The Sun. — London, England, 1847-01-02 00:00:00

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, We have just received a file of papers from the Ca t' "f Goqd Hope to the 24th October. They are nearly ft fortnight later than those last received, and „. e°44°llll some interesting particulars respecting the .t..afir war. The following are extracts from them : (From the Graham's Town Journal.) Information was received in town of the plunder of a 'waggon belonging to Mr. J. H. Greathead, and the cap ture of a span of twelve oxen belonging to it by the Rafira. It appears that this waggon was on its way down from Cradock, in company with several others, for mutual protection, but that on reaching the Fist) litver Rand, it parted from the r es t o f th e conv oy, the driver, a Hottentot, against the will of the rest, persisting in going forward alone. It seems that it hail reaetaid ilerz De Bruin's Poort, when a small party of K . *firs emerged fro m t h e h us h , an d on siting a or two both driver and leader instantly abandoned their charge, and fled for their lives. The owner On re cqeiving a report or this proceeded to the spot, and on 3re aching it f oun d t h at the marauders had gone off with the O xen- They had also rifled the waggon of four or e small casks of butter, had broken open the wa gg o n chest, and abstracted what they pleased of its scontents had stripped off the new sailcloth, and had a a k s en it away, together with a waggon-chain. No clue been found which affords any hope of the recovery 'of any part of this booty. Re ce iv e d some further ac 'coon from Fort Beaufort, and which give a most, gloomy description of the state of affairs in that t r a litY• The i n h a bi tants are very short of food, and military so badly off for supplies, that grass is bought of the att th e r . te Pingo women to7feed . the dragoon' horses, :abundance of ate of 15s. per 1001bs.1 It i s sa id that th e r e is s grass where this is brought from, a di - I n" of about four or five miles from the post, but that Us horses are not sent there from apprehension lest they should Mud be carr i ed off by the Kafirs; and a sufficient cannot, i t seems, a ect the ta against the be e te s cks pare dnffrotnesmte adroit hepos lu tto p pr n o . jh ood • fde at rers. Some fi ne ra i n had fallen in that neighbour , and the country was rapidly recovering from tthhiengeffewcatss of the long and severe drought. Every arid of hori : s. t a stand for want of draught oxen About forty waggons were in Beaufort without an ox to elratw them. Hundreds of oxen had perished from starvation, and it is affirmed that, on one 9ccasin, eut of a ` pan of ten tied to a waggon at night fbefore the c ommissariat buildings, eight or nine were ound dead the next morning. The Kaffirs are said to be suffering dreadfully from dysentery, the effect of ex posure to the weather and unwholesome diet; but still it is not thought they will submit to the terms insisted on by his Excellancy the Governor, but will continue to harass the colon - by attacks at different points, in the manner they have done during the last few weeks . . . . Learnt that ten or twelve head of cattle were swept oft ou Saturday from the Kraal, about fiver farm of Mr. C. Maynard, Burnt aile north-east of town. SATURDAY. —From persons who have just reached town from tho trc.ops in Kafirland, we learn that a camp is about to be formed immediately at the mouth of the uffalo, where Go rernment stores were landed during the Kafir war a i 835, with perfect success, under . the superintendence of Mr. J. Bailie, and for which rxer- Cons, and the intelligence he displayed in acquiring a /thorough knowledge of that locality, he received the 'a special thanks of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Ben- Junin D'Urbati. Why may not the same person be a gain employed there ? . • . Information received that several horses and cattle, the property of Mr. L. H. d eurant, had been carried off from the neihbourhood of atiebeelt . g .... A ortion of te new levy, about 40 in nuteber, rais e d in p this distric h t, have arrived in 'Graham's Town. They are men of colour, and are aloothe i nst i tut i on of Farmerfield, and as we believe ialso from the institution of Theopolis. The new ',vies have not come forward reai, and it is athough there will b e cons iderable difficul d ty ly in raising the nintber r equ i red by the requisition of the Commander laChief. . • . Informed that besides the oxen reported ori 1191 h M o onday, as carri e d o ff from the farm Burnt Kraal, ,rses have also been t a k en from the same place. -Vour of these animals are the property of Mr. Enis, now residing en that place, and who is now deprived of his last horse . . . . Detachment of the 45th Regiment Marched from town at noon to-day for the camp at Waterloo bay. rThe summary for the past week, in reference to the ]progress of the pending warfare, may be significantly v eroprised in the words statu quo. The state of the avvins.t.her and the rise of the rivers have prevented com -4 ;.:ietv,cation and retarded active operations on both sides. losses have been reported, but these are not of a mature e or to an extent, to call for particular remark. The sentence of d Court, on t h e death pa sse d at the last Circuit Artillery driver for shooting his officer enCtiape.in Shepherd, at Post Victora, was carried .e illt ° e ll. tion on Thursday morning before the gate of “ot Prlson at this place.(Prom the Cape Frontier Times.) WEDNESDA.Y, OCT. 7.—lt rained heavily and inces santly the whole of this day. . . Colonel Somerset arrived in tow brings intelligne.nce . ' barque at that place. °sl` he wreck of the Catherine on board 300 tons this vessel, 260 tons burden, had fttllODg3t which w of supplies for the Government, following ac . ere about 150 tons of forage cern. The by the car the of the wreck of this vessel, drawn up th e I ce a : . etain, has been published in the Journal of ..i ...... ~ - Camp Waterloo Bay, Oct. 3, 1846. ...214r--I be to hand you the particulars regarding the Eck o . f the barque Catherine, now stranded in this bay. ‘v °arrived here yesterday at 3h. 30m. P.m , wind blowing ,fresh from down teEnth,e westward, anchored in eight fathoms, sent in.. top. di aahar g i o foal of a 41c --t A gallant yard, &c., and got all ready for the south-we midnight found that the cable had got from the best ° 1; with , called all hands, it blowing strong from lightning. At three P.M., parted b ower ; at five with cable • brought up with the other but found thist4.3l" parted' the same; let go the stream, 0 . be of no avail as the vessel took . the Found abaft, with a tremendous sea running, obliging the ere ' Waves I l s v w , e —Fe tu get into the rigging for safety, as the . on shore tences, e uius ,_ 3 t the ship right fore and aft. Under these =- slipped the stream cable; at seven a.sx. drove . half a mile to the eastward of the usual landing dace, where thanks to an all-wise Providence , we sue ,o (led in getting on shore by a whale or rather surf boat, Whi ch was manned by Mr. Salmond and four men, to Ons I and my c rew are deeply indebted; also to Lieut. zrorsyt, R.N., for his able assistance in the hour of ilanger. The Catherine, lam s orr y t o say, i s now reeking up, and there islittle or no prospect of getting any of the stores landed in good condition.—l am, &c. J. BROWN, Master of the Catherine. We are sorry to perceive in the 'private accounts re ceived, that circumstances are stated connected with the stranding of this vessel which are calculated to excite suspicion that this misfortun e has not been altogether the result of accident. We shall only observe that there is something so diabolically wicked, so disgustingly brutal and thoroughly villainous in an attempt to wreck a ship and risk the lives of human beings for the paltry 'consideration of gain, that no man who is an honest man, or values his reputation as an honest man, will bear the slightest reflection to rest upon his character in such a matter as this ; and if his Excellency the Governor, who is on the spot, has not already instituted an inquiry on the subject of this wreck, it will be a duty which Captain grown owes to himself, to his friends, and to the public, to call for such investigation. The vessel and freight were both insured, and the Government, it appears, alone is a loser to the amount of seine thousands of pounds. The loss of the large quantity of supplies which this ves sel contained is a serious public misfortune. THURSDAY.—The Cape mail due on Monday arrived to-day. The Zuid Afrikaan states that the steamer Inflexible has brought 55,0001. in specie for the military chest, a large quantity of gunpowder, 2,000 stand of a rms, and seven field officers. Among the latter we also find the names of Lieut.-Colonel Napier, the son of - Commodore Sir Charles Napier, appointed to fill the situation of Deputy Adjutant General to the forces. Within a few days we may also expect the arrival of reinforcements of troops, consisting of the 6th R eg i men t, the l st b attalion of the Rifle Brigade, and other service companies, the whole amounting to about 2,500 men, in uding officers. S upp li es of biscuit, oats, &c., are also said to be on their way here. in Last night two individuals were drowned in attempt ing had one of the streams in Graham's Town, iculars of The particulars been greatly swollen by the late rains. this fatal accident are not known. The n ot hem the parties are Kemp and Maynard, both attached Englishmen . The former had been to th e • latter e Cradock contingent, and the r was the contracto 's issuer at Waterloo-bay. It is said that both had been drink bodies found r • ing at a canteen. Their havingbeen were horribly bruised and disfigured, from re_,.erae beaten against the rocks over which they ,e . wet by the violence of the torrent. The death ' a l nd vrToglo, dhow, it is supposed, had also been drinking, The artilr y own in the rain, is also reported. . . . ery emou Lo . last circuit held i n o ng' who was found guilty at the commanding o ffi ce raharn's Town, of having shot his r?iaptain Shepherd, at Post Victoria, underwent the extli're' to e °penalty of the law, in front of the district gaol, this this unfortunate m ou rn ing. We do not know why .allowed to live six months after his convictiwor With the rope round his - sleek, but this we know, be t_ . such cruelty to a that i tt e condemned criminal would not totobilearated in the parent country. We know not who is in the matter, but justice and mercy required is.pinishment of the wretched man having been so long W kuneitard should have been commuted. Whether he g Ic i : wa n re su ti s l p a e t n h e of his fate all this time, or was all aloe would be executed, we also know not, but under supposition h e h as b een treate d w i t h great cruelty,eithe r FRIDAY. —Th e h ea d- quarters o f t h e 73d Regiment reached t own to day , more than 400 men strong, o ne co mpany has been left at Cape Town and one at PPort liattbeth. Thi s regiment was deta i ne d at Howitsow, port in c onsequence of the inclemency of the weather. The n ew road through this pass we are sorry to hear a 8 suffered much injury - • • • ' • • •A detachment of the Graham's Town Hottentot Levy p r oceeded t o occupy the posts at Riebeck and Pal miet Fontein which had b een w h o lly abandoned b y e th e e •atet • eurguers;y stationed there. . • . Report re - h "ived th at a span of eight oxen had been carried off y Kafirs f rom the vicinity of Riebeek. 'These oxen belong , to M r. Meurant, and are the last of 300 head "jell the Kafirs have taken from him during the present war. Some other depredations are also re ported in different parts. SATURDAY.—A detachment of the 45th Regiment Proceeded to head quarters of the Commander-in-Chief near Waterloo Bay. AnAiONDAY.—MaiI from Fort Beaufort brings intelli ce of th e capture and recapture of the flocks of Mr. yton, and of the death of Mr. W. Cumming, of Fort 11 , ~eaae..fort, .who was shot by Kafirs as he was gallantly ng he, p - ely in the re , ee, of these fl ells. hit2u , been Y--ALout fifty well of the New Albany levy ab out placed at th e di sposal of the Commandant, twelre of whom aro mounted. They are 110 W /At I. being equipped. A few of these men will bo sent to reinforce the post at Manley's flat, where a few burghers had already been stationed, and another party will occupy the post at Waay Plants. Through these posts the corn munication with head quarters, Waterloo Bay, will he kept up. It is ex le co d that about 100 men will be dracted from Grtham's Town. Mr. J. O'Brien, cap tain of the Tirailleurs, will take command e t the first company of the Albany contingency. . . . The two Fingoes who were sent oi the Ditigi!trate here genie months ago on a charge of killing a Kafir, and by hint sent to th- teesident inagis:rate in whose district thecrime was committed, have been condemned to death at the Circuit :it Per , El;s-heth. Tbe facts are briefly these:— Three Kafirs had lived some fifteen years with a farmer in the Uitenhage district, and in service had accumulated many cattle. After the breaking out of the Kafir war, their master, seeing other Kafire leaving their employ• ment, and thinking it imprudent to retain them, gave them a pass and sent these away. They determined to go to Euon, missionary station, with their property. On their way they requested shelter for the night of some Fingoes in the service of a farmer in the neighbourhood of Quagga's Flat. This was refused. The Kafirs then applied to the master for shelter, who told them they might go to a certain place, which was, however, too far for them to reach that night, and they accordingly remained on the farm. In the night the Fingoes assaulted one of the daugh ters of the Ksfirs, and afterwards killed one o' the men with a knobstick in the most brutal manner. They subsequently took the cattle, and for this act they are now condemned to suffer. The Fingoes did not plead in their defence that it was war time, hut said that they were on the spoor of cattle stolen, five of which they said they found in possession of the Kafirs. The jury recommended the prisoners to mercy because they thought that there would not have been sufficient evi dence to convict them without their own confession. This , case is recommended to the consideration of his Excellency, as one in which, perhaps under all circum stances, the ends of justice would be better satisfied in making the punishment of these men useful to society as convicts, than by taking their lives A com munication from Bathurst states that the Governor has sent for Field-cornet Bradshaw, to make arrangements concerning the cattle lately captured in Kafirland. THE MAGAZINES. BLACKWOOD. A pleasant go ssipping paper about The Court of Louis Philippe" commences the present number, which commences the present year of Grace MDCCCXLVII. As a foretaste of what may be ex pected from Blackwood during the course of 1847, it is acceptable and promising. Particularly at this moment, when the foreign policy of the French monarch has attached to his administration so much odium, anything appertaining to his private character and his domestic habits is fraught with interest. The article is suggested by a work very recently published in Paris, entitled Dix Ans a la Cour du Roi Louis Philippe, et Souvenirs du Tents de Empire et de la Restauration, and written by M. Appert, for ten years the Almoner to the Queen of the French and Madame Adelaide. If the details of this production required any authentication beyond that afforded by the author's name, a very sufficient authentication would be found in his career, his character, and his philan thropic pursuits. Besides obtaining the friendship of his own sovereign, M. Appert has latterly received the countenance of the Kings of Prussia, of Belgium, of Denmark, of Bavaria, of Saxony, and of Wurtern berg. His whole existence appears, in one way or other, to have been devoted to the cause of benevo ' lence and to the diffusion of knowledge. It has been chequered too in a remarkable degree. During 1811 there was a prospect of his being invested with a noble responsibility, namely, that of sharing in the education of the King of Rome. The casualties, however, which have been al ready recorded in history, entirely dissipated these expectations, and the future Almoner of Queen Marie Amelia was in 1822 confined in the same dun geon of La Force in which the poet Beranger was afterwards imprisoned. This -was for conniving at the escape of two non-commissioned officers implicated with General Berton. The devotion displayed at this time, and indeed throughout his life, by M. Ap pert for the memory of the Emperor Napcleon is ' beautiful and touching. ..Although he did not, like M. Arnault, preserve in his garden a tree grown from a branch of the willow at St. Helena, he lost his sub professorship at the school of drawing, " because, whilst giving a lesson in mathematics, he employed, to mark the curves and angles of a geometrical figure, letters which made up the words Vive l'Em pereur"—a remembrancer of the days of greatness most displeasing during the days of littleness under the Bourbons. Among the many agreeable remi niscences of M. Appert are conspicuous those referring to his royal mistress—the good Queen Amelie, whom the illustrious Lafayette called " the best of women." Her numberless sufferings would alone enlist our sym pathies in her favour, were our admiration not elicited towards her by charities as unostentatious as they are 'Splendid and profuse. That she has had miseries cannot be discredited, says the writer in Blackwood, " when we contemplate her careworn and suffering, but benevolent and interesting countenance." A moment afterwards the same writer utters a magnificent panegyric upon the wife of King Louis Philippe, where he says—" In unaffected piety, and in charity that blushes to be seen, this excellent Princess finds consolation." The following is a beautiful illustration in point : " Imposture, ingratitude, even the insolent form of the petitions addressed to her, fail to discourage her in her benevolent mission. Madam,' an old Bonapartist lady one day wrote to her, if the Bourbons had not re turned to France—for the misfortune of the nation—my beloved mistress and protectress, the Empress Maria Louisa, would still be upon the throne, and I should not be under the humiliating necessity of telling you that I am without bread, and that the wretched mattress upon which I sleep is about to be thrown out of the garret I inhabit, because my year's rent is unpaid I I dare not ask you for assistance, for my heart is with my real sovereign, and I cannot promise you my gratitude. If, however, You think proper to preserve a life which, since the mis fortunes of my country, has been" so full of bitterness, I will accept a loan : I should blush to receive a gift. I am, madam, your servant, Ch—r.' " Here was a pretty letter to set before a Queen ; a mode of imploring alms that might well have disgusted the mest charitable. But what was Marie Amilie's re ply to the precious epistle. Sbe was accustomed to open all the petitions addressed to her—and numerous indeed they were—with her own hand, and to write upon many of them instructions for M. Appert. When the imper tinent missive of the Bonapartist reached that gentle man, the following lines had been added to it She must be very unhappy for she is very unjust. A hun dred francs to be sent to her immediately ; and I beg M. Appert to make inquiries concerning this lady's cir cumstance.' M. Appert, indignant at the tone of the letter, ventured to remonstrate ; but the Queen insisted, and even tripled her intended donation, in case it should be required by her singular petitioner, whom her almo ner accordingly proceeded to visit. I' knocked at a worm-eaten door, on the fifth floor of a house in the Rue St. Andre des Arts, and a lady dressed in black (it was her only gown), opened it. " Sir,' said she, much agitated, are you the commis sary of police come to arrest me for my shameful letter to the Queen ? You must forgive me : I am so un • happy that at times I become deranged. lam sorry to have written as I did to a princess whom all the poor call good and charitable.' " Be not alarmed, madam,' I replied, taking her pe tition from my pocket. Read her Majesty's orders ; they will enable you to judge of her better than any thing I could tell you.' " Madame C. read the affecting words added by the Queen • then, bursting into tears, she pressed the paper to her lips. Sir,' she exclaimed, give me nothing, but leave me this holy relic. I will die of hunger with it upon my heart.' _ _ [ pear, they are manifestly forgotten by the writer of the article we refer to. In one page of the magazine there are some simple and plaintive ! verses by Delta, and in another there are a few miserable doggrels about General Mack, by somebody else unnamed. " Lays and Legends of the Thames' are sprightly enough, but execrably vulgar. There are two good reviews of " Prussian Military Me moirs" and of " Lappenberg's Anglo-Saxons," be sides a very long rigmarole, styled "Reflections sug gested by the career of the late Premier." Whoever wrote' the article has been wonderfully garrulous about his small self. The personal pronoun I marshals every sentence like a bare flag-staff. The whole paper is founded upon a gross, and we do believe, a wilful blunder—the liberal portion of the Press did not maintain that personalities should not be indulged in in Parliament, because the character of a Minister is not the proper subject fur investiga tion, but because the savage dispo6ition evinced by the Protectionists rendered Sir Robert Peel liable to the most unseemly vituperations and the most inso lent abuse. Fair inquiry into the conduct of a public man let there be—but no Billingsgate. FRASER. Fraser opens the new year with a paper, poetical and political, on the " Past, the Present, and the Coming." With regard to the coming, he expresses a hope that there will he more church and more edu cation, provided always that such education shall have " for, its foundation religion," by which the writer means what Jeremy Bentham was wont to call "Church-of Englandism." "We want," says he, "no Godless theories of making boys scholars." Never, surely, did nickname do greater service, than this same nickname of " Godless education." Utterly defeated in argument, the opponents of a national sys tem of education were about to surrender at discre tion, when Sir Robert Inglis, inspired for the nonce by the genius of a Taper or a Tadpole, bethought him of raising the cry of " Godless education." Straight way the cry was taken up by all those who, hating the light because their deeds are evil, are yet afraid to avow openly their desire to keep the people in darkness. "A gigantic scheme of Godless education" was a famous cry—a cry in which Lord George Gordon would have revelled—a cry in obe dience to which an ignorant mob would have again hunted. down a Priestly—a cry in which every bigot of every sect and of every denomination would join —a cry which even a quarter of a century since would have availed, but a cry which now avails no thing, as those who have attempted to raise it will find to their cost, because we have now no mob, but a people—a people " who know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain"—a people not to be bamboozled by a cry a people who per fectly understand that there can be no such thing as "a Godless system of education," who know that "a Godless system of education " is a contradic - tion in terms, inasmuch as any education must, by de veloping the intellectual faculties, teach its recipient to believe in, to venerate, and to love that Deity from whom he derives all his powers —a people who are perfectly aware that it does not follow, because edu cation is exclusively under the superintendence of ecclesiastics, that recipients of it s h ou ld b e there fore " Godly," as witness the state of religion and morality in our two Universities. The cry of " God 1-ss education" will not do ; the people yearn for education, secular education, without the interfer ence of the clergy, and whatsoever the people yearn for that they will obtain. But while controversies rage on the subject of education, there is one subject in which all men of all parties are agreed, and that is on the necessity of improving the physical condi tion of the .people. In the sentiments expressed in the following passage we fully concur : " Many proverbs have less truth than the common one, that cleanliness is next to godliness. We regard all well-conducted efforts for improving the dwellings of the poor as favourable to the advancement of religion and education—of the Church and the school. Paley said that the planting of. a rose-tree was an item of human happiness. In towns and great cities, where it is impossible for the mechanic to enjoy the privileges of the cottager, and sit under his own tree, or listen to the hum of his own bees, public walks and parks—we believe Arboretum is the word—form a serviceable substitute. By what means soever it be accomplished, the love of rural things ought to be cherished and deepened. It is the only tradition of paradise that lives in the memory of the vulgar." If we cannot agree on the various schemes pro posed for the education of the people, at least we are all agreed as to the necessity of improving their phy sical condition, and therefore we hope to see some measures for securing " cleanliness " passed during the next session of Parliament. The next article is entitled " Scenes in the 'Wilds of Mexico," and the hero of the present sketch is " Cayetano, the contra bandista," a melo-dramatic hero, who would make the fortune of any minor theatre. At the present time when the public attention is alive to every thing con nected with Mexico, the following sketch of the Mexican manners will be found not uninteresting : ntbQheuuer : eahet M ani d: a ns Madame petition,agmueicne ,hchwrCi difficult ffiticrt generosity, I v t o : i g in al still lefth pephrrecaersvuetaerbl prevailing Queen nte with et s othe c hn t e s w it r hereFsrop hundrederentct hy of t t f cot h agifnisrvda oennv up . el :p one of ten thousand." As a companion sketch, we transcribe a few sentences descriptive of the household arrangements of her ex traordinary husband : " The life of Louis Philippe is one of incessant toil and anxiety ; his leisure is less, his work harder, than that of his meanest subject. Late to bed, he rises early, rarely sleeping more than four hours ; after a careful, but rapid toilet, his day's labour begins. He seldom breakfasts with his family—it would take too much time—but has his frugal repast brought on a tray to the room where he happens to be. When he was Duke of Orleans he read all the letters and petitions addressed to him, writing upon each an opinion or an order for the guidance of his secretaries. This practice he was of course obliged to discontinue when he became king. At the commencement of his reign, the numbers of letters and applications of various kinds, sent to the different members of the Royal Family, amounted to the astonish ing number of a thousand or twelve hundred a-day. Al though, upon an average, not above fifty of these pos sessed the least ,interest, or ,deserved an answer, the mere reading and classing of such a chaos of correspond ence gave employment to several secretaries. After a while, the fidod.rg petitions abated, but M. Appert esti mates them, in qrdinary times, at six to eight hundred daily. Of the letters, only the important ones are laid before the King,-who answers ;many of them himself. He examines the, reports, projects, and nominations brought to him ' i by his Ministero, and, at least twice or thrice a week, resides at the:council board. Private audiences occupemuch of his time ; his conference with archiu eta, with.?the intendants of the civil list and of his private estates, are of frequdnt occurrence. The gal leries of Versailles, and the improvements at Fontaine bleau—all magtafter his plate, and in great measure under his personal superinteidence court-balls and dinners, diplomistic, audiepceq:correspondence with fo reign courts, jciurneys of *Colts kinds, visits to the castle of Eu and to alilitarypamps—such are a portion of the innumerarle claims 4ou . the time of the King of the French. 14t, by a clear-headed, active, and earnest man, endowed :with the faculty of order, which Louis Philippe possesses in a very high degree, much is to be got through in is day of twenty-four hours ; and, after doing all that has been enumerated, and many other things of less importance, the King still finds time to devote to his family, for the necessary healthful exer cise, and for the perusal of the principal newspapers and publications, both English and foreign. Each morning, either before or after breakfast, all the news papers, political pamphlets, even caricatures, were laid upon the table, and the King and the Princes were the first to read aloud the articles published against them. They examined the caricatures, and passed them to the bystanders, saying, What do you think of this?'" We are not so infuriated by the shameless deceits practised by Louis Philippe upon our most gracious Sovereign Victoria; by his paltry trickstering in relation to the Spanish and Portuguese peninsula; by his contumacious rapture of the entente cordiale the instant he found that entente cordiale interfere with " The sea-coast of Mexico has at all times been in fested with smugglers. This mode of obtaining a live lihood is not there, as in Europe, monopolised by a few audacious adventurers. According to the more or less impoverished state of the finances, every government officer is more or less busy in indemnifying himself at the expense of the state; because the state does not pay him. The soldiers loudly demand their pay, the civilians join the soldiers. The state, as may be supposed, tur ns a deaf ear, and each then endeavours to find a resource. The administrator of the customs gives full power to the searchers (vistas), the searchers to the custom-house officers, these to the porters of the administration, and the latter are assisted by all who can lift a weight, ma nage a boat, or, in case of necessity, use a dag ger. Then, according to the humour of the president of the republic, or the severity of, the laws promulgated, smuggling goes on either in the open day , or under cover of the night, in the seaports or on the isolated coasts; but, whether far or near, every one lends a helping hand. It may easily be conceived, therefore, that in the dull season of the pearl and tortoiseshell fishery, the divers and harpooners, who follow those trades form valuable auxiliaries to the smugglers. As a natural consequence of the poverty of the treasury, whilst the government officers smuggle, soldiers—even officers—join the highway robbers. Robbery is not the sole profession of these highwaymen (salteador de comino). They are fathers of families, often protected by the alcade of their village, an d blessed by their priest—men who di s d a i n to set forth unless their spies have announced some rich prey. After having piteously massacred a traveller who attempted to resist, or treated with exquisite urbanity one who quietly allowed himself to be despoiled, they regain their village, not forgetting, in the division of the booty, the innkeeper who sent them mysterious advice, the alcade who signed their permission to carry arms, and the priest who gave them absolution. Such is the singular toleration of opinion. that robbers and smugglers do not in Mexico live apart from society, or form a distinct caste possessing its own p. culler customs and regulations." We have two classical articles in the present number of Fraser. The one a Roman novel, foundedo n the story of Curtius, and entitled the " Sacrifices"—the other "A Word or Two about Mark Antony,' which might pass for a supplement to the Philippics. In a paper on literary legislators we have the commencement of an elaborate, and, at the same t ime, a most just criticism on Mr. Disraeli, considered as a litterateur, an orator, and a statesman, and the number winds up with "A Grumble about the Christmas Books," by M. A. Tittnarsh, in which the writer, acting as high priest to Dickens, imm olates all the writers of Christmas books at the altar of hi s idol , and closes his paper just in time to save him self from the fate of poor Mathews' sav age, who "cut off hi s own head leaving all . the spectators in wonder and darkness." DOMBEY and SON. No. IV. By Charles Dickens. In his description of the growth and education of little Paul Dombey, Mr. Dickens has revived a world of recollections anent schoolboy . days, besides giving an exquisite delineation of the mind, the habits, and the affections of childhood. There is no puerility in the manner of our author when he speaks about children ; there is no mere sentimentality in his inci dents connected with children. He speaks in the language of truth, and that language is most beauti ful. He writes about children from the depths of his memory and from the fulness of his heart; he views their little world with the eye of a poet; while he is lingering over the portraiture of a child he is a child again himself. We cannot sym pathise with those who rejoice in ridiculing this peculiarity of one whose imagination has conjured up such beings as Tiny Tim, and Little Nell, and Paul Dombey. In some respects Paul is better conceived and better depicted than the others. his "old, old face," his thirst to know what it is the sea is "always saying, always saying," even his quaint notion con nected with Dr. Blimber's clock, namely, that when its pendulum clicked it repeated the monotonous words of the pedagogue, "how, is, my, lit , t l e, f r i en d , how, is, my, lit, tle, friend," are all most natural. The drollest touches imaginable are scattered plentifully through these pages, as usual. Mrs. Pipchin, horrible Mrs. Pipchin, notwithstanding " the toughness of her constitution, " is expected to go off suddenly, like a powder-mill." Then Mr. Dombey is described as having beheld " Master Bitherstone in his coll ar o f state," and as having made " Miss Pankey cry by pattirg her on the head, in which region she was uncommonly tender on account of a habit Mrs. Pipchin had of sounding it with her knuckles like a cask." The quarrel be tween the last•mentioned personage and the weak eyed young man who opened the door at Dr. Blirn bees is a rich piece of absurdity. Here, however, is an account of the Doctor's establishment at Brighton, and it is doubly commendable (the account, not the establishment) as a protest against a grievous abuse of a very popular system of education, viz., the "forcing system :" When,-. ,, r n young r,;entl-n-lan wl9 takun in hand by pretty tight squeeze. The d octor on l y un d ertoo k the Doctor Blituher, h o u - ofht con,;idi r tlin)-e1 ,1):% , 1 :! charge of ten young gentlemen, but he had, always his own private interests,: or by his shuffling policy towards the imperial robbers of the North, as to re main blind to his eminent qualities as a man. His rare accomplishments; his munificence in the culti vation of arts, sciences, agriculture, and manufac tures ; his magnificent promotion of works calculated to adorn his country ; and, above all, his equanimity during many years of penury, and sorrow, and banishment, render him a worthy sub ject of our respect and admiration. As Blackwood well observes—" Even those who least admire the public conduct of Louis Philippe, who dislike his system of government, and blame his tortuous foreign policy, may, whilst censuring the conduct of the King, admit and admire the good qualities of the individual?' " Mildred" is pursued with the same simplicity and naturalness which were remarkable on its commencement. Then comes a paper headed " Eugene, Marlborough, Frederick, Napoleon, and Wellington." We would advise the writer to write a sequel to it, called " Tom Thumb, Jack the Giant Killer, the King of Lilliput, Alex ander the Great, and Captain Weazle." Why, the jumble of great and small in this article is preposte rous. One might as well trace an analogy between the genius of the King of Macedonia and the talent of Hephosstion, between Nelson and his coxswain, between Julius Caesar and the standard-bearer of the tenth legion, between Achilles and Patroclus. Every admiral is not a Nelson, every painter is not a Raphael, every poet is not a .6hakspere, every coinposer is not a 13Pothoven, every warrior is not Napoleon. Self-eviput as these muths may ap- SUN, I_,ONOON, SATURDAY MOR,NINer, JAN'ITARY 2, lB4/. ready, a supply of learning for a hundred, on the lowest estimate; and it was at once the business and delight of his life to gorge the unhappy ten with it. " In fact, Doctor Blimber's establishment was a grea hot-house, in which there was a forcing apparatus in• cessantly at work. All the boys blew before their time Mental green peas were produced at Christmas, and intellectual asparagus all the year round. Mathematical gooseherries (very sour ones too) were common at un timely seasons, and from mere sprouts of bushes, under D..ctor Blimber's cultivation. Every description of Greek and Latin vegetable was got off the driest twigs of boys, under the frostiest circumstances. Nature was of no consequence at all. No matter what a young gen tleman was intended to bear, Doctor Blitnber made him bear to pattern, somahow or other. " This was all very pleasant and ingenious, but the system of forcing was attended with its usual disadvan tages. There was not the right ta, to about the prema ture productions, and they didn't keep well. Moreover, one young gentleman, with a swollen nose and an excessively large head (the oldest of the ten who had " gone through" ever) thing), suddenly left off blowing one day, and rtmained in the establishment a mere stalk. And people did say that the doctor had rather overdone it with young Toots, and that when he began to have whiskers he left off having brains. " There young Toots was, at -any rate; possessed of the gruffest of voices and the shrillest of minds; stick ing ornamental pins into his shirt, and keeping a ring in his waistcoat pocket to put on his little fiuiser la) stealth, when the pupils went out walking; constantly falling in love by sight with nurserymaids, who had no idea of his existence; and looking at. the gas lighted world over the little iron bars in the left hand corner a inflow of the front three pairs of stairs, after bed-time, like a greatly over grown dumb who had sat up aloft much too long. " 'The doctor was a portly gentleman in a suit of black, with strings at his knees, and stockings below them. He had a bald head, highly polished; a deep voice; and a chin so very double, that it was a wonder how he ever managed to shave into the creases. He had likewise a pair of little eyes that were always half shut up, and a mouth that was always half expanded into a grin, as if he had, that moment, posed a boy, and were waiting to convict him from his own lips. Insomuch, that when the doctor put his right hand into the breast of his coat, and with his other hand behind him, and a scarcely perceptible wag of the head, made the com monest observation to a nervous stranger, it was sentiment from the sphynx, and s e ttl e d hi s busirfesS4 " The doctor's was a mighty line house, ft onting the sea. Not a joyful style of house within, bull quite the contrary. Sad-coloured curtains, whose liroportions a ere spare and lean, bid themselves despoLdingly be's' hind the windows. The tables and chairs wei put away" in rows, like figures in a sum ; fi res were so ra ly lightelt in the rooms of (aremony, that they felt like ifitells acct* visitor represented the bucket; the dining-room seemed the last place in the world where any eating or &nisi* was likely to occur; there was no sound through . all tire house but the ticking of a great clock in the 401,.='which made itself audible in the very garrets • andisometime, a (lull crying of young gentlemen at dieir lessons,-likg the murmurings of an assemblage of melancholy pigeon " Miss Blimber, too, althougga slim and graceful maid; did no soft violence to the gravity of the house.- There was no light nonsense about Miss Blimber. She kept her hair short and crisp, and wore spectacles. She was dry arid sandy with working in the graves of - deceased languages. None of your live languages for Miss Blimber. They must be dead—stone dead—and then Miss Blimber dug them up like a Ghoule. " Mrs. Blimber, her mamma, was not learned herself, but she pretended to be, and that did quite as well. She said at evening parties, that if she could have known Cicero, she thought she could have died contented. It was the steady joy of her life to see the doctor's young gentlemen go out walking, unlike all other young gen tlemen, in the largest possible shirt collars, and the stiffest possible cravats. It was so classical, she said. " As to Mr. Feeder, 8.A., Dr. Blimber's assistant, he was a kind of human barrel-organ, with a little list of tunes at which he was continually working, over and over again, without any variation. He might have been fitted up with a change of barrels, perhaps, in early life, - if his destiny had been favourable; but it had not been; and he had only one, with which, in a monotonous round, it was his occupation to bewilder the young ideas of Dr. Blimber's young gentlemen. The young gentlemen were prematurely full of carking anxieties. They knew no rest from the pursuit of stoney-hearted verbs, savage noun-substantives, inflexible syntactic passages, and ghosts of exercises that appeared to them in their dreams. Under the forcing system, a young gentleman usually took leave of his spirits in three weeks. He had all the cares of the world on his head in three months. He conceived bitter sentiments against his parents or guar dians in four; he was an old misanthrope, in five; en vied Quintius Curtius that blessed refuge in the earth, in six; and at the end of the first twelvemonth had ar rived at the conclusion, from which he never afterwards departed, that all the fancies of the poets, and lessons of the sages, were a mere collection of words and grammar, and had no other meaning in the world. " But he went on, blow, blow, blowing, in the doctor's 'hothouse, all the time; and the doctor's glory and repu tation were great, when he took his wintry growth home to his relations and friends." Having been duly installed at the boarding school, Paul witnesses a ludicrous scene at the dinner table. So wonderfully depressing is the influence of the " forcing system " upon the " young gentlemen " that RI aster Briggs is heard t'o declare that he should certainly " wish himself dead if it wasn't for his mother, and a blackbird at home." Paul is so , im measurably puzzled by the crowd of books submitted to his perusal simultaneously that it soon becomes an open question with him " whether twenty Romuluses made a Remus, or hic heat hoc was troy weight, or a verb always agreed with an ancient Briton, or three times four was Taurus a bull !" We are delighted to think that Mrs. Pipchin has at last found her match in Miss Nipper. Miss Nipper, indeed, is said to have " thrown away the scabbard the first morning she arose," to have given no quarter, and to have carried on the war against the ogress so unrelentingly, that Mrs. Pipchin was at last per petually subject to " surprises, harassings, and defi ances ; and skirmishing attacks that came bouncing in upon her from the passage, even in unguarded moments of chops, and carried desolation to her very toast!" Here is a faithful picture of a great mercan tile establishment in the City : " Mr. Dombey's offices were in a court where there was an old-established stall of choice fruit at the corner ;. where perambulating merchants, of both sexes, offered for sale at any time between the hours of ten and five, slippers, pocket-books, sponges, dogs' collars, and Wind sor soap ; and sometimes a pointer or an oil painting. " The pointer always came that way, with a view to the Stock Exchange, where a sporting taste (originating generally in bets of new hats) is much in vogue. The other commodities were addressed to the general public; but they were never offered by the vendors to Mr. Dombey. When he appeared, the dealers in those wares fell off respectfully. The principal slipper and dogs' collar man—who considered himself a public character, and whose portrait was screwed on to an artist's door in Cheapside—threw up his forefinger to the brim of his hat as Mr. Dombey went by. The ticket-porter, if he were not absent on a job, always ran offieiously before, to open Mr. Dombey's office door as wide as possible, and hold it open, with his hat off, while he entered. " The clerks withi n were not a w hi t b e hi nd-hand i n their demonstrations of respect. A solemn hush pre vailed, as Mr. Dombey p asse d th roug h t h e outer off i ce. The wit of the counting- house became in a moment as mute, as the row of leathern fire-buckets, hanging up behind him. Such vapid and flat daylight as filtered through the ground glass windows and skylights, leav ing a black sediment upon the panes, showed the books and papers, and the figures bending over them, en veloped in a studious gloom, and as much abstracted in appearance, from the world without, as if they were as sembled at the bottom of the sea ; while a mouldy little strong room in the obscure perspective, where a shaded lamp was always burning, might have represented the cavern of some ocean monster, looking on with a red eye at these mysteries of the deep. " When Perch, the messenger, whose place was on a little bracket, like a timepiece, saw Mr. Dombey come in—or rather when he felt that he was coming, for he had usually an instinctive sense of his approach—he hur ried into Mr. Dombey's room, stirred the fire, quarried fresh coals from the bowels of the coal box, hung the newspaper to air upon the fender, put the chair ready, and the screen in its place, and was round upon his heel on the instant of Mr. Dombe)'s entrance, to take his great coat and hat, and hang them up. Then Perch took the newspaper, and gave it a turn or two in his hands before the fire, and laid it deferentially at Mr. Dombey's elbow. And so little objection had Perch to doing deferential in the last degree, that if he might have laid himself at Mr. Dombey's feet, or might have called him by some such title as used to be bestowed upon the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, he would have been all the better pleased. "As this honour would have been an innovation and an experiment, Perch was fain to content himself by expressing as well as he could, in his manner, You are the Light of my Eyes. You are the Breath of my Soul. You are the Commander of the Faithful, Perch.' With this imperfect happiness to cheer him, he would shut the door softly, walk away on tiptoe, and leave his great chief to be stared at, through a dome-shaped window in the leads, by ugly chimney pots and backs of houses, and especially by the bold window of a hair-cutting saloon on a first floor, where a waxen effigy, bald as a Mussulman in the morning, and covered, after eleven o'clock in the day, with luxuriant hair and whikers in the latest Chris tian fashion, showed him the wrong side of its head for THE PROPOSED AMERICAN LOAN. We extract from the New York Evening Express the following interesting article upon the financial prospects of the States : Among the prominent items in the President's mes sage is one relating to the war and a new loan, that will strike most people with surprise. The President asks for a loan of 23,000,000 of dollars, which he estimates will pay for the expenses of the war to July, 1848, a period of more than one and a half years from this time, if the war should last so long. But this extraordinary loan, he asks, should be authorised at once, and for a period of twenty years. If there is any sincerity in his belief that only this sum will be wanted, why is it necessary to ne gotiate a loan at this time? Prudence and good sense would seem to indicate that no larger amount should be borrowed at once than is needed. If the whole will not be wanted under a year and a half, it will be a great saving of interest to borrow the amount required from time to time. The fact that so large a loan is wanted, is the outset, wilt throw a great degree of doubt over the whole estimate. Government stocks are now below par. The last loan that was negotiated has resulted in a loss to the lenders. The price of all the former loans has fallen (in consequence of the last one made) full 5 per cent. Now all new loans are to be paid in specie; and if the 23,000,000 of dollars asked for by the Presi dent, should be taken, it would have to be placed in the hands of the Sub-Treasurer in specie. And here we would ask any man of common understanding, if such a loan could possibly be taken up ? Where is the specie ? It certainly is not in the vaults of the banks in this city, or Philadelphia, or any or all of the cities of the Atlantic States. But some say it will come from Europe. There is no vidence of this. Exchange has ruled, for some time now, from 106 to 107 per cent., and yet, up to this time, less than 40,000 dollars have been received. The best informed in money matters do not believe that a loan of this magnitude can be negotiated at all. Every bank, and every business man, is directly inte rested against the filling up of such a loan, for it is taking from the public so much capital—just so much from the mercantile community. The operations of the last war are still fresh in the recollection of a large portion of the intelligent men of this country. At the commencement of that war, it was asserted by those who made it, that it would be of short duration, and that only a moderate sum would be wanted. But before it had progressed two years, Go vernment found it necessary to lay a heavy tax on every article consumed from abroad, to lay an excise on every gallon of whiskey made in this country—and to impose an odious stamp tax. No man could draw a note or execute a bond to be legal without purchasing of the Go vernment a stamp. Every acre of land, every watch, and almost every species of personal estate, was taxed to an enormous ex tent. Tax gatherers, in one shape or another, were almost as numerous as the locusts of Egypt. Loans multiplied until they amounted to about 180,000,000 of dollars. Every bank in the country, except those in New England, suspended specie payments, and the Government forced out to the people these Treasury notes, until they depreciated like continentaltmoney, to be worth only about 70 cents on the dollar. Hundreds of capitalists, who commenced buying Government secu rities at par, were ruined by the fall. Such was the practical effect of the war we have alluded to. The Government now owe 25,000,000, and this war has just commenced, judging by present appearances. It is now proposed to increase the debt to about 50,000,000 ; and no one can foresee what the amount will ultimately be. Under these circumstances there is hardly a possibility of negotiating the present loan at anything like par. From present appearances, we do not believe this loan will be taken, if at all, at better than 90 cents on the dollar. It is said by some that the Government will monopolise all the money, and that individuals will call in their bonds and mortgages, and sell their State Stocks, and invest them in Government securities. Such was not the operation of capital during the last war. On the contrary, capitalists sought bonds and mortgages, and State securities, in preference, although paying less interest ; they looked at the ability to pay the interest rather than to the amount. In the present case the Government have made no provision to pay in terest. There is no specific revenue pledged to meet it, On the contrary, the tariff is reduced, and a falling off of duties, it is believed, will take place. OUTBREAK IN KERRY. (From the Cork Ea,atniner.) At the hour of two o'clock on Monday last, about 300 persons assembled at Killorglin opposite the Relief Com mittee stores. The gentlemen who were engaged in the store distributing meal at the time, were the Rev. Mr. De Moleyn, Jr.,. Mr. B. Russell, and Mr. Thomas Dood. Apprehending an attack, from the menacing attitude of the people, they got out to the rear of the stores, but were intercepted by the multitude. •However, these gentlemen sum edtd in reaching the Police Barrack. While there the most determined aspect was assumed by the multitude, and it was only by the very laudable ex ertions of constable Marony, who faced the mob, and did all that remonstrance and reasonable resistance could effect to ward off a direct assault on the establish ment. While Mr. De Moleyn was thus beleaguered, a por tion of the congregated populace repaired to his demesne, which is within a mile of the town, and having caught a fat ram of select breed, when a funeral happened to pass by to the adjacent church of Droumavally and some of Mr. De Moleyn's friends with his domestics succeeded in de'priving them of the animal. Immediately a des patch Was forwarded for the military here, and a party of cavalry and infantry proceeded to the scene of dis turbance. In the meantime Mr. Dubardeau 5.1., who was on duty from his station, Killarney, at Milltown, being apprised of 'the occrarrence, repaired to Killorglin, and having concentrated the police force of the locality, was ' - fortuns.te.enough to see order r es tored before the arrival, of tM Thtcause of the attack was the stoppage of the pub lic works in the neighbourhood the day previous. But still it is most extraordinary why Mr. De Moleyn should have been selected, for up to that time he was most justly popular. He exerted himself with Father Owen most unremittingly , at the presentment Sessions to obtain large grants for the district and did obtain them. It can only be accounted for by the desperate circumstances of the people. THE GREAT BRITAIN TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. Amongst the numerous plans submitted to the owners of the steam-ship Great, Britain, for her removal from Dundrum Bay, there is one by Mr. S. R. Parkhurst, which he has exhibited to me; and I have no hesitation in saying, that if the owners adopt it, their valuable and beautiful ship will be saved. I have visited the Great Britain twice since she has been on shore, know her position, and feel assured that Mr. Parkhurst would float her, and take her to Liver pool in perfect safety. Mr. Parkhurst is a practical man, is the inventor and patentee of a new propeller for steamers, and I would suggest that the directors of the Great Britain lose no time in taking Mr. Parkhurst's plan into their considerwa'on; its adoption would save a ship, which, I observe, Mr. Brunel estimates at from 40,0001. to 60,0001., and that, too, at comparatively a small cost.—l am, Sir, y ours, &c., Liverpool, Dec. 31, 1 846. W. E. G. LAW REPORTERSFLIP.—Harcourt seems to have given mortal offence to Vernon, the reporter, who prac tised as a counsel regularly before him, but spitefully suppresses his best decisions, and gives doubtful ones See 2 Vernon, 664-681.. I suspect that the reporter may have been a Whig axe] copied the Tory blacksmith, who in shoeing the horse of a Whig always lamed him. When I w as a n i s i p r i us r e p or t er I d a drawer marked " Bad Law," into which. I threw all the cases which seemed to b e improperly ruled. I was flattered to hear Sir James. Mansfield, C.J., say, " Whoever reads Camp bell's reports must be astonished to find how uniformly Lord Ellenborough's decisions were right." My rejected cases, which I had keep as a curiosity—not-maliciously— were all burnt in the great fire of tt.e Temple when I was Attorney- General. —Lord Ca; np b e ll' s Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Two w ood-cutters wiio were last week engaged in cutting down the picturesque plantation at the top of the Heights of Abraham, r.t Matlock, had a narrow escape of their lives —a tree having fallen upon them, and crushed them to the er.erth, where they were compelled t o rel." co!11 , 1 Itn procliret! to ~ti rttizn night, (..,)ettl:te.:. (....)Lic of Wft, the other escaped com p arat i ve l y am isne j r u io r u ed sl . y injured, ever." It is decided that Walter Gay is to be dispatched to Barbadoes as a junior clerk. The passages relating to Mr. Carker the junior but really the senior, and Mr. Carker the manager but really the junior, are cleverly and touchingly written. Nothing about Miss Tox, or Major Bagstock, or Captain Cuttle in this number. We miss them. The Builder states that the practical utility of chalk as an article of fuel has been tested within the last fortnight, according to a Salisbury paper, and with the most satisfactory results. Surrounded with coal, it gives a strong heat, and a clear fire, at half the usual expense ; so that to the poor in the chalk districts it must be an invaluable boon. CONVICTS FOR JERSEY.—Fifteen hundred of these unfortunate beings are ordered to be conveyed in hired transports from this country to Jersey, to be placed at the disposal of the Governor-General of the island. They will be employed on works about to be commenced in St. Catherine's Bay. It is stated that the convict fiuthorit; have d orders to select those that are • , '( 4 1 Ltkor;, 01(,y will be dispatched as early as possible from the various dockyards for the above destination. LITER4TURE. ENGLAND'S COLONIAL EMPIRE, an Histori cal, Political, and Statistical Account of the Empire, its Colonies and Dependencies. By Charles Pridham, Esq., 8.A., F.&G.S. Pol. 1. The Mauritius - and its Dependencies; The author of :this volume has undertaken a gigan tic task. He proposes to give the history of past and present of all the43ritisb Colonies, to enter minutely into the statistics of each Colony, and by bringing together from every available source, every species of information relating to the subject of which he treats, to produce a work that shall "accurately describe the components of an Empire, that considered in any point '•of view is as unrivalled for its grandeur and its fame as for the 'spirit of wisdom and justice, by which its affairs are administered." Such a work. has long been a desidera tum, and judging from the manner in which Mr. Pridham has performed that portion of his task, which relates to. the Mauritius and dependencies, treated of in the volume now under consideration, we are inclined to the opinion that the task could not have been undertaken by any one more able or more willing to do full justice to the subject. He . . opens with a description of the geographical position d extent of the Mauritius, and then gives a minute account of its history doAn to the close of 1845 ; the list incident narrated being the joint attack upon Tamatave by the French and English. From Mr. Pridharn's account, it would appear, that for the hostility of the Ovahs, we are indebted to the eidtnte cordiale the (halls finding the English so constantly aiding, or, at all events permitting, French aggression, naturally confounded the commerce loving English with the conquest-loving French, and we have suffered accordingly from keep ing bad company. Sir IV. Gomm, after the at tack on Tamatave, ordered a survey of the whole coast to be made:— " In one of his descents, the English officer was met in a deprecatory tone by . the Ovahs, who assured him that it was far from their intention- to insult or oppress the English, and that they would never have experienced such treatment had they not conceived that his country 'man had combined with the French, who had always squght to overthrow their independence, in a design fur die subjugation of the island." It, would, perhaps, be as well :that the disposition of tl Ovahs towards England should be tested, and that, if found friendly, a treaty should be entered itttq with them, and, if necessary, British protection tiAttnded to them. This is the more necessary when IR bear in mind the disposition to aggression which the French have constantly exhibited ever since the Island of Bourbon was restored to them. An in rriice of this spirit of encroachment is given by Mr. dham. The Island of Amsterdam and St. Paul's }Ave always been considered as dependencies Of the Mauritius : ," Recently, however, some merchants of Bourbon, sensible of their value as fishing stations, and knowing that the surrounding seas abounded in cod of the best -quality (they having caught, with a limited supply of labour, 1,200 fish daily, and expecting, with their pre sent means, to increase their catch to 2,000, and thus supply the Bourbon market with salt cod, the principal food of the negroes in that colony), induced the Go vernor of Bourbon to declare-these isles dependencies of that island, and have occupied them with a number of negroes, who are superintended by Europeans, that are, in their turn, directed by a Pole. This person has had the,effrontery to forbid British and American vessels from fishing in the neighbourhood, and assumed the protection of French colours. The conduct of the Go vernor of Bourbon has, it is true, been censured by the Minister of Marine, and the permission to use the na tional flag has been withdrawn, the style being changed, and a blue edging been substituted; but those who are familiar with the history of French aggression, from the time of their intrigues in Acadia to the present day, will not fail to remember that they ever make the acts of in dividuals the cloak of national aggrandisement, for the quasi claim of the former being permitted to become prescriptive by lapse of time, is presently superseded by that of the nation, which cannot so well be resisted. The design of the Governor of Bourbon in seizing on an island of so little importance would be incomprehensible, did n6t the recent movements of France to recover her lost ground in this ocean furnish a key to the mystery. I apprehend also that the honour of Great Britain is as much compromised by this intrusion, trivial as it may appear, as it would be in a case where the stake was greater, nor is it a mark of foresight to permit any other than her own people to occupy islands which will be come yearly of greater importance, as the trade with our Australian possessions is augmented." Having given the history of the island, Mr. Prid ham next proceeds to treat of the manners and cus toms of the inhabitants. He then enters minutely into the physical history of the island, its Zoology, Botany, Geology, and climate and diseases. 'He then treats at great length of its agricul ture and its commerce, of its ports and har harbours, and lastly of its government and literature. The concluding chapter is devoted to the history of the Dependencies of the Mauritius, including the Seychelles group, Rodriguez and several other smaller islands, of the importance of the possession of the Mauritius to the English, and of the value set upon it by the French to re-possess it, some idea may be formed from the following passage from the great work of Abbe Raynal, who says " policy foresees that if the Isle of France (the Mauritius) were aban doned (by the French), the English would drive all foreign nations out of the seas of Asia, and would possess themselves of all the riches of those vast countries. " That the French ardently desire to re-possess themselves of this island is openly avowed by many of their political writers, and that some of the old French colonists bear but an unwilling allegiance to England cannot be denied. But these colonists are utterly powerless. A noble act of justice has secured to us the possession of the Mauritius. The emancipated negro and Indian population, are to a man, thoroughly and completely loyal to England, because it is only by the maintenance of English supremacy, that negro and Indian liberty can be secured. With the follow ing extract, in which this subject is fully discussed, we must conclude our notice of this work. One of the few published during the course of 1846, which must become a stock work of reference and authority— If there be any external cause of alarm from any power in the world, as respects the tenure of our Indian empire (which may reasonably admit of doubt) it must arise from France alone. If she were in possession of this island, and her squadrons could escape from blockade in Europe, or from art intercepting fleet on the passage and further elude the observation of the Cape squadron, or overpower it by its superior force and reach the Mau ritius, the fleet might be here recruited, and be detached on predatory excursions (as before) against British com merce, or eluding . the Indian squadrons, burst on some part of the extensive coasts of the peninsula, and landing troops unite with the disaffected Mussulman. But this hypothesis being reversed, and the obstacles we have mentioned being only in part removed, while the advan tage to be derived from the• possession of . the Isle of France should be in the hands of a rival, such an at tempt would be indeed hopeless; for granting that Bour bon might prove commodious enough (supposing the difficulties above mentioned to have been overcome) for the purpose of temporary refreshment, yet it possesses no port of refuge in tempestuous weather, and could afford no adequate protection to a fleet which would be soon attacked by the divisions of several squadrons. There is little difficulty, moreover, in perceiving that even these advantages would be denied it ; for the Bri tish Government, from its possessing . a monopoly of the earliest channels of intelligence, would immediately dis pose of the question in the event of a war by assuming the offensive, for which they would be greatly favoured by their occupation of the Mauritius, and direct an at tack against the remaining possessions of France in these seas, and against such an attack the French hav e no effectual means of resistance. Under such circumstances the situation of a French fleet from Europe (again as suming that it would escape the dangers of the passage) would excite mingled contempt and pity rather than ap prehec,sion. Bereft of all means for refitment, where such means could be readily obtained, without a port, from which it could derive protection against the ele ments, or defend itself in case of an attack, after a steam or sailing voyage of several thousand miles, such a fleet, with its weary and despairing crews, would become the prey rather than the assailant of the first British squa dron it might encounter. " It has been lately urged, that, in the event of an at tack on this island by France, no dependence can be placed on the loyalty and fidelity of the French popula tion ; but, assuming this to be correct, that population, compared with the other inhabitants, is only as one twelfth, and of that a considerable portion has been de tached from any connexion with the chimerical views entertained by an insatiable clique, of the prospect of this island ever reverting to France in the event of a war, by the judicious and conciliatory conduct of the Govern ment. Of late years British-born subjects, both as planters and merchants, have been gradually increasing in wealth, numbers, and influence ; while the negro and Indian population are to a man in favour of a govern ment on whom alone they are dependent for protection the slightest semblance, therefore, of treason, from wha t quarter soever originating, would meet with the most condign punishment. Perhaps in none of the British colonies can any class or section of a com mun i ty for good found more in the power of a government, good or evil, than the French population of the Mauritius. " Admitting, thtn, that many parts of the coast ar e assailable, yet the difficulties of a march in such a coun try, coupled with the impediments arising from the at tacks of the vast irregular army that might be almost , instantly assembled, would prove next t o i nsuperable ; while an e ff ectual resistance could be offered by the capi tal, till such time as assistance c ou ld arr i ve. But fur ther, assuming that by some fortuitous circumstance, at present out . of the reach of p oss ibi l i ty, France could make herself master of this island, such mastery would in the very nature of thi ngs prove b ut temporary, from her inability (unless she continued to hold the maritime supremacy in this ocean) to subsist her troops, the island being dependent on Madagascar for the supply of the commonest necessaries. " With respect to r ecen t F renc h aggress i ons i n these seas, it may be observed, that their aim would appear to be to secure a footing (which they do not at present possess) on the main island of Madagascar, and by creating divisions among the natives to acquire a terri tory in the tropics, which may compensate them for those in which they have been supplanted. Their pre sent possessions are Bourbon, Nossi Beh, and St. Mary's % - off the eastern coast of Madagascar, and Mayotte, and some on the north west coast. The last possession ha a • not, ho wever , as yet been recognised by Great Britain, . other islands of the Como' ' and measures are said to have been resorted to in its a, i cluisition whichdemand inquiry. 'though Mayotta ca. I be of lit t l e benefit to France for the purposes of aggrea. "We or e ven defensive warfare, it is useful by its position in relation to Madagascar for the conduct of intrigues, i4na gives her the command of the Mosambique Channel. RAIL WAYS; their Rise, Progress, and Constructib.n. With Remarks on Railway Accidents, and Proposalslfoi their PreventioLt. By Robert Ritchie, F.R.S.S.A., This is a complete history of the art of railways making from the first rude attempts at constructing "stone wheel tracks" up to the present time. The author goes into minute details as to the construction of every variety of rail and of every species of loco- , motion—discusses the merits of the different species of sleepers —enters elaborately into the comparative merits of the gauges, and comments at length on the advantages and disadvantages of the atmospheric system of propulson. His classification of railway accidents according to their causes is judicious, and, his suggestions for their prevention are worthy of consideration. His volume is, in fact, a resume of all that is known at present on the subject of railway construction and locomotion ; and whoever wishes to. be au niveau des connoisances aciu,•lles as regards rail ”y engineering should attentively peruse Ritchie on rail ways. TH. rE BRITISH A L.MAIVie.IND COMPANION FOR 1847. This valuable annual still keeps up its high cha- - racter. The Companion contains a vast amount of valuable information on the Legislative statistics and public improvements of 1846. The article on the Progress of Education in England is well written and well timed; and Mr. Knight has conferred an obligation on all those who take an interest in the subject, by his judicious condensation of such a vast amount of information in so small a cornpa-s. SPOR'IINti INTELLIGENCE- HUNTING APPOINTMENTS. Brighton hrrs., Mon., Patcham ; Wed., Racecourse; Fri., Dyke—i to 11. Brookside hrrs., Mon., Newmarket Hill; Thurs., Tels combe-tye-10%. Crawley and Horsham lids., Mon., the Fox, Three Bridges; Wed., Clark's Green ' • Fri., Crab Tree—i to 11. Eastbourne hrrs., Mon., Lighthouse, East Dean; Thurs., Snap Hill; Sat.; 'Willingdon Old Mill— to 11. Earl of Harewood's lids., Mon., Gartorth Bridge; Wed., Marston ; Fri., Towton-10i. Worcestershire hds., Ron., Cotheridge ; Wed., Upton Snodsbury ; Fri.. Bishop's Wood-10i. Ludlow lids., Tues., Staunton Lacy ; Fri., Shakruhurst. Herefordshire lids., the first open day, England Gate. Shropshire hds., Mon., Mountford Bridge; Wed., Cloverly ; Fri., Kennels--i to 11. Wheatland hds., Tues., Weston; Fri., Willey Park-10i. East Essex lads., Tues., Bellchamp Bells; Thurs., High Garret; sat, Notley Gate-10 1 / 4. Essex Union lids., Wed., Moor Gardens; Sat., Rettenden Common. Essex and Suffolk hds., Tues., Little Bentley Hall; Fri., Sproughton Wild Man-10i. Suffolk hds., Mon., Ashley Village ; Thurs., Hepworth Marlborough-10%. Mr. Horlock's hds., Tues., Bowden••Hill. •-. Duke of Beaufort's hds., Mon., Batt's Lodge. - •. Mr. Locke's hds.. Tues., Haskingi Penning; Thurs., Pert wood Turnpike Gate-11. Sir R. Sutton's bds., Tues., Glaston ; Wed., the Buit,Vi tham Common; Fri., Titton Wood ; Sat., Langham. Quorn lids., Mon., Shearsby Inn; Tues., Retcliffe,Hall; Thurs., Houghton on the Hill ; Fri., Ratcliffe Hall. i Mr. M. Ingram's hds., Mon., Chartley Park ; : Thurs., Ked leston Inn ; Sat., Swarkston Bridge.;•. • . •v• •-• Dorrington lads., Mon., Cotgreave , Village ; • Wed., Keg worth Station; Sat., Hathern Turut to 11: •••• Burton hds., Mon., Fiskerten Low Wopd; Tues.v*Bard ney ; Wed., Wellinore ; Thurs., Hackthor4; Gate Bur ton ; Sat., Lanworth Bridge-11. Mr. Hellier's lids., Mon., Tothill ; Tues. -Merehae(bn the Hill-10i; Spilsbuty ; Fri., Hamton ; 4at., Weifoti.Wood —l2. , Sherwood hrrs., Tues., Mansfield Radicourse;':Fri4liing's Mill-11. Mr. Deacon's hrrs., Wed., the Thom-on.RoboroughDown ; Sat., Sheepston Village-10. - - - , Mr. Horndon's lads., Mon., Viverdon ; Tbur6., St. Stephen's Down, Launceston. • HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION, ac.; .DROMPTON.— Yesterday evening a very numerous meeting of the sub scribers to the above institution was held in the Board room of the,llospital, at Old Brompton. Edward Spree, Esq., in the chair. The principal business of the evening was in reference to the appointment of an assistant physician, the election of whom is fixed for the 14th instant. It was also a source of the greatest satisfaction that the plans adopted for the ventilation and warming of the numerous extensive wards had proved so highly effective in aid of medical science. Many highly dis tinguishea visitors have inspected the building, since it Ras opened, and scarcely a day passes without some ad ditional names upon the visitors' book. The number of in-patients yesterday, of both sexes, amounted to sixty. AN - IDIOT FROZEN TO DEATII.—A lamentable death occurred at Freckenham on Tuesday morning last. A poor creature named Charles Chittiek, who- had never been in his-proper senses, and had been ailing f ,, r a time, went to bed. between eight and nine ,o'clock on. Monday evening, in a lower room of the house of his sister, Mrs. Plutn.,,er, with whom he rt sided. Another sister also, and Mrs. Plutemer's clau,Ater, slept in an upper apart ment. A little before 11 o'clock, as the daughter I,y in bed, she heard the di-ceased call, saying he wanted to go out, and she sp 4te to him. She then heard him undo the front door, which banged after him ; and she then lay awake about an hour afterwards, until becoming alarmed at his absence, she went down stairs to call him, which one of the family had been in the habit of doing upon previous occasions, when he appeared to be gone a long while. The front door was on the jar, and the pin by which it was fastened lay on the table near by. A search was immediately made, but he'could not be found, all the places about the preraies being examined, but without success. His shirt and night cap were left on the pillow of his bed covered over with the clothes. The aunt was called, and a further search was made every where they could think of, but without effect. It was dark, and freezing sharp. His day clothes lay by the side of his bed. Information was immediately conveyed to the neighbours, and about eight o'clock on Tuesday morning a labouring man, named George Smith, accom panied by Frederick Sergeant and James Payne, who had gone.out searching for the poor fellow, found him in a meadow in the occupation of Mr. Knight, lying flat on his back, entirely naked, and quite dead. Higqyel Crewe" - ' open, and he was dirty as if he had been through water. The spot where he was found was about 200 yards off his cottage, and the river was nearer the cottage than the place where he was found. An inquest was held on Thursday, at the Boar Inn, Freckenham, before H. — Wayrnan, Esq., when the above facts were deposed to by the principal witnesses, Elizabeth Plummer adding that she heard the deceased say he should not live till Christmas, which he had said several times before. had been under the surgeon's hands, but not since - Michaelmas time. Mr. Pelham Aldrich, surgeon, of Mildenhall, deposed that he had known the deceased six or seven years, and had attended him professionally. He laboured under an affection of the spine, which at tacked the lower extremities. He was of weak intellect, and about 46 years of age. Had seen his body since his death, and observed no external appearance of injury or violence. From information he had received, and from the appearance of the body, he was of opinion that death was occasioned by exposure to the inclemency of the season. Verdict accordingly.—Bury Herald. THE WEATHER, &C.—THE PARKS.—Thursday, the weather continuing its severity, the several metro politan parks were crowded with sliders and skaters from the earliest hour of admittance until dusk. On the' ornamental water in St. James's Park, in the course of the day, two very serious accidents occurred, but fortu nately unattended with loss of life. The first occurred to William Simpson, a gentleman of property, residing at Peckham Rye, who was skating, when, through an accidental misarrangement of the skate, be fell backwards with great violence, breaking the ice and immersing himself in the water. Immediate assistance was ren dered, and with great difficulty he was extricated, totally insensible from the effects of the fall. He was removed in a very injured and weak state, being unable to walk without support. The second accident occurred in the afternoon to a lad named Somers, who was sliding on the ice near Buckingham Palace, when, comilig in violent contact with a gentleman who was skating, the poor fellow was thrown heavily, causing a severe fracture on the head and arm. The Serpentiue, in Hyde-park, was much frequented during the day, and many accidents occurred, but not et* any serious consequence. owing to the proutpt assistance rendered in each case by the ice men of the Royal Humane Society. The two fiozen lakes - in Kensington-gardens, and that of the Regent's park, were visited by upwards of 5,000 individuals, and with but one exception no accidcuts occurred beyond an occasional breaking of the ice. On the ice of the Re gent's-park, a youne , man unl`,rtunarely slid and a l ' h d e a i n e g e e b r o n u , k s ' e ' ; s p h o e t , w a a n:d , h i n o e a r l: x . p i anxiety i t l o y return f recovered.ll, A'TTEMI'TS AT ROBBERY IN EAST LOTHIAN.-- Since the atrocious outrage and robbery at Beene, in 'the neighbourhood of Haddington, occurred, a number of farmers and others in the district have got all the windows on the first floor of their houses strongly secured with iron bars; a watchdog is also kept, and in many cases a loaded gun in readiness. All these precautions are most necessary, as the Begbie affair seems to be but . the beginning of a system of robberies. Last week three Irishmen, supposed to be "navvies," paid a visit to the farm-house of Cartrae, in the parish of Garvald. They broke a pane of glass, and attempted to open the window-shutter of the room, but being well secured, a degree of violence was used to get it opened, which aroused the inmates. On the farmer it quiring what was wanted, they would not :peak, but con tinued working with the window fastenings The gentle man threatened to fire if they did not desist and go away, but no attention was paid to him, and he from an upper window fired a pistol at them. Immediately after this, one of them, with a strong Irish accent, exclaimed. "Let's be off, boys," when all three ran away. At two o'clock on the morning of Thursday, a similar attempt was also made by thtce men to break into the manse of Athelstaneford. The breaking of the window glass awoke the reverend clergyman, and on repeated ques tions being put as to who they were and what they de sired, no answer was returned. The manse stands at the end of the village, apart from any houses, so that it was impossible that the human voice could be.heard by the villagers, to come to the rescue of their minister ; but he, with great prudence and presence of .mind, took from the lobby a large hand bell, and, going to the • . highest window of the house, opened it, arid began ring ing the bell with great vigour. This had the desired effect. It made the villains decamp, and brought they u inhabitants of the manse to ascertain the cause of this"! ) untoward ringing.---Berwick Warder, i P f~,, 3~