Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-28 00:00:00

EMIGRATION.

A paper has been published, giving copies or extracts
of despatches relative to emigration to the North Ameri-
can colonies .(in continuation of Parliamentary Paper
No. 165, of Session 1858), ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed, on the motion of Mr. Chichester
Fortescue, M.P. It hence appears that the total num-
ber of emigrants landed at Quebec daring the year 1868
was 12,810 (4,442 male adults). The emigrants were
conveyed in 154 ships, of 101,737 tons, and navigated by
4,211 seamen. There were 1,696 cabin, and 11,114
steerage passengers. The emigrants included 6,441
English (cabin and steerage), 1,153 Irish, 1,424 Scotch,
922 Germans, and 2,656 Norwegians. The emigration
of 1858 exhibits the large decrease of 19,287 souls. The
average per annum from 1829 till now has been about
30,500 ; the aggregate number during that period is
913,815 souls. The return gives the number of per-
sons who have been aided in their emigration to this
country by private individuals, charitable institutions,
or under the sanction of the Poor-law Commissioners.
The total number assisted was 353-44 male adults,
246 females, and 63 children ; and -the amount paid
among them on arrival here was £286 17s. sterling.
The number sent out from England was 118 persons;
49 of whom, 24 boys and 25 girls, were sent out by the
London Reformatory Schools; and 15 men, 20 women,
and 24 children were sent out by the parishes. From
Ireland there were 232 persons—viz., 2 males, 201
females, and 29 children from the Poor Law Unions,
and a further party of 22 adult females were sent out by
the Rev. Mr. Roach, of Wexford. The single females
have been all readily disposed of, chiefly in Western
Canada, in the Ottawa district, where their services are
eagerly sought for by the farmers. Among the party
sent out from the Gorey Union were several widows,
accompanied by their children, whom it was found ex-
tremely difficult to find places for. Few persons are dis-
posed to engage the services of women so "encumbered."
It is desirable that the attention of all poor-law com-
missioners should be drawn to this fact, so as to check in
some degree the emigration of this class, whom it cannot
be an object to transfer to Canada, where no public pro-
vision whatever exists for their support. The condition
of such p6rsons is very far from being improved by
emigration, and in most cases great distress accom-
panies the unfortunate family wherever they may be
ultimately placed in that country. In the course of
the season complaints were made in two cases of
infringement of the Passengers' Act, and in both it
was found necessary to institute legal proceedings.
The first was against the master of the James Jar-
dine, from Liverpool, for a short issue of provisions.
The second was against the master of the Charlotte A.
Stamber, likewise from Liverpool. In the first case the
master was fined ; in the second the dispute was compro-
mised. The Provincial Passengers Act, which com-
menced on the Ist of January last, will greatly protect
the emigrants on arrival. The total expenditure of the
emigration department was 532,659. Taking all the
arrivals in Canada, including those yid the United
States, it would appear that out of a total number of
38,014 immigrants, 12,339 remained in Canada, of
whom nearly. all settled in West Canada. The falling
off in the emigration of 1858 is not assignable to any
local cause, but rather to the condition and prospects of
the classes who emigrate in their respective countries in
Europe. Emigrants are advised by no means to engage
"through" passages to the. Far West, at least not without
the strictest inquiry beforehand. As usual, it is hinted
that strong active men, habituated to agricultural pur-
suits, are most wanted in Canada. Good female ser-
vants will find places readily if not " encumbered" with
families of children, which is a fatal objection.. Skilled
artisans and mechanics are not advised to go out.
Farmers with capital will always do well in Canada.
It appears that about one-third, of the emigrants to
Canada proceed. to Quebec, and two-thirds enter the
province' by the suspension-bridge at the falls of the
Niagara.- The persons most de trop in Canada are
widow women burdened with families of children, and
it is earnestly requested by the authorities that they
may not be sent out _under any circumstances.

THE Corral,' SUPPLY.—The expectation that N egro-
land Africa will be able to fill up the anticipated va- •
cuum of supply is a vain hope, originating in ignorance
of-the character and habits of the native races, and it
will end in disappointment and vexation. The capa-
bilities of British India are great, and the elements of
success are there ; but the capabilities of China
are vastly greater, and, I believe, that as in two or
three years China was able to send raw silk to
the value of £10,000,000 into the market, and
immediately to 'nuke up for the absence of the Euro-
pean supply, so to China we may hereafter look for a
boundless supply of raw cotton ; she now clothes more
than 350,000,000 of her people from her own cotton-
fields. 'The prices in China are so nearly on a level
with those of India, that, though they allow an impor-
tation to the yearly value of £2,000,000 or £3,000,000
sterling in the southern. -provinces of China, importa-
tions into the northern are scarcely known.- The quality,
the modes of the cultivation, of cleaning, of packing,
are all susceptible of great improvements ; their interests
will make the Chinese teachable, acd the Yang-tse-
Kiang may be the channel for the solution of the cotton
difficulty.—Sir John Boivring.

THE LATE FIRE AT CoilexuAams.—A letter from
COPenhagen,- of the 19th, gives the following details of
the fire at the Palace of, Fredcricksborg :—" The fire
first commenced' in the chimney of the billiard room,
and first showed itself about two o'clock in the morning
by a strong eruption of smoke. Awakened by the smell,
one of the aides-de camp, who slept in a room over, went
and informed the King. His Majesty. would not at first
believe in the existence of any serious danger, but in an
. hour after, the fire, which had been making its way
, among the woodwork of the old edifice, burst out with
frightful fury.- The King wenfdowninto the courtyard and
directed in person all the operations; while repeated des-
patches were sent off for assistance frum Copenhagen. From
tlie'distance, hbwever; of the Palace 1.-rem-the capital,
neatly five miles, all hopes of sasifig, the building had
vanished before any aid could arrive: To add to the
diflicidties -the lake on which the palace is situated
was frozen over, and much time was lost before it could
be broken, and the pipe of the engine had not been at
work many minutes before that also burst. The large
carved door of the chapel, the silver altar-piece, and
the pulpit were saved ; but the greater portion of the
pictures and the euperbOollection of :antiquities, which
have taken 25 years to collect; haveteeti destroyed.
Four persons were killed by the falling in of the
chapel, and,several others seriously injured. The King
remained to the last on the scene of destruction, and in
the,evening went to Copenhagen. The civil and mili-
tary authorities waited on his Majesty at the Palace of
Christiansborg to express their condolence on the catas-
trophe. The diploinatic body also deputed:one of their
members to wait on his Majesty for the same purpose:
The King has ordered the conservators of the museums
of Copenhagen to proceed to the scene of disaster in
order to collect any objects of value which may have
escaped the flames."
THE AMERICAN POSTMASTER-GENERAL.—A recent
letter from Mr. Joseph Holt, Postmaster-General of
the United States, conveys a decision of a question as
interesting as it is novel. A husband who had been
separated from his wife demanded that his village post-
master should deliver her letters to him, and threatened
a suit at law if his demand was not- complied with. The
wife, on the .other hand, forbade: the delivery of her
letters to the husband. In these circumstances, the
postmaster appealed to Mr. Kelt for instruction. That
gentleman pronounces the claim advanced by the
husband too preposterous to be seriously refuted—
indeed, he . says it is abhorrent to law as it
is to the Christian civilisation of the age. Mr. Holt's
letter says :—lt has long since been adjudged both
in England and Scotland, that even after letters have
reached the possession of those to whom they are
directed, their writer has still.such a property in them
as will enable him to maintain an injunction to prevent
their publication. ,e/ fortiori does this interest exist
when the letters, like those under consideration, are in
tratikitu." This principle seems to be declared in the Act''
of Congress, whio requires that all non-delivered letters,
containing valuable ohall, with their contents, be
returned to the wrfffrs, whose proprietorship in them
could scarcely thereafter be controverted. The Depart-
ment, both in the transportation and delivery of letters,
was as the • agent of their writers, from whose
warrant Of attorney, as found in the superscripgticoonasilapi:
them, neither the counsel or the 4ommand- of the hus--:
band, nor of any 'body 'else—under such eircumisotane.eg-•
as are-h ere- presented—will jaififyi a 4deParture*
hTah:itiiht)nssbainanedprinop'etrh4siicanieths6eetnihosutgohtiNs
of his house•:,
of hi 4 Wife--thOugh -no longer a member'
chattels'. - Ti view' marital power 'night weld find
hold---.tuid of her frierids'—that he has in cr
place the code of the Grand Turk, and I‘'ol.llol poa,
aavneds:nspyptholiqoal
jloiees
sibly he sT.lnitted to in his: harem; bat it is,rtylirant.
to the teaching orAnierican jurispraez:;e. ,