The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-11 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 184 R.

in it,seduced by the idea that they were thereby
defiance to English dictation. The' have introdui
a new, a more abandoned and ferocious clams of
dealers into the business—men half smugglers, balf
pirates and the corruption of the native Africeas
who deal with them has consequently been increased.
Lastly, they have, to a great extent, debarred the
Africans from the civilising influences of legitimate
traffic. The attempts hitherto made for the suppres-
sion of the slave trade have increased the barbarism of
the countries whence the slaves are obtained, and thus
strengthened the slave-dealing interest there; and, on
the other hand, they have neither rendered slaves
materially scarcer or dearer in the countries which
import them. They are totally inoperative am a means
of equalising the conditions of the British sugar-
growers with those of Cuba and Brazil.
It may be added that they iMerpose a serious ob-
stacle to theo t rios of the most feasible measure
hitherto pro for enabling our West Indies to
compete witt their slave-owning rivals. A large and
continuous immigration of free labourers from Africa,
it has been maintained, by enabling our West Indian
planters to command a regular supply of labour for
moderate wages, would enable them to produce sugar
as economically as the Portuguese and Spanish slave-
owners. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether
this emigration could be carried on to a sufficient ex-
tent to be effective from the British possessions in
Western Africa. And the moment it is attempted to
be carried on from other parts of the coast, two diffi-
culties are to to apprehended. In the first place it
may really be converted by the slave traders into a
means of concealing and facilitating their nefarious
traffic. In the second, it will assuredly expose this
country to groundless jealousies and accusations, and
render the operations of our squadron for suppressing
the slave trade more than ever a source of dangerous
and embarrassing discussions with other powers.
On these grounds it seems difficult to avoid the
deliberate conclusion that our present anti-slave trade
operations, so far from being of advantage to the
British colonist in his attempts to compete with the
sugar growers of Cuba and Brazil, are positively in-
jurious to him. In another article we propose to con-
sider the probable effects, as regards him, of perse-
vering in the imposition of differential duties on slave
grown sugars.

THE character of the bar is really very seriously
implicated by the course pursued to and by Sir FITZ-
ROY KELLY in the action of " Buron r. Denman."
Here is a Spanish subject who, for rive years, has in
this suit given his most unreserved confidence to Sir
FITZROY KELLY, and has, at a serious cost to his
pocket, acted under the advice and by the direction of
Sir FITZROY ; yet, when his cause is ripe for trial,
when his witnesses are summoned, when a day is
Axed for the hearing, he is not only deprived of his
leading counsel's services, but has, helplessly, to see
those services and that confidence transferred to the
party he is pursuing for damages ; and this under a
plea that must be perfectly unintelligible to him, that
scarcely explainable even to English laymen.
No precedent, no practice, can justify, or even
excuse, so immoral a transference. It is a
gross libel on the whole batch of Queen's
counsel to suppose that Sir Draws KELLY'S aid is so
valuable as to be secured at this sacrifice of morality
and good faith. The crown has no right to them at
any such price. Had Sir DsvlD DEsitss been at the
equity bar, there might have been the appearance of
an apology for requiring the assistance of the Queen's
counsel holding the largest number of briefs, and re-
quiring the t.ighest fees. But as the SoLtEiroa-
GENERAL practises in the common law courts, and
as he is only known as a common law lawyer, there
can be no necessity for even a third Queen's counsel
in the defence. The conduct—the leading part
of the defence—must on the trial be assumed by
the ATTORNEY Or SOLICITOR-GENERAL. Sir FITZROY
KELLY'S public share in the defence must be confined
to the cross-examination of the plaintiff's witnesses,
and to the examination of the defendant's witnesses—
a task half a score of Queen's counsel could perform
as efficiently as he can.
The confidence necessarily bestowed by the plain-
tiff in this case was, it must be apparent, of
most vital importance; for the defence, in point
of fact, consists in the allegation that when
the cause of action accrued, the plaintiff was
engaged in the slave trade. The truth or falsity of
this allegation must have been disclosed in the mi-
nutest detail to Sir FITZROY KELLY ; the evi-
dence by which it had to be disproved or avoided
would have to be laid before him ; the penetralia of
the plaintiff's life must have been exposed to him ;
the weaknesses of his case made known to him ; the
character of his witnesses—the value of their testi-
mony—the points where their statements required
support, all told to him ; and with this knowledge,
this information, this confidence of the plaintiff's, be
is new of counsel for the defendant. Such conduct, no
matter how impelled, is not creditable to the bar of
England. The least that ought to be done under
such circumstances is for the Admiralty to withdraw
the brief they have given Sir FITZROY KELLY.
Decency on their part requires this. Delicacy would
in addition suggest the return of all the fees paid by
the plaintiff to Sir FITZROY KELLY.
How differently has Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, the
Lord Chief Baron, acted in this very ease. That
learned personage having, when Attarney-General,
been consulted by the Admiralty in the action, now
refuses as a judge to preside over the trial of its
True, the spheres of a judge and of a counsel are
different ; but the morality that ought to direct the
conduct of both is the same. A change of adminis-
tration may place Sir FITZROY KELLY in the position
that Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK fills; and with what
confidence could the public regard a judge who, as
counsel, has thus conducted himself?
If the bar will look on the rest of their fellow-
creatures as plaintiffs and defendants only, and hold
fees to be the chief end of life, they must be content to
perpetuate and strengthen all the popular prejudices
against the profession. But even in this light they
will find honesty and fair play to their clients to be
the best policy. Henceforward no plaintiff in an
action in which the crown or any department of
government defends, can safely retain or seek the
advice of Sir Ferniest KELLY ; for at any stage of the
proceedings, even when we presume the brief is deli-
vered, his services can be transferred to the defend-
ant—he " has no choice"—" his oath of office," &c. &c.

SPANISH finance has been a labyrinth through
which no Spanish micirver, for the last half century,
or more, has been able to thread his way to any ba-
lance of accounts. Budgets indeed have not been
wanting in testimony of the scrupulous exactitude
with which the Secretary de Hacienda has cal-
culated and squared the millions and milliards of
reales do vellon to be raised of the year's income with
the expenditure to be defrayed. The estimates, as
laid before the Cortes, have been found marvellously
to agree even to the last maravedi—both sides of the
ledger with each other. Yet with all this
punctilious parade of the nicest accuracy, with
credits admirably assorted to face on paper all
possible debits (redemption of principal, or acquit-
tance of interests on foreign and home funded debt
being entirely out of question), the financial annals of
Spain have yet to show one single year in which the
future had not to be largely discounted for the pre-
sent; in other words, in which the revenues of years
to come had not to be anticipated by mortgages and
monopoly contracts at the most exorbitant rates of
usance, for covering estimates in default, and expen-
diture run riot. It may be doubted indeed whether,
by the crafty combinations of jobbing financiers with
farmers of taxes and monopoly seekers in a land where
official honesty is not too highly rated, the treasury
of Spain has not been too often accommodated with
loans of its own rents already in hand, after a deduc-
tion of 50 per cent. for the seeming accommodation,
like the young spendthrift hidalgo in " Gil Illas " by
his trusty steward, and the cunning Israelite who
enacted the supposed money. lender.
If faith could be reposed in the duration of Spanish
ministries, which for long past may be said to have
changed with the moon, hop a might reasonably be
entertained now of a financial regeneration for Spain.
BELTRAN DE LIS, the minister now in charge of an
exchequer which he found empty and is required
to fill, has had the honest hardihood to declare on
presenting his first budget of ways and means to the
Cortes, that as the expenditure was greatly in excess
of the revenue, the only way to redress the balance
was by the reduction of the one to the level of the
other. The estimates for 1848, as prepared by his
predecessor, showed a real deficit of 255,189,000
reals, or in sterling of 2,551,8901. " How" he ob-
served " was this deficit to be made good ? New con-
tributions were impossible ; a loan was impracticable

older present carcurastanoss ; and there was uo.ntbel
we than redacting the elPenees to the level tit' re-
venni, Thar difficulties wee, all but invincible; but
thO geveriment was determined to effect this object at
Iriatever oost."
13nch 'language has rarely been heard, or such a
just and patriot principle of action so resolutely
avowed, within the halls of a Spanish Cortes. They
come in graceful corroboration of the reputation
already won by Senor BELTRAN DS Lle in this coan-
try and in France, when personally he was before
well known and esteemed. They are the more
honourable to him because practice follows close upon
preempt. Retrenchment was not a specious promise
ad eaptandum, with performance in the far perspec-
tive of possibility. lie proceeded at once to measure
it out departmentally among his colleagues of the
cabinet, without sparing his own office and patron-
age. He distributed to each his share in the
economical sacrifice. The war estimates he cut
Idown by 68,679,207 reale, the navy by 36,913,156,
the home-office by 15,212,846, the ministry of com-
merce and public works by 22,278,865, the finance—
his own office—by 47,851,800, and so on with lesser
sums for the departments of foreign affairs and
justice. How far his colleagues may be disposed
honestly to co-operate in carrying out the work of
reform he has carved out for them remains :to be
seen ; but there is no reason to doubt that
BELTRAN DE Lie himself is in earnest, and stands
pledged, specifically indeed, to the great out-
line of the scheme he has propounded in
the Cortes. Reforming ministries are seldom,
however, long lived anywhere, and Spain above all is
not the exception. The minister and the reform, both
unwelcome, may become the victims any day of a
cabinet intrigue, or the caprice of a royal dowager
only too lavishly dowered at the cost of the nation.
The foreign creditors will derive little of hope or
consolation from perusal of the budget; they, at least,
who are owners of those masses of inert stock, cow-
pone, deferred and passive bonds, &c., upon which no
interest is paid, or promised in direct terms to be paid.
Forty millions of reels (400,0001) are indeed
specially " for the arrangement of the public
debbtt ;"
but in what shape. it is to be employed, or has hitherto
been, no information is afforded, nor is any plan of
arrangement indicated. It may be hoped only that
the amount is not diverted to buying up and extin-
guishing titles at the vile prices of the day, for which
the Spanish government received in hard money at,
the rate of 60 or 70 per cent.
That Spain, in spite of civil broils and gross mis-
I government, is still in progress, and rich in the
elements of progress, may be evidenced in the
ascendtheg in productiveness of her revenues. In
1823 official accounts stated them at 532,800,000
reale only—ray 5,328,0001. In the best years of FER-
DINAND they roseto something more than 800,000,000
reale, or eight millions sterling. According to the
estimate ef Senor BELTRAN DE LIS, on presentation of
the budget, they are taken at 1,283,631,000 reale, or
12,836,0001., having much more than doubled in less
than a quarter of a century. But the expenditure
has ever been kept in advance, even of this extraordi-
nary speed of income, by thirty or forty per cent.

IT is hard if the Duke of WELLINGTON have not put-
chased the right of riding his hobby, toll-free. Ile may
leap his light courser over the bounds of probability,
nay, gallop the impetuous animal into the very teeth
of common-mime, as gallantly as ho marched hundreds
against thousands at Assaye, or the Guards against Les
near de la Yleilk Garde at Waterloo. And he will
find no lack of followers either. Grave journalists,
reasoning lawyers, calculating merchants, and peace-
loving divines, will back the Duke on his forlorn hope
of getting up a military mania and fortification-lever
in Great Britain A.D. 1848.
The mention of the year sets us thinking. Has
1798 come again, or 1804 ? Is Inland still in rebel-
lion, parliament still unreformed, the press still
gagged, men's blood a-boil with the contagious frenzy
of revolution, steam yet in its infancy, the power-
loom still a giant in swaddling clothes? Are the
French still our natural enemies? Are we as sore
with beating, they as sore with being beat, as before
Trafalgar and Waterloo? Above all, where is the
General iii:ONAPARTE of 1798 and the Directory, or
the emperor of 1804 and the Boulogne flotilla? And
what has become of the lessen of the revolution, and
its devastating, ruinous, all-embracing war ? Have
European kings and peoples, Bouenox-like, remem-
bered nothing and forgotten nothing, since 1815 ? If
all this be so, then, indeed, it is not too soon to bestir
ourselves. If we may wipe the last fifty years out of
the world's life, it certainly is time that Brighten
had a more effectual protection than its four useless
guns, and a larger military body than even its one bom-
bardier. The Cinque ports had better array them-
selves at once under their gallant warden. While
Sandwich, Deal, Folkestone, ltye, Romney, Hythe,
and Tcntcrden, display a firm front, we cannot con-
ceive a foe daring enough to try the southern coast.
It is lucky the cry of invasion has been raised in the
winter, when the energies of the gallant coast-town
population will not be distracted by the bathing sea-
son and their summer lodgers. How should they
dread an invasion of the French who have an inva-
sion of the English every summer ? Talk of the
twelve roads by which a I. rench army might march
from the Channel coast to London ! are there not
half a dozen towns of lodgin.r-houses in which they
must spend at least a night ? Let the inhabitants
boldly present their little accounts in the morning
that would be a charge which no Frenchman could
stand a moment. Bayonets would be nothing to bills.
Let Deal and Sandwich take measure by the Dover
rates, and keep a lot of such documents ready filed,
and we will back them as more effectual than any
ordnance Woolwich can furnish. ILIVGRAUD himself,
and the whole Flat major, would be cleaned out by a
week at Brighton.
But suppose the railway paisage safely achieved,
is there not the perilous pass of London-bridge, a
transit hardly achievable even by a single cab, and
utterly impossible to an army ? Conceive the mise-
rable efforts of a corps of French pioneers to clear
away a dozen Putney and Paddington omnibuses,
with drivers deaf to reason, and conductors neither
believing in French money, nor comprehending the
French language. And then, London-bridge crossed,
are they not certain to find the pavement up in Fleet-
street? Who ever remembers that line of way pass-
able from end to end? Its normal state is a series of
effective barricades; and we cannot conceive the
paving companies so unpatriotic as not to ensure a
general water-pipe derangement, or some serious
internal disorder of the se ere, to justify a complete
break up of the paving system of our leading tho-
roughfares.
Following the example of 1798, no doubt the
authorities would organise into corps the fraternities
of the coal-heavers, cabmen, and watirmen. Conceive
the effect of a constant fire of " chaff " from a strong
body of cabmen, advantageously posted, and abund-
antly supplied with beer. They would drive the
Frenchmen to despair in a quarter of an hour. The
fire-engines might also be drawn out and played on
the troops, so as to damp their ardour and powder at
the same time. We cannot think that the inhabitants
of Brig, avia would relish the erection of block-houses
in their numerous squares. Perhaps they might as
advantageously concentrate their force in the two
giant-houses at the Albert-gate, as a sort of acropolis.
No doubt Mr. IlensoN would give up his mansion
to so patriotic a use, and perhaps garrison it with a
detachment of his own " navvies." The old hints of
1798 direct artillery parks to be formed in the squares,
but as they could not be fired there without blowing
down the houses in front of them, we should anticipate
considerable opposition from the occupants.
The corporation of London has always signalised
itself by its activity in the defence of vested rights,
and has been characteristically on the alert in former
alarms of invasion. In 1798, every ward furnished
its corps, under the guidance of the civic officers. We
are not aware if the Lumber Troop dates from that
troublesome time. But the late tight between the
Court of Aldermen and Common Council must
have given these gentlemen considerable practice in
warfare ; and their dexterity in using offensive words
will probably be easily applied to the use of offensive
weapons. Some, however, will be inclined to distrust
the City from its liability to panic.
Altogether we cannot despair, when we think of
these and similar means of defence, even though
parliament should refuse to saddle the country with
some extra millions of expense for fortifications or
soldiers. We have no doubt, for our own part, that
when the French come (which will probably be the
same year that Mr. JOHN O'CONNELL dies on the
floor of the house, that a repeal parliament takes its
seat on College-green, and that the income-tax is
done away with), they will find the country very
much too hot to hold them, considering that all the

military geniuses will hana sagelt • point to set all
the riven on tire, sad to Wane the public mind to a
pitch, of which woe faint conception may be formed,
from the highly inflammatory and explosive articles
which even the Duke's letter has set going off in the
newspapers.

MADRID, JAN. 3.
The document presented in Congress on Friday,
relative to the accusation of Salamanca, is, as I dated
on Saturday, confined to that ex-minister alone. It
turns upon four articles : I. the Araajnez Railway
affair ; 2, the negotiations with the bank of Ardoin ;
3, the conversion of the arrears of the royal patri-
mony ; 4, the Alicante smuggling business. The ac-
cuantion is therein developed in all its details. If the
sections to which it has passed approve, it will beread
before Congress. The charges having been thus de-
clared Senor Seijas will speak in support of them,
and in consequence of the essentially personal cha-
racter of the accusation Salamanca will be permitted
to reply in hie own defence. The voting will be by
ballot. If the chamber agree to take the accusation
into consideration, it will go back to the sections for
the appointment of a committee to report on the sub-
ject. This is the first time that a case of the kind has
occurred in the parliamentary annals of Spain. Seiju
is a member of the committee appointed by the ma-
jority to draw up the accusation. He was a member
of the Sotomayor cabinet, and, consequently, col-
league of three of the present ministers. In speaking
he 18 long-winded, but so far from eloquent that a
very general thinning of the benches becomes visible
whenhe is on his legs.
On Friday evening the Queen had a sudden seizure
of illness, resembling a slight fit. Upon two previous
occasions her Majesty has suffered similar attacks.
The present, although far from presenting aggra-
vated symptoms, wu considered of sufficient import-
ance to justify sending for Narvacz. The physicians
attributed it to the heat of the Queen's apartment.
Next day her Majesty appeared in public in an open
carriage, with every sign of undiminished good
health, and went in the evening to a soiree given by
the Marquis of Miratiores. On their way the royal
party met the holy viaticum, which the Queen, alight-
ing, followed to the residence of the sick person in
need of that ghostly comfort.
On the let day of the new year Mr. Bolwer gave
a sumptuous dinner to upwards of thirty English
residents in Madrid, and two or three Spaniards.
Conspicuous among the latter were those two illustri-
ous chiefs of the progresista party, Olozaga and
Mendizabal, who occupied places next to the English
minister. The representative of the United States,
General Saunders, was also present. The first toast
was, " The two Queens of England and Spain,"
acknowledged by Olozaga in the name of the latter.
Mr. Balwer, in a graceful speech, pointed to the
amazing progress which had taken place in Spain
since her enyoyment of free institutions, and illus-
trated neatly the contrast between the present and
the past, by reminding his guests that the man-
sion opposite to the embassy had formerly been
the office of the inquisition, but was now the
Ministry of Public Instruction. He proposed " per-
manent and cordial unioa between England and
Spain." Olozaga, in acknowledging this toast,
strongly advocated commercial Leedom. In proposing
the health of General Saunders, the English minister
remembered that the house where they were at pre-
sent assembled had formerly been the residence of the
descendants of Montesuma. The conquerors of Mon-
tezuma were now, in their turn, yielding before the
victorious arms of the people of the United States.
Ile trusted that the issue of that conquest would prove
as honourable to the humanity and liberal policy of
the Anglo-Americans as it was to their bravery and
soldiership. General Saunders briefly acknowledged
the compliment to himself and country, and proposed
0 Constitutional and religious liberty." The mention
of the twit species of liberty, by the way, may open
our eyes to one of the features of American diplomacy
in Spain, as well as Turkey. But perhaps the day is
not quite yet arrieed when American missionaries
will be allowed the same latitude in this country
which has been afforded to them in the Ottoman empire.
Olozaga, alluding to the subject of Mexico, could
not forget that Spanish blood ran in his veins. But
he hoped, while he deplored the misfortunes of a
kindred race, that their political condition would im-
prove under the auspices of the United Stmts.
The I/Lichens of Gor has been appointed camarera
mayor to the Queen.
General Amettler has been banished from the
capital to liadajos, which destination he has, how-
ever, been permitted to exchange for Vittoria. Six
days are given him to prepare for his departure.
At present he is ill.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 22.

RENEWAL OF FRIENDLY RELATIONS BETWEEN
TURKEY AND GREECE.—On the 20th inst. M. Ne-
cloudoff, secretary of the Russian legation at Athens,
arrived here on board the Austrian steamer Impera-
trice. Ile was the bearer of a letter from the Greek
government to Ali Effendi, the minister of foreign
affairs at the Porte. On the 21st the Grand Vizier
held a cabinet council for the purpose of deliberating
on the purport of the communication received from
Athens. In the letter of which M. Necloudoff was
the bearer, the Greek ministry consent to accord to
the Porte the satisfaction desired ; namely, to autho-
rise Ali Effendi to express to M. Mussurus the regret
experienced by the cabinet of King Otho for what
had taken place at the royal ball in the
month of January. The termination of the mis-
understanding is attributed to the interven-
tion of the Emperor Nicholas, upon whose wis-
dem and justice are lavished the most hyper-
bolical encomiums. The praise lavished on the
Emperor found a ready echo amongst several of the
members of the Turkish council. Hall! Pacha, the
lord high admiral, and Said Pacha, the commander-
in-chief, commented strongly on the gratitude due
from the Porte to the Czar, who had so nobly saved
the honour of Turkey and prevented the outbreak of
hostilities, which, though they might prove most
disastrous to Greece, would have entailed enormous
expense and embarrassments on the Ottoman empire.
England by her threats and Austria by her negotia-
tions (said the lord high admiral), bad alike failed in
forcing Greece to accord the satisfaction demanded by
the Porte.
Three months ago I foretold the manner in which
this question would terminate. The influence of
France in Greece was confined to the person of Coletti,
and the appeal to Austria was merely a feint
to gain time till events should become sufficiently
threatening to give a proper i:clat to the successful
intervention of Russia, and until the Emperor Nicholas
had shown to the world with what facility he could
make a cat's-paw of his English ally.
Osman Pacha, the commander-in-chief of Anatolia,
died of cholera, at his residence at Constantinople, on
the 19th instant.
The Porte has within the last few days purchase

the house and grounds of Mr. Hanson, situated at
Therapia, for 5,0001., and made a present of them to
Lord Cowley. This makes the fifth house presented
by the Porte to the British embassy. They are all
situated in the same neighbourhood at Therapia, and
occupy, with the gardens attached to them, some 70
or 80 acres.

FRANCE.—PARIS, JAN. 9.—DI,TOVitRY OF AN
ANCIENT EDI rice.—ln digging foundations for a new court
of correctional police in the court and to the south of the
Sainte-Chapelle of the Palace of Justice, a surface of from
400 to 500 square metres, forming the foundations of an
ancient edifice, have been discovered. These consist of se-
ver.' chambers, with walls two metres in thickness, like
those of the naafis& Therms, Rue de la llarpe. As in the
Purvis Notre Dame, parts of columns, medals, broken
crockery, and some small works of art, have been found.
FONTIFICATIONS OF lIAVNE.—Fresh conferences
have taken place between the officers of the military en-
giro ering department and the chief engineer of the port of
Havre, for the purpose of remodelling almost entirely the
project of works to be executed for the defence of that sea-
port. These works have acquired, according to the combina-
tions of scientific persons, a degree of importance far greater
than was attributitl to them in the first project of 1846,
That project only valued the expenses attendant on its exe-
cution at sireen millions of francs. Now the system of
fortifications is completely changed, and it will be necessary
to conquer from the sea the foundations of the new front of
the defences. The expenses are now calculated at 61,195,700
francs.
PRUSSIA.—BERLIN, JAN. 3.—The King's procu-
rator-general, who had appealed against a great number of
the sentences on the Polish prisoners as b ing too lenient,
has abandoned all his appeals, except in the cases of those
persons who bad appealed, and 12 others. Amongst the
latter are M. de Dombrowski, M. Mackiewich, and M. de
Bialoskotski. We are also informed that the sister of
M. de Mieroslawaki, who had come to Berlin from Paris,
had lett the Prussian capital without seeing her brother.
The government had consented to an interview, but M. de
Mieroslawski, fearing that his affection for his sister would
not be proof against her entreaty that he should implore the
royal clemency, had refused to receive her. The health of

the Minister of State, Count d'Arnim, is so bad that it is
not supposed he will be able to take any part in the labours
of the Committee of the States. II
AUSTRIA.—VIENNA, DEC. 30.—The body of
Marie Louise, late Duchess of Panne, rod widow of Bona.
parte, arrived at Vienna on the 29th in the evening. It will
be buried in the Capucin Convent by the side of Napoleon's
son, the Duke of Rtichstadt.
RUSSIA.--sTATurrics.—According to the alma-
Back published for the year 1848 by the Academy of St.
Petersburg, European Russia comprises a surface of 90,117
equals miles, with a p ipulatiun of 54,092,000 souls; the
kingdom of Poland, an extent of 2,320 square miles, with
14,850.000 inhabitants; and the grand duchy of Finland,
6,844 tquaremiles, and 1,647,702 inhabitants. According to the
last census, St. Petersburg possessed a population of 413,000.
In 1840, 1,687 poode of gold (the pond is 401 b.), I pood of
plating, and 1,190 ponds of silver were extracted from the
mines of the empire. The public debt is estimated at
315,081,200 silver roubles (a rouble is 4fr. 25c.). Bills of
credit are in circulation to the amount of 216,167,689 silver
roubles, and assignats of the empire to that of 117,124220
silver roubles.

NEW ZEALAND.
The letter from Mr. Lawrence Ifeyworth, copied
from the, New Zealand Journal into a recent number of the
Express, on the question of the claims of natives to un-
occupied lands, hues given rise to the following corre-
spondence on the subject. Mr. Heyworth is right. Let
some attention be bestowed on the accurate definition of the
rights of natives, and there will be little probability of their
being infringed on the pert of colonists themselves. But
with a haphazard colonisation like that at present pursued
by the British government how can the administration of
native rights become systematic? Where no fixed prin.
ciplee arc acknowledged the peace of a colony will always
be at the mercy of every demagogue, secular or ecclesiastic,
who may esteem notoriety, purchased at to cheap a rate
and in so plausible a cause, worth hunting after. The case I
of New Zealand is, however, somewhat singular in this me
Bisect. It is the only colony in which native rights have I
been looked after from the first. Reserves were made for
the natives by the New Zealand Company, and were placed
under judicious regulations, till the government thought fit
to supersede them. In their core for the native+, during the
first year of the colony, the conduct of the New Zealand
Company was praiseworthy. The first serious blot in their
escutcheon is that now aoparent—via., of permitting Earl
Grey to carry his kaleidoscope principles of colonisation
without question on their part. They may yet retrieve
their error as the bill goes through committee. If they do
not, both the country and the colonists will form no very
high opinion of the motives which now actuate them sea body.
" Bloomfield, Jan. 6, 1848.—Dear Sir,—l beg to acknow-
ledge, on behalf of the directors of the Loudon Missionary
Society, the receipt of—copies of the New Zealand Journal,
containing a letter from yourself, on the subject of right in
land. As our society neither has at present, nor hes had any
missionaries in New Zealand. of course the remarks in your
letter do not apply to us. At the same time you will for-
give sue in saying that the subject requires to be treated less
with declamation than argument ; and that the superior
might employed by, civilised countries, in subduing both the
might and the right of the aborigines of our colonies, might,
perhaps, be employed advantageously in defending those
aborigines in the possession of their Just rights, of which
they aasuredly. have same. The history of our colonisation
hitherto is principally that of extermination.—l sin, &c.,
J. S. Face-MAN, Home Secretary. To Lawrence Heyworth,
Esq., Yew Tree."
Yew Tree, Liverpool, Jan. 7, 1848.—My dear sir,—Your
acknowledgment of the copies of the New Zealand Journal
containing a letter from me on the subject of right of pro-
pert jin land, I have received, and de-ire to return you my
thanks fur the coasidoiation you bare been induced to give
to this very important subject. I fully concur with you that
declamation is not the way in which this subject ought to
be treated, but that arguments should be used drawn from his-
torical facts, illustrative of the atrocities that a vicious prin-
ciple of appropriating territorial rights has inflicted on
humanity throughout past ages, and of the impious obstacle
the popularly received principle has opposed to the declared
design of God, that the earth should not remain
a barren wilderness, but being a mighty machine for raising
human food it should be cultivated and replenished with
inhabitants. These are arguments to the point, and as such
fairly claim consideration from every right.minded man. A
clear exhibition of the circumstances, which, in harmony
with the pure ethic* of Christian morals, can alone constitute
property, must be allowed to be also derivable, and the pus.-
seance of a course which would lead to these clear concep-
tions on the matter justifiable. To this mode of treating the
subject of the letter you kindly acknowledge I have endea-
voured to confine myself. My ce jest in having the letter
sent m your committee was, to offer a friendly, and what I
hoped would not be considered an officious, warning througl
them to your missionaries, respecting a grave error too com-
monly entertained in the matter of territorial rights.
I am glad, at all events, thatyour missioaaries cannot be ins
:ilicated in the disastrous fallacies on this subject fostered in
the min is of the natives by the Bishop of New Zealand. I
am glad also to hear • rumour that the methodist mission
in New Zealand has remonstrated against the inflammatory
protest of the bishop to the natives, and has deprecated and
predicted the misery it is calculated to produce. I knee,
not if at present I am a subscriber to the London Mission.
ary Society, but my having been a subscriber for a period of
twenty or thirty years, is some indication of the deep inte-
rest I take in the successful issue of their great work.—l am,
my dear sir, yours truly, LAWRENCE IIEYWORTH.—J. S.
Freeman, E'q.
P.S. That you may more clearly know the spirit in which
I have addressed myself to this question, I hand you a copy
of a letter written to the Secretary of the Peace Society on
the subject."
Yew Tree, Jan. 4, IB4B.—My dear Sir,—The ' Abori-
gines' Protection Society' appears to me • kindred associa-
tion to the ' Peace Society.' Their main design, I presume,
is to protect the natives from violence in the progress of their
admission to, and transition into, civilised lite. To do this
peacefully an enlarged and true view of the declared pur-
ries of God to people the earth, and a correct understand-
ing of the moral origin of all specific property, is essentially
requisite. An absence of such correct information on the
part of missionaries who are impressed with the popularly
received notions on this subject, which opinions are as
savagely unsouud as are those held by barbarians, has led
them inadvertently to inflame the passions of the untutored
savages with an instinctive, grasping avarice—to assert,
vaguely and capriciously, claims to regions of almost un-
known wilderness lands. 'Hostility, war, and bloodshed have
in consequence been, as from such causes they must be, the
certain result. To avert, if possible, this cruel calamity, by
the removal of the malignant source from which it springs,
I have written the letter contained in the New Zealand
Journal accomp.mying this. If the views developed in this
letter will serve to lay the foundation of the social compact
deep in the peace-engendering principles of eternal justice,
its insertion in our peace publications may be desirable.—'
am, my dear Sir, yours truly, LAWRENCE HETWORTIL-7
Isaac Cooke, Esq., 1, Exchange-buildings West, Liverpool.

BRITISH COLONIES.—THE WEST INDIES.
Hitherto the colonies of this group have been
almost entirely isolated from each other. The merchants
the mother country trading to them have been united,
there has been wonderfully little community of interest
action among the resident colonists. Not only were
communities inhabiting Jamaica and Trinidad (for exam}
so widely different in their characters and circumstances ,
to render entire sympathy and cooperation difficult ; but the
straggling manner in which the British West India colonies
are scattered over a wide expanse of sea kept their inha-
bitants to a considerable extent strangers to each other,
The introduction of colonial intercommunication
steam is drawing them closer together; and its
fluence, together with the naturally and rapidly .
creasing predominance of the British element in the popu-
lation of all of them, will, ere long, make of our West Indies
one united community ; but their present character requires.
to appreciate it, that some circumstances in their past history
be constantly kept in view.
The diversity of circumstances and character now
verted to requires that each colony or government be in
first place considered independently and apart. To that
separate articles will be devoted to Jamaica, Guiana, Ti
dad, the Windward Islands, the Leeward Islands, the _
hamas group, and Honduras. But, ea in this classificatior
several colonies are occasionally grouped together, it will b
advisable to direct attention in the first place to some fa
regarding their history and institutions, which render
classification into governments, though the beet that can
adopted, not entirely satiefectury.
Some of these colonies have been acquired by settlement
others by capture or cession. In general those which he'
b en acquired by settlement are entirely British in the ,
ratter of their population, while the others retain more
less characteristic traces f the nation which founded thee
in their social or political relations. Jamaica is an excep-
tion ;• for though acquired by capitulation, the remote pe-
riod .t which its acquisition took place, and the almost
entire change in its inhabitants consequent upon that event,
have sup, rinduced upon it the same characteristics as we find
in our original settlements. Again, some of these colonies
from the time they contracted the colonial nexus with Give
Britain, have been governed by institutions framed
the model of those of the mother country, while others
favoured have been left subject to the control of
governors, assisted by non-elective councils, and of the C
nial office acting through the instrumentality of what ,
called orders in council. Guiana occupies an intermediat,
stage : it is subject to orders in council, but it has a legisla-
tive and a taxing assembly, elected by a circuitous process,
favourable to a very indirect and questionable influence
the part of the executive.
Classified according to the means by which this country
has acquired them, the West India colonies might
ranged as follows :—ACQUIRED BY SETTLEMENT:
hados (settled in 1605), St. Kitt's (in 1623), Nevis
1628), Bahamas (in 1629), Antigua and Montserrat
1632), Tortola and Anguilla (1666). ACQUIRED BY C
TUBE Jamaica (in 16,55), Trinidad (in 1797), Bri
Guiana and St. Lucia 1803). ACQUIRED BY Caasis.
Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent, and Tobago (in 176
Honduras is also held in virtue of a treaty (concluded
1670) which might be termed a cession, but for the limited
right of occupancy or rather use that it conveys. On the
II anomalous nature of the right which the Colonial-offic.
d/feels to consider the crown as possessing in this territory
ere shall have occasion to remark when we come •
ascribe it.
The form of government established in each colony
suggest a somewhat different classification—info what
been called crown and charter colonies. All the \
India colonies acquired by settlement are administere,
by a governor, a council, and an elective assembly,
according to the more prevalent farm of the old
charter colonial governments. The same institutions are
enjoyed by Jamaica, our first acquisition by capture, and the
colonies ceded by France in 1763. Oar subsequent acquird-