The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-07 00:00:00

LitERATURE.

AN ACCOUNT. HISTORICAL, POLITICAL. Als1)
STATISTICAL. OF THE UNITED PROVINCES OF
RIO DE LA PLATA.
TRANSLATZD FROM THE SFANIIII.
A ckermann.
The strong enticements held forth to emigration, and
the peculiar attention which has been excited towards the
United Provinces of Rio DE LA PLATA, cannot fail to
excite a general interest in whatever relates to their con-
dition, and to confer a proportionate value on whatever
information may enable us truly to estimate it. This vo-
lume is well calculated to meet the public curiosity in this
respect. The materials arc well put together, and many
points upon which it has been found difficult to procure
any accurotc information, are satisfactorily elucidated.
The letter in the appendix, regarding the occupation of
Monte rith-o by the l'ortuguese and Brazilian Govern-
ment, throws a light much wanted on "the origin, the in-
tervening circumstances, and the actual state of the quarrel
concerning Monte Video, between the United Provinces of
Rio de la Plata and Brazil and Portugal." The circum-
stances detailed by the writer are too intimately connected
to admit being disjoined by any extract, we must there-
' fore refer to the statement itself, which will be read with
great interest.
To persons who may feel disposed to transfer either their
property or themselves to this quarter of the New World,
we would recommend the following " GINKRAL ORSER•
vvrtoNs" with which this valuable volume concludes:—
" The extent and fertility of the land in each of the
provinces of which we have treated, and the system
adopted in Buenos Ayres for its distribution among
foreigners and natives, which will probably be followed
by all the states, have answered the most sanguine expec-
' tations. That system is, to let the lands belonging to the
public at quit-rent contracts, to any individual offering,
he it one, two, or more lots, for breeding establishments or,
farming. The conditions of these contracts are confined,
on the part of the Government, to giving possession of the
land, and signing a document for a determinate number of
years, which in general is not less than eight or ten ; and,
on the part of the individual, to the paying each year of a
rent of eighty dollars for the square league--an amount
which in all probability will be speedily diminished, in
order to offer the greatest possible advantages to the per-
sons emigrating. Agreeably to the laws of the country,
two conditions are added to the contract : Ist. That all the
improvements which, during that time, are made on the
land, belong to the renter, and arc transferable to his heirs
and successors. 2dly. That, in the event of that estate
being sold by the Government, the possessor will by pre-
ferred to all other persons, however weighty may be the
pretensions of the new claimant. It may not be improper
to observe, that the system of quit-rents does not preclude
the power to grant gratuitous concessions of land, or to pay
for them at different periods. Particular cases may occa-
sion these measures, either as regards those lands, the peo-
pling of which is of the greatest importance, or which re-1
quire greater efforts to make them productive, or because
the kind of labour promised to be undertaken deserves a
powerful protection.
" This system has been adopted for recriproeal conve-
nience.

" At a moment when the State is, as it were, newly
born to credit, and when it is indispensable for it to make
use of that credit, in order to obtain the capital which it
is intended to expend in the construction of harbours,
canals, bridges, roads, cities, and other works, which will
facilitate internal and external commerce in all its branches,
and expend it to the utmost extent of which, in such a
country, it is susceptible—on such a state it is incumbent,
as well as on all others which act on the principles of good
faith, to keep up a public property, in order to bold out
a guarantee to its creditors or loan-holders. But while it
secures that advantage, it also behoves the State to possess
itself of an internal revenue, which may serve to forward
the operations that it has begun to carry into effect, in
order to diminish the obstacles and reduce the duties which
impede importation, until it can, if such a thing be pos-
-1 sible, to do away entirely with the system of the Custom-
house; and also to lay a ground-work for a stability in
revenues and resources which may not be liable to be dis-
turbed by any power possessing a superior marine force.
Nor must we overlook another advantage which the nation
derives from the adoption of this principle ; namely, to
favour, in an essential manner, all the foreigners who may
expose themselves to the inconveniences of a long voyage,
for the purpose of establishing themselves in that country.
" Every thing seems to promise that the emigration to
the United Provinces will be very considerable; and this
cannot but eventually be essentially serviceable to a country
where population is wanting, and every thing else su-
perabundant. This cannot fail to attract the attention
of the speculators on a great scale, of whom, as well
without as within the country, there is no scarcity, all
calculating, by these and other means, to realize a vast
fortm,e, owing to the importance and the facilities
of the country for that object, and also relying on
the candour of a new country for great operations
in a mercantile point of view. If, then, the State were
to put up to sale the lands belonging to the public, be-
sides the necessity of alienating them at a price which,
in four or five years more, would he doubled, it would
place in the hands of a few speculators the fate of all
foreigners, needy or not, who should emigrate with the in-
tention of engaging in any of the different branches of
agricultural science, with which they were best acquainted.
These few speculators would reap all the advantages in-
stead of the State; and the emigrants would surrender,
themselves at discretion, as tributaries to them, without
any fixed or known plan, or would consume their scanty'
capitals in the purchase of the lands. Certain it is, that
one or all of these things would ensue, or that the land
would remain for a much longer time without cultivation.
" But the most direct advantage which this territorial
system insures for the emigrants remains to be spoken of;
and it is a palpable one. Instead of requiring a sum
wherewith to purchase lands, and another to expend in
their improvement, an amount adequate to the second pur-
pose will alone be required. In this manner, the capital
which each emigrant possesses—whether he brings it along
with him, or it has been advanced to him by the State on
terms set forth in the regulation concerning emigration—
will be put into circulation; and it can be easily proved
that the productions of all kinds of labour in that country
will yield a sufficiency, not only to pay what may be called
the rent of the lands, and to provide for the ordinary)
maintenance, but also to enable the possessor to proceed
gradually in the formation of a capital, in order shortly to
to become a proprietor himself, by purchasing lands from
private persons. Much reasoning is not necessary to de-
monstrate this; it is only sufficient to reflect, that that
country, which possesses such an extent of land, and all of
it so fertile, is a source of considerable profit to the agri-
culturists of North America, by the great cargoes of flour,
and productions of the first necessity, which they send to
it, notwithstanding the costs of the transport, the duties of
importation, commission, and other expenses incident to
mercantile transactions.

" There is, besides, among other circumstances' which
might be mentioned, one in particular which deserves to
be noticed, as it tends materially to prove what has just
been said. The goods of foreign importation in the United
Provinces have diminished in price, having now nearly the
same value as in Europe, or at least the difference being
very immaterial; whereas, on the contrary, the exports of
native production have so much increased in price, that,
what fifteen years ago was worth one, and four years ago
three, is as present worth eight. Wages have increased in
the same proportion, so that the ordinary articles of sub-
sistence are, with very few exceptions, as cheap at the
present time as they were ten years since. This is a phe-
nomenon, perhaps, of a covet kind in political economy,
but which will show what expectations ought to be enter-1
tained by husbandmen, in a country which possesses all the
primary materials, the production of which is advantage-
ously appreciated, and where what isspent for maintenance
must be infinitely less than what is earned. This will also
serve to show that the returns from the lauds, that is to say,
the intetest of the capital which the state lends to the
emigrants, is compensated in an excessive manner, by the
circumstance of their being allowed to employ all their
fortune, be it small or great, in tillage, or in any other
agricultural or pastoral pursuit.
It is surely unnecessary to observe that we are not now
alluding to those emigrants who go to that country with
the view of hiring their services to Me proprietors of land.
As regards them the thing is more simple; namely,
that if they arc reduced to the necessity of treading the
soil of the territory, they will meet with a high rate of

wages. In the same situation ire the artisans of an in-
ferior finality. Any of them Who work in metals, timber,
skins, sawing, building, &o. &C. Will there meet with con.
Stant employment as soon at they arrive. Not a single
foreign beggar is to be met with in Buente Ayres; as such
persons need not become paupers, utile* the choose. On
this last point it is necessary to emend to thit part of the
regulation on emigration previously introduced, which in-
trusts to the commission established in thitfeountry for the
protection of emigrrnts, the duty of protturing qccupation
for all foreigners, provided that after fifteen 'days they
should not have been able to procure it for themselves,
owing to the difficulties they have to encounter from not
knowing the language, or any other cause. This is a
powerful guarantee, which cornph.tes the system er security
held forth by this country to Lll classes of the labouring
community, inasmuch as it proclaims the spirit which pre-
vails in favour of them ; and, above all, the possibility of
giving occupation to as many as may present themselves.
Foreigners who have capacity to undertake speculations on
a larger scale, be they physical or moral, or of whatever
'kind, will probably have no need of further information,
when they have taken a survey of the country, incomplete
perhaps, yet nevertheless vast, as the preceding expositions
have shown. For such persons all explanations are un-
necessary ; the facts will speak for themselves. And when
to all the other advantages are added those of an effective
security in the free exercise of all their individual facul-
ties, of the inviolability, of prop:rty, whether in peace or
war, between the land of their birth and the country of
their adoption—l say, when all these things are considered,
there can be no risk of making errors in calculation, if
people but know how to reflect.
" This is written with the best intentions to all parties
who may be interested in these observations. We have
not the least interest in tnisleading; and even could there
exist such a supposition, is it not evident that deception
would ultimately turn to the disdadvantage of the United
Provinces? We u' lie with positive knowledge of Me cir-
cumstances and or the principles of that country. No one
ought to doubt this. And we repeat, that, in that country,
all the securities are enjoyed, which man cannot abandon,
without being the murderer of his own welfare; and a
plan is regularly pursued, to establish, on permanent foun-
dations, that blessing, which has produced so much pros-
perity, and is likely to procure still greater advantages, for
the British nation—the free exercise of the individual fa-
culties ! In the country of Rio de la Plata, it is of no
moment whether a person be born a Briton, a Frenchman,
or a German ; whether he is of the torrid, of the tempe-
rate, or of the frigid zone; whether he has been educated
under regular governments, or exposed to the misfortunes
of absolute power : in that country, it is of no moment
whether he is a Protestant, a Papist, or an Israelite ; it is
sufficient that he is a man—a moral, active, and industrious
man ! The climate of the United Provinces, and the
genius of its inhabitants, accommodate themselves per-
fectly to all human physiognomies and constitutions: as
little do its rivers, its lands, and its productions, need the
assistance of ancient or fashionable mythology, or any of
the quackeries of political machinists to recommend them :
and by the fundamental principles of the country every
thing is conceded to a foreigner, even to placing him on an
equality with the natives as to rights, without the excep-
tion of the least privilege, whatever may be the reason al-
leged for his deserving it. This also proves that the
United Provinces of Rio de la Plata know how to be--/n-
-dependent.

SUPERNATURAL AGENCY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

Sra—l observe in the British Press of Monday last an
extract from a Glasgow Paper, containing an account of a
respectable family in Ruthergien being molested and
alarmed by a very singular species of annoyance. " A
pane of glass in the kitchen," says the account, " and some
articles of earthenware in the court, were smashed in a
mysterious way; milk was transferred by invisible hands
from the tubs used to contain it, to places where it had no
right to be, and butter, kept in a place off the byre (corn
house), was found in the boiler in the washing-house." It
then proceeds to relate that after dark, an iron four pound
shot was thrown through the kitchen window, breaking
two of the panes of glass in its passage, and striking the
wall close to where a young girl, one of the family, were
standing. The Magistracy, it arpears, took proper mea-
sures for discovering the author of these magical molest*.
tions, which turned out to be no other than the servant
maid, but who has since retracted her confession, declaring
that it was extorted from her, by the threat of being
lodged in Itutherglen gaol. I do not advert to
this affair as having any thing of the marvellous in it,
since nothing appears to have happened here that any art-
ful Scotch wench might not have managed without any aid
from the arch-enemy by whom she stated herself to be in-
stigated. But I refer to it because it recalls to my mind
the most curious and extraordinary affair which excited
a strong public sensation at SrocKWELI., about fifty years
ago, and which, to this day, has never, that I know of, been
cleared up. I copy the following account of it, ♦sae'srrx,
from the Newspapers of 17;2:

" At the house of one Mrs. GOULDING, a single gentle-
woman, at STOCKWEI.T., in the parish of Lambeth, in
Surrey, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon on Monday last,
there being no person except herself and servant (AxN
ROBINSON, aged fifteen years or thereabouts) several
earthen plates, and one dish, of what is called the Queen's-
ware, which were placed on a shelf in one of the kitchens,
fell down, and all broke except the dish, without any visi-
ble cause; in a little time after, several candlesticks, and
other things, the furniture of a mantle-piece in the back
kitchen, were thrown in the middle of the floor, though no
person was in that room; then some china, &c. on the
mantle-piece in the other kitchen was in like manner
thrown into the middle of the floor, and broke, and as the
pieces lay, they snapped and flew just as though they had
been thrown on an exceeding hot fire ; a glazed lantern ;
which hung on the staircase, was thrown down ; a clock
also was thrown down and broke: a red earthern pan,
containing salt beef, flew in pieces, and the beef fell
about; and many such like uncommon things , happened ;
which causing an alarm, the people from the road, without
distinction, ran into the house, some supposing it to be on
fire, others thought the house had received a shock from
the explosion of a powder-mill at Hounslow, which was
blown up about an hour before. However, all concurred
in moving the goods; and Mrs. Gov Lntria, together with
her maid-servant, went to Mr. GRESH A M'S, a gentleman
who lives in the next house to Mrs. Goulding's, whither the
goods were carried, and particularly a tray full of china,
an iron bread-basket japanned, two mahogany waiters, seve-
ral bottles of different sorts of liquors, a gallipot of jelly,
and a pier-glass worth about five, pounds, which glass was
taken down by one Mr.SAVILLx (a neighbour to Mrs.
Goulding) who handed it one Robert Barnes, and a part
ry' the gilt work on each side of the frame flew ;LT before he
could put it down in the garden; but when it was laid
down, remained without farther damage till it was taken
into Mr. Gresham's, and put under a side-board, where it
ew to pieces. Mr. Saville and others going to drink of a
bottle of rum and a bottle of wine, they both flew in ;pieces,
though they were uncorked ; they china in the tray flew in
pieces, some while it was in the house, and the rest in the
garden, whither it was removed by the afrighted spectators
after it began to break; the bread-basket was thrown down
and broke, as also were the two mahogany waiters, and the
pot of jelly, together with bottles of liquors and jars of
pickles, all of them the property of Mrs. Goulding. Mrs.
Goulding, being ill with the p ight, was let blood by Mr.
Gardner, a surgeon of Clapham, who borrowed a pint
chins bowl of Mr. Gresham's people to receive the blood,
which being afterwards set upon a sideboard, near a bottle
Of rum, the property of Mrs. Goulding, both bottle and
bowl jumped on the fluor and broke, the bowl going into
five pieces (a piece of which is now in the ion of
Mr. Waterfield at the Royal Oak Inn, VauxEtZlia Mrs.
Goulding end her servant then went to Mr. May in next
door to Mr. Gresham's ; but during their stay there (which
was but very short) nothing extraordinary happened;
from thence they went to the house of Farmer Payne (to
whose wife Mrs. Goulding is related) on Rush.eornenon,
near the Wash-way, about half a mile distant from her own
house, where they found Mr. and Miss Gresham, Mr.
Payne and his family ; it being about dinner-time, they all
dined with Mr. Payne; some time after dinner Mrs.
Goulding's servant was sent home to examine into the state
of the house, and returned with an account that every-
' thing there had been quiet from the time they left it.
In a little time after they the return of the servant,

•
Mr. and Miss Gresham stafieorne (nothing inateountable
having yet happened at Mr, Payne a) ; but Mrs. Gontn-
INo and her servant staid, and about seven o'clock
in the evening the same kind of uncommon operations as
had been seen at Mrs. Goulding's began of Mr. Naita's,
by seven pewter dishes out of eight falling from the top
shelf over a dresser in the kitchen, u it/lout any apparent
cause, which was followed by en infinite namher of ex-
amples not less strange., and particularity the following:
a pestle and mortar jumped from the mantle-piece in the
kitchen to the floor, about six feet ; s row of peitter plates
fell front the second shelf (over tile dresser) to the ground,
and being taken up, and put one in the other on the
dresser, which is about three feet high, they were thrown
down again, anti lay in the same manlier as plates are
geeerally placed on a shelf; the pewter, china, earthen-
ware, &c. were then almost all set upon the floors in the
kitchen and parlour (to prevent being broke or bruised by
falling), but four pewter plates were left on one of the
Ishelves over the dresser, Which plates did not move the
whole night. While the things were putting on the
ground, a stone tea-cup jumilm out of a beaufet to the
floor ; on the floor a glass tumbler jumped about a foot and
a half, and broke ; another that stood near it jumped also
about the same distance, but remained whole for some
hours after, then took another spring and broke alio; a
chitYa Wvv! jumped from the floor in the middle of the
parlour, and went behind the feet of a claw table, which
was standing in the same parlour, at the distance of about
eight feet, but did not break at that time, but being re-
placed by one Mr. Fowt on, remained whole for a consi-
derable time afterwards, and then flew to pieces; three
, china cups, which had been left on the dresser in the
I kitchen, flew slant-wise across the kitchen about twelve
feet, by which two were broke; an mg flew from the
lower shelf over the dresSer, taking the :ame direction as
the cups had done, and went nearly the same distance ;
that was another egg on the shelf, which did not move the
whole night; a candlestick flew from the mantle-piece in
I the kitchen into the parlour door-way, about fifteen feet
from the place where it stood ; a tea-kettle under the dresser
was thrown out about two feet; another tea-kettle, which
stood on the side of the grate, was thrown off against an'
I iron that is fixed to keep the children from the fire; a mus-
tard glass, which was a little broke by some natural acci-
dent, was thrown from a table into a pewter-dish on the
floor, at about seven feet distance, but did not break,
neither was it broke afterwards; the cup that had
escaped when the other, two were broke (as is the-
fore mentioned) being set on a table in the parlour,
flew off to the distance of nine feet, and broke; a
tumbler, with a little ruin and water in it, standing on a
waiter upon a table in the same parlour, jumped about ten
feet, anti broke; the table then overset, and threw of a
silver tankard of Mrs. Goulding's, a candlestick, and the
waiter the tumbler had jumped from ; two hams, which
had been hung up in the chimney to dry, fell down,
though the nail and strings on and by which they had
hung were not broke or misplaced • a case bottle of liquor,
part of which they had just drank, flew into pieces; and,
in short, about four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday,
almost every thing in the parlour and kitchen were
animated, and made such a racket, that Mr. Pause's
maid-servant ran up stairs, and took a child out of bed,
and carried it into the stable naked, thinking it was not
safe longer to stay in the house. Mrs. Goutouva, then
seeing the general confusion, went with her servant across
the road to Mr. Fowler's (the same Mr. Fowler as is
before-mentioned in this narrative) and were accompanied
by Mrs. Payne and her son, about nine years of age ; and
the confusion at Mr. Payne's immediately ceased. When
Mr. Fowler had let them into his house, he proceeded
to light a fire in his back room, which done, he put the
candlestick and candle he had used upon a table in his fore-
room (through which Mrs. Goulding and her servant had
passed), where also stood another candlestick with a tin
lamp in it, but they did not stand long before they were
knocked against each other, and thrown to the ground
by some invisible agent ; then a lantern in the back-room,
that had been used in lighting Mrs. Goulding, &c. across
the road, was thrown to the ground; and lastly a basket
of coals, which was brought from Mr. Payne s, overact,
and emptied itself upon the floor. Mr. Fowler upon this
told Mrs. Goulding lie feared she had been guilty of some
bud act, as it was plain the cause of such wonderful events
was carried with her; but Mrs. Goulding answered, that
her conscience was clear from any extraordinary evil, and
that she could not tell the cause why she was so troubled, or
such like words; however, Mr. Fowler desired her to quit
his house, as he could not afford to have his goods destroyed ;
whereupon Mrs. Goulding and her servant left his house,
which has been quiet ever since, and returned to her
own house ; anti, in a little time after their arrival, a
cask with some beer in it was thrown from its stand,
and a pail of water was moved from its place a little,
and some of the water spilled, but nothing more hap-
pened ; then she discharged her servant and has remained
quiet ever since."

" Another account has the following additional circum-
stance:—

" Some plates of Mr. Gresham's, by way of trial, were
placed upon the same shelf with those of Mrs. Goulding's ;
the former stood unhurt, the whole of Mrs. Got; LDING.R
were broke in pieces.
" The servant girl is gone home to her father, the
clerk of Lewisham parish ; and what remains ~re now just
as innanimate as the furniture of other houses."'
Now, Sir, I should be extremely obliged would any cor-
respondent inform me, through the medium of your paper,
whether all this apparently supernatural ntrcncy was ever
asurtained to be the result of trick or deception. That the
particulars actually happened as described was never dis-
puted at the time, and they seem corroborated by such tes-
timony as leaves no room to doubt the truth of the relation.
But the fact which it is important to ascertain is, could all
that is here described to have taken place, have been produced
by the agency of the servant maid? To tne this appears ut-
terly impossible. I am by no means disposed to listen with a
believing ear to tales of the marvellous, but I confess my-
self wholly unable to account for the phenomena which are
here related. If an ignorant servant maid could have prac-
tised what is here brought to pass, hr, what means could she
effect it? The agency was invisible; it did not appear to
those present to be result of any natural power. The
whole is a .nystery, which no reasoning can reconcile to our
comprehension; and the fact is at the same time so well
attested, that we cannot reject it. In common with many
others, I should feel extremely indebted to any one whose
habits of philosophic investigation enable him to throw
some light upon this event, which from its circumstances
can never cease to be interesting.

I am, Sir, yours, &c.
A SERIOUS INQUIRER.

About the year 1748 Judge Chamberlain happened to
preside in the Criminal Court at Limerick, when two men
were arraingued for highway robbery. It appeared in the
course of the trial that one of the culprits had proposed to
his companion to murder the person whom they had
robbed, in order to prevent him from cctning forward at a
future time to give evidence. The other robber, however,
who was not of so sanguinary a disposition, would not
listen to such a suggestion, and succeeded ultimately in
dissuading him from his purpose. In the course of a
short time both the robbers were apprehended, and the
person wbo had been robbed came forward to prosecute.
Upon seeing him enter the witness's-box, the man who
had recommended his murder was heard, in an audible
whisper, to say to his companion, "If we had killed
this fellow he would not be here to-day to swear against
us. But wait till we get out of this, and see if I ever spare
another man's life." The trial proceeded, and the Jury
found a verdict of Guilty against both prisoners. The
Judge then addressing the hardened criminal, told hint
that it was his province to ace that he should not put his
diabolical intentions into effect: and ordering the Sheriff
to erect a gallows in front of the Court .house, be had the
culprit executed within an hour after sentence had been
pronounced. The more merciful prisoner was, of course,
saved.

J. W. Fiele was on Thursday last brought, by Haheas
Corpus, from Portsmouth, in custody of the Marshal of
the Admiralty, and committed to take his trial at the Ad-'
miralty Sessions, charged with felony, while acting as
purser of the Tartar frigate, which ship was employed on
the coast of South America. It appears that the prisoner
has been many months under arrest, and was sent hope in
a sloop of war. The precise nature of his offtnee is not
known, but it is said to relate to some falsification of his ac-
counts.