enabled to take advantage of them; and this intelligence is sup posed to he given by the Hottentots in our pay, especially the Cape Mounted Corps, which latter should have been disbanded at first; instead of which Sir H. Smith made them all lay down their arms, and after making a speech to them, gave them their arms back again, and told them to be good boys in future,—a new way of punishing wholesale desertion to the enemy. These Cape Mounted men oecia sioually behave very well, but it is only when backed by a ' strong force of Englishmen, when, perhaps, showing the white feather would be more dangerous than charging the enemy. I understand that when the Kafiri heard of the arrival of the Lancers and Rifles they made quite a joke of it, and chat ngly said, We will serve them as we served tho 2nd Queen's.' We are all obliged to be on the alert, even during the night, as these fellows have the impudence of the devil, and have no fear whatever. I sleep with my revolver under my head, with the six barrels loaded, in ease of actidente. I must now bid adieu, but I again repeat, try to get the government to send us out more regiments, as it is quite disgusting to see our little force ' marching up the hill and down again,' that being the full amount of our operations." THE SLAVE TRADE ON THE COAST OF AFRICA.—A letter from an officer on board her Majesty's brig Spy, dated Sierra Leone, Not ember 6, ISM, says—" The slave trade is very far from being extinct; they now appear to be sending over from Rio the frames of slave vessels to be put together in the rivers, by which plug their escape is greatly facilitated. Whilst off this place, on the 3rd of this month, we received intelligence that two large canoes, which were then in sight, contained slaves. It being calm, our whale boat, with tire men and two officers (Messrs. Barstow and Michell) were started in pursuit, and atter a most animated and exciting chase, we captured them both, containing 56 slaves, and manned with 19 Mandingo men. I and two men, well armed, took possession of the first, and found about 40 slaves in her and 10 men ; the other officer and three men pursued and captured the other, and found 16 slaves and 9 men in her. Had the fellows in my best possessed the slightest pluck, thee could certainly have thrown us overboard and got away clear, but I made them pull their own boat up to the Spy, and soon afterwards the other boat came to us with her prize in all ;56 slaves." COTTON FROM INDlA . — Yesterday morning, Mr. Haab Fleming, secretary of the Manchester Commercial Association, received from Mr. W. Rathbone, agent in Liverpool to the East India Company, for sale in Man cheater, 256 bales and 3 half bales of cotton, the produce of the Kandeiah, Dharwar, and Ahmedabad collectorates, re ceived per Theodore, from Bombay ; and 9 bales grown haw New Orleans seed en the collectorate farm in Coim betore, received per Aztec, from Madras. Of the cotton per Theodore, 214 bales are rons New Orleans seed, two are known as "sugar loaf," one is from the indigenous seed of the Dharwar district, and 12 of Ahmedabesl ginned. A letter from the collector at Coimbatore, speaks of the nine bales sent from that district as being of a very superior quality. Samples have been submitted to an experienced broker, who reports them es the best qualities of cotton yet Imported. The sugar loaf cotton he says, is, in point of staple, equal to bowed', and the other portion of good colour and flue staple. Re values the lot at 4d. to 411. per lb. GAS AND ITS USES.—Last evening Mr. Henry Gore delivered a lecture at the Literary and Scientific In stitution, Highgate, on the uses and advantages of coal gas. The lecturer traced with mach minuteness the various sources of artificial light, and went on to detail the che mical laws which regulate its production. He then pro ceeded to give a brief sketch of the history of gas lighting, and described the principle of coal gas as being economical in comparison with other sourest of artificial light or heat. He then illustrated by practical means the various contri vances employed for increasing the illuminating powers of coal gas, and also pointed out the use and application of the different kinds of burners. He next described the properties of the bade light, and ob served that its extreme intensity rendered it unfit to be used in a small room, but that it was very applicable to the pur poses of illumination in any large area, where a strong and undiffused light was required. Mr. Gore then descanted upon the application of gas to heating purposes, and stated that, in this respect, it possessed many advantages over ordinary fires. He also recommended the use of gas for culinary operations, and demonstrated the properties of the "gas kitchen," which he contended sup plied a much more satisfactory and economical means of cooking than was to be found in the time-honoured custom at present in vogue. In proof of this statement the lecturer went through the operation of roasting a joint of beef, which he afterwards handed round to the audience, many of whom pronounced it to be much more palatable than meat dressed by the ordinary method. Mr. Gore argued that there were many reasons for coming to the conclusion that the application of gas to the purposes of cooking was not only an improved method, but was, at I the same time, so economical, that a piece of meat weighing 141bs. might be properly cooked at a cost of not more than lid. for gas. Many other advantages to be derived from the use of coal gas were minutely detailed, and the lecture was illustrated throughout by a series of models, diagrams, and experiments, each tending to prove that gas was the safest and most economical }aeons that could be adopted for the purposes of lighting, warming, ventilating, and cooking. A PLURALIST.—The death of the Rev. George Robson, of Erbistock, near Wrexham, will cause a number of vacancies in this neighbourhood in situations which ha had held for a great number of years. It is supposed since his nomination by Bishop Haseley, he has raised ! 100,0001. from the livings he held.—Carnareon Herald.— [A reference to the " Clergy List " b ef h thc current year I ilneaTdidicattramateotliCisit-kock (rnt i siti ) re) " ; t i te ld vYtiro r i Robson, the former living is 5701., and of the latter 2541., per annum.] RtINNING TWENTY MILES IN LESS TITAN ONE Horn THIRTY-RIGHT MIN. THIRTY Sec. —Thu match ! against time came off yesterday at Copenhagen-grounds; ! more than 2,000 spectators were present. Minks made his start at apparently a very easy pace to himself, going over the first mile in five min. 56 sec., and completing his 10 miles in 56 min. 56 sec. At the commencement of the 20th or last mile Manks had just six minutes and three seconds to go over it to win the match, or to perform 20 miles in less time than Maxfield did the same distance on the Staines turnpike road in 1844. This Manks succeeding in accom &stung, having just 42 seconds to spare. At the finish Monks ran, or rather fell into the arms of his backer, evi dently considerably exhausted. Bating before starting was 6to 4 on time ; considerable sums were taken at those odds. LITERA TURE. Lord George Dentiack : a Politic?' Biography. fly 13. DISRAELI, Member of Parliament fur the county of Buckingham. Culburn and Co. Mr. Disraeli has produced a work the merit of which—though it is called a biography—is not at all biographical: there is no picture of Bentinck which Ilentinek's rural admirers can hang over their mantelpieces. The book takes him up when he en tered politics, three years before his death, and deals only with his public career. To be sure, it is called a "political biography," but properly it is not a bio graphy at all. It is a long "parliamentary sum mary." It begins with corn, and ends in the middle of sugar ; records all the political events of the time, still fresh in our memory. Of these, Lord George's career naturally becomes a part, and what he does and says—his projects and his speeches—are part of this narrative—as they would be of any other nar rative of the same period. We don't blame Mr. Disraeli for writing any history he pleases. We only say that the outline of lientinck, drawn for us in this " biography," is a meagre one. Surely there existed the materials of making a more lively, loveable figure of this brave, energetic, English gen tleman. As it is, though we arc told continually of his qualities, and hear in the story, of a hundred in teresting characteristics of him which we long to see in the biographical mirror -the impression car ried away is but a vague, faint one. The imago of the protectionist warrior wanders through the Elysian fields of rhetoric bekre us. We recog nise the protectionist figure, indeed, but it vanishes as we draw closer to it. Here, then, is the failure of the book as a " biography," and it is just the one which Bentinck's admirers must the most regret. That he made gigantic atruggl , s that he went sud &nip into political training, and yet made such a won derful fight against the old hands—we all knew, and with more or less admiration, admitted. It was the biographer's part to give poetic life and personal dramatic charm to this fighting figure. By only dealing with him as apolitical character, and harping on his leadership of the " great " country party, he forces us to remember that his fight was unsuc cessful. As a political narrative, this book possesses Dis raeli's usual charm of style—his style being one which is both smart and stately. It is far from being as brilliant and picturesque as he sometimes is, but we don't know that he ever was inure dig nified or graceful. It begins with the gathering storm of the close of 'l5; records in detail the events of next year's eventful session :—indeed, this detail, we may observe, is occasionally prolonged even to tedium. 'rho hopes and fears and struggles of protectionist gentlemen during Protections dying hours arc so minutely prolonged, that you feel that Protection ought to imitate Charles 11. and aologise for the tardiness of its dissolution. Promising young county members arc dragged front the obscurity of past " Hansards," and receive the writer's dignified encouragement. Indeed, we may observe that throughout the volume a cer tain consciousness of increased importance of the author is apparent. There is less of the gaiety and vivacity of old days about Mr. Disraeli. His style here is actually suffering from what Juaeph Surfitcs• might call a plethora of respectability. If he means to keep up his satirical fame, he will have to adopt that worthy's advice to Lady Tea:le, and " sacrifice his virtue to preserve his reputation It has been complained that English literature is deficient in biography, and that too often a dead hero only begins to move about again in the capacity of a " bore." If, indeed, he escapes this bodily transmi grntion, it only too frequently happens that lie ap pears, like hamlet's father, as u ghost. A dim image of him only revisits us. The consciousness of this want of all .personal reality—all pictorial vividness—in biographical writing has been so strongly felt within the last few years that a new vitality has been given to the writing of lives. We are now in a fair way to see biographers not dealing with a man as if he was a fossil dodo. Forster's "Life of Goldsmith " is both human and classical ; and it was only the other day that Mr. Carlyle—a writer whose genius is essentially biographical (for what are his essays on individuals but little biographies?)— showed us, that the life of an obscure man-of-letters might be made as interesting as anything that remains about Agamemnon or Alexander. NVlten Mr. Disraeli writes his next " biography," he may per haps think of this. In making sonic extracts we naturally avoid select ing those passages where the author expresses known opinions of his own on matters daily dis cussed in another portion of our columns. Mr. Disraeli has abundant opportunities of commu nicating such opinions to the public at large, and in the present plentifulness of food in the country —we can postpone sentimentalities about the landed interest till there is something really to bewail. We were nearly picking out a passage where the stately march of the country gentlemen past Peel to vote against him, almost rises into pathos, and in which even Sir John Yarde Buller is invested with a romantic melancholy. But this might disturb the feelings . , if it spared the gravity, of our readers, and we begin by giving them a glimpse of Mr. Disraeli's notions about LoCIS PHILIPPE AND SIR It. PEEL. About this time, Louie l'hilippe of Orleans, King of the French, exercised a great influence over public affairs. This prince had entirely identified himself with the Peel admi nistration. There existed between his Majesty and the English minister not only a sentiment of sympathy but one of reciprocal admiration. Each believed the other the ablest man in their respective countries: their system of government was the same, to divert the public mind from political change by the seduction of physical enjoyment, and to neutralise opinion in the pursuit of material pro sperity; finally, they agreed in another point, that their tenure of power was as interminable as the nature of things admitted, and that it was insured by mutual co-operation. No one was more amazed and more alarmed by the breaking up of the conservative government in November, 'id, than the King of the French. With the quickness of perception which with him always seemed rather instinct than thought, he instantly trembled before a long vista of war and revolution. His fears of Lord Palmerston were fed by all the diplomacy of Europe, and especially by the connections of the late conservative cabinet, who still hoped that the repugnance of the European courts to the appointment of that minister might, in con junction with the domestic weakness of the whig party, yet king back the game to Sir Robert. • • • • The ex citement of the King was very great on the return of Sir Robert Peel to power. Ilia Majesty looked upon all the intervening incidents which had occasioned him so much disquiet and perplexity merely as dexterous tactics preli minary to a crowning triumph. Ile thought that the sove reign, the parliament, and the nation had combined to give the minister carte blanche. A member of the British par liament who was then at Paris presume d, with great hunsi litK,itz question the t t h h e i 4i , stn t r en o!: the . J . V . co il % g usi ?, ns tiat Sir Robert you will carry his measures ? " " Yea sir." " And what then ?" " And then, sir, he will be turned out." " Who is to turn him out? Lord John Russell has had the offer, and has refused. I can tell you, the Duke of Wellington says, the government is established. I remem ber," the King added, with a smile of confidence, "when they said that Mr. Pitt would not remain in for six weeks, and he was minister for 20 years." The diffidence of his Majesty in the star of Sir Robert Peel remained unfaltering until, at Ea-ter, he was apprised, from a quarter that could not be deceived, that the admi nistration tottered. Mr. Disraeli's allusions to Lord Bentinck's early sporting pursuits arc not very frequent. The follow ing paragraph. however,seems to express with clever new his real relation to the turf: Loma GEORGE AND THE TURF. He could scarcely have quitted the turf that day without a pang. He had become the lord paramount of that strange world, so difficult to sway, and which requires for its go vernment both a stern resolve and a courtly breeding. He had them both; and though the blackleg might quail before the awful scrutiny of his piercing eye, there never was a man so scrupulously polite to his inferiors as Lord George Bentinck. The turf, too, was not merely the scene of the triumphs of his stud and his betting-book. He had purified its practice and had elevated its character, and he was prouder of this achievement than of any other connected with his sporting life. Notwithstanding his mighty stakes and the keenness with which he backed his opinion, no one perhaps ever cared less for money. His habits were severely simple, and he was the most generous of men. He valued the acquisition of money on the turf, because there it was the test of success. He counted kis thousands after a great rue as a victorious general counts his cannon and his pri soners. We extract, also, from different parts of the vo lume, the author's observations on Lord George Ben tiuck's character which he necessarily had many op portunities of observing INDUSTRY OF LORD GEORGE DINTINCK. It should here perhaps be remarked as illustrative of the capacity . of labour by which Lord George Bentinck was distinguished, that the conduct of the sugar and coffee com mittee which seemed alone to require the devotion of his time, did not prevent him from simultaneously acting as a member of the secret committee on commercial distress of which he was a regular attendant, and where ho examined at great length the governor of the Bank of England. Nor was he ever more regular in his attendance Nn the house than throughout thi: laborious spring, always ready ha his place to vindicate his own peculiar views or to assail those who differed from hint whenever the opportunity muse. It should also be recollected that every morning :before he at tended the committee he had preliminarily to receive at home and to hear the statement: of those who were to give their evidence, and whom in the great majority of instances he had afterwards to examine in chief. None of the , e wit-. nesse, left him without being impressed with admiration and astonishment at his knowledge of the subject and the perseverance which he displayed. Nor must it be omitted that during all this period he was also laboriously digesting the evilenee received, and preparing that ronarhahle re port which remains one of the most singular and valuable productions of our parliamentary literature, pouring a flood of light upon the position of our sugar colonies which they never hail received, and which concluded with no less than two hundred and thirty-four resolutions, in none of which is there any repetition, sad in all of which are references to the evidence where anythi-ig, however minute, is all god or asserted. This was the per:Yl of his life when he was fre quently in the habit of working eiithteen hours a day. That might indeed be said of llett:inck which Tully said of Marcus Brutus, Quidquid cull, tatde cult. OPINIONS Loin) GEORGE lIENTINCK. Although he hail not much eustained his literary culture, and of late years at any raw had nut given his mind to poli tical study, he had in the course of his life seen and heard a great deal, and with profit. Nothing escaped his observa tion ; he forgot nothing and always thought. So it was that on all the great political ikuestions of the day he had arrived at conclusions which guided him. Ile always took large views and hail no prejudices about things whatever ho might indulge in as to peisons. lie was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth and would spare no pains for that purpose ; hat when once his mind was made up, it was impossible to influence In politics, he was a whig of 161, which became him, modified however by all the experience of the present age. He wished to see our society founded on a broad beds of civil and religious liberty. He retained much of the old jealousy of the court, but hail none of popular franchises. He was fur the established Ina reh , but for nothing more, and very repugnant to priestly domination. As fur the industrial question, he was sincerely opposed to the 3lluichester scheme, because lie thought that its full development would impair and might subvert our territo rial constitution, which he held to he the real security of our freedom, and because he believed that it would greatly injure Ireland, and certainly dissolve our colonial empire. Ile had a great respect for merchants, though he looked with some degree of jealousy on the development of our merely foreign trade. His knowledge of character qualified him in a great degree to govern turn, and if some draw backs from this influence might be experienced in his too rigid tenacity of opinion, and in some quickness of temper, which, however, always sprang front a too sensitive heart, great compensation might he found in the fact that there probably never was a human being so entirely devoid of conceit, and KO completely exempt trim selfishness. No thing delighted him more t h an to assist and advance others. All the fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of his friends, without reserve or self con• ridcration. Ile encouraged them by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish Ins own opportunity without a moment's hesitation, if he thought the &Volition mews might aid a better man. Although the principal interest of this work is ne cessarily purely political—perhaps we should rather say merely parliamentary—Mr. Disraeli does not leave us without those high generalisations in which he dearly loves to indulge. The truth is—as all who know his writings well know,—he is essentially a sentimentalist. He has produced an epic as well its epigrams. If he acts like " Vivian Grey," he also dreams like " Contarini Fleming." And not satisfied with parliamentary success, and the notoriety of a brilliant man, his nature demands always some thing more lofty, more mysterious, than prac tical polities supply. Hence his dark allusions to the " Asian mystery ;" his theories regarding the Hebrew people, which once figure more remark ably than ever in Chapter Zith of the present work. This book is not the place to discuss matters involving ethnology and theology—op . /cs particularly of thu life of a most homely, straightforward English gen tleman ; and we put it to Mr. Disraeli whether it is quite fair to look on the French Revolution as thu " revolt of the Celts against the first and second tes tament ?" If he can pee nothing more in the changed opinions of Europe Clan a " revolt of the Celts "—we are sorry for him : to say that there is nothing mom in them is to state what is scientifically untrue. Let-us remark also that it shows no great consistency to complain of the persecutions of Jews in one page, and affect to undervalue the principle of religious liberty in another. Nor is it fair to appeal triumphantly in one book to Spinosa as the father of modern philosophy, and a noble specimen of the Ilebrew mind, and then in another to charge the northern nations with opposition to the religious principles pre . served by the Jews—when this very Spinosa Lacs notoriously done more harm to the " Jewish tradi tion" than any modern writer. We have no wish to • deny the intellectual merits of eminent Hebrews more than those of any other people. But we aro not to deduce wholesale results from a few cases. Bunyan has been supposed to be of gypsey descent by very good authorities; but nobody thinks of look ing for their superiors among the gypsey-eamps— even on the strength of the "Pilgrims Progress." Paradoxes easily slide into cants. And both am out of place in a work like there psent—well written, amiable in intention, and full of a certain class of information. IRELAND. Deem, Dec. 16. An Armagh paper gives the following particulars with reference to the arrest and identification of two persons charged with the murder of Mr. llateson The names of the prisoners are Owen Kelly, of Lurgan. boy, and Francis Kelly, of Tullinagrovc, both in tho county of !Monaghan. Two witnesses, named Milk and Casey, were also arrested. When the constables arrived at the house of the prisoners, they were engaged packing up, as preliminary to their departure for America on the neat day. The men seemed terrified at the approach of the police, and their mother fainted. Mills and Casey are two of the four young men who passed in a cart Mr. Batmen and his alleged murderers. Mills and Casey have identified one of the prisoners, and one of their companions has sworn to the other. The prisoners have liven fully committed to Monaghan gaol, on the charge of " wilful murder." Tim police are, it is stated, close on the track of the third man, suspected of this foul murder. A large body of addi tional constabulary has been despatched from the park to Castleblaney. - - An additional constabulary force has been dis patched to Tuam to preserve the peace there, which the late religious excitement had disturbed. The Very Rev. John Cheyne, Dean of Connor, was discharged yesterday in the Insolvent Debtors Court, without opposition. The Mansion-house committee, appointed to con sider the question of an American packet-station on the Irish western coast, have at length announced their report as ready for publication. It is to appear this week, just in time to anticipate Mr. Wagstaff's solution of the question, provided that gentleman has kept his engagement by starting his steamer from sew York to Galway yesterday, the lath. TILE RESULTS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA are thus summarised in an article in the last number of the Calcutta Review :—.. At the close of 1850, fifty years after the modern English and American societies had begun their labours in Ilindustan, and 30 years since they have been carried on in full efficiency, the stations at which the Gospel is preached in India and Ceylon,: arc 260 in number, and engage the services of 403 missionaries, be longing to twenty-two missionary societies. Of these missionaries, '22 are ordained natives. Assisted by 651 native preachers, they proclaim the word of God in the bazaars and markets, not only at their several stations ' but in the districts around them. They have thus sprea d far and wide the doctrines of Christianity, and have made a considerable impression, even upon tho unconverted population. They have founded 300 native churches, containing 17,356 members, or communicants, of whom 5,000 were admitted on the evidence of their being converted. These church members form the nucleus of a native Christian community, comprising 103,000 individuals, who regularly enjoy the bless ings of bible instruction, both for young and old. The efforts of missionaries in the cause of education aro now directed to 1,345 day schools, in which 83,700 boys are instructed through the medium of their own vernacular language; to 73 boarding-schools, containing 1,992 boys, chiefly Christian, who reside upon the missionaries' pre mises, and arc trained up under their eye ; and to 128 day schools,with 14,000 boys and students, receiving a sound scrip tural education through the medium of the English language Their efforts in female education embrace 354 day schools v a i n t d h I . l o ,sl o gi a rl in s t i i an n d 2 . 9 51 boarding-schools, h w m ith ents 2,.4so l gir vo , taught almost exclusively in the vernacular languages. The Bible has been wholly translated into ten languages, and the New Testament into five others, not reckoning the Se rampore versions. In these ten languages a considerable Christian literature has been produced, and also from 20 to 60 tracts, suitable for distribution among the Hindu and Dlussulman population. Missionaries have also established preaching the Gospel regularly in these numerous tongues of India, missionaries maintain English services in a chapels, for the edification of our own countrymen. Tho total cost of this vast missionary agency during the past year amounted to 187,0001., of which 33,6001. were contri buted in thi% country, not by the native Christian com munity, but by Eurepearts."—Calcutta Review. TUE ESTATES OP LORD WHARNELIFFE, in W= Yorkshire, have recently been re-valued.. . . ... ; stances reductions of from 20 to 30 per ea, '''‘• - . : 1 1 . 1 . 1 .... 0, in the rentals. e .... t , ....• , -t , , . • ad I:- ut, 14.-