The Sun. — London, England, 1847-03-01 00:00:00

411... . CHARLES COCHRANE, ESQ., AND THE ELECTORS OF WESTMINSTER. mat a meeting held at the Craven Head. Drury-lane, on en( lay last, Mr. 13o c h rane a ll u d e d to t h e correspon d ence ic h had appearr.d in Mc Sun newspaper, and is reported t: he 3ln rning Advertiser to have said, as follows :—" One ho le t l n e . a tter°, appeared to be wr itten by a Mr. Bass, of gentleman whom he knew very well, and who had treated him with kindness. In fact, dressed as he was tr tl ey tame, he was suppose d to b e a S pan i s h Q ua k er , an d "14te aaecordingly, and he had certainly enjoyed the juke tri uch. He had however written to Mr. Bass on the eject of the letter, and that gentleman denied that he was Ithlaies wd: :Id it, Cr that he knew anything at nil about it." T he following letters appear in the Morniug Advertiser of •• PO TIIE LIMT01: OF THE MORNING ADVEIITISER. " Sit " Brighton, 2d Month, 26, 1847. to l ,„ observe in thy paper of the 23d instant that W e ;;" in e i 3 made common property between the electors of „ plc, " aB ter and one of their candidates. I will thank thee t - ; Publicity to the correspondence which has taken sh ow ~,etw'een Charles Cochrane and myself, in order to e lectors the extent of my acquaintance with their 4 "h-t u ate. It h . p Ne 13 , be as we ll t o s t a t e th a t I never i n the least sup hitrl was a Spani s h Q ua k e r, but was induced to treat (ogee wit i kindness merely from a belief that he was a re • I am, respectfully, &c., "ISAAC BASS." " 26, Devonshire-place, Marylebone, London, II " Saturday, Feb. 20, 1847. Paper —I feel it my duty to forward you The Sun evening p ut , 4 )f the 16th instant, as it contains a scandalous letter was ing to conic from you, and to which my attention that (1 ; " n yesterday evening. Permit me to premise, vri tte • do not suspect for a moment that you have of I the letter, MS lam quite sure you are incapable ~,,1 14 1 4 thing so gross or unjust, as your kindness to me, %ark, i under the character of a Spanish minstrel, and the zoss. acknowledment by me in my work of such kind could leave no other, I presume, than agreeable re -8"11:14,4 o •e nce3 between us. It i s necess ary, however, for the Parr, my character, and th e future proceedings which I '1 , 3 adopting, th a t I s h ou ld commun i cate wi th you, and o04;eall feel greatly obli ge d by an a n s wer at your earliest "ence--I am, sir, your obedient servant, tix, r " CHARLES COCHRANE. • Bass, Grove-street, Brighton." " Brighton, 2d Month, .., 1E47. fie, I I :" o the receipt of TiThe Sun newspaper, which thou sent e• ' 'new nothing of the paragraph concerning Juan De to Ca• I- well remember the circumstance of being imposed od,'.rd afterwards seeing it ridiculously detailed in thy book, Wity g :l'o n a way which thou must be quite aware would carry anyth,at_ but agreeable reminiscences. • Char!!s Cochrane." " J. BASS. Sir " Devonshire-place, Thursday, Feb. 25, 1847. do is with great regret that I have read that por patii."`TY;.e letter which appears to indicate impressions on Alf as other than what I could have desired, relative . to a quai 7 atance with you, under the character of a Spanish liae, t i r i a l• I can sincerely assure you of this,. that I never rai gh s t traost distant intention of doing or saymg aught that tha t h I r 'Dve unpleasant, and trust you will bear in mind, ° a , "ever much the indiscretion of my conduct might be Ine to , 43 ,._'' to you, the motives were innocent, and I was a aLripling at the time. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, CHARLES COCHRANE." ono •• CoL'chratie and Juan de Vega aro now established to be and the same person. We will, therefore, in a few days, ar.ieh .% .•-ten the electors of Westminster as to the sayings and doin gs for "f the Senor Juan de Vega, and enable them to judge thranselves as to his fitness to represent them. We will ;18° Rive them a " Biographical Sketch of Mr. C. Cochrane, r ndi date for Westminster," to compare with the one printed lith e horning Advertiser of 17th December last, and since lePri nted by authority at the steam-press of W. H. Cox, 5, G rea t Queen -str ee t, an d c i rcu lated as a handbill among the tors. Mr. Cochrane seeks publicity—we will assist him t '` ) h l 5 heart's content. .. MIT of the PUBLIC 'JOURNALS. „ 41 RONICLE.—A person of the hams of Cochrane, who la tely, as some of our readers,may have chanced to ob teull'e, be en l ay i ng h i mself out f or notor i e t y , as a po liti ca l I " 4 )4, by way of introduction to the suffrages of a me tropolitan constituency, has at length fairly succeeded in :,e.tablishing a sort of a claim to public notice. So long as p i p individual in question was known only as one of the „___ tt atriuus obscure, who please themselves with fancying that I N ; "vrr ain obtrusive loquacity is a valid title to the confidence f.,'eglish electors, there was of course nothing to do but the absurdity run its course, and go quietly out in the flatural way. Even the stimulant and attractive heading, City of Westmi ns t er El ec ti on ," was insufficient to give interest, or dignity to what it was impossible to look at any other light than as an awful heavy joke. Westminster happened, moreover, to be well enough suite,{ with a candidate already, no practical inconvenience ...could arise from treating no nsense as nonsense , and letting _ a ar- Cochrane, or Mr. Anyb o dy, recrea t e himself in his own aeolon. Nobody cared to inquire who or what Mr. Coch hale might be—first, because it did not in the smallest de gree signify, as regarded any apparent practical purpose, Vim or what Mr. Cochrane was, and next, because the seem ing anxiety of this gentleman to advertisehimselfin every pos sible way operated as a damper on one's speculative curiosity. The secret was sofe, since nobody dreamed that there could be any secret worth knowing about a person at once so un important and so garrulous. The prying industry of an evening Contemporary— or rather of our Contemporary's correspondents—has, however, bad the effect of lending a momentary interest to an otherwise ridiculous and insipid fair. Certain letters have appeared is the columns of The Sun, reviving disagreeable reminiscences of a va gabond imposter who once rejoiced in the name of 'Jou or Senor Juan de Vega, and to whom, as our contem- I ZrY's correspondents suggest, in terms pointed rather than —lll Plimentary, Mr. Cochrane stands related in the closest con ceivable degree of consanguinity—namely, that of down "gilt personal identity. Mr. Cochrane is accordingly re.- Q u ested to enlighten the Westminster public on this point of h is histo r y—th e on ly p o i n t on which th e W es t m i ns t er p u bli c have ever betrayed the faintest curiosity. Mr. Cochrane's answer to what, under the circumstances, must be allowed to be a very natural and legitimate question, consists, first, in a threat of an action against The Sun for defamation of character, and next, in a public coufession of the youthful " indiscretions," or frolics" heretofore fathered on Don or Senor Juan de Vega. From this moment, of course, our illustrious obscure may safely assure himself of that public notice which he has so long been vainly traving, thongh we cannot exactly promise him that noto riety will come in the shape desiderated. There is now a dealt of romance about the thing, which may at least serve idle people for a nine days' wonder. Plain, vulgar Mr. Cochrane could not so much as get himself laughed at; but 3 nan de Vega is a fair circulating-library xame, and smacks Juanystery. Everybody will be wanting to know h abo u ti e t de Vega, especially as the fellow is said to have . ee decided scamp, and to have played the guitar. It is super fluous to observe that the oddity of a Parliamentary candi date, on the flaming patriot interest, answering a plain question through his lawyer, is of itself a sufficient stimulus I n Popular curiosity. We cannot undertake to present our 'Were with anything like a complete account of the t cal or imaginary life and adventures of Don or Senor Uan de Vega. A very brief summary will, however, suffice ter those practical purposes with which alone we are now the to co ncerned, This Juan de Vega was, then, be it known electors of Westminster, an exiled Spanish Nobleman in "ulguise, who tramped about the country some years back, a tour of minstrels and mendicancy — picked up al l he co uld get in th e wa y o ft cash, kindness, and broken victuals— Wormed himself into the good graces of many worthy and L aB Peetable families of the most gullible class of British F' l etY, who mad e th e unfortunate--and' -interesting refugee ..e both to their s ympathies and their dinners—and finally i s ° , ll , " PluP the " f ro li c ," by publishing a disgusting book, .., - . ° 3? slandering the wives, daughters, sisters , a nd ser --nta 0f his kind-hearted dupes. In two words, Don 2 1. Senor Juan de Vega was an excellent subject „s" t he discipline of the cart's tail and the horse -I.°". It is a matt er , of course, of the smallest possible co t neern to us wheth er M r . C oc hrane be capable or not of also • titZetori I nggood advice when be sees it. But as we wish the no harm, we make him kindly welcome to the me ('fit of our very decided opinion that he had better let the ulernory of his "youthful indiscretions" go quietly to sleep 1 1 1 4 3 ,, in k , as soon as may be. We do not suppose there can be feel 6 1 use in advising such a person, and we certainly do not I n i,, ; 4 i s Posed to take any p/rticular trouble about so unpro ,,--wg an experiment. If, however, he should think proper our well -meant suggestion, to refrain from enlarging the lf catalog" of his " indiscretions," and to throw him te h ia i tt once on the mercies of public oblivion, we shall always NZ Christian satisfaction in the idea of having been in tr-Zindsental in sending home a fool to be taken care of by his It a „ W EEKLY DISPATCH.--311t. COCHRANE AND Tl!!E ur stassramots OF WESTMINSTER. -1 hat remarkably vain — " 4 equally silly personage, Mr. Cochrane, who has lately Indered himself . conspicuous as a working merpber of th °°t Min's Guardian Society, and by poking his nose into tru.P-kettles, and all for the sake of gaining a little popu „aii;:tY ere the struggle for Westminster's representation , take v n ca. has t hreateried the worthy proprietor of The Sun with tion. -e eattae he has admitted into the columns of_ his u A u _ „pende n t ;,„„__, v ed rzio .ia Zuu number of letters relating to one Juan electors, it was a f h h e he et, l e t t it:e a r i s P era nnage than pinir . of the el rane Coch himself. Two or three hinted by the writers, l m es e s et a . , all consequent upon the appearance . of red Th e Sun, have since taken place , and from at those meetings, we advise Mr. Cochrane, all fart have any regard for his character or pocket to stay to tb, her law proceedings. To render the case intelligible article": who had not an opportunity of perusing an the n the subject of the election of Westinster, inserted in e i a - naisatch last week, we may repeat, m that some years s ince one J uan de Vedra travelled the counties of Kent and et a e ;as a Spanish minstrel. He was a smart foppish sort .ellow who thought every personal wo came in contact 1 _" 1 . • hint deeply smitten with his appearance. His tu l a_e_lr glossy hitir, rendered still more glossy by some unc- Nun" aPpliance—his fanciful dress, and his gentlemanly de- Prc)nebt-all these, added to a good natural voice and the o .. e ueieney he had attained as a guitarist, rendered him an .., 01 et of peculiar interest among the gentry, by whom he ,7eas._elloticed, and taken from the streets into their houses and ;;:liesit.ys,otinSgundry young ladies thought him " a nice young 1 1`1 1 :' and married ladies confessed their admiration ot him. .people flitted with him, and the old folk became gay in the mpany of the poor exile(' Spaniard—the and r yt,org creature who had been obliged to quit his country ii home in consequer ce of having formed political notions c,l to the exerting Government. Presently Juan de after having visited Canterbury, Margate. Rains mta and Brighton, published a book, in which not sparing in his remarks upon the gay and vole c induct of these who had fed him, and furnished him i l t y t er d and gold. The yo un g were reiained that they had .' e with a st ranger , an d t h e m ore matronly blushed for e t folly and the dirty conduct of Juan de Vedra. Time, the eit agsnt in developing all hidden things, at length dis covered the au th or of the work to be, not Juan de Vedra, but i. t i A ir• Coch rane , and many were the curses uttere d a gainst nt lu consequence. We had lost sight of Mr. Cochrane for s :"Y ea-a ; but at length his name came upon the carpet, In c liii.nction with that of Mr. Walter, Mr. Bond Cabbell, M b:l m)% n• 1 Mr. Hansard, and since then he has been a sort of soup tfahi:ettuyare,er-general to the Poor Man's Guardian Society ii b i 7he-bv, whose greatest claim to notice has with which it has hitherto wormed subscrip t:lll2.7 out of the pockets of the rich, for the alleged object of i'll , tii , g the poor—though how many poor men and ert have been assisted by the society, except in the t r r t , cle of soup, we have it not in our power to state. Well, "• Cochrane, backcd up by the soup-kettles, and thinking that his connexion with a few great men besides, amid c3pecially the Poor Man's Guardian Society, must Selre him a 'great 'teal of notice and popu l ar i ty, offered !Ant - Itself to represent Westminster, anti then came the letters Ide 1 1 The Sun, wondering whether Mr. Cochrane was the Juan Vedra of such unenviable notoriety. Mr. Cochrane bore the Pelting like a martyr for some days ; but at length the -- tv is P 1. 0 yea r. ea9e' THE SUN leaven of uneasiness Was so strong within him, that it turned up his bile, and he forthwith caused an advertisement to be inserted in the daily journals, stating that he had employed a solicitor to bring an action against the proprietor of The Sun for the levelling observations of his correspondents. There was more in the proceeding than was meant. Mr. Cochrane never mended to bring an action against Mr. Young, and Mr. Young is not the man to be frightened at a shadow. So a parcel of Mr. Cochrane's friends called a meeting, and they summoned him to their presence. Then and there Mr. Cochrane admitted that he had travelled through Kent and Sussex as . a minstrel ; that he per sonated Juan de Vedra ; that he wrote a book ; that he re ceived money from the public—only ho said that the book was not of such an infamous character as had been described ; still he would not have written what he had printed upon more mature deliberation, and he must attribute the publication to youthful folly. With regard to the money which he had collected (some 501. or 601.), he said he had presented it to the Spanish refugees. Now, we ask whether such a man as this is a fit person to represent the important city of Westminster ? We look upon Mr. Cochrane as a mere adventurer; a sort of place-hunter, to whom any situation would he a god send. We must look to men of character, talent, and station, to represent our metropolitan boroughs, possessing as they do immense and enlightened constituen cies. We do not require your Quixotic adventurers ;we want a man acquainted with commerce, statistics, and figures, and, above all, well read in the history of Europe; and if we may draw a conclusion, after reading Mr. Cochrane's speeches, he is a mere surface man—a person of small-talk — with no mercantile knowlege, and with just tongue enough to humbug an old woman and blarney a young one. Mr. Coclirane's doom is sealed. He will not be the future repre sentative. for Westminster. We give bins this timely hint, that he may save his money. PARLIAMEN TARY BUSINESS• From the Votes and Proceedings "of the House of Commons.) SATURDAY, FEB. 27. NOTICES GIVEN AT THE PRIVATE BILL-OFFICE. The following Railway Bills are appointed to be read a second time:— WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3. Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midlands Junction De viations. Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Dudley (Stourbridge and West Bromwich). THURSDAY, MARCH 4. York and North Midland (Hull Station and Branches). Newcastle and Berwick (East Coast Line, Blyth, Seaton Sluice, and other Branches). Newcastle and Berwick (Cramlington and Percy Main, and Killingworth, and other Branches). York and North Midland (Harrogate Branch Extension and Terminus). York and Newcastle (Hartlepool Dock and Railway, and Great North of Ergland, Clarence and Hartlepool Junc tion Railway, Lease and Purchase). York and Newcastle (Wearmouth Dock Enlargement). York and Newcastle, Newcastle and Berwick, and North British Amalgamation. Eastern Counties (Enlargement of London and Stratford Stations, and Amendment of Acts). Direct London and Portsmouth, Brighton and Chichester, London, Brighton, and South Coast, and London and South-Western. Great North of India. Swansea Valley. South Wales. Vale of Neath. MAGAZINE-DAY. BLACK II 00D. Under the guise cf a magazine article, the whole somest principles of benevolence are inculcated in the paper "On Pauperism and its Treatment." Although we cannot detect any coincidence between the writer's views on political economy and the great system re cently introduced into the British Constitution by the Imperial Parliament, we are eager to express our own coincidence in those philanthrophic sentiments which have evidently dictated ,the contribution. At such a crisis, when almost a moiety of the population of the United Kingdom is suffering from the agonies of starva tion, when Government is advancing to Ireland alone a sum of not less than 10,000,0001., when throughout the diversities of society, from our Sovereign Lady down to the simplest handicraftsman among her subjects, the good work of national charity is prospering, it is grati fying to see the abilities of a publication like Blackwood directed to so useful and important a purpose. How ever erroneous may be the opinions of the contributor as to the instruments most advisable to be employed for the distribution of imperial bounties, We are not loth on that account to acknowledge the excellence of the aim of the proposition. Little permanent benefit, however, can be anticipated from the unanimous efforts making in behalf of the Irish, unless a better disposition be evinced by them for the reception and application of that assistance. We are far from alluding to the peasantry themselves, for we know by their patience and long suffering, during the storms of external; agitation and the anguish of do mestic dearth, that they are an enduring, unrepining, gentle, and eminently religious race. The speech de livered from the throne, by the lips of her most gracious Majesty Victoria, contained an eulogistic allusion to this noble spirit of endurance of the Irish peasantry under afflictions which would have rendered other men morally distraught and in no manner prepared to bend without a struggle or a murmur to the pitiless casual ties of vegetation and the terrible decrees of an omniscient and all-merciful God. It is to the absent landowners, to the smaller resident land lords, and the larger tenant-farmers, that our observa tion is peculiarly applicable. Unless these men exhibit a better inclination to co-operate with the Legislature, the evils of penury and scarcity cannot be permanently eradicated from that hapless island. While the robust and thriving sons of the latter class are actually die patched as labourers to the public works, for the purpose of filling their own maws and pockets at the expense of the humble destitute, it were madness to anticipate any effectual advantages to accrue to the country indiscrimi nately. Out-door relief, enlargement of poor-houses, distribution of s: ed to the amount of 50,0001., wholesale manufacture of soup under the supervision of M. Soyer, complicated commissariat, and ten millions of money, will be wholly unable to restore happiness and prospe rity to the desolate hills and valleys of Hibernia, if these things are c, ntinued, if these men are permitted to thrive on their damning trade with impunity, if this heinous crime—the defrauding of the poor—one of the four great crimes crying out to heaven for vengeance —be connived at, and allowed to pass unpunished. Men like these are traitors not only to this country, but to their race and kind. In little truth, they are nothing less than assassins and homicides. Call things by their right names, and those are the names we should give them. Speak from the heart the language of the heart, and we should exclaim with Emilia, in Othello: " 0 that there were in every honest hand a whip, To lash such rascals naked through the world." The opening article is followed by a narrative translated from the Danish, ant called " The Poacher ; or Jut land a hundred and thirty years since." " A Ride to Magnesia" is a pleasant description of a scene but seldom described, and consequently one that is doubly agreeable from its novelty. Since the period of Sir Stamford Raffles the Spice Islands, in the Indian Ocean, have continued to attract more and snore attention, both from the central character of their position, and the rich ness of their productions. Any additional account of any individual island in that magnificent archipelago is hence of a remarkable interest, and from these reason!, as well as from the admirable manner in which it is compiled, the contribution in relation to Java is not the least attractive in the number. Building upon an ec • centric fabric of the romantic and the real, from a theme which Cooper and Walter Scott, in his " Peveril of the Peak," and Robert Southey, in his " Oliver Newman," had already exhausted, a certain writer in Blackwood has thought proper to favour the public with his remi niscences of travel, and has christened his lucubration " The Cave of the Regicides." An euphoneous title enough, and .one calculated to raise goblin phantasms in the imagination of the populace, but stale, marvellously stale, to speak truly. Whatever may be the ideas of this individual as to the "usual buffooneries," as he elo quently styles them, of Thomas Carlyle, we defer to him whether it might not be advisable to copy somewhat of the purpose with which that great writer always in vests anything that proceeds from his pen. Let him look well to the beam before he becomes parlous about the mote—let him look to his own literary sins before he presumes to turn critic. In the commencement of the paper headed " Latest from the Peninsula," there is a crushing review of the recent "Overland Journey to Lisbon," by Mr. T. M. Hughes. The sarcasm is caustic and excoriating: Ebony evinces a matchless acerbity: old Christopher lays his crutch about him lustily. The criticism is not altogether unmerited, and as a piece of satire is delightful. Among the verses inserted in this number, the following epigram is not bad:— " bait, hook, and hair, are used by angler fine ; Emma's bright hair alone were bait, hook, line ;" though we doubt whether the verb and the nominative ease in the second verse agree in number. The next is better. " Faraday" says the writer " was the first to elicit the electric spark from the magnet; he found that it is visible at the instants of breaking and of renewing the contact of the conducting wires; ansi only then. " Around the magnet Faraday Is sure that Volta's lightnings play; But how to draw them from the wire? Ile took a lesson from the heart : 'Tis when we meet, 'tis when we part, Breaks forth the electric fire." The short poem, " To the Stethoscope," is beautifully conceived, and from the exquisite melody and fanciful ness of the opening passages we anticipated a metrical gem but seldom found in a magazine. The close, how ever, is so wretched—it is such a miserable anti-climax in style, that we were singularly disappointed. To wards the commencement we find this graceful conceit:— " Ye stars which bloom like flowers on high, Ye flowers which are the stars of earth." Towards the conclusion comes— " Life shall sometimes sound a blast, But it shall be but Tantivy !" 0, for a corner to enshrine that " Tantivy" in the bathos of Martinus Scriblerus. The au voleur, ate voleur, aft voleur, au voleur of Sganarelle, in the " Pre cieuses Ridicules" of Moliere, is not more droll. A letter on the " Divining Rod" (little less disagreeable than a letter from a creditor), and a humorous re. minder of the Noctes, called " Horse Catullianze," .erminate the March number. FRASER. The opening article of Fraser will be read with great interest. It is a carefully digested resume' of all the various systems of National Education at pre e sent in operation in the different countries of Europe, and it contains more really useful informa tion on the subject than is to be found in all the pon derous octavos and lengthy letters with which the public has of late been bored on the subject. This article is followed by a romantic Mexican tale, " Mata siete, the Hunter ;" and then we have a paper on the " Condition of Authors in England, Germany, and France," from which it appears that pencraft in Eng land is more amply remunerated than in other countries, always excepting those brethren of the quill who devote themselves to the concoction of dramas, for whom France is a very El Dorado, and which fact fully accounts for the monopoly of dramatic manufacture which France at present enjoys. Lord John Manners is the literary legis lator who sits for his portrait this month. The article is elaborately written ; the author treats his subject evidently con amore, but he rates far too highly the talents and the influence of this interest ing, but, certt s, not altogether disinterested enthu siast—if enthusiast he be. The political article for the month treats of Lord George Bentinek's desti tute shareholders' relief Bill, under the title of " The Great and Comprehensive Measure." The writer evidently began his article with the intention of going " the whole hog " in praise of the proposition of " the stable mind," but as he went on, his common sense revolted at the stupendous folly (and if not folly the something worse) of the proposition of his hero, and he ends by confessing that he " cannot much lament the issue." He, however, throughout argues as if that proposition were to advance money to the Government to con structthenat o tional railroads, instead of being what it really was—a proposition to advance money to share holders rig expenditure the of marketwh theich with public Government was overt to have no control. The question as to the propriety or impropriety of th e G overnmen t un d er t a ki ng the con struction of railroads in Ireland as great national works for the national benefit, was not brought be fore the House by L or d G. 13e ntin lc. It was b brought before the t i House ad wn oaofst entered some the eeeiteemre rejected de years since, 3hh y eae ntn tti Lordimreikle, private ntei l eI enterpriseoh rispe party, propositionah r , at a out time mere when dethbe spiritetLi do o.rf would AGt. have been advantageously carried into e ff ec t, because t y d d , and it ill becomes them now to complain, unless thy first cry peccavi. In the following observations on the measures to be adopted for the social regene ration of Ireland, we entirely concur, and use trust that landlords of Ireland, when they read the senti ments of this, the organ of the Tory party (they al ready know the opinions of every other party in the empire) will, instead of indulging in vain complaints or vexations, because fruitless, opposition to the Go verninent measures, set their shoulders to the wheel, and aid and assist those who are doing their best to regenerate their country. The writer says— " The tenures by which land is held, in property a n d in occupancy, in Ireland, exhibit such a mass of confu sion and complexity as cannot be paralleled any when: else throughout the world. This must be remedied. The right of sale, in whole or in part, must be conceded a t ( n ) d e v n e i r2 e , e p r; e p a r r ie perty. is there any just ca use why Ireland should e not in every other respect be assim ilated to England. If years and ( E ) t r n such ar.d like, lease s for converted r u to mi pro perty. - o English rights and immunities be conferred up-in her, it but, tpir !hat s h e s h ou ld pa y Eneish taxes. Hereto fore her exireme povert), and the backward state of her population, have afforded excuses for a tardiness in le gislation which could not stand a moment's impartial y: . .. FRIDAY, MARCH 5. MONDAY, itAncii S. Harwich and Eastern Counties Junction Railway and Pier from Harwich to the Eastern - Union Railway at Ardleigh. COLONIAL EXPENDITURE. (No. 680, Session 1846.) It appears, by papers printed by order of Parliament, that the yearly cost of the British Colonies is 3,171,6461., of which the military and naval expenses are actually 2,630,804/. 3s. 7d. Some of the items of this sum are as under :- 1843- 4—Military and Naval Expenses of Gibraltar ••• ... ... ... £221,537 8 7 Malta ... ... ... ... 140,702 11 5 Jordan Islands ..• ••• ••• 131,227 5 1 St. Helena ... ... , ... 28,000 9 5 Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Cape Coast 38,332 17 4 Cape of Good Hope ..... ... 297,061 10 5 Mauritius... ... ••• ' ••• 87,031 8 6 Bermuda ... ... .... ... 96,161 5 10 The Windward and Leeward Command, viz. : Barbadoes, Trinidad, &c. ... ..• 319,560 11 2 Jamaica, &c. ... .. •.• 209,811 2 6 Lower and Upper Canada .. : • • 526,034 16 6 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Ed ward's Island, and Newfoundland ... 176,660 12 9 Ceylon ... _ ..• ••• ••• 111,728 3 3 Australia, Nov Zealand, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land ... ••• 195,954 3 0 General Military Charge s ... ..• 48,941 2 2 SPORTING INTELLIGENCE. (RECEIVED THIS DAY.) LIVERPOOL STEEPLE CHASE. LIVEItrOOL, SUNDAY AFTES.NOON.—The fOliOWiDg horses have arrived up to five o'clock : Brunette, Bally bar, The False Heir, Frederick, Latitat, Marengo, Proceed, Cavendish, St. Ruth, Red Lancer, Bar maid, Clinker, Roarer, Mathew, and Cumberland Lassie. The ground is in excellent order. HUNTING APPOINTMENTS. Baron Rothschild's stghds., Thurs. Wing-11. Mr. Brand's hds. , Thu rs., Ribley heath ; Sat., Wrest Park -104. Cleveland hds., Thurs., Capt. Cook's Monument-11. Devon hds., Thurs., Godstone Gate. Mr. Drake's hds., Tues., Middleton Toll-bar; Thurs., Ily cote Kennel; Sat., Warkworth Village-10i. Bedale hds., Wed., Wood End ; Fri., Kirby Fleetbam-11. Durham County lids, Tues., Thorpe; Fri., Elmore-10i. F. B. hds., Fri., Trewithen Cross. Haydon hds., Wed., East Woodburn; Sat., Dlanetley. llurworth hds., Tues., Hornby Village; Thurs., Over Dins dale ; Sat., Kennels-1(N. Mr. S. Lowndes' lids., Wed., Whaddon Common ; Sat., Beachampton Grove-11. Oakley hds., Thurs., Kempston Wood ; Sat., Thuileigh Windmill-4 to 11. Lord Parker's hds., Tues., Holton Park ; Fri., Chequers Court. Raby hds., Tues., Mansfield ; Thurs., Winston Bridge ; Sat., Wakertield—ll. Sinnington lids., Tues., Dial Stone Inn ; Fri., Tylass Bridge. Tisdale hds., Thurs., Shortfiat Tower ; Sat., Warden-101. Mr. Watson's hds., Wed., ,Saltwick Village ; Fri., Nun ny kirk.-10 i/ 2 York and Ainsty hds., Tues., Skip Bridge; Thurs., Pill Moor • Sat., Copgreve. Aikton hrrs., Thurs., Higham Lcddie Inn, Aikton ; Fri., Blue Bell Inn, Woodhouse. Carlisle hrrs., Thurs., Victoria Inn, Hornmill Station; Sat.. Stockdale Walk. Eamont hrrs., Wed., Kirkbythore ; Sat., Longwathby— 101 / . 1 2 . Mr. Fane's hrrs., Wed., Great Milton ; Sat., Postcomb. Her Majesty's staghounds meet three days next week in the Vale of Aylesbury. Holderness hds., Mon., Lowthorpe Lodge • Thurs , Cavil Hall ; Fri., Neswick ; Sat., Brandesburton-4 to 11. Brighton hrrs., Mon., Patch= ; Wed., Racecourse; Fri; Dvlie—i to 11. `Brookside hrrs., Mon., Newmarket Hill; Thurs., Tels combe•tye--1014. Fiudon hds., Tues., Michelgrove ; Thurs., Kennel ; Sat., Thunders Barrow-11. Eastbourne hrrs., Mon., East Dean Lighthouse; Thurs., Snap Hill; Sat., Willingdon Old Miil- 1 4 to 11. Glyndbourne hrrs., Mon., Newhaven Barn ; Fri., Broyle. Worcestershire hds., Dion., Witloy ; Wed., Old Hills; Fri., Bredon Ledbury hds., Mon., 'Kennels ; Fri., Highwain. Lord Redesdale's hds., Mon., Heythorp ; Wed., North As ton ; Fri., Moreton in: the Marsh ; Sat., Blenheim. Ludlow hds., Wed., Osker ; Fri., Sowdle-10. Herefordshire hds., Tues., Stoke Lacy Turnpike ; Fri., Harewood End. Crawley and Horsham hds., Mon., Monk's Gate; Wed., Braid Ridge; Fri., Kingsfold. Essex Union lids., Wed., South Wood; Sat., Rettenden Mr. llorndon's lids., Mon., Trebartha Villa; Thurs., Ta merton Bridge. Mr. Roe's hds., Wed., Bablnd Gate ; Sat., Ilatisbon Cross. Tiverton hds., Morebath ; Thurs., Dulverton ; Sat., Bick leigh Bridge-10%. Wheatland hds., Mon., Monkhepton ; Wed., Willey Park ; Fri., Harpsford. Mr. Drax's hdo., Mon., Hurton St. Mary; Thurs., King's Arms, Charlton Horethorne. Burton Vale lids., Tues., Wall bridge; Sat., Bishop's Caundle Hill-111. We have authority to state that the Mrs. Butler announced to give readings at the Hanover-square Rooms, on Tuesday, the 2d March, is not the Mrs. Butler, late Miss Fanny Kemble. THE SPEAKER'S LEVEE.—The Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons held his second and last levee, on Saturday night, at his mansion in Eaton-square, previous to which he had a Parliamentary entertainment. The following noblemen and gentlemen dined with the Right Hon. Gentleman :—Lord J. Stuart, the Hon. I'. Vesey, the Hen. W. S. Lascelles, the Hon. 0. Stanley, Sir T. D. Acland, Bart., Sir R. Vyvyan, Bart., Sir R. H. Inglis, Bart., Sir W. Ileathcote, Bart., Sir R. A. Ferguson, Bart., Sir J. Duck worth, Bart., Captain Jones, Mr. E. Buller. Sir J. Packing ton, Batt., Mr. Bramston, Mr. W. Villiers Stuart, Mr. R. M. Milnes Mr. Wrightson , Mr. W. Ord, Mr. Spencer H. Wal pole, Mr. Brotberton, Mr. Thornlev, Mr. 11. R. Yorke, Mr. Mr. Compton, Mr. Fusey , Mr. Beckett, and 74 H t . r. K S . e cr y m . e' B. Esteourt. Among the members of the House of Commons who assembled to pay their respects ob t h h o e us h e a ll u s c i s u n o t f D to ou t r h o e , 3.Honnu.ssGe'lel,ntlsemiranj. wce.ren, dleshain L C ord J. Manse rs, Lord Marcus Hill, Lord Ren Lor H 'lt T . t dC. anu on, 'scout) Villi e rs, Viscount Castlereagh, Lord E. Russell, Lord Lord J. Hotham, Lord A. Hervey , Thesiger, Sir D. Le Sir C. Napier, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, S ht H R Vernon R ig on. • Morpeth, Lord H. Vane, Viscount_Niroir,t.hland, Sir J. Walsh, Marchant, Sir Howard Douglas, the Sir G. Cap Mrey, ax he t Smith, the Right Hon. 11. Goulburn, lion. J. Stuart Wort ley, lion. G. Rice Trevor, the Righ t Hon. Solicitor-General, lion. Cecil Lawless , Hon • C well, the Right Hon. Captain Villiers, Sir J. W. Hogg, Sir J. Tyrrell, lion. R Lindsay, Captain Duncombe, Sir J. 111•Taggart, Sir R.Price, Sir P. Grey Egerton, Sir G. Staunton, Sir J. 11. Lowther, T. D'Eyncourt, Hon. Charles P. Colonel T. Wood, Colonel Mure, Captain Polhill, Mr. Taylor, Mr. A. B. Hope, Mr. Mildmay, Mr. Mackinnon, Mr. Rice, Hon. H. Berkeley, Mr. Parker, Mr. Mattheson, Mr. A. S. O'Brien, Mr. G. Repton, Mr. Hutt, Hon. C. Howard, Mr. G. Ward, Mr. Tutlnell, Mr. Watson, Mr. Marshall Mr. B. Betfield, Mr. Barkley, Mr. R. R. Clayton, Colone , Austen, Mear•Admiral Bowles, Colonel Reid, the Right Hon. F Shaw, Mr. Hindley, Mr. Acland, Captain Glad stone, Mr. Finch, Mr. Holdsworth, Mr. Shirley, Mr. E. Shirley, Mr. B. Hawes, Mr. Pulman, Mr. Q. Dick, Mr. Loch, Mr. Moliatt, Mr. Rashleigh, Mr. Fellowes, Mr. J. Neel.', Mr. J. A. Smith, Mr. Blackstone, Mr. Hussey, Mr. Hum phrey, the O'Connor Don, Mr. M. Gore, M r . Birch, Mr. Wickham, Ilon. W. Cowper. Mr. Stansfield, Captain Rush out, Mr. Dennistoun, Mr. Baillie, Mr. A. Letrov, Mr. W. Ellis, Mr. Deedcs, Mr. G. Duncan, the Right Hon. Fox Maule, Mr. Tattered, Mr. J. Wood, Mr. Parke, Hun. G. C. W. Forester, Mr. Entwisle, Mr. Stanton, &c. POLAND.-- GRAND MEETING To-MORROW ON CRACOW, AT FREEMASON S' HALL, THE MA 11.QVIS OF NO RTHAMFTON IN THE CH AIR. —We perceive, with an feipied pleasure, that the friends of Poland are going to take a step which cannot but be approved by every upright man, and exercise a great influence both in England and on the Continent. It is to mark with public indignation the recent violation of the treaty of Vienna, and to petition the Crown on the annexation of the Republic of Cracow to Austria. The tyranny of the three despotic powers of Russia, Austria, and Pru ,, ia. will be powerfully exposed by many public cherac ters, i n cluding several Members of Perliament, who Lave determined to take a part in the manifestation of feelings , excited throughout the civilised world, on account of the destruction of the last relic of Polish nationality. 'LONDON, MiDSrbAV*EVENTING, MARCH 1, 1847. consideration. But the moment you put her in a fair way of getting rid of these evils, you have a perfect right to deal with her, in other respects, as you deal with the rest of the Queen's dominions. Probably the inter mediate result will be, a prodigious changing of hands in the landed property of the kingdom. If we be rightly informed, there are few estates in Ireland which are not mortgaged to ball their money value ; there are many which, if sold te-morrow, would leave no residue, or next to none, to the' nominal proprietors. Most of the former, all the latter, will, of course, pass into new hands, and many a familj , of historical note disappear. But though we may lament this as a shock to private feeling; on public grounds we are constrained to add, that it is " a consummation devoutly to be wished." Of all the incubi on the improvement of a people, a poor hut ancient gentry is the heaviest. The peasant 100k3 up to the descendent of a long line of proprietors, under whom he and his fathers have worked for ages, with a degree of reverence which he cannot feel for a new man; and the poverty of the' chief, as it keeps the serf poor likewise, so it effectually hinders both the one and the other from rising in the scale of humanity. Indeed, we will go further. Though we are no advocates for the French system, and the minute subdivision of landed property which it occasions, we confess that very large estates do not appear to us to be desiraMe in a country circumstanced as is Ireland. Very large estates, embrac ing whole counties, or half counties, cannot be rightly attended to by their owners, even if they be resident ; and as in Ireland almost all such belong to absentees, they operate as a hotbed for the growth of agents,—a race not very poptil4r or useful anywhere, and least of all in the Emerald lA. We believe, therefore, that the facilities afforded to'lrish proprietors for disposing of their lands will accomplish good in this respect among others, that it will largely increase the numbers of the resident gentry; and that the manners of the rich being copied in the farm-house and in the cottage, Ireland, under a better system of social management, may vet become the most flourishing section of the United Kingdom." And that it will so become if these measures are ho nestly carried out, there can be no doubt. Then, and not till then, will be the time to consider the pro priety of giving Government assistance to railroads. The remaining articles of this numbea are all good ; the best, perhaps, being a paper by Sam Slick, enti tled " How many Fins has a Cod ?" opportunity so permitted, into the smaller thoroughfates eading into Piccadilly, Trafalgar-square, the Strand, "Fleet-street, Ludgate-hill, St.. Paul's Churchyard, Cheapside, the Poultry, King William-street, and ao on by " the silent highway " to the Tower cif London. Only once does he diverge con siderably from the main artery of the capital, namely in his chapter on Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, and the Houses of Parliament. As may be readily con. jectured, the main portion of the two volumes is coin posed of recollections more or less modern, the more antiquated parts of the city having been either consumed by the greet fire of 1666, or obliterated by the encroach ments of time, or the innovations and improvements effected by the ingenuity of man. Some conception may be formed of the difficulties which present them selves to the antiquarian is his researches through the metropolis, when we remember that the birthplace of Chaucer is a spit altogether undiscoverable, and that the famous " boar's head" in Eastcheap, immortalized by Shakspere, as the resort of Prince Hhl and Sir John Falstaff, stood on the very spot new occupied by the statue of William the Fourth in King William-street. From the restriction, therefore, of the present work, simply to the line running from Piccadilly parallel with the Thames, it is manifest that Mr. Smith's work cm only be regarded as one of a series in a delineation of London. Those who bear in recollection the glorious papers published some years since in Blackwood's Ma gazine, by John Fisher Murray, and entitled the World of London," will know how much may be written upon the capital of Great Britain without ex hausting the subject. And that impression will only he confirmed by the perusal of those two volumes. The deficiencies of the work as an antiqua rian ramble in the streets of London are too apparent to require enumeration, but they are such deficiencies as it would be impossible to cast in depreciation either at the writer, Mr. J. T. Smith, or the editor, Dr. Charles Mackay. Both those gentlemen have performed their labour of love with industry and talent. As far as the work is concerned individually it is complete ; it is only as an antiquarian account of London in the abstract that it is so marvellously incom plete and unsatisfactory. One word alone upon the title-page redeems the production from a charge of in sincerity, namely, the word which designates it as a " Ramble." A desultory ramble enough it certainly is, but a pleasant one withal, end from the beginning to the end the author chatters away with a voluble and delight ful fund of information. It would be almost as super fluous, if not as preposterous, ae the presentation of a brick as the sample of a house by scholasticos in the " Witticisms of Hierocles," to quote a mere fragment froleeehe chapters h.etein contained about the streets of L;o . ndopo. We dean leave the literary fabric of Mr. Smith. unflawed.',` by `the abstraction of a solitary brickeidismiseinkie from our consideration with senti meets of gratittaile fier the pleasure which its perusal Was atforded use 'The author of " Nollekens and his 'Fitnee," has here presented hiecountrymen with a legacy appropriate to bath donor and donee. POLMAN' S. In accordance wlth a custom which has become somewhat prevaleibt with monthly publications, Polman se4llM — . in price by half of its ori itial—gattite:' Otherwise there is scarcely any perceptible alteration in the periodical. Saving that its amount of pages is slightly diminished, the magazine is characterized by all its previous excel lence. Under the conduct of its new editor, the articles are, as heretofore, selected with care and discrimination. Without lapsing into a merely ecclesiastical organ, Dol man still continues the indisputable mouthpiece of the Ro man Catholics of England ; it combines agreeable com positions for the general reader, and contributions essentially of a nature peculiar to the religion. From a paper entitled "Future prospects of Ireland," we would, had our space permitted, have made copious extracts, seeing that the suggestions contained therein a r e s e nsible and new. The editor continues his serial upon the Penal Laws, a subject which has latterly acquired a peculiar interest, from the gradual passage of Mr. Watson's Bill, for their abolition, through the Lower House of Par liament. His eloquent predecessor, Mr. Miles Gerald Keen, pursues his interesting paper upan " Holy Week at Oscott," it is written with a loving tenderness of pur pose, and a calmness of contemplation that occasionally merges in philosophic profundity. The contribution throughout is large from its thoughtfulness ; and the miscellaneous contents are arranged with an attention compatible with the excellence of the preceding portions. DOMBEY AND SON. No. VI. By Charles Dickens. As might have been anticipated, there is a mournful description of the sorrowing of Florence for her " dear dead brothel" in the present number. it is exquisitely delineative of the woes and memories of a young and lonely heart. The account -of her mid night visit of conciliation to ber inexorable father, with his repulse of her proferred affection is beautiful but harsh. " Let him remember it in that room, years to come!" Diogenes the " ridiculous dog," not the cynic philosopher, Mr. Toots, even Towlinson and the wooden midshipman who is declared to be quite a " callous, obdurate, and conceited midshipman" in his way, are severally introduced. But Captain Cuttle, the superb diplomatist of Brig place, the gentleman who wears a silver watch of such plethoric dimensions, that it comes out of his fob like a bung, the simple-hearted sailor, who sticks a small sunflower in his button-hole "to give him a relish of the country," the sympathetic listener, who sits with a grin on his face and " a tear on his shirt collar," stupid, excellent, delightful, ab surd Captain Cuttle is the principal feature in No. 6, from his interview with Mr. Carker and Mr. Perch to his farewell with Walter on the latter setting sail for Barbadoes. The same lavish drollery, the same pensive and pathetic sentiments, the same natural and unaffected eloquence which have characterised the preceding portions of this inimitable work stream through these three addi tional chapters. In an advertisement prefixed to the number we observe the announcement of a projected republica tion of the various writings of Mr. Dickens in a form as convenient as it is novel, and at a price which may with perfect truth be termed unprecedented. A rich and noble casket of wisdom, wit, and the gentlest humanity, will thereby be opened indiscriminately to the people. HOWITT'S JOURNAL, Weekly and monthly in its form of publication, Mr. llowitt's periodical offers attractions to a large body of readers. Its very title is a sufficient indication of the spirit in which it is conducted, and forms a guarantee that in its pages the cause of the people will not merely be respected, but sedulously and energetically advocated. We have already observed upon the distinguished cha racter of its contributors, and we may here repeat some of the names which will be discovered in the March part, viz.:—R. 11. Horne, Silverpen, Thomas Cooper, Hans Christian Andersen, Dr. Bowring, and Dr. Smiles. The editor himself evinces remarkable industry. Although the engravings are rather indifferent, the literary con tents are sufficiently meritorious to compensate for . that single deficiency. 7qIE SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENA OF DO MESTIC LIFE, familiarly explained by C. F. Gower. Second Edition. This is a most interesting and instructive little work ; its object is admirable and it is admirably carried out. In his introductory observations, the author remarks that, in the present intellectual age, while it is customary to teach children " every art, every smence,andevery ac complishment that the mind of man can suggest, we too often forget to teach them that which would turn all these to good effect : we forget to teach them to think, to reason, te, observe. It is for this purpose that this little book has been written ; it is to illustrate the great book of nature." In all books of instruction, the man ner of teaching is almost of as much importance as is the matter that is taught. The ars celare artein is here most necessary ; it is desirable to give information without seeming to teach. Children, and indeed persons of all ages aro generally willing, and often delighted to learn but they cannot bear being taught. Hence there are donbtless many who will experience much pleasure, and derive much profit, from the perusal of Mr. Gower's little volume, who would turn coldly and carelessly away from the very same information, if conveyed" in a more pretei ding manner. But perhaps the most valuable quality of this work is, its so ably fulfilling its author's intention of inducing people to think. In ordinary edu cation, far more is thought of learning by rote than by reason ; it seems generally to be forgotten, that the great object of education should be to cultivate the mind rather than store the memory. It is not the absolute knowledge of certain facts that is desirable, but the improvement that the acquisition of such knowledge ' liquid occasion in the intellectual powers. To under stand one thing, however simple it may be, is infinitely more advantageous than to possess superficial informa tion regarding a hundred. The best system of educa tion is undoubtedly that which secures both objects, af. fording information in such a manner as to make it tend to develop the reasoning faculties. Such is the system pursued by Mr. Gower. Taking as the subjects of his investigation the common occurrences of daily life he enables us to understand what is going on around us, and by showing what wonders are contained in things apparently the most simple, he induces a habit of thought and inquiry. Thus beginning with the bed room, he tells us bow the frost is formed on the window ; why the marble feels so much colder than the carpet, &c. ; and so on through the succeeding chapters of the " Break. , fast Parlour," where the tea-kettle gives rise to an int o - I resting account of the discovery of steam ; the "Morn ing Walk ;" the "Study ;" the " Summer's Evening ;" " Navigation—Latitude—Longitude ;" and the " sea shore," In each of these chapters the explanation of any little incident or object imperceptibly leads the way to some more important information ; thus we learn what effect the moon produces upon the tides ; about atmospheric pressure ; the barometer and the atmos pheric railway, &c., &e. In visiting the kitchen we are instructed in the mysteries of bread-making ; in the walk in the fields some useful information is given about evaporation—practically useful indeed. We arc told, that evaporation produces cold, and " for this reason re maining in wet clothes is dangerous ; the evaporation that takes place, during the time they are drying, carries away so large a portion of heat from the body, as almost certainly to induce cold, and all the thousand diseases which follow in its train. When a person is obliged to remain in wet clothes, the best method to adopt is, to prevent evaporation, by covering them with a makintosh or any other garment that will keep the moisture in." The perusal of this little volume, besides affording useful knowledge on subjects of which many, even educated persons, are ignorant, must necessarily have a beneficial effect upon the mind and hearts of its readers; upon their minds by habituating them to look around with a spirit of in quiry, and by enabling them not only to learn, but to understand, how certain effects produce certain causes ; and it can hardly fail to have a beneficial influence upon the heart, for it is hardly possible to contemplate the wonders, and admire the beauties of creation, without increased sentiments of veneration and love to the great First Cause whose power and whose goodness has pro duced them. Such sentiments have evidently influenced the writer, and, let us hope, will influence the readers of these " Scientific Phenomena." As a brief epitome of the wonders which surround us, we transcribe the author's concluding observations, and dismiss the little volume with a most cordial'recommendation.' " To the observing mind an hour never passes with out food for reflection. The rich, though often unculti vated soil of human intellect, will be constantly furnish ing us with subjects for contemplation. The air in which we breathe, the earth on which we tread, the broad expanse of ocean, and the starry vault of heaven above us, are all replete with wonders. The vegetable kingdom alone would afford subjects for a lifetime. The flowers that draw their nourishment from the soil, the air, and the dew, are all furnished with functions suited to their different natures ; some turn their delicate heads to the cheering rays of the sun, and seem to drink deep from that fountain of light and heat, and close their petals the moment he parts from their view ; whilst others hide themselves in the shade, and shun the ap proach of day: to each Nature has appointed its proper place, and proper powers for keeping in the station allotted to it. In the brute creation we may observe the same order. To the domestic animal she has given strength and docility; to the beast of prey, the eye capable of piercing the darkness, and agility to seize on its destined victim; to the bird of passage she has given strength of wing, and a wonderful instinct to direct its flight. Again, if we descend into the depths of ocean, fresh wonders meet our view—from the mighty whale, the monarch of the deep, down to the diminutive min now, each as perfect as the other, though on so different a scale. Then, turning to the insect world, we see the laborious ant heaping up her store for winter consump tion; the bee, building her hexagonal cells with a regu larity equal to that of the nicest architect ; the spider, weaving her delicate thread to catch her prey ; the glow-worm, with its modicum of light,' sparkling in the dewy grass ; each with its separate sphere of usefulness, each separate insect affording a fresh theme for inquiry ; and, were it possible to exhaust all these, one glance at the microscope would again overwhelm us in endless ob jects of research. The secrets hidden in a single drop of water, which the microscope has revealed, are almost beyond our conception, discovering to us myriads of beings filling every atom of creation, and forming a world of which we scarcely know the existence. But even all these sink into nothing when compared with the wonders of the starry firmament, where thousands and thousands of suns, each the centre of a system of worlds, peopled perhaps with beings destined for immortality are nightly presented to our view. Tho extent, the magnitude, the harmony of Nature, fill us with awe and admiration, and we are lost in the contemplation of the controls,attribute directs, n softhat a ße d in g g ov w e h rn os s a e l Vaighty arm supports, - THE TRAVELLER'S MISCELLANY. There has long been a necessity for a periodical answer ing exactly to the size, exactly to the character, exactly to the talent, and exactly to the arrangement of the Travel ler's Miscellany. In all these particulars the first number, now lying before us, is admirable. Are amusing narra tives wanted, drollery, gossip, pleasant and sparkling compositions ? Here are abundance. And fur informa tion—the pages are crammed with it. We know not a publication more fitted to beguile the stages of a journey, the tran s it o f a s t eam -packet, or the inter stations of a railway trip than this excellent little magazine. It is as effectual as the most facetious com panion in scaring away the diabolit vulgo, " blue devils." It is better than an guide bOok, in respect to the miscellaneous information most useful to travellers. We would espeeially note the " Theatrical Guide," the callendar for the Current Month," the " Catalogue of Exhibitions and Amus eme nts in the Metropolis," the " Excursion Guide," the " Time Table ," the Post-office, Passport, and steam-boat Guides," cum cateris paraus. They are as copious and compact as the magazine itself is worthy of commendation. LITERATURE . AN ANTIQUARIAN RAMBLE IN THE STREETS OF LONDON. 2 Vols. By John Thomas Smith. Pleasanter books cannot well be w ritten atenneitehnatn h t o e t iie s s e , descriptive of the ancient localities o , many personal with all their historical associations. So recollections are connected with the old piles of e bri e c n k a tn e d s mortar, so many anecdotes about illuestnrteioussopremany are combined with the decaying tenements, inci dents of an attractive charact er have transpireet in more dilapidated quarters of an antique r o pr d ,l ithat n the imagination is carried b ack throghacnedntumrieeusldbeyrituhge , mere sight of the crumbled walls lintels. The late keeper of the prints and drawings in the ,British Museum, Mr. Smith,. was fully con scious of the fullness of Rain this fascination, and be has shown by his former writings,Book r y Day," and " Nollekins and his Times,". that . he pos sessed all the capabilities of selecting .. his materials from this eccentric store with di s crimi nation. .11e . was, moreover, peculiarly qualified by his professional pur suits, as well as by. his . domestic manners, to glean i f not the most recondite, facts the most interesting', associated with the history of London. And what nobler arena for the display of his peculiar abilities was there than London ? London, the most venerable city in the British islands, the most gigantic and extraordi nary of civilized times, the contemporary of Caesar and Boadicea, the central point round which from age to age the tragic drama of our national fortunes has revolved and fluctuated. Whether wecont emplate London, in regard to our sovereigns, as the spot in which our Edwards and Henrys, and Richards, have dwelt, as the scene of Charles's decapitation, of Lady . Jane Grey's imprison enti and execution, of Cromvreli's summary vengeance on the Long Pa rliament, of James's flight, of William's entrance, or of the fourth George's de baucheries; whether we consider it in relation to the poets it has harboured, from old Chaucer to blind Milton, and so on to lame Byron, or in reference to the statesmen and philosophers who have been numbered amongst its denizens, from Sir Thomas More to Lord Bacon, and from Verulam downwards; or, i n a ll us i on to its military reminiscences in the age of Marlborough sill Prince Eugene, or its artistic reminiscences in the ages of Hogarth and Flaxman; or its literary reminiscences in the ages of Farquhar and Johnson, we must always look upon it as invested with a charm in praise of which t h e m o s t extravagant panegyric could scarcely be counted as hyperbolical. Under all aspects London is fraught with interest, even in its rookeries as connected with Turpin and Ilowaro, and its prisons as associated with Sheppard and Mrs. Fry. And even in those dege nerate regions investigation would prove by no means uninstructive. From the western boundaries of nouns low, to the eastern limits of Bow, from Highgate a! d Hampstead in the north, to Dulwich and Peckham in the south, taking in the whole circumference from those suburbs, there is scarcely a single point which does not prove attractive as the home or the haunt of some re markable individual. Mr. Smith, indeed, was so con scious of the fruitfulness of his subj ec t that he has doubtless restrained his inclinations, and has restricted his antiquarian rambles to a continuous line beginning with Hyde Park•corner, and ending with the Towcr. In his pilgrimage, therefore, he comes successively upon Charing-cross, Waterloo •bridge Temple •bar , Blacktriars, Cheapside, and Loud o n-bridge, branching off occasionally as circumstances required, or as the NORFOLK ESTUARY COAIPAN Y. This company held their first half-yearly meeting on Saturday, at the Bri tish Hotel, Cockspur-street, Lord George Bentinck, M.P., in the chair. In the course of his addrees his Lordship an nounced that in consequence of the present depressed state of the money market, and fro other causes, the directors had come to the determination of recommending to the shareholders that no further step should be taken towards carry i n g out this project until the next half-yearly meeting, to be held i n Au g ust next. The statement of accounts showed that the . items of expenditure to February, 1847, were—to the engineers, 8,489/. ;to Parliamcntariagents, 1 329/. ; to solicitors, 4,422/. ss._ 6d. ; for maps, printing', &c., 5 1 4 / . iss. Bd. ; agent at Cambridge, .2511. On the other side cf the account the gross sum, including deposits, Exchequer bills, &c., appeared be 25,100/. Resolutions in conformity with the determination of the directors having been passed, the meeting separated. or DR. CRONlN.—Application was made y last to the sitting judge at chambers (Mr. Baron Parke), to allow bail to . be put in for tbe appearance before the sesaions of Dr. Cronin, who had been committed, upan on ItFrridLaEAsE the coroner's warrant, on the charge of manslaughter. Dr. Cronin was brought up from Newgate by writ of habeas co rpus, and t h e j ud g e having carefully examined the depo sitions at the inquest, consented to take bail, the doctor in The prisoner of 80/. for himself, and two sureties in 40/. each. The prisoner was then discharged out of custody. HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Coletti, the greatest cf European baritones, made his debut for the season at her Majesty's Theatre on Satur day evening, an cliquetho tC some oo d m e me h uoten.ohourrean:, enthusiasm honorable ur f ss o is r ai snt since. is manner (e:hheib e i d n day evening, in the character of Nino. The public it had tamely suffered him to be victimised by an un principled row will be fresh in the recollection of our o i i e s seldomrea . ders.) That amende was made on Saturday evening. disgraceful w w i h th ic i h n the precincts of this Theatre as that with which the appearance of Coletti was hailed, and the applause was richly deserved—a great actor, a great singer, and a handsome man, he was the very Nino of the author. His voice, of immense power, great flexibility, and of fine quality, is completely under command. His taste is exquisite, and he is an accomplished rnusi. clan. Sanchieli, who was the Abigail, is greatly im proved since last session—as powerful, as energetic as ever—her rower and her energy are more completely under command, and that detect of intonation which last season marred some of her most meritorious efforts, has disappeared. Mademois-lle Faggiani, v, ho appeared in the part of Fenana, is a great improvement upon Ma demoiselle Corbari. The choruses were magnificently given. Full justice is now done to the choral music of Verdi. Those who have only heard the old chorus under the inspirations of the Maestro can form but a faint idea of the beauties of his choral music. The or chestral effects, too, were splendidly brought out ; there was none of that " jangling and jarring" . which, from whatever cause, was, last season, sometimes painfully apparent in the orchestra, but all went har moniously. When it is considered that the present is almost entirely a new band, it must be admitted that Belle has performed wonders. His orchestra need not shrink from a comparison with any in the world. The new ballet of Coralia concluded the evening's entertainments. The house was crowded in every part. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by Prince Frederick of Hesse, and attended by the Baroness Hammerstein, the Baron Knesebeck, and Mr. Edmund St. John Mildmay, honoured the performances at this theatre on Saturday evening with her presence. There were also present his Grace the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Ailesbury, the Marquis of Donegal, the Marchioness of Douro, his Excellency the Russian Minister and the Baroness Brunow, and Mademoiselle Olga de Lechner, the Etul of Lonsdale, the Earl of Granville, the Viscount Can talupe, the Earl of Munster, the Viscount Morpeth, the lion. William Ashley (who occupied her Majesty the Queen Dowager's box), Lord Ernest Bruce, Lord Mac donald, Lord Gardner, Lord Sandys, Sir William and Lady Freemantle, Lady Curtis, Lady Grant, Sir George and Lady Carroll, Lady Smyth, Lord Suffield, Lord Adolphus Fitzclarence, Count Koudriaff,.ky, M. de Berg, Sir George Woombwell, Bart., the Hon. G. Byng, the Hon. R. Curson, the Hon. Sir T. Harvey, Sir H. Webb, Bart., Sir LI. Meux, Mr. Hubert De Burgh, Mrs. Do Burgh, and Miss De Burgh, Mr. Townley, Mr. IL Broadwood, M.P., Mr. Forde, Mr. C. Phillips, Mr. and Miss Trelawney, Mr. Broadley, Captain Greville, Col. Bowers, Captain Murray, Captain Lynn, Mr. Sand , ford, &e. MISS CLARA SEYTON'S ENTER- TAINMENTS AT MISS PALMER'S SOIREE. -----.---. Miss Clara Seyton gave her entertainment on " Eng lish Comic Opera at Miss Palmier's scientific and musical soirée last week. These soirees are most delightful re unions, combining the attractions of a private social party with those of public entertainment. They com mence at eight o'clock, and some two hundred ladies and gentlemen are assembled in a drawing room. There is music, singing, and then a lecture. on some scientific or artistical subject. The lecture on Wednesday last was delivered by Miss Clara Seyton, the subject English comic opera. Never did Miss Clara Seyton appear to greater advantage ; she was full of spirit and humour, was in excellent voice, and was much and deservedly' applauded, and as the soirée partakes of the nature of a private reunion, the audience were at terwards afforded the gratification of paying their indi vidual compliments to the great talents which had been so successfully exerted for their gratification. COURT CIRCULAR. The Queen held a Privy Council at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon at Buckingham Palace. It was at tended by his Royal Highness Prince Albert, the Mar quis of Lansdowne, Lord President ; Lord Cottenham, Lord Chancellor ; the Earl of Minto, Lord Privy Seal ; Lord John Russell, First Lord of the Treasury ; Sir George Grey, Secretary of State for the Home Depart ment ; Viscount Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies ; the Earl of Auckland, First Lord of the Ad miralty ; Sir John Hobhouse, President of the Board of Control ; Lord Campbell, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; the Earl of Clarendon, President of the Board of Trade ; the Marqttis of Clanricarde, Post master-General ; Earl Fortescue, Lord Steward ; and the Duke of Norfolk, Master of the Horse. Her Majesty having been pleased to appoint the Right Hon. Henry Earl Grey to be Lord Lieutenant of the county of Northumberland, his Lordship took the cus- tomary oaths. Mr. C. Greville was the Clerk of the Ccuncil in Waiting. The Queen gave audiences to Lord John Russell, the Marquis of Lansdowne, and Earl Grey. Her Majesty was attended by the Earl of Listowel, Lord in Waiting ; the Marquis of Loudonderry, Guld Stick in Waiting ; Lord Edward Howard, Vice Cham berlain ; Lord Marcus Hill, Comptroller of the House ' hold, an Edmund Sir Edward Codrington, Groom in Waiting. The Royal dinner party at Buckingham Palace on Saturday included her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, their Excellencies Chevalier and Madame Buns( n, Prince Lowenstein, Lady Fanny Howard, Baroness de Speth, Earl Delavvarr, Viscount and Viscountess Folke stone, Lord and Lady Dalmeny, the Right Hon. Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood ; and Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps. The band of the Royal Reginyint of horse Guards attended during dinner, and performed the following pieces : Overture—Crusaders-- Benedict. Fest March—Camp of Silesia—Meyerbeer. Introduction—" Maria Stuart "—Donizetti. March—" Midsummer's Night Dream"—Mendelssohn. Wal t z —Tolbecque. In the evening the following bad the honour of joining the Royal circle - i—The Earl find Countess of Roseberv, and the Ladies Primrose, Lord Alfred Paget, the Misses Codrington, Lieutenant-Colonel Seymour, and Captain Francis Seymour. Yesterday morning her Majesty and her Royal Con sort took their usual early walk. The Queen and Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, and the Domestic Household, attended divine service yesterday in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of London. The lion. and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay assisted in the service. The Prince of Wales, Prince Alfred, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Aliee, took their accustomed airings yesterday, • . - - • Her Royal Highness ihe Duchess of Cambridge at tended divine service yesterday in St. Michael's Church.. His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge attended divine service yesterday in St. Paul's Church. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent visited the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday at Gloucester House. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, and his Serene Highness Prince Frederick of Hesse, ho noured Italian Opera with their presence on Satur daydon Floricultural Society , had an interview with his the Chairman of the Royal South Lon don e v. evening. a t i h n e Bright, . Mr. Royal Highness the• Duke of Cambridge, at Cambridge House, on Saturday, to present the report of the Hail stone Committee, which his Royal Highness was gra ciously pleased to accept and to approve. His Marquis Cambridge honored o noret the i! with Saturday evening, and afterwards honoured Vis c o unt and Viscountess Palmerston with his com p an y , at t he ir Royal ls Highness N ne o s r s th th aet,:p Duke ton of Ca lia m residence in Carlton House - terrace. A Cabinet Council was held at half - past four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, at the Foreign-office. Tire Ministers present were Lord John Russell, the Lard Chancellor, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of Minto, Sir George Grey, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, Earl of Auckland, Sir John Hobhouse, Lord Campbell, Earl of Clarendon, Marquis of Clanricarde, the Right lion. T. B. Macaulay, and the Right Hon. H. Labouchere. Viscount Morpeth afterwards joined his colleagues. The council sat au hour and a half The Solicitor-General for Ireland had an interview with the Right Honourable T. Milner Gibson on Satur day at the Office of the Board of Trade. The Bishop of London ordained five gentleman as priests, and three gentlemen as deacons, at the early service in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, yesterday. The prayers were read by the Rev. Dr. Wes!ey, and the lessons by the Rev. Mr. Helmore. The Duke of Wellington attended the early service. The Bishop of Worcester preached the sermon at the daily service in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, yester day. The prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. Hall, the lessons by the Rev. Dr. Wesley. and the communion service by the Rev. Dr. Sleath. The anthem was, " Sing praises" (Croft). Sir G. Smart presided at the organ. EXPERT ROBBERY.—On Saturday information was given to the police of the following expert robbery of a cash-box, containing LOl. in notes and gold, which took place on Friday, at the Fountain Tavern, Clapton. It ap pears for a few days previously to the robbery a gentlemanly looking man, who represented himself to be a commercial traveller, had frequented the house to dine, and on most oc casions had done so with the landlord or landlady, in the bar-parlour. On Friday he came as usual, bringing with him a carpet-bag. Whilst dining, some one came into the bar, and kept the landlady in conversation for some time. Dinner being over, the supposed commercial gentleman paid his reckoning and departed. Shortly after this, it was dis covered that file cash-box and its contents had been carried off, and another box, exactly similar in appearance, substi tuted for it, and which, on being examined, was found to contain nothing but sand. DARING ROBBERY.—On Saturday information was r eceived by the police that the shop window of Mr. Phillips, as . No. 11, Tottenham - court - road , goldsmith and je c w o eltl.eratl. " ,c, a3 u - t smashed in by a youth dressed in a brown frock a fifteen years of age, who took out a tray of diamond, eme rald, and amethyst gold rings and brooches, and notwith standing the number of people who were passing, and an in; stant pursuit, effected his escape with the property. Flag EXPORTED.—During th e l ast season,. 17 ves sels left Yarmouth for the Mediterranean with cured her rings, having on board 2,400 tons; there have been sent by steam and railway to Liverpool and London, not less than 3,500 tons, making a total 5,900 tons of cured fish, the produce of our own fisheries. Our readers may hence infer the justice of the importance attached to this branch of com merce by the merchants of our port.—Norfolk Chronicle - - - - INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGI NEERS, FEB. 16. Sir JOHN RENNIE, President, in the Chair. The paper read was a continuation of that which was brought forward at the last meeting by Mr. G. B. W. Jackson, Assoc. Inst. C.E. It gave an " Account of the mode of gaining laud from the sea, by Polders ; and the art of building a ith fascine work, as practised in Hol land and Germany." The paper commenced by reference to the works of Mela, Weibeking, Spanzin, Calaud, Hyde Clarke, and others, as having given the best known accounts of Dutch water constructions, and the situations of these labsurs. It then described the "Polders" as being tracts of land recovered from the sea, by a construction of a belt of dykes, gradually raised to above the water level, and then pumped dry, by which means they were still rendered habitable, the level of the many more an cient being beneath that of the sea. When thus re claimed they form the finest land, and produce, for many years, immense crops, almost without the appli cation of manure. The usual construction of these d 3 kes was describsd to be, by sinking successive layers or ds of fa:•cin(s .'r faggots of about 30 inches thick, vel capped aa 3 n ; p:ipi f ol i tiuhod theysi wfB. with htmo reachedas weightedl flooring;a6n and ai a ht r bhe d oi yards erirliatiwidth,ea, the srwneedao fully uksl a let, I n o:an d :seld o ,ste f ,hs:c p m, rh r piie o bnu p negb o dll proportionate peer with n acß a ot t dip e s. quantities s u t t r i u ti c e t s io o n r of th th e e i l n a a r t g e e r r ia a ls nd emse e clay, sea-weed, and salt. These layers were continued e e t ar d ikne u gn p if o no i t i ro t t t l i i el e , m dde . el delicate The lt difficulties of the usual was constructed of more solid materials, and sometimes w . ro l olpof e t y h rtea e hdte s i o n J andn a i ; m 1 f e et smaller esoisoinn dykes,gs precau tions at nh o e l r a e r t 3l .o e b r n e n 1, 1 last portion of each dyke, which, unless skilfully con ducted, in proper weather, frequently hazards the safety of the whole work. The different kinds of lock-gates and sluices used for facilitating the outflow of the land waters and prevent ing the ingress of the sea were fully described, and drew from several members accounts of balance and other gates of peculiar construction used in Holland and else where. The original kind appears to have been the self-acting balance-gates of unequal surface, so placed upon the pivots that on the rising of the tide they closed, and remained so until on the receding of the tide the weight of the accumulated land waters forced them open. Recently machinery has been employed for opening and shutting these gates, and the ordinary lock-gates have genera ly been adopted, as it was found that they were trcqui illy prevented from shutting by some floating matter getting between the mitre posts, and great leakage ensued. The general details were then given of the methods adopted fur the subsequent drainage of the Polder lands, the separation of the springs, the upland and lowland waters, and the method of conducting them out to sea. The slopes of the faces of the dykes vary considerably; some of the low dyes are, in section, of the form of an arc of a circle of six to ten feet chord, and ten inches to one foot versed sine, covered with fascine matting, staked down upon a clay bed. Others have a base of 19 feet wide and 5 feet high, of a trian gular section, also made of fascines and stakes, secured by hurdles and wattling ; with clay, peat, sea-shells, and sand well rammed in, and then covered with turf. Others are formed of rows of piles 16 feet long, with their heads 6 or 7 feet above the shore, joined longitudi nally and laterally by waling timber, filled in and around with fascine beds, and weighted with stones. Ba , kets filled with sand are also used in certain situa tions, as well as various modifications of all these kinds of protections. It was stated that these constructions were found to succeed better, and last as long, as stone, being, at the same time, about half the cost ; and in the discussion which ensued, this statement was confirmed even for some parts of England where stone was not expensive. Our limits will not permit a more extended notice of this excellent paper, of which it was justly said by one of the speakers that .` it is the first detailed account in the English language of some of the most interesting hydraulic works of Holland." THE INDIAN GABELLE. (From the Examiner.) Humble trade is, after all, the great civiliser and humaniser of mankind, and has, unquestionably, contributed far more to the prosperity of our Indian empire, than statesmen and warriors. It, alone, overthrew the great commercial mono polies; abolished all-pervading transit duties and Octrois ; bound the Custom-house to moderation ; gave personal free dom to British subjects in exchange for proscription; created an Indian public opinion, and established the freedom of the press—the security for all other freedom. We observe that this busy agent is again engaged in its quiet, bnt effectual labour of benevolence. Its present ob ject is the overthrow of the notorious gabelle of Bengal, by tar the ugliest, and the most comprehensively mischievous of all the monopolies which still continue to disgrace the legislation of this empire. Cheshire, Worcester, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Hull, Bristol, are all alive to the subject ; and, as the question will soon come before Parliament, we shall give a brief account of the pre sent state of the great public nuisance. There exist, all over British India, either monopolies in salt, or heavy duties, which are bad only in the second de gree. This, of course, includes all the native states within our frontier, called " under our protection," and, consequently, this necessary of life is vended to an indigent people, amounting to 150,000,000, at prices the most exorbitant, while the subjects of the native princes, beyond the walls of the fiscal prison -house, with its peine forte et dare, get their salt as cheap as the citizens of New York—that of Cheshire. But the salt monopoly exists in its most exquisitely per nicious form in the finest provinces of our Indian empire; those of Lower Bengal, over about forty-eight millions of people. This country is low and moist ; its coast, in propor tion to its area, small ; and here alone, for there exist neither salt• lakes, nor brine springs, nor fossil salt, can salt be manufactured. On this limited coast, covered for the most part with un wholesome jungle, the brine is weak, because the sea receives • at it the drainage of the Himalaya and Vindya ranges, as well as that of the Gangetic plain, 1,500 miles in length, and often 500 in breadth. The natural cost of manufacture is, consequently, great, and it is enhanced by the unskilfulness of the sole manufac dtuerleegrsa,te on eIl behalf lon. t of theheEast Crownlndia Co n m t Gparneya,t Britaintheleas d eh a o n ld Ireland. The process is rude, in fact, beyond what would be credited at Nantwich or Droitwich—such as it was under the Moguls and the Patens, and most probably in the time of that great legislator Menu, or when the Shastres and Puranas were written. The first cost is about 60s. a ton, or about thrice the price of better salt at Liverpool. The delegates of the Imperial Crown is not only the sole manufacturer, but, in violation of the spirit and letter of its engagements in 1833 to forbear from every kind of trade, the sole wholesale merchant. It conveys all the salt for the consumption of forty-eight millions of souls to one spot, not a centrical one, the town of Calcutta, and here it sells whole sale, or even retail, the salt of the best quality at near 121. a ton, being about twelve-fold the price of good Cheshire salt in Liverpool. Then, the salt falls into the hands of a small combination of native dealers who exercise a second monopoly in it, and having, according to the analysis of Professor Farraday, laid before a Committee of the Commons, mixed it with from fifteen to twenty per cent. of earth, proceed to dispense the " black drose", which has lost every feature of a muriate of soda, over the provinces. The transit is generally against the current of the Ganges and its tributaries, so that by the time it has got to a moderate distance, the price ranges from 301. to 401. a ton ; that is, from about fifteen to twenty times the retail price which the people of England pay for their ~ . salt! Let us now turn to .the capacity, as taxepay s es, of the people who are to consume salt at sueh prices. `, The vast majority are rural labourers, earning at the utmbst from 3/. to 4/. sterling a year, and the majority not near so much. The bard earnings, then, according to distance from the sup ply, of from a month and a half to three months of a labour ing man are required to furnish his family with a supply of salt, the consumption, which with a less stimulating diet, and hardly any other condiments, ought to be greater, being less than one-half the average consumption of each individual in this country. Let the English reader fancy to himself an English day labour earning 301. a year, obliged to pay for this single con diment of salt from 5/. to 101. a year, being, at the same time, reduced to half a ration, and then he will have some tolerable notion of this pet tax, so long and so obstinately defended by the British Government of India. We do not mean to assert that the prices we have given are always paid by the Indian peasantry. We know that they are not, for the smuggler steps in and relieves the people of some share of the burden imposed on them—in deed of a considerable share, for it has been computed that not less than one.fourth part of all the salt consumed is con traband ! There are, however, situations which his benevo lence cannot reach, and here the people eke out the pittance of culinary salt they can afford to purchase, by the use of the ashes of vegetables, muriate of lime, and Epsom salts, vul garly called the " bitter purging," an article which we ven ture to guess that our East India director wouldenot find a pleasant, however much it might be a sanative ingredient is his own curry! The respects eap pe l i t le a , ti w oee hteis tax, isi some con tributed so handsome a share towards b rin g in g on the Revo monopowlynrsie is, in than Revo lution, for the old French Governme n t distributed its mac over the provinces, while the British Gov ernment vends it all at one corner. The proof that it is worse is , indeed , afforded by the fact that, deducting the supply derived from smug gling,n the average consumption in Benga l p er head is q itlie fact, oald fright ful French Gabel/e, greater than under the Gabelle, where salt w as dearest, an d greatly below what it was where cheapest. y ll the increased I ndi an taxation. Govern ment India 8/. 3s. 6d. a. American is about Bs. a ton. and in Britishßritish salt is sold at ton, or above twenty times as much. earning 4s. a day at New York to the labourers of that city British labourers of Cal the rate of 455. a ton, and to the aid,4d. a-day, at 12/. a. • when very well P cutta, earning, ought to shame some people into m 0... ton ; a contrast that The duty charged en British salt in United States of deration. its much cherished monopoly is 1,300,0na, from less than the amount of our soap duty, a-year, or this derived without by any The British Government, although the salt duty yielded to it, four-and-twenty years ago, above tln,saoto,tohoeoLßasnygeaalr, salt monopoly, a n l l t o h n o n u p g o h ly i , t v w o a t s ed infi it nit a eleLl i e s s a s n o e n s er a o n u d s abolished it. The year after the total abolition, 1826, the whole public revenue was larger without, than it had been All good example, however, is lost on the East India Company in financial matters. In administr • with Th t e h esal wholet duty, revenue and administrative and judi cial reforms, it is often bold and judicious; but the moment financels touched, it belsnge to the fifteenth century. In 1836 a Committ e e o f th e House inquiry of Commons made s a careful and searching into this very salt monopoly, and the virtual Britt of its report nuisance was that it was a pub lic which ought to be abated. Ten years have passed away, and the Indian Government has done nothing but nibble at it. The salt is as high priced as ever—as dirty as ever ; the rulers of the monopoly are as stringent as ever, and smuggling is more rife than ever. In finance the Com pany does nothing, except at the point of the boyonet. It re quired two heavy charges of that bayonet in 1813 and 1835 to drive them from their great commercial monopolies, as in jurious to England as to India, and ruinous to themselves in. purse and character. A few years back the whole inland trade of India was harrassed by an infinity of transit duties and octrois, wlech were abolished wily by a bold act of virtual disobedience on the part of one of their own servants, whom good fortune hail placed in temporary authority.. They had long been filling their coffers by taxes on the religious rites and superstitions of the Hindus, from the car of Jagernat, down to the bathing or the shaving of a pil grim ; and these imposts, of worse odour than the famous dirty tax of Vespasian, have, even now, been only partially abandoned, and this not voluntarily, but through shame oC the public opinion of England. N ~. ~- .., ;;4 -