The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-19 00:00:00

THE-'BIT-N, LONDON, MONDAY EVENI NG, JAN TT Alt vir 19, 1846.

inches. The ground is thinly covered, it usually grow-
ing in bunches, so that not more than from one-third to
one-sixth of the area of the surface is covered. It would,
therefore, require some 4 or 5 acres to furnish the same
amount of nutriment which common pasture or meadow
does. Cattle thrive well in this region, particularly when
kept along the banks of the streams ; but it has been
found by experiment that they will not do well on the
high lands, away from the streams, especially in the dry
season. Sheep and goats may do well in these up-lands.
The practice of burning over these plains annually,
which, however, is only partial, is an evil which must
cease, if ever the country becomes extensively stocked
with cattle. Cattle live out during the whole winter,
and the grass, which dries up during the dry
season, and remains in this state throqgh the
winter, is standing hay for the cattle to gather
for themselves as their necessities required. Let
all this be burned over, and the green grass which
springs up in the autumn will do but very little towards
sustaining a herd through the winter, and starvation
must ensue. Cattle and horses surer in the winter in
some parts of this region when there is an unusual
quantity of snow, and can find nothing to supply their
wants except on southern declivities, when the snow is
soon removed by the direct rays of the sun.
What then are the prospects of this region in respect
to settlement?

There is one motive, and only one, for immediate
settlement in the interior in preference to the Walbamet,
and this is the salubrity of the climate. In every
other respect the Walamet is altogether preferable, and
will continue to be so till all its land is taken up, and
all the grazing country in its vicinity is occupied. It is
doubtful whether emigrants will be willing to forego all
other advantages for the sake of climate.
The region of country described lies from 300 to 500
miles from the mouth of the Columbia, or about 200
miles above navigable waters. The Columbia is one of
the most dangerous and difficult rivers in the world to
navigate, and this can only be improved at an immense
expense. The time required to make the trip from
-Vancouver to Wallawalla, 200 miles, with loaded boats,
to make portages, &c.,, requires from nine to fifteen
days, according to the direction of the wind, &c. The
expense of transportation this distance is seven shillings
sterling for 90 lbs. The expense of transporting produce
down the river will also be so great, that it will enable
the Wallamet settlers to undersell and take all the pro-
fits. The only remaining method of reaching the lower
country, is by a road over a difficult mountain from the
interior to the Wallamet. I would remark, however,
that the country lying north of the Columbia may find
a more convenient outlet to the ocean direct to Nasqually ;
but my remarks are intended for the region lying south
of the Columbia.

With the drawback upon the upper country the pro-
bability of its immediate settlement appears to be very
small. In time doubtless it ►ill be settled by herdsmen,
but all the circumstances connected with the country
point directly to the Walamet as the first region to be
settled. When this whole valley shall become occupied
by a dense population, and the lands which are now de•
voted to pasturage shall be is demand for agricultural
purposes, the more distant regions may be brought
into requisition for grazing purposes, and cattle
may be brought down from the interior
by a road across the mountains, to supply the wants of
an agricultural and manufacturing community. Thus,
in time, the whole interior region, as far as it is capable,
may become settled in this scattered end partial manner,
and become of considerable relative importance in con-
nexion with a rich, flourishing, and densely populated
country, along the sea-coast. But time is necessary, in
order to produce all these changes, and bring into requi •
sition all these resources of the country, which d.3pend
on a great increase of population in one part of the
country; and a consequent demand for products beyond
the producing capabilities of that reigion. Q.

LIVERPOOL AND THE LEAGUE.
(From the Liverpool Mercury).
Liverpool has done its duty. We expected much,
and are not disappointed. We demanded much, and
are satisfied. Commerce has worthily responded to
the summons of industry. The seaport of Lancashire
has nobly testified its sympathy with the rights and
interests of that labour on which its own existence is
based, and with whose progress its own is identified.
The factory and the counting-houses, the manufac-
turer and the merchant, production and exchange,
have made common cause, and are now, once for all,
in League against the sordid tyranny that would
trample upon both.
The magnificent meeting of last Friday was a de-
monstration every way worthy of the intelligence,
wealth, energy, and public spirit of the commercial
capital of the first industrial district of England and
the world. The pecuniary result was of a less
startling magnitude than that of the great Manches-
ter meeting of the 23d ult.; but fourteen thousand
pounds subscribed in one hour may be regarded, all
things considered, as a very fair quota even for
Liverpool. From our hearts do we congratulate
those of our townsmen who have ailed in striking
this timely and crushing blow at an enormous public
wrong.
If, as is not at all impossible, Sir R. Peel be still
weighing pros and cons, and balancing the demands
of statesmanlike wisdom and political justice, against
the suggestions of Ministerial convenience and party
expediency, he is now most abundantly provided with
the ma'eriAls for a prudent decision. The subscription
of little less than one hundred thousand pounds,
within about a fortnight, is a "great fact;" which it
seems scarcely crediable that the Premier should
leave out of his calculations. This instalment of a
fund of a quarter of a million sterling, to be expended
in re-organizing the country constituencies —in esta-
blishing and working, in every district, of every
county in England, a machinery for inviting
and aiding the trading and industrious, classes
of our town population, to posses's them-
selves of the franchise —is a sufficient
guarantee that the work really will be done
in the course of this year 1'846. Should Sir
Robert Peel dare to insult the country with any at-
tempt at compromise or mystification—if he would
like to see a political revolution that will sweep him
and his " Conservatives" clean out of two-thirds or
three-fourths of the English counties, he now knows
on what terms this dangerous curiosity can be gra-
tified. Any more tampering with his own convic-
tions of policy, and the national demand for justice—
any more experiments at " regulating the supply of
food to the people"—a word more of pivots, rests,
averages, sliding, fixed, or vanishing scales—a syl-
lable said, or hinted at " compensations"—the
slightest attempt to deny, delay, or sell justice—and
this tremendously powerful engine, for permanently
changing the distribution of political power, will im-
mediately he set to work all over England.
The landlords will now know what they have to
expect, if they venture to postpone, or mar, the satis-
faction of the people's just demands. If, with these
signs before them of popular energy and determina-
tion—and with the West Riding election to show
them by voie de fait, that the movement has feasi-
bility and reality in it—they choose to provoke a
war of which all the materiel is already prepared, they
cannot complain that they have not had ample
notice. They can now count the cost. They
may have—if they positively will—some six or
twelve months' more enjoyment of a curtailed
and truncated monopoly; but they will have to
pay for it by the permanent and final loss of their po-
litical ascendancy. The political extinction of the
landlord power is now the price of any corn-law that
shall do either less or more than leave the trade in
food as free as nature and Providence have made it. The
Buckinghams and Richmonds, the Tyrrells and
Mileses—the people of No. 17, Old Bond -street—
are, of course, incorrigible. They tell us so, and we
are bound to believe them. They will have the re-
revolution, and nobody shall help them. But there
must be a large number of the landlord class who
would vastly prefer "maintaining their position" in
political "society," while the option is still before them.
Whatever may be the decision, or the no-decision,
of Sir Robert Peel and his landlord supporters, it is
now scarcely open to a doubt, that the ensuing
twelve months will witness the termination of this
struggle ; either by Sir Robert Peel and the present
Parliament, in the spring, or by Lord John Russell
and another Parliament, in the autumn, will the last
shred of protection be torn from our code. It is not
necessary that the actual registration, even of
the votes acquired during the present qualifica-
tion campaign, should precede our triumph ;
votes have a potential as well as an actual sway
over the deliberations of Parliament and the policy of
Cabinets ; and the qualifications will tell, even though
the Registration Courts should not have had time to
give them the last formal sanction. Never has there
been a period—the days of the Reform Bill alone ex-
cepted—when a great public question has so tho-
roughly permeated and possessed all classes of the
people—subdued all minor dissensions, and fused
down all crotchety contradictions, in the ranks
of the popular party. Lancashire manufacturers
and merchants, and Wiltshire peasants ; the wealth-
iest of our capitalists, and the poorest of our labourers;
the proudest of our aristocratic Whigs, and the stur-
diest of our democratic operatives—all are one here.
There is not an instance in our history of such a union
failing to carry its point. Were we " Conservatives,"
we should most fervently pray that the leaders of our
cause and party might not commit the desperate and
irretrievable blunder of daring such a power to
come and do its uttermost.