The Sun. — London, England, 1839-02-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE. DUBLIN REVIEW, No. XI. Booker an % Dolman, London, 1839. In the last number of this periodical appeared an article entitled " Orators in the Reformed Parliament," to which the oratorical peculiarities of the chief speakers in the House of Lords were discussed in a free and im partial spirit. The article is continued and brought to a conclusion in the present number ; and puts forth some j us t, an d genera ll y spea ki ng, discriminating criti cism on the principal orators in the House of Commons. Foremost among these the Reviewer places Sir R. Peel, which is no more t h an j ust i ce ; t h oug h we t hi n k h e con stderably overrates the Right Hon. Baronet's talents as a speaker, when he describes him " as one of the most perfect debaters that ever sat in Parliament, or ever led a Party." Compared to Canning as a debater, or even to Castlereagh as a party leader, Sir Robert is a mere nobody. He seldom or never soars above common place, and th oug h assure dl y h e h as muc h tact an d quick wittedness, yet he has no grasp of mind—no enlarged capacity. The Reviewer's remarks on O'Connell and Sheil are excellent, though he has by no means quoted the most felicitous specimens of the former's humour. " Italian Guides and Tourists" is a very amusing notice of some of our recent volumes of travels ; the introduc tory passages are penned in a light and pointed style. There is considerable truth in the Reviewer's remark that " an Englishman clings to his home till some very , Strong conviction of propriety, or some very violent im pulse of caprice drives him from it." Equally just are these observations :—" With the swarms that yearly cross the Channel and visit Italy, for the purpose, as they say, of seeing it, we have no patience. We can scarcely keep terms with them. What do they mean by this expression ? To see its landscapes fromiheir e arriage.windows ? Its cities from the dining-room of hotels? Its society in its ball-rooms—its morality in its servant's halls ? -Its fine arts in its shop-windows ? Truly this no uncommon way of seeing Italy!" The " Life and Writings of Gorres" gives a vivid biographi cal sketch of the political and literary career of one of the most eminent and patriotic writers in Germany. Of the remaining articles, we have merely time to say, that. the majority of them are written in a less wordy and ponderous style than is usual with this periodical. COURT CIRCULAR. Her Majesty and he: August Mother attended Divine Service yesterday morning in the Chapel Royal, St. James's. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of Bangor, who took his text from the Gospel of St. Matthew, c har , . xix., v. 23, 24. The prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Knapp ; the Lessons and Litany were read by the key. Mr. Dakins ; the Altar Service was read by the Sub- Dean and Rev. Messrs. Knapp and Dakins. The chaunt, Battershill; the Te Deum and Jubilate in F., Arnold ; the Sanctus and Responses, Towers; an Anthem, " 0 God, thou art my God," (Greene), was sung by Messrs. Knyvett, Hobbs, and Sale; Sir George Smart presided at the organ. The Rev. Dr. Short was the Deputy Clerk of the Closet in Waiting. In the Royal Suite were the Mar chioness of Normanby, Lady Flora Hastings, Hon. Miss Cavendish, Lady Gardiner, Lord Byron, Mr. Rich, and Colonel Wemyss. The Duke of Leeds, Marquis of Normanby, Lnrds Clare, Cawdor, and Hawarden, and the Bishop of Bath and Wells were amongst the nobility present. Her Majesty and suite returned in three carriages to Buckingham Palace. The Queen honored Covent Garden Theatre attended presence on Saturday evening. Her Majesty was by the Marchioness of Normanby, Hon. Miss Cavendish, Lady Gardiner, Lord Byron, Mr. Rich, and Col. Wemyss. Her Majesty was pleased to honour Mr. W. C. Ross, 8.A., with another sitting on Saturday, at Buckingham Palace. Viscount Melbourne had an audience of her Majesty on Saturday. The Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge attended Divine service yesterday morning, in Grosvenor Chapel, Their Royal Highnesses were attended by Baroness Ahlefeldt, Miss Kerr, Colonel Jones, and Major S tephens. Yesterday was the Birthday of the Duke of Cambridge. TQe Duchess of Gloucester visited the Duke and Duchess at Cambridge House. Several of the Foreign Ministers and many of the Nobility called and left their names for his Royal Highness during the day. In the evening their Royal Highnesses had a Dinner Party, amongst the company were her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, the Danish Minister, and Baroness Biome, the Hanoverian and Saxon Ministers, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Sir Henry Wheatley, Sir William and Lady Gomm, Sir Henry Raiford, Sir Charles Th ornton , Si r Hil grave T urner, Sir H. Stephenson, Sir James R clnet t, R ev . D r. Bl om b erg , Mr. Culling Smith, Mr. Berkeley Paget, Colonel Keate, Colonel Jones, and Major Stephens. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Gloucester honoured the Countess of Tankerville with their Company, on Saturday evening, at her residence in Grosvenor -square. Their Royal Highnesses were at tended by Miss Kerr and Major Stephens. A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday at the Foreign Office. It was attended by Viscount Melbourne, Marquis of Lansdowne, Viscount Dungannon, Lord John Russell, Viscount Palmerston, Marquis cf Normanby, the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, Earl of Minto, Sir John Hob house, Lord Holland, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Viscount Rowick, and Lord Morpeth. The Council sat two hours and a-half. ,M. Dedel, Minist er o f t h e N et h er l an d s, transacted business with Lord Palmerston at the Foreign-office on Saturday. A Deputation, consisting of Dr. Nichol, the Lord Ad vocate, Mr. Dennistoun, M. P., Mr. Lockhart, M P., Mr. Chalmers, M.P., Mr. Alexander Johnston ( Glas gow), and Mr. Mo n t e ith, had an i n terview with the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, in Downing-street. Lord Clive, the Right Hon. C. Wynn, and a Depute tion, had an interview with Lord John Russell, on Satur day, at the Home-office. Colonel C o lby a nd Mr. Greenough had an interview With the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Saturday. Viscount Melbourne gave a Parliamentary Dinner on °a' urday, at his residence in South-street. Mr. P att i son, Mr. Wilbraham, and Mr. Broughton , bad an audience with Lord John Russell at the Home-office on Saturda Mr. Hummelauer, Austrian Charge d'Affaires, transacted business at the Foreign-office on Saturday. The Bi s h op of eodor and Man had an interview on Saturday with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Marquis of Lansdowne had a Dinner Party last evening at Lansdowne House. The Right Hon. Thomas Grenville entertained at binner, on Saturday, the Marquis Camden, Earl of Harr Is ° w.l, Sir Stephen Glynne, Right Hon. Thomas Peankland Lewis, Right Honourable C. Williams Wynn, Mr. Oaskell, and Mr. Luttrell, The Marquis of Normanby has fixed Mondays and Th (from 12 till 4) as public days at the Colonial office. BELGIAN PAPERS. Bitussres, FEB. 22. PARTITION OF BELGIUM. If we so urgently insist on the necessity of terminating Tab' affairs, it is because we are not ignorant of the misfor tune with w hi c h we are threatened ; and since we must dis close it in its full extent, we subjoin the Ultimatum of the Conference, which we have received from a sure source, an d the auth ent i c i ty of wh i ch we cannot even suspect : eit Antwe rP and its citadel; all the forts depending on the trans well as those ceded to Belgium in the Scheldt, and exte el of territory on both banks of the river, of sufficient in funl sfuovretrieTg t e y fe t n o c eEonfg l t a h n e d. whole possession, to belong Fiend Th ee r e mainde r of the province, a part of Limburg, Est t o th , r s. , and the greater part of West Flanders, to reiert e wng of the Netherlands. T he Plovinces of Hainault and Namur, and part of Wal loon Brabant, belong to France. The county of Liege and part of Limburg to go to the German Confederation. Luxemburg to continue to belong to the Grand Duke. Brussels and Flemish Brabant, and part of Walloon Bra bant, to form a duchy, which would be the appanage of a Prince, of which family is not yet known. This is the project of Talleyrand. It has just been adopted by the Powers who have signed the treaty of the 24 articles. What has hitherto kept them back is the fate of Brabant and Brussels; but it has just been fixed defini. tively, and even irrevocably, if we do not ham ten to accept the proposals which the Ministry has just laid before the Chambers. Courrier Beige. The Chamber of Commerce of Brussels and of Mons have addressed petitions to the Chamber of Representa tives, imploring it to approve the proposals of the Go vernment. FEB. 2: —lt is affirmed that the seven Deputies of the Capital veil 'be among those who vote for the project of law, and in ~his case it will not be denied that they %Nil! faithfully represent the opinion , : of their constituents. We this moment learn that the Chamber of Commerce of Liege present an address to the Government in favour of Pacific solution of our political question. It is thought that the report of the section will be made to the Chamber on Tuesday in a public sitting. To -day the four sections which had not named their reporters yesterday met, and since have made their choice. For the Ist, M. John Bohr is chosen to report to the cen tral section, his competitor was M. Duniortier. In the 4t h , NI. Licdtz had the majority over M. Mitz, and ia the sth, NI. Van Volzem, over M. Dubus. ~ T here is ever y reason to su pp ose that M. Vcrliagen will 0 - chosen in the 3d section. Thus the central section vrt ould not h ave a s i ng l e part i san o f res i stance . The e'enral section is convoked fur to-morrow at 2 o'clock. Independent. RISTOL SUGAR -MARKET, FEB. 2g.—The Sugar trade is in a wholly unpreced nted state—the stocks are increasing the refiners arc unable to work at ant: re- Inuneration—the grocers experience so little demand that a th e e y kre pe r f ect l y i n di fferent about buying ; and yet prices r advancing. The only solution th i at can be given of so paradoxical a state of things is to be found in the appre hension o f a considerable o ff in the supplies from wiColonies in the ensuing year, and, the correctness of sh time only can s h ow ; b ut it d oes not appear, from a l l e can lear n , t h at t h ere i s any ground for such anticipa tions relative to any part of the West with the soh, ex ception of the Island of Jatraica, where the ,l :Titers seem to be imbued with a spi,:t of inveteracy towards the negroes that nothing can reconcile ; and the consequences may affect, probably, the amount of produce. In Bri,tol we continue to receive consignments from Liverpool, to "PIAY our deficiencies : but it is a humbling reflection, whatever may be the cause, that while the import of our C ity is avowedly below her necessities, merchants prefer set din tt,g their Sugars to London and Livorpoo!, t o he s nt ',Lao fors.: con trexione girt. T ; - -Bristol Mercury. /~ SKETCHES AT RANDOM. WATERLOO BRID GR. Verdant oases itt barren deserts—beautiful is!rs amidst a dark and raging ocean—a peaceful hamlet in New Zealand—harmony among radicals—tranquillity in Tipperary ; there cannot be found among all these an anomaly more strikind., a contrast more vivid, a wonder more rare, than Waterloo Bridge. Amidst the strife, the tumult, the never-ceasing din of this great mart of commerce and politics—this vast emporium of manu factures and vice, it is a sacred spot, a qUiet peaceful sanctuary. From the bustling excitement of the Strand, or the repulsive haunts of the Waterloo-road' you behold its long strait level avenue w,th pleasurable sensations, and glaly paying the small fee which gains admission, you find yourself at once introduced into a kind of studious retreat, an atmosphere of almost academic calmness—a "solemn stillness breathes around." There is something in the classical architecture of the bridge, in the regular evenness of the granite flag stones which form the footpath, and the unalloyed purity of the gravelled carriage-way, which recalls to mind the open places in which the Greek sages of the Peripatetic school used to walk and teach, distribut ing. among their pedestrian pupils their perambulatory philosophy. Indeed, to 66 uses" not, in some respects, very far removed from those classical precedents, is the Bridge now converted ; for in favourable weather it is haunted by a number of such individuals as from age ; infirmity, or other causes, ore debarred from more extensive excursions, and who resort hither to inhale a little of the fresh breezes which blow from the river. And here you may frequently see crippled philosophers' of the modern school, whom their. inability of extended locomotion has naturally rendered more contemplative— and conversant ;—and who amidst a small knot of per sons united by the sympathy of a common misfortune, or ii fluenced by a charitable willingness to assist in passing away the dullness of the hour, are eagerly holding forth about the Corn-laws, and the last new opera, and profoundly criticising O'Connell and Grisi, Rubens and Brougham. Here you may also see many a hag gard d.sciple of the " Wrekin," or votary of the " Coal hole," endeavouring to " purge themselves 'from the melancholy" created by the glee-singing, cigar-smoking, spirit-drinking amusements of last night, and to gain something like an appetite for the dinner, which is to serve as the commencement of a similar career of debauchery. And here you may see some of those curious " fixtures," the "men about town," those singular beings, whom every one meets with every day, who speak to every body, and yet are known to none, and who here hold their mid-day levees, at which to meet their kindred " odd fellows," and instruct the innocent tyros in cock. neyism all the manifold mysteries of metropolitan existence. . . Truly the Bridge itself bath n peculiar, a distinctive character. All the other bridges are commercial ; they smell of traffic; there is something sordid about them. But this is exalted, secluded, contemplative, salubrious. Plato might reason here ; Socrates might teach. It is safe from the intrusion of lumbeting '► busses," villanous cabs, and destructive waggons. In the worst weather it is clear ; in the most sultry, cool ; in the most windy, free from the suffocating abo minations of dust. When the vast city is at the height of its turmoil and excitement, on the centre of this bridge, you are on a noble elevation above the busy scene—you look down upon it with philosophical re flection—you hear the hum of the distant strife, with calmness. The prospect upon the bridge is splendid. In our judgment, it is the best position for obtaining a view of the metropolis. St. Paul's affords the grandest " bird's eye" spectacle certainly. But the bridge presents the most pleasing and diversified prospect. There is scarcely an edifice of any note of which a glimpse at least is not to be had. The magnificent pile of Gothic architecture, the hall and abbey of Westminster,—and that venerable remnant of a Norman fortress, the Tower, form the termini of the view. In the centre rises the majestic dome of the metropolitan Cathedral, in its giant grandeur, its massive splendour. The spires of innumerable churches are seen in picturesque variety on every aide. The stupendous structures of the Royal theatres, the immense mass of closely crowded habitations, the river covered by its countless vessels, and spanned by its five unrivalled bridges, and the numberless receptacles of merchandize which, down to the very water's edge, line each densely occupied shore, the Custom-house in its vastness, Somerset-house in its beauty, the lofty buildings of teeming manufac tories, the princely abodes of ducal rank—ail mingle in an exhibition on which the eye may long untiringly gaze. The passengers who frequent the bridge are as pecu liar and as worthy of remark as the structure itself. They are a class—they form a species, a genus of me tropolitan pedestrians, indigenous, we might almost say, to the bridge. They are not the busy, bustling traffickers who throng the bridges of London and West minster. Their gait betokens none of the eager ac tivity of earnest pursuit :—it bespeaketh rather the lassitude of exhausted excitement. They look like those with whom the day is less a period of energetic occupation, than of indolent relaxation. Their counte nances are impressed with weariness of the past, more than with anxiety for the future ; there is nothing of the regularity, the precision, of people of business about them. They look as though they had been up " late o' nights,"—they are actors,--or Parliamentary re porters. They are seldom to be seen walking any where else, or if they are, it is but as wanderers,—as stragglers. Tnis is their great thoroughfare (leading as it does direct to all the Royal Theatres, and all the principal newspaper offices); and, by-the-bye, most of them, by a coincidence not unremarkable, live .‘ over the water,"— generally Lambeth way. Both classes are obliged to keep the same unseasonable hours ; —by a sort of common sympathy, or kindred taste, they colonise the same district. Here is continually passing the fagged, worn-oat reporter,—just risen from a bed to which the villanously unchristian hours of Parlia ment allowed him not to drag his wearied body, till he had worked out his last energies on the tediops dullness of the unprofitable debate—there he walks pale and dispirited, to run another round of the same health destructive toil. And there are the actors who last night delighted listening thousands ; labouring under the debility of mind and body consequent on the unna tural excitement ; in their haggard faces you now look in vain for the varying expression which so rivetted your attention, and fixed your interest ; in their dull and languid eye you see not the lustre which lately burned so brightly. It is with no slight wonder you recognize your old acquaintances of the scenic stage, and are sur. prised to find the " tricksy Ariel" soberiy walking in a merino cloak, " Jim Crow" looking white, and serious " Macbeth" riding in a modern chariot, and" Corinthian Tom," a respectable elderly gentleman. And there are those literary hacks—those queer, lounging, scribbling in dividuals—the play- writers—or rather the play- wrights-- who "adapt" ortranslate, or "hash up" the extraordinarily awful compositions which pass for " melodrames" at the Surrey, and " extravaganzas" at the Adelphi—proceed mg to arrange with a manager or to attend a rehearsal. Waterloo Bridge bath another claim to distinction : it is the " Lover's Lrap"# of modern times. It is the place whence those unhappy victims of blighted affection, to whom life has been for ever darkened," jump the life to come," and seek a welcome oblivion in the stream that flows beneath. Who ever heard of such an event at Blackfriars' or London-Bridge ? What mortal would n such crowded, anti-sentiment►l resorts, be induced to terminate his existence ? But at Waterloo-Bridge the solitary seclusion is absolutely seductive: the handsome broad balustrades are bewitchingly suicidal—and many a broken-hearted creature has here flung herself into the dark waves, which hushed her sighs and swept away her sorrows. But it is at night that the bridge is in its glory, when the stars are shining brightly, and the moon sheds her light " coldly and clearly "on its long, white, handsome fabric ;—when, standing on the centre of the bridge, you see not distinctly either of its terminations ; and behold on each side of you nothing but the dark, obscure void ;—and when, amidst the silence of the night, the footsteps of a passing passenger echo solemnly on the pavement, and naught disturbs the quiet con temp!ation of the scene but the soft whispers of the fond lovers who he7e, perhaps, have made their assignation, and, in the still, almost unbroken, seclusion, interchange their vows of affection. * We presume all our readers recollect the rock in ancient Greece, from which the love-sick maidens leaped, to destroy their disappointed love ; and in the sea that washed the base of which, the musical notes of Sappho__ most charming of lyrists—wero silenced. MARYLEBONE VESTRY - ARTE SIAN WELLS. On Saturday, at the usual meeting of the Marylebone Vestry, Mr. A. DANIELL in the Chair. _ _ . Mr. GLASIER, in moving the confirmation of the mi nutes relative to calling a public meeting upon the sub. joct of artesian wells took occasion to advert to an adver tisement which had appeared in the newspapers, purporting to be an extract form a lecture delivered by Mr. Web ster at the Russell Institution, against the artesian prin ciple of obtaining a supply of water. He ( Mr. Glasier) could show that the whole of the statements set forth were founded on a mere fallacy. If there was any one thing which would refute the statement made respecting the artesian well sunk by the New River Company in the Hampstead Road, it was that Mr. Tubbs, who had sunk a well into the very same source, was ready to affirm upon oath that it constantly produced one million eight hundred gallons per week. Mr. Paten was present during the lecture alluded to, and, at its conclusion, defied Mr. Webster to prove the assertions ho had made ; whereupon the latter admitted that he had received his statements from Mr. Milne, the Secretary of the New River Com pany. He ( Mr. Glasier) therefore mainta:.ned that the affair had beet g,;t up by the Water Companies to retain their monoi olies over the public, and not from any practical or scientific rese , irches. After some few observations, th e confirmation was carried ; and Col. Dacre, Sir De Lacy Evans. and one or two other members of the vestry, were dded to the Committee. The people of this town and neighbourhood have hecn tnlrryinlr-rnod durinz, the weA ; scarce H t'irl of the tower orders, from 15 10 30, but bas joined hymen's bar.(.l. —Ba (4 anon Herald. 'DIE SUN, I_,(),ND}N.. MO AMERICAN MAR INE. A CHAFFER FROM THE FORTHCOMING WORK OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT'S ON AMERICA It may be inferred that 1 natur,lly direct& d my at tention to everything connected with the Au?erican marine, and circumstances eventually induced me to search much more minutely into particulars than at first I had intended to do. 'File present force of the American Navy is rated as follows : SHIPS OF THE LINE. 01 120 guns ... ••• 80 guns ... 74 guns ... Total FRIGATES (13T CLASS.) -11 0154 guns ... 44 guns ... Total ••• FRIOATFS (2d CLASS.) Of 36 guns ... SLOOPS. Of 20 guns 18 guns Total SCHOONERS OP 10 guns ... Others .. Total -15 -15 ... -13 Grand total ••• 56 The ratings of these vessels will, however, very much mislead people as to the real strength of the armament. The 74's and 80's are in weight of broadside equal to most three-decked ships ; the first class frigates arc double banked of the scantling, and carrying the com pkment of men of our 74•5. 'rue sloops are equally powerful in proportion to their ratings, most of them car r)ing long guns. Although flush vessels, they are little interior to a 38• gun frigate in scantling and are much too powerful for any that we have in our service under the same denomination of rating. It is impossible not to be struck with the beautiful architecture in most of these vessels. The Pennsyl vania, rated 120 guns, on four decks, carrying 146, is not by any means so perfect as some of the line-of-battle ships. The Ohio is, as far as I am a judge, the per fection of a ship of the line. But in every class you cannot but admire the superiority of the models and workmanship. The dockyards in America are small, and not equal to what they may eventually require. They certainly do not require such establishments or such storehouses as we have, as their timber and hemp are at hand when required ; but they are very deficient both in dry and wet docks. Properly speaking, they have no great naval depot. This arises from the jealous feeling existing between the several States. A Bill brought into Congress to expend so many thousand dollars upon the dockyard at Boston, in Massachusetts, would be immediately opposed by the State of New York, and an amendment proposed to transfer the works intended to their dockyard at Brooklyn. The other States who possess dockyards would also assert their right, and thus they will all fight for their respective establishments until the Bill is lost, and the bone of con tention falls to the ground. It is remarkable that along the whole of the eastern coast of America, from Halifax in Nova Scotia down to Pensacola in the Gulf of Mexico, there is not one good open harbour. The majority of the American harbours are barred at the entrance; so as to preclude a fleet running out and in to manceuvre at pleasure ; indeed, if the tide does not serve, there are few of them in which a line-of-battle ship, hard pressed, could take refuge. A good spacious harbour, easy of access, like that of Hali fax in Nova Scotia, is one of the few, perhaps the only, natural advantage wanting in the United States. The American navy list is as follows : Captains or Commodores 5O MasterE. Commandant Lieutenants 279 Surgeons Passed Assistant- Surgeons Assistant- Surgeons Pursers Chaplains Passed Midshipmen Midshipmen 227 Sailing Masters Sailmakers Boatswains Gunners Carpenters The pay of these officers is on the following scale. It must be observed, that they do not use the term " half pay," but when unemployed, the officers are either at tached to the various dockyards, or are on leave. I have reduced the sums paid into English money, that they may be better understood by the reader : Senior Captain, on service £96o On leave . 730, i. e. half pay. Captains, squadron service Navy yard and other duty 730 Off duty Commanders, on service 4A 25 22 Navy-yard and other duty 440 ampay. On leave Lieutenants commanding 3BO Navy-yard and other duty 315, half-pay. Waiting orders Surgeons, according to their length of servitude, from To and half-pay in proportion. Assistant- Surgeons, from To 250 Chaplains—Sea service On leave Passed midshipmen-duty Waiting orders 125, half-pay. Midshipmen—Sea service 83 Navy-yard and other duty 72 Leave Sailingmasters—Ships of the line 228 Other duty Leave 156, half-pay. Boatswains, carpenters, sail makers, and gunners—Ships of the line 156 Frigate Other duty On Leave 75, half-pay. It will be perceived by the above Eat, how very much better all classes in the American service are paid in comparison with those in our service. But let it not be supposed that this liberality . is a matter of choice on the part of the American Government ; on the contrary, it is one of necessity. There never was, nor ever will be, anything like liberality under a democratic form of Go. vernment. The navy is a favourite service, it is true, but the officers of the American navy have not one cent more than they are entitled to, or absolutely require. In a country like America, where any one by industry and application may become an independent, if not a wealthy man, in a few years, it would be impossible for the Government to procure officers if they were not tolerably paid—no parents would permit their chil dren to enter the service unless they were enabled to keep up a respectable appearance by t heir allowances ; and in America every thing, to the annuitant or per son not making money, and living upon his income, is much dearer than with us. The Government, there fore, are obliged to viy them, or young men would not embark in the the profession ; for it is not in America as it is with us, every department filled up, and no room for those who would crowd in ; so that in the eagerness to obtain respectable employment, emolument becomes a secondary consideration. It may, however, be worth while to put in juxtaposition the sums paid to officers of respective ranks in the two navies of England and America : Officers. Amer'ca. EnglaM Half-pay Post Captains, senior on leave, corresponding to Commodore or Rear- Admiral in England 730 456 Post Captains off duty (that is, duty on _ shore) On leave Commanders, off sea duty In yards, and on leave 3BO 155 Lieutenants—Shore duty Waiting orders, or on leave 250 90 Passed Midshipmen—Full-pay Half-pay Midshipmen—Full-pay Half-pay . . My object in making the comparison between the two services is not with an invidious feeling. More ex pensive as America certainly is, still the disproportion is such as must create surprise, and if it requires such a sum for an American officer to support himself in a cre ditable and gentlemanlike manner, what can be expected from the English officer with his miserable pittance, which is totally inadequate for his rank and station Notwithstanding which, our officers do keep up their appearance as gentlemen, and those who have no half pay support themselves ; and I point this out, that when Mr. Hume or other gentlemen clamour against the ex pense of our naval force, they may not be ignorant of one filet, which is, that not only on half-pay, but when on active service, one-half at least of the ex penses necessarily incerred by our officers to support themselves according to their rank, and to entertain and keep their ships in proper order, is, three times out of four, paid out of their own pockets, or those of their relatives, and that without complaint, as long as they are not checked in their legitimate claims to promotion During my sojourn in the United States,' became acquainted with a large portion of the senior officers of the American navy, and I found them gifted, gen tlemanlike, and liberal. With them I cou ld con verse freely upon all points relative to the last war, and always found them ready to admit all that could be expected. The American naval officers certainly form a strong contrast with the majority of their coun trymen, and prove, by their enlightened and liberal ideas, how much the Americans in general would be improved if they had had the same means of compari son with other countries which the naval officers by their profession have obtained. Their partial successes during the late war were often the theme of discourse, and conducted with candour and frankness on both sides, No unpleasant feeling was ever raised by any argument with them on the su'iject, while the question raised amon g their " free and enlightened" brother citizens who knew nothing. of the rn tter Was certain to bring d own me such a torrela of bombast, falsehood, and ss required ail ;ay pitaosophy to put up with JDAY,- apparent indifference. But I must now take my leave of the American navy to refer to their merchant marine. Before I went to the United States, I was aware that a large proportion of our seamen were in their employ. I knew that the whole line of packets, which is very ex tensive, was manned by British seamen, but it was not until I arrived in the States that I discovered the real state of the case. During my occasional residence at New York, I was surprised to find myself so constantly called upon by English seamen who had served under me in the dif- ferent ships I had commanded since the peace. Every day seven or eight would call upon me, touch their hats, awl remind me in what ships and in what capacity they had done their duty. I had frequent conversations with them, and found out that their own expression, " We are all here, Sir," was strictly true. To the why and wherefore, the answer was invariably the same—" 18 dol lars a month, Sir." Some of them, I recollect, told me that they were going down to New Orleans because the sickly season was coming on, and during the time that the yell ow f ever rage d t h ey h a d always had a great advance of wages, sometimes as high as 30 dollars per month. I did not attempt to dissuade them ; they were just as right to risk their lives from contagion at 30 dollars a month as to stand and be fired at at Is. a day. The circumstance of so many of my own men being in American ships, and their assertion that there were no other sailors than English in New York, in duced me to enter very minutely into my investigation, of which the following are the results. The United States, correctly speaking, have no com mon seamen, or seamen bred up as apprentices before the mast ; indeed, a little reflection will point out how unlikely it is that she ever should have, or should have had ; for who would submit to such a dog's life at the hest, or what parent would consent that his children should wear Out an .existence of hardship and depen dence, when they can so easily render them independent on shore ? The same period of time requisite for a man to learn his duty as an able seaman, and be qualified for the pittance of eighteen dollars per month, would be sufficient to establish a young man as an independent or even wealthy landowner, factor, or merchant on shore. That there are classes in America - who do go to sea is ccrtain, and who and what these are I shall hereafter point out ; but it may be positively asserted, that, unless by escaping from his parents at an early age, awl before his education is complete, he becomes, as it were, lost ; there is no instance of a white boy being sent out to sea, to be brought up as a 'fore•mast man in the United States of America. The whole amount of tonnage of the American mer cantile marine may be taken in round numbers at 2,000,000 tons, which may be subdivided as follows : REGISTERED. Tons. Foreign Trade \Vhale Fishery EVENING EDITIONr,- Bltt' . '\ 25, 1839. Haying sigsed this doeum, nt, and it being publicly registered, he becomes a citizen, and may be sworn to as such by any captain of a merchant vessel or man-of war, if is so required. Now there are two points ascertained from the above remarks. 1. That Americaalways has obtained, and for a long period to come, will obtain her seamen altogether from Great Britain. 2. That the seamen can be naturalized immediately, and become American seamen by law. To which we may add— Th it under present circumstances, England is under the necessity of raising seamen not only for her own navy, but also for the Americans ; and that in propor tio❑ as the commerce and shipping of America shall increase, so Kill the demand upon us become more onerous ; and that should we fail in producing the num ber of seamen necessary for both services, the Americans will always be full manned, and any defalcation mtht fall upon ourselves. And it may be added, that in all easel, the Ameri cans have the choice and refusal of our men ; and therefore, they have invariably all the prime and best seamen which we have raised. The cause of this is simple and well known : it is the difference between the wages paid in the merchant vessels of the two nations : American ships, per month £3 10 British ships ditto 2 2to £2 10 American men-of-war 2 0 British men-of-war It mill be observed, that in the American men-of-war the able seamen's pay is only 21. ; the consequence is, that they remain for months in port Without being able to obtain men. Bat we must pass by this cause, and now look to the cause of the cause, or in other words, how it is that the Americans are able to give such high wages to our seamen as to select any number of our best men for their sera ice, and how it is that they can compete with, and even un ler-bid, our merchant vessels in freight at the same time that thy sail them at a greater ex pense. Tills has been occasioned partly from circumstances, and partly from a series of mismanagement on our part, and partly from the fear of impressment ; but the prin cipal cause may be ascribed to the former paculiarly un scientific mode of calculating the tonnage of our vessels, the error of which system induced the merchants to build their ships so as to evade the heavy Channel and river duties, and thus all the first principles of naval ar chitecture were disregarded, and the sailing properties of vessels considered of no consequence. The fact is, that we have over-taxed our shipping to carry as much freight as possible, and at the same time to pay as few of the onerous duties. Our mercantile shipping generally assume more the form of floating boxes of merchandise than sailing vessels, and by the false method of measuring the tonnage they were en abled to carry 600 tons, when by measurement they were only taxed as being of the burthen of 400 tons ; but every increase of tonnage thus surreptitiously ob tained was accompanied with a decrease in the sailing properties of the vessels. Circumstances, however, ren dered this of less importance during the war, as few ves sels ran without the protection of a convoy, and it must be also observed that vessels being employed in one trade only, such as the West India, Canada, Mediter ranean, &c., their voyages during the year were limited, and they were for a certain portion of the year unem ployed. During the war the fear of impressment was cer tainly a strong inducement for our seamen to enter into the American vessels, and naturalize themselves as American subjects, but they were also stimulated even at that period by higher wages, as they are now that the fear of impressment no longer operates upon them. It appears, then, that from various causes our mer chant vessels have lost their sailing properties, while the Americans are the fastest sailors in the world ; and it is for that reason, and no other, that, although sailing at a much greater expense, the Americans can afford to outbid us, and take all our best seamen. An American vessel is ia no particular trade, she is ready and willing to take freight anywhere when offered. She sails so fast that she can make three voyages while one of our vessels can make but two ; consequently she has the preference as being the better manned and giving the quickest return to the merchant, and as she re ceives three freights while the English vessel only re ceives two, it is clear that the extra freight will more than compensate for the extra expense that the vessel sails at in consequence of paying extra wages to the seamen. Add to this, that the captains, generally speaking, being better paid are better informed and more active men, that they get through their work with fewer hands from having all the picked seamen, and that the activity on board is followed up and supported by an equal activity on the part of the agents and factors on shore, and you have the true cause why America can afford to pay and secure for herself all our best seamen. One thing is evident, that it is a mere question of pounds, shillings, and pence between us and America, and that the same men who now serve in the American service would, if our wages were higher thin those offered by America, immediately return to us and leave her destitute. That it would be worth the while of this country, in case of a war with the United States, to offer 41. a-head to able seamen is mot certain. It would swell the naval estimate, but it would shorten the duration of the war, and in the end would pro bably be the saving of many millions. But the question is, cannot and ought not something to be done, now in time of peace, to relieve our mercantile shipping • interest, and hold out a bounty for a return to those true principles of naval architecture, the deviation from which has now proved to be attended with such serious consequences. Fast sailing va ssels will always be able to pay higher wages• than others, as what they lose in increase of daily expense, they will gain by the short time in which the voyage is accomplished ; but it is by encou ragement alone that we can expect that the change will take place. Surely some of tho onerous duties imposed by the Trinity House might be removed, not from the present class of vessels, as upon those built hereafter with first-rate sailing propertii s ; and, indeed, it is to be questioned whether, now that Green wich Hospital has become so enormously wealthy, and has so few - pensioners to support, the charges of lights, &c., ought not to be put upon her, and thus the mer cantile navy be relieved. These, however, are con siderations which must be attended with a much fuller investigation) than I have the means of obtaining ; but these,are considerations of vital importance to our ma ritime superiority, and as such should he immediately weighed by the Government of Great Britain, and a Committee be appointed fur the purpose. THE YOUTH OF SIIAKSPEARE.—We are requested to !tate that the New Work entitled " The Youth of Shakspcare," by the author of " Shakspeare and his Friends," in three volumes, post Bvo., is published this day, by Mr. Colburn, of Great Marlborough-street, and may now now be had at all the Libraries. Mr. Col burn has also just published "A Voice from Arne, rica to England," by an American Gentleman, in one volume, 8v0_... Agents f.,r Scotland, Messrs. Bell and l3radfuto, Edinburgh ; for Ireland, Mr. John Cumming Dub' .11. Cottle -LAWS.--Lord Brougham grappled with the suhject in his usual masterly and comprehensive style, and adduced facts and reasonings to show the evil working of the present system, that might well put to shame those who had the dishonesty to bring forward his Lord ship as a witness to prove that the Corn-laws are " the best laws that human wisdom could devise." His Lordship took a view of the subject such as we have frequently endeavoured to impress upon our readers—namely, that a free trade in Corn would not materially lower the price of grain from what we have had it in seasons of plenty—that foreign wheat cannot be brought into this country at anything like so cheap a rate as has been represented by those who have an interest in deceiving and alarming the farmer; and thrt the advan tages to he derived from a change of the system, would be steadiness of price, abundant supply, and a vastly increased demand for our manufactures.—Carlisle Journal. How TO KEEP A SECRET.--We alluded some what darkly a fortnight ago to a new dramatic production which has been sent to this country from the United States. We are not yet at liberty to give the name of the writer, but it is well known and much admired in this country, and was until recently that of a family of the greatest emi nence on the stage. Some people think that m3stery in such cases is useful, and we are not warranted in being the first to break through it. The play, which is of a serious character, has been handed about from friend to friend, and from critic to ethic, in this country, during the lest month, and there is but one opinion regarding its extra ordinary merits, though there is at least one questionable scene, which some think might risk its successful perform ance. We are not at all of this opinion, for we are sure it would be gladly welcomed and well received by an English audience. As we before mentioned, Macready is waiting for further instructions on the subject, from the other side of the Atlantic.—Observer. [N.B.—The dramatic writer here alluded to with so much absurd mystery 'is Mrs. Butler, late Miss Fanny Kemblc.] IMPROVED MODE OF LIGHTING SHOPS.— A great improvement in the principle of lighting shop windows been introduced, and is gradually but generally extending throug out the metrrprilis, and will, there is little doubt, be ultimately ui vcrsally adopted. The Object to be effected in lighting up a shop window should be to show off the goods to the best advantage, but the old plan of lighting appears to disregard this altogether, and it would seem as if the object to be attained was merely to exhibit a brilliant display of light to dazzle the eyes of the spectators, and prevent them from seeing the goods. On the Lew syst , ..im, however, the light is placed above the level of the spectator's eyes, and being thus thrown from an elevated point upon the goods, it is reflected from them, exhibiting to the spectator their various forms and hues in the most ^ttractive ma nner. The direct ra y of the gas-lights should be screened from the eye, but the plan sometimes adopted of placing a ground-glass shade over the burners greatly diminishes the quan tity of light, without softening the general effect. In some in stances gas-lamps are placed outside the shop windows, but this plan seems ' to be carrying out the new principle to excess, and greatly disfigures the general appearance of the windows, without attaining any adequate advantage. FREE LABOUR. —It is useless to exclaim at the want of labourers, when we see every ship for the Australian new colonies filled with passengers, chiefly of that class. The Adelaide, for Port Philip, small as the is, had forty-three, and there are hun dreds of applications to the owners of vessels in that trade! Talk of " invnigration" indeed, and paying for it too! Every individual coming here, who brings not with him the means of obtaining his own food, is a dead weight upon the colonr—Murray's Revicte. ENROLLED Coasting Trade 920.000 Steam Coast Fisheries Total 2,000,000 The American merchant vessels are generally sailed with fewer men than the British. We calculate five men to one hundred tons, which I believe to be about the truth. Mr. Carey, in his work, estimates the pro portion of seamen in American vessels to be 4 L 3 to every 100 tons, and I shall assume his calculation as correct. The number of men employed in the American mercan tile navy will then be as follows : Men. Foreign trade Whale fishery Coasting trade Steam Coast fisheries 85,799 And I will now submit, from the examinations I have made, the proportions of American and British seamen which are contained in this aggregate of 85,799 men. In the foreign trade, we have to deduct the Masters of the ships ; the mates, and the boys who are appren ticed to learn their duty and rise to mates, and their masters, not to serve before the mast. These I esti- mate at— Masters Mates Apprentices 1,500 Ditto, coloured men, as cooks,stewards, &c. 2,000 8,000 Which, deducted from 30,333, will leave 22,333 seamen in the foreign trade, who, with a slight intermixture of Swedes, Danes, and more rarely Americans, may all be asserted to be British seamen. Tne next item is that of the men employed in the whale fishery, and, as near as I can ascertain the fact, the proportions are two-thirds Americans to one-third English. The total is 5,633, out of which • 3,756 are Americans, and 1,877 British seamen. The coasting trade employs 39,000 men ; but a small proportion of them can be considered as seamen, as it embraces all the internal river navigation. The steam navigation employs 6,500 men, of whom, of course, not one in ten is a seaman. I shall refer to them hereafter. 'The fisheries for cod and herring employ about 4,333 men ! they are a mixture of Americans, Nova Scotians, and British, but the proportions cannot be ascertained ; it is supposed that about one-half are British subjects, e. 2,166. As my subsequent remarks will prove, I do not think that I am at all over-rating when I estimate that the Americans employ at least thirty thousand of our seamen in their service. The questions which are now to be considered are the nature of the various branches in which the seamen employed in the American marine are engaged, how far they will be available to America in case of a war. The coasting trade is chiefly composed of sloops manned by two or three men and boys. The captain is invariably part, if not whole owner of the vessel, and those employed are generally his sons, who work for their father, or some Cmigrani Irishmen, who, after a few months are fully equal to this sort of fresh water sailing. From the coasting trade, therefore, America would gain no assistance. Indeed, the ma• jority of the coasting trade is so confined to the interior that it would not receive much check from a war with a foreign country. The coast fisheries might afford a few seamen, but very few, certainly not the men required to man her ships of war. As in the coating trade, they are mostly owners, or partners. In the whale fishery much the same system prevails, it is a speculation, and the men embark stipulating for such a proportion of the fish caught as their share of the profits. They are generally well to do, connected together, and are the least likely of all to volunteer on board of the American Navy. They would speculate in privateers if they did anything. From steam navigation of course no seamen can be obtained. Now, as all service is voluntary, it is evident that the only chance that America has of manning her navy is from the 30,000 British seamen in her employ, the other branches of navigation either not producing seamen, or those employedin them being too independent in situation to serve as foremast men. When I was at the different seaports I made repeated inquiries as to the faCt if ever a lad was sent to sea as a foremast man, and I never could ascertain that it ever was the case. Those who are sent as apprentices are learning their duty to receive the rating of mates, and ultimately fulfil the office of captains ; and it may be here remarked, that many Americans, after serving as captain for a few years, return on shore and become opulent merchants —the knowledge which they have gained during their maritime career proving of the greatest ad vantage to them. There are a number of free black and coloured lads, who arc sent to sea, and who eventually serve as stewards and cooks ; but it will he a re not people who h es- mit to the rigorous and the cooks and observed, (wiiislcli epniitneer otbhfeata.ot before eotsvheeermnmmaassettenrtasn:(mei sss a ue t l , stewards arc not seamen ; so that the whole dependence of the American navy, in case of war, is upon the British seaman who are employed in her foreign trade and whale fisheries, and in her men-of-war in commis sion during the peace. If America brings up none of her people to a sea faring life before the mast, now that her population is r li l e a s t s vessels e w n e were e chieflyw r broke seam t e h e e upwards of 13,000,000, still . less likely was she to have done it when her population was less, and the openings minassiontielddeei their ? y eio ß au n r o i t t fr i British l seamen. to wealth by other . channels . was even greater, from whence it may be fairly inferred— That twou would coun tries, That during our continued . struggle with France, when America had the carrying trade in her ha - ads, that tries, the same British seamen rrho were in her employ . Some might ; mannedlt may her e ships sura o o f se w d a riai that td privateers. British her , principle as that of the British sailor and soldier.. In Dibdin's songs, we certainly have another version : " True to his coun try and K i ng ," &c., but I am afraid that they do not de serve it—soldiers and sailors are mercenaries ; they risk their lives for money—it is their trade, and if they re fuse to there i e s "' L i oyed character ag i a can get higher wages they never consider the jus tice of the c ause, or whom they fight for. Now America is a country peculiarly favourable for those who have little conscience or reflection ; they speak the same language , th e wa g es are much hi g h er , spirits are much cheaper , a nd the fear of detecti on or punishment is trifling ; „ a y, there is none, for in five mihutes a Bri tish seaman may be made a bona fide American citizen, and, of course, an American seaman, and it is not sur prising, after sailing for years out of the American ports in American vessels that the men, in case of war, should take the oath and serve. It is necessary for any one wanting to . become anAmeri can c i t i zen, t h a t h e should give noti ce of his intention ; thi s not i ce g ives him, as soon as h e has signed, all the rights of an Ame ricen citizen, excepting that of voting at ele c ti o ns, which requires a longer time, as specified in each State. The deg laration is as follows : That it is his bona fide i n t ent i on to b ecome a citizen of the United States, and to renounce for ever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign power, poten tate, state, or sovereignty whatever, and p ar ti c ularly to Victoria, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great B. itain and Ireland, to whom i.e is now a subject." CORN-LAWS. EXTRACT OF A SPEECH DELIVERED AT IPSWICH ON TUESDAY LAST. (From the Su f folk Chronicle.) Colonel TuomesoN said, tint, far our agricultural friend at the end of the room, of whom he regretted exceedingly that all the objections had not been heard. This friend had stated, that he believed in his heart England could not stand a free trade. Now, this depended on disproving what had been advanced in the Lecture, on the loss conse quent in every instance where the greater price was given instead of the less. If it were true that the difference of pr . ces, or the value of it, was thrown into the sea, the won der was, cot how England could stand a free trade, but how she could stand the other, inflicting loss at every turn. The Chartists have acted like young soldiers at a siege, who say to themselves, " What would you like best ? 0, by all means the citadel I fur when we have got that, we shall have all the rest. So we will attack the citadel first, and nobody shall lead us upon any other point." It might be excusable in men new to the trade, but it was the worst possible soldiership ; the busi ncss in a siege was always to bring down those points first which were easiest carried, and then to carry others afterwards. This is all very bad ; but the working classes must have time to grow wiser like other people.— (Cheers.) It was next objected, that to remove the Corn laws would benefit the fundholders. Now the case stood thus :—The landed interest borrowed money to carry on their war, and as soon as the war was over, they imposed the Corn-laws, which cut down every man's loaf to a half-loaf—the fundholders' included. The argument, therefore, was—do not allow your half-loaves to be tarred into whole ones, for do you not see, it would be benefiting, the fundholders too ?—( Cheers.) It is grief and pain to see such an argument produced by any portion of the work ing classes, because it has a direct tendency to reduce the public estimate of their fitness to take care of themselves, let alone their fitness to take care of anybody else. Tne next objection was, that the agitators were cotton-lords, annuitants of all kinds, and soldiers. As for the cotton lords, they are quite right not to be robbed if they can help it, any more than anybody else. They have asked the labouring classes to help them in removing a state of things e hich gives the operalive half wages, and his emplo)cr half profits; and the operatives had been made t ansveer, that they would not have whole wages in stead of half—the reason why, because it- would give their employers whole profits instead of half. They hugged their half loaf, and filled their stomachs with the comfort of thinking their employers were suffering too. It was diffi cult to say why one man as well as another should not be accessible to the fact, that a whole loaf was better than a half, even though somebody besides himself was likely to have the benefit of the alteration.—(Cheers.) Next it was objected, that the cotton-lords want to com pete with foreign wages. They want no such thing. They want a state of things where they and the people they employ should have the full benefit of the trade that would naturally fall to themselves, without seeing it stopped and cut off to please somebody else. But it was asked, did they mean to give the same wages ? They meant to give more ; less, it might be, in money amount, but more in the substantial qunatity of what it would purchase for the lab purer. And this from no merit of theirs, but be cause it could not possibly be otherwise. The masters were fighting for a state of things where they could not keep greater substantial wages from their workmen if tlley were to try : and here were the workmen, in their igno rance of the world and things that are in it, standing up in the ranks of the enemy, and quibbling with all their might to prevent the consummation. It was all part of the bitter, senseless error, which led the working classes to argue, that because it was apparent their employers were to gain, therefore, it followed themselves must lose. The next objection was, that vie have a false currency; that bills of exchange ought to be destroyed, and a gold currency alone resorted to. There, at all events, seems to be two stories upon this matter; for at Birmingham, which makes no small part of the opposition at the present moment, the cry is that nothing can be done till every man's pockets ree stuffed into riches with paper money. The real fact is, that there is no ground for complaint against false cur rency, nor likely to be, so long as payment in gold can be procured fur paper on demand. When the case was other wise, then indeed there was room enough for complaint. Your friend Mr. Childs of Bungay, will show you a silver tea-pot, with an inscription on it commemorating that it was bought with the difference of price of sixty golden guineas sold in the year 1813 at Liverpool for bank notes ; the fact being, that twenty guineas, instead of selling for twenty-one pound notes, were selling for twenty eight, and the collective wisdom at the same time passing a resolution, that twenty-one pound notes were equal to twenty guineas in the public estimation.—(Cheers and laughter.) Those indeed were times for false currency but what is called Peel'e Bill has put an end to that, and I trust we are in no danger of seeing a return- But next, it is urged that the Corn- Laws are only one of the evils aris ing from a bid system of representation, and therefore we ought not to attack them. Now, if there were any better chance of attacking the whole at once, it would be wi.e to do so ; but will any body show it? Where is it ? Who can tell? If the room we arc now in was on fire, we should never endure being told that one door or window was only one way out of many, and therefore we must sit stil and be burnt, unless we could be indulged in going out at all the doors and windows at a time—( Cheers)—and this really is the kind of advice that is given to us now; to get rid of the Corn-laws would be a foolich consenting to get rid of our evils by one road at a time ; a 3 wise coon there fore we are bound to remain as we are, till we can go out by all the ways at once. But we are cautioned not to put down the oppression of the Corn-laws, lest we introduce a worse tyranny, that of the money-mongers. I do not understand these terms of art; and till I do, it is impossible to join in advising the working classes to stick to the half-loaf, through terror of some incomprehensible hobgoblin in the back-ground they call a " money-monger." Help us to handle the " half loaf" men first, and then we will try if we cannot handle the " money-mongers" afterwards. But we are told again, we ought not to tinker one hole, and leave nine others. Who ever said we would ?—(Cheers.) But did I you ever see a tinker stop nine holes at once.—( Roars of laughter.) Think only of the rule that is imposed upon us. There are to be nine hands holding nine hammers, hammering upon nine holes, or else all hope is to be given up of our kettle ever being made to hold water at all. ( Laughter and cheers.) But lam told I should I have been doing more good by going about advocating the People's Charter. You have been told very plainly the reasons that made me think differently ; at all events, you will not say a man came down here and tried to cheat you. —( Cheers.) But we are asked again, who is to pay the fifty millions of taxes if the Corn-laws are removed. I answer, take away the restrictions which make us a little nation instead of a great one, a poor nation instead of a rich one, and which inflict losses on us, to the amount of the taxes ten times over, and I see ItO difficulty in plying the taxes were they ten times as great, with as much case as we do at present.—(Cheers.) HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. It has seldom happened that we have been compelled to delay our annual announcement of the prospects and ar rangements of this establishment for the ensuing season to so late a period as on the present occasion. Circumstances, however, have arisen which, from their nature and com plexity, have rendered the customary early notification at least premature, if not impossible. And even now, in con sequence of there being some matters of etiquette which are necessary to he gone through, it is prudent only to put forth a portion of the information which has reached us on the subject. In the fir.,t place, then the doors will be thrown open for the commencement of the season, 1839, on Saturday, the 9th of March, when there will be performed Donizetti's opera of Belisario, the principal characters in which are to be supported by Mad. Monnani (her first appear ance in this country), and Signori Tati and F. Lablache. With these artistes, we have heard, the business is to be carried on until the Easter week, when the corps will, we hear, be augmented by the arrival of Mes dames Grisi and Persiani, and Signori Rubini, Tamburini, and Lablache. The power of the company will therefore, as heretofore, not be brought into operation until the 6th or the 9th of April, at which period the fashionable season may be said to have fairly commenced. Madame Alber tazzi, who, it will be remembered, has for the two last springs constituted one of the leading attractions at this theatre, has, we learn, en tered into an engage m ent with the Lessee of Drury Lane Theatre. Her absence from the Italian boards, it is to be apprehended, will cause a va cuum not easily to be supplied. However, the known ac tivity and judgment of L3porte will, we doubt not, have enabled him to secure a talented successor to this lady. With regard to the Ballet department we have reason to suppose that the opening night will present us with a ballet, founded on " Robert le Diable," in which Madame Belton and llerrninie Eisler will appear. An alteration in respect to the particular ballet, may, however be male. After Easter the senior Elslers, Therese and Fanny, will be with us, and it is rumoured that the new entertainment de dense, " The Gipsy," at present so great a favourite in Paris, will be got up for them. If such a statement be correct. it i 4 somewhat difficult to conceive in what m Inner this ballet will be made to dovetail in, as it were with La Guiana, the ballet which has created so great a sensation at St. Petersburgh, and in which it is confidently reported Taglioni anticipates having the opportunity of presenting herself to a British audience on the boards of this theatre. Like the p linter, who possesses the combined attri butes of sketching, then of filling in, then of harmonizing, and at length of softening down, the varied subjects on his canvass, until they present a beautiful whole to the eye, so we anticipate the difficulties of an apparent " Terpsi chorean" collision will be avoided by the clever tactics of the most able man who in our day has wielded the sceptre of management at her Nesty's Theatre. Laporte, has, ere this, surmounted obstacles of no ordinary moment, and doubtless will not fail in the present instance. lle has our warm wishes for his success throughout the ensuing sea son. —Sunday Paper. The Cheltenham Free Press mentions that a striking proof of the success that would follow the adop tion of Mr Rowland Hill's plan for a reduction of post age has taken place in Gloucestershire. The postage from Stroud to Nailsvrorth has recently been reduced from fourpence to one penny ; the consequence has been that more than four times the usual number of leers av, on a n average, passed through the offices in those plac h es. e An Address was recently presented to the Very Rev. Dr. Fogarty P. P. Lismore, together with a valuable service of plate, by the parishioners of Dungarvan, con sequent on tha t p ious pastors removal from Dungarvan, where, during a series of important years, he struggled earnestly and successfully for that independence which the Borough at present enjoys Waterford Chronicle. SUPPRESSION OF DISTILLATION.—The tem perance people in the north of Ireland seem determined to go the whole hog and to keep the world sober, nolens Va lens, by preventing the manufacture of intoxicating drinks. We arc informed by the Belfast News Letter that at the late anniversary of the Ulster (quere ultra?) Temperaixn Society, Judge Crampton in the chair, it was unanimously resolved to petition her Majesty and both Houses of Par liament to suppress distillation altogether. X _ COMMUNICATION witht4R4LAND. , ‘.‘ (From the Times.) In our paper of Saturday last, we t latter i t liSh f r ed r. Johnston had w i t h C o l . from Messrs Joh nston and Co., newsparker 'agents, of v E ie d w en'it ter w-qhuicahy,onDeuobflint,hedeAtiaeilsisng s the est Maberly, the Secretary of the General Post -office. It appears that Messrs. Johnston have been in cor respondence with Colonel Maberly, urging the authori ties of the Post-office to avail themselves of the rail way to Liverpool, and first-class steam-boats thence to Dublin, by which means the mails might reach Dublin several hours earlier than by the present route through Holy-head. According to the present Post-office arrange ments, the correspondence from London to Dublin must be forwarded through Holyhead. The mail is conveyed by railway to Birmingham, and thence to Holyhead by coach. The Dublin letters and papers are not per mitted to be sent by way of Liverpool. In order that the absurdity of this arrangement may be fully under stood, we recommend to the perusal of our readers a statement published by Messrs. Johnston, entitled, " Things as they are," and " Things as they ought to be," which appears in another column. Unfortunately the result of the interview with Colonel Maberiy was anything but satisfactory. The only answer that Mr. Johnston obtained was, that the subject was under con sideration. We must confess with regret that we en tertain considerable apprehension that the dilatory and deliberative powers of the Court of Chancery, which formerly employed so many years in bringing a judg ment to maturity, have, now that the motions of that Court are somewhat accelerated, been transferred to the Post-office, a department which might naturally have been suspected of possessing some desire to &s -play a little activity. Messrs. Johnston, however, were not disheartened by the coolness with which their proposition was received ; by the exertion of a little of that zeal and activity which has always distinguished them, arrangements were male by which the Times of Tuesday, February 12, left Lon don that morning by the railway mail to Liverpool at hall past 9 o'clock, and was received the following nsorn _ ing in Dublin at 55 minutes past 9 o'clock. The im. portant a lvantages derived from the adoption of this route are thus rendered too evident to require any comment. _ _ We will merely add the following extract from the Dublin Evening : DESPATCH OF THE LONDON MAILS.-POST-OFFICE MS- NAGEMENT. " This morning, at half-past ten o'clock, we re:el.:A through the office of Messrs. Johnston, of Eden-quay, the London morning papers of yesterday, thus anticipating by five, probably by seven, hours the ordinary delivery. These papers were transmitted by the early train that left London yesterday, arrived at Liverpool last evening, one hour after the Government packet had sailed, and were brought over by the private Company's splendid vessel the Queen Victoria. " Now, if the wise gentlemen to whom the manae ment of Post-office affairs are committed would but start a mail-train from London one hour earlier than that at which it now takes its departure, and retard the sailing of the packet from Liverpool for a s i m il ar period, the distance between the two metropolises would be accomplished, in 99 cases out of 100, in 24 hours. Ag matters now stand, the rail communication between London and Liverpool is not of the slightest ad vantage to Ireland, either in the transmission of news or letters, or in the transport of passengers • and we w ou ld seriously recommend the City of Dublin dompany at oricr.4 to announce their intention of sailing a first class vessel every evening, on the arrival of the London morning train, and thus secure all the passengers, who, according to the esent regulation, are either obliged to sleep a night in Birmingham, or remain 22 hours in Liverpool. .4 We hope our London morning Contemporaries, th e Times, Herald, and Post, will take this subject up, on personal as well as public grounds, and procure the accom plishment of that which, in point of practice, is so easy of attainment, but against which this vexatious opposition has been offered by the heads of the Post-office department. •. After the foregoing had been written, we learned that Captain Beasley did not leave the Clarence Dock until twenty minutes past nine o'clock last evening, and that ho reached the NOrth Wall this morning at half past nine, a strong head-wind prevailing during the whole of the passage. If the Post-of oe or Admiralty have not vessels capable of effecting such voyages, they ought to charter such as possess the power." COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LONDON AND IRELAND. THINGS AS THEY ARE. The great bulk of the London correspondence is de spatched from the metropolis at eight o'clock in the eve nir,g---thattowfoors, lirselfaonrdw,ardveiad per railway a e y m t b 9 raeingallthe principal Birmingham, thence per coach to Holyhead, where it arrives the follow.. ing evening at sh. 30m. p.m., despatched thence per mail s team-boat at six o'clock, arriving in ordinary weather a t Kingstown at, or soon after, midnight, is retained on board the packet till five o'clock, A : M., when it is transferred to the custody of a guard in waiting, who brings it up to the Post-office, Dublin, by six o'clock on the second morning. Letters, &c., for the interior of Ireland, save the line of road to Belfast, 80 miles north, and to Kilkenny, 58 miles south, remain the whole day i n the Dublin Post-office, till the dispatch of the inland mails at 7 in the evening, consequently do not reach their 06 p.m,, a.m.,'but destination before the third morning after despatch from London. From the principal towns in Ireland the cor respondence for Dubin, London, and the intrrior of Eng land are forwarded in the evening, reach Dublin be tween 6 and 7 o'clock in the morning, and the morning mail via Holyhead, for there are two despatches daily by that route from Dublin, being forwarded at 6. 45 a.,rn , can consequently bring only the very earliest mails. The heaviest and most important, those from Cork, Linerick, Galway. Sligo, L3ndonderry, &c., not being due at the Post-office till 7 o'clock, are detained in Dublin the whole day, and do not go forward till the night packet . at eight o'clock, but in either case, morning or evening, the let ters &c., do not reach London till the third mornin fro m the time they leave the provinces. cp speriodlwl oyce krreaches , eaa . coAmifi es. For sai xib instance,ny,d London ttahhye es fI arr. froth lost n, a , 1 :: letter sent from London for Limerick, Clonmel, Tipperary, &c., on a Tuesday, reaches those towns on Friday morning : tMondayEllExpress being pdreess answered sp amt following,caiiilt oi st forwarded io t e h r day, wr a ee t ancrledbierpadt e at embracing g h al e on aro theen, sometimes . route as the night mail, reaching Holyhead at 3 ' despatched at 7, and due in Kingstown a p t .m l ~ seldom reaches sooner than 3 o'clock much later, owing, perhaps, to the . ineffi c i ency of the pa •ke's em . ,loyed. Tne contents of this mail are despatched to the interior of Ireland by the mails from Dubli n , at 7 p m., together with the English mail received at t h e Post _ office in the morning, brought (to Kingstown) by the mid night packet. THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE. Instead of having a double line of packets between Holy head to Dublin, and the conveyance of the London mail per railway to Birmingham, and coach to Holyhead, it is respectfully submitted to establish a double line of pack et , between Liverpoo 1 and Kingston, transmitting the Irish snails per railway throughout from London to Liverpo o l, night and morning, in manner as follows :—The London night mail reaches Liverpool at seven o'clock in the morn ing. By forwarding the Irish mail in a similar manner (in., stead of by Holyhead) it might be despatched from Liver pool to Dublin at 7 30 a.m., and in ordinary weather, th e passage being accomplished in from 11 to 12 hours, would bring the arrival to Kingstown, say 730 p.m. Instead, then, of despatching the inland mails from Dublin at 7, let them be daained till 9 p.m. This, with a very few excoptio s in the winter season, would ensure the reecii''t of the L ndon correspondence in the interior of P. - eland on the sccot.d instead of the third morning, as at present-- , 3 that ater t . h e But t ai t l h s is would could reach their t g li r e e i ca r otn d ow e b s gi t eu i e n etn a , t! te r: ni t ilt w : : a consequent saving of 24 hours ; with this difference o h n ou l) r . are now due in the provinces between seven and nine o'clock in the morning, and the delay change could nut affect the business of the day, the arrival being still sufficiently early for all general purposes. On , the other hand, the despatch from the interior for the Eng- i lish mail, as well as Dublin, to remain as at present, the interval being amply sufficient to enable parties to reply by return of post, ,a hich reaching Dublin in the morning, it. is proposed that the London, and that line of co rrespondenco 1 so received, should be despatched from Kingstown for . Liverpool at eight o'clock in the morning. The average passage of twelve hours would enable the mails to be sent from Liverpool, spy at ten o'clock p.m., via railway reaching London at nine o'clock next morning, which would brine' the answer by London on the fourth instead of the sixth morning, as set . forth annexed, and the consequent saving of forty-eight hours I p o o f nd h :r!c f"- s Now for the Irish Express Mail. Instead of being d o _ apatched, as at present, at 10 o'clock in the morning, let it leave at 8 o'clock via Liverpool, then start an evening time interests mail boat from thence at 8 p.m., would bring its con. tents to Dublin by 15 o'clock the next morning, 1. e. in 24 hours from London. The Liverpool Evening mail boat the half-past 6 o'clock morn.' then posted, thereby making l • for our Irma p fi , o ,s n t i iiKaits)gasttopwrteisetonole,aweoualtdst o'clock k e allth ( e ins e t o c r a r d es —th a t portion for London .for delivery the receipt of ing train from Liverpool available have between such letters under the pro_ a a v r a ri l ‘ l,a in b ; infull cn o'clock on the f • the same evening', and the several parties would therAy d arrangement and scv ollownyr pJsc fo r the l c via Liverpool, which (as proposed) would arrive in morning, to reply thereto Dublin the next morning, thus saving fully 24 hours by this route. The greater the facility the greater the correspondence, consequently the more revenue. There is little doubt that the increased receipts would go far to indemnify ( s i„k inr , the second packet at Holyhead) the expense of the pro. posed double line of packets between Liverpool and Dublin. Should our humble suggestions, grounded on a practictl experience of several years, and a consequent knot ledg e of the existing arrangements, tend to contribute to a re. formation in expediting the transm i s s ion of the public cur - - respondence, inasmuch as the community must consequently derive important advantages, we will be fully compensat e d, being the public's Very obedient and obliged servants, JOHNSTON and CO., Ed en Express Newspaper Ag ents, 1, E d• , quay, Dublin. P. S.—By the acceleratton on tne railway fully two hours or more would be saved still. E X TRAOII7DII•I ARY DRAMATIC PERFORNI . •NC E. Lail. month a performance, unique i n the annals of the at the took place at Genoa. The principal pupils of the Deaf and of Aristodeme Institution performed in their own language of signs, TdDrh:emmatbar'e of the Hotel Gagnoletti l ,)al:ltos.ntailrttriaingged eveutmlst precision ; and there was so and the yretty one-act comedy, entitled The Deserted House. The young deaf and dumb actors, the eldest of whom wythasthnoostea,buoitsinetelai that not one of the numerous specgators who thronged the theatre left it before :t'itai(cr) years old, theire xp r g e lla s?io u t t i ah a ge t el l rd' with the displayed in their acting, the conclusion ofsix.cts, which lasted three hoots Th e prec , e ,,, d4 , ot the evening were lot the per. gi lly led .311- g sc la? O: 5 0 RIO' S ab hag zucti gi g ' ,p‘; der , WPM