The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

the people, the Lecompton programme, under the
circumstances, will still answer the purpose, inas-
much as it does refer to the people the only really
important party issue involved in the Constitution—
the slavery question :
Whether Kansas shall be a free or a slave State must,
even under some authority, be decided by an election, and
the question can never be more clearly or distinctly pre-
sented to the people than it is at the present moment.
Should this opportunity be neglected she may be involved
for years in domestic discord, and possibly in civil war,
before she can make up the issue now so fortunately ten-
dered, and again reach the point she has already attained.
Kansas has for some years occupied too much of the pub-
lic attention. It is high time this should be directed to
far more important objects. When once admitted into the
Union, whether with or without slavery, the excitement
beyond her own limits will speedily pass away, and she
will for the first time be left, as she ought to have been
long since, to manage her own affairs in her own way. If
her Constitution on the subject of slavery or any other
subject be displeasing to a majority of the people, no human
power can prevent them from clinging it within a brief
period. Under these circumstances, it may well be ques•
tioned whether the peace and quiet of the whole country
are not of greaser importance than the mere temporary
triumph of either political party in Kansas.
Passing on to the Mormon question, the President
pronounces in favour of vigorous action. " This is
the first rebellion," be says, " which has existed in
our territories, and humanity itself requires that we
should put it down in such a measure that it shall
be the last" :

To trifle with it would be to encourage it, and so render
it formidable. We ought to go there with such an im-
posing force as to convince these deluded people that
resistance would be in vain, and thus spare the effusion of
blood. We can in this manner best convince them that
we are their friends, and not their enemies. In order to
accomplish this object it will be necessary, according to
the estimates of the War Department, to raise four addi-
tional regiments, and this I earnestly recommend to
Congress. At the present moment of depression in the
revenue of the country I am sorry to be obliged to recom-
mend such a measure, but I feel confident of the support
of Congress, cost what it may, in suppressing the insur-
rection, and in restoring and maintaining the sovereignty
of the constitution and laws in the territory of Utah.
The President recommends additions to the mili-
tary and naval forces of the States to the extent of
four additional regiments to the army and the con-
struction of a squadron of ten light-draught but
heavily-armed war-steamers—for coast defences os-
tensibly—really for special serviles in China. The
President then refers to the state of the public lands,
and speaks favourably of the experiment of educating
the Indian tribes :

So far as the experiment has been tiied it has worked
well in practice, and it will doubtless prove to be less
expensive than the present system. The whole number
of Indians within our territorial limits is believed to be
from the best data in the interior department about
325,000. The tribes of Cherokees, Choctaws, Chicksaws,
and Creeks settled in the territory set apart for them west
of Arkansas are rapidly advancing in education and in
all the arts of civilisation and self-government ; and we
may indulge the agreeable anticipation that at no very
distant day they will be incorporated into the Union as one
of the sovereign States.

Some recommendations to Congress on matters of
routine and detail conclude this, the first Massage of
President Buchanan.

THE CROWN JEWELS.

THE following curious statement in a letter from
Hanover, of December 10th, appeared in the Morn-
ing Star of Tuesday :
The hearts of the King and Royal Family of this
country have been much rejoiced by intelligence which
has just reached them through the Hanoverian Minister at
the Court of St. James's, that the long dispute between
the King of Hanover and the Queen of England respecting
the right to certain jewels of enormous value, in the pos-
session of the Sovereign of England, and forming no
inconsiderable portion of what have been hitherto called
the British Crown jewels, has been decided in favour of
Hanover. Many of your readers are no doubt aware that
when the kingdom of Hanover was severed from the
United Kingdom by the accession of Queen Victoria to
the throne, a claim was made by the late King of Hanover,
formerly the Duke of Cumberland, to nearly the whole of
the jewels usually worn on State occasions by the English
Sovereign, on the ground that part of them, which had
been taken over to England by George 1., belonged inalien-
ably to the Crown of Hanover; and that the remainder
had been purchased by George 111. out of his privy purse,
and had been left by him and his Queen Charlotte to the
Royal Family of Hanover. As the jewels thus claimed
are supposed to be worth considerably more than
100,0001., a single stone having cost nearly 20,0001.,
they were not to be relinquished without a struggle; and
I am assured that every possible expedient was resorted to
in England to baffie the claimant. Ultimately, in the
lifetime of the late King, the importunity of the Hano-
verian Minister in London drove the English Ministry of
the day to consent that the rights of the two Sovereigns
snonld be submitted to a commission composed of three
English judges; but the proceedings of the commission
were so ingeniously protracted that all the commissioners
died without arriving at any decision ; and until Lord
Clarendon received the seals of the British Foreign-office
all the efforts of the Court of Hanover to obtain a fresh