The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-25 00:00:00

A3fERICA.

The House of Representatives will not be baffled in its
schemes of protection. The Republicans still ,possess
the requisite two-thirds majority, and they accordingly
passed the Copper Tariff Bill over the President's veto,
and sent it to the Senate.

Benjamin Green, familiarly known as " King,"
whose eccentricity reached insanity in his later years, died
at the Concord (New Hampshire) insane hospital, on Sun-
day night, Jan. 94, at the ago of 74. His early life was
passed in London, and in the English army and navy.
His insanity was recent, and often on religious subjects,
though frequently he fan&ed himself a monarch, and
issued proc!amations lavishly, signed "Yours, most truly
Bntj:onin Green, King and Defender of the Faith."
Miss Sophia Howe, daughter of A. B. Howe,
prominent 667,01 of Springfield, Mass., has been missing
since the 30,1, u7t. slid is supposed to have wandered
away (luring a fit of temporary insanity. A reward is
offered for her nem erv.

General Gecrne V
11. Thomas has denied, or at
l aq stated, that h'e never authorized General Franklin to
write that Le would not believe Generals Pope and Roberts
on their oaths. 'rho letter was produced in the Senate
during the deb,to a year ago in relation to the ease of
Fitz-Johe Porter, who was then pushing for his rebtora-
lion to the rank of Maji)r-G,berni•
DUNVILLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the world. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
commended.by the medical profession in preference to French
brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exports
Lion. Quotations on application to Messrs. Duuville and Co.
Belfast; or 4, Beaufort-buildings, Strand, Lotalail W.O —Vi,dl
Yenisei:neut.

BRITISH EMIGRATION 70 AMERICA.

No. VIIT.—MAINE.
(From the Anglo-Ar:crican Tirrx3)

Although Maine was settled by the English in
1625, four years after the landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers in Massachusetts, yet it was not one of
the thirteen original States, being only admitted
on March 3, 1820. It was not that Maine took no
part in the War of Indpendence, for she did, but only
as a section of Massachusetts, not as a State. Fier
area is 35,000 square miles. and her population,
according to the census of 1860, was 628.279. Out
of so comparatively small a number Maine was
called upon by the War Department, during the Civil
contest, to furnish 72,365 men, but she actually sup-
plied 72,955, being an excess of 580 over the calls.
Of these 66,191 were in the land service, 115 only
being coloured. For the navyihe sailors she supplied
were 6,754. Sixty-seven thousand five hundred and
forty-five actually bore arms, of whom 20,101 were
either killed or seriously disabled. Here, then, was a
State, one of the furthest removed from the scene
of action, settled among the first in the Union and
in that settlement, purely English. which contri-
buted over 10 per cent. of her whole population,
of whom, fit to bear arms, nn nation calculates the
proportion to be more than 20 per cent. ; that is,
she sent half, and of that half lost nearly a third in
killed and maimed. These figures are worth
noting, as they supply for Maine, as on inquiry
would be found to be the case in other States, a full
and complete answer to those who talk of the rebel-
lion having been suppressed by the Irish and Ger-
mans, of whom there are but few in M sine. The
southernmost point of the State reaches close to
the 43d parallel of North latitude, and extends
something North
.of 47, running beyond the pa-
rallel of Quebec. It penetrates into the British
Dominions, by which it is more than half sur-
rounded to the Fast, North, and West. New
Hampshire forms the rest of its. western I oundary,
and the Atlantic Ocean washes its south-eastern
shores. It has a magnificent sweep of coast
up to New Brunswick to the entrance of the
Bay of Fundy, dotted along the entire length
with islands, of which there are 400, mostly small,
but many of considerable size, inhabited and fer-
tile. Its coast line leis no equal in the Union,
bold, rocky, and indented with beautiful bays and
harbours. From this sea coast the country in the
southern portion is comparatively level for twenty
miles inland. The interior is hilly, the northern
portion rising into bold and imposing mountains,
often rocky and sterile, the Peak of Katandin being
5,385 feet above the sea level. The most fertile
tract is between the rivers Penobscot and Kennebec.
On the latter stands the State capital Augusta, and
on the former the city of Bangor, one of the most
thriving of Maine, and the centre of its lumber
trade. Generally, the middle of the southern por-
tion is the most peopled, as the land is there most fer-
tile and available. Immense pine forests cover the
unoccupied parts, giving employment to the nume-
rous lumbermen engaged in cutting, felling, and
sawing the logs which furnish the great trade of
the State. Prier to 1832, 200.000.000 feet were
surveyed ; within the next ten years ending 1842
the quantity was 610.000,000 ; the next decade gave
1,614,000,000; and that ending 1862,1,737,000.0!)0
feet. Then the trade seemed to slacken, for in the
year 1862 162,000.000 only were cut, but it in-
creased slightly in the following year, though it de-
clined in 1861, continuing its downward course
until 1865, when it took a sudden staring upwards in
1866, the quantity that yearbeine237,l47.oooft. The
centres of this industry are the Penobscot and Aroo-
stook valleys, and•more especially does it. thrive in
the former at the present time, notwithstanding the
decline in shipbuilding. Indeed, the yield is now
estimated at three times the amount cut in 1866.
The fact. that the State is covered with these valu-
able forests is but half Maine's advantages in this
line, for of all portions of North America, perhaps
this section commands the greatest water power.
Its available force is reckoned at one million henee-
power, and is counted as a great and immediate
source of wealth. From £3O to £7O are given for
a mill seat in Massachusetts or in Rhode Island,
and in some places the rent of mills is as high as
£l2 a year for each horse-power. The most strik-
ing features, then, of Maine are first a grand coast
line, fringed with islands and indented with beauti-
ful harbours; second, a country, on the whole,
rugged and mountainous, but in places rich in soil,
and generally covered with splendid pine forests ;
third, an enormous water power, in streams and
rivers, having their birth in lakes scattered
over the face of the State. The largest of these is
Moosehead, which, like most of them, is picturesquely
situated. The climate ranges to the greatest ex-
tromps known in the Republic. It is hot in summer
and very cold in winter, as may be imagined, for a
portion of the State is north of Quebec, and partakes
of the climate of New Brunswick and Nova-Scotia.
But, if rigorous in winter, it has one of the most
healthful of all climates. From some statistics lately
published, it was surprising to mark the difference
in longevity between the rural populations of
Maine and the urban citizens of New York, and in
the number of each family. Yet people dread cold,
and Maine does not therefore possess for the emi-
grant the attractions of more Southern States.
The chief products, after timber, are Indian corn,
oats, potatoes, hay, and cheese and butter. But
it is not from these that Maine derives her principal
wealth. She is the greatest of shipbuilding States ;
her cod-fishing is unequalled, and she has but one
superior for mackerel and other small fish. Her
immense product of lumber and her shipbuilding
have enabled Maine to exceed in value of manufac-
tures every other New England State except Massa-
chusetts, though behind them all in manufac-
tures generally. In Biddeford there are extensive
cotton and machine building works, in Rockland
lime works, and is Augusta and Bath various manu-
factures ; but her main-stay is the Portland,
Bath, and Rockland shipbuilding. The sea-going
vessels of Maine are known all over the world. The
tall tapering spars, the white cotton canvas, to a
sailor's eye proclaim a Maine ship before the grace-
ful lines of her hull are visible, and in the coasting
trade the single State of New York only is ahead of
her. Although Augusta is the State capital, the finest
city is Portland, which on July 4, 1866, lost half
its buildings by one of the greatest fires of the
century. Nearly all the business portion of the
town was destroyed, and the value of the property
lost was $10,000,000. The fire commenced at a
boot shop in High-street, and aided by a southerly
gale it cleared the densest part of the town, a mile
and a half long by a quarter of a mile wide. The
ground was scarcely cool when the surveyors were
at work to lay out on an improved plan this portion
of the city, and the Portland of to-day is still finer
than that of 1866, though it was known as one of
the most beautiful towns of the Union. Much of the
importance of this city is derived from the fact that
during a considerable portion of the year it is the
outlet for Canadian trade. When the St. Lawrence
is closed by ice the Montreal steamers have to make
Portland their point of departure, and the Grand
Trunk Railway has its terminus there. The moose
are still captured ; the first of this season was
brought into Bangor on the last Monday in Decem-
ber, whence it was sent to New York. Deer abound
in the forest, and fowl on the lakes, which are alive
with fish. The northern part of the State is as wild
as any waste of the Union, and Englishmen who first
land in Maine and proceed some distance into the in-
terior are made aware how vast is the demesne left
to nature, and how small, when compared with it,
is the portion reclaimed by man. The State Trea-
sury received $1,149,691 in 1868, and paid out
$1,149,807 ; the balance on hand is $215,725, about
$7,000 more than at the beginning of last year. The
aggregate debt is $5,053,500. The sinking fund
of $846,090 exceeds the war debt it is to meet by
$46,000. No State more embodies New England
principles—Puritan, according to the South —than
the " Black " Republican State of Maine, that is,
it is one of the most orderly, law abiding, and re-
ligious of the meny communities which make up
the Union. One of the most extraordinary laws by
which a people ever voluntarily restrained them-
selves is well known to the world as the Ma inn:
Liquor Law. Asa rule the more northern the coun-
try the stronger and more ardent are the spirits the
natives consume, but it has remained for the coldest

State in the Union, by a voluntary act of: its i.nha•
bitants, to prohibit the sale and consumption of al-
cohol. That such a law should give rise to a bitter
contest is not surprising, but that for years it could
be enforced is the marvel, for we may say, taking,
Scotland as our proof, that there is no an tagonis in be-
tween Puritanism and whisky. Education, of course,
in such a State thrives. The number attending schools
in 1866 averaged, winter and summer, 97,827, and
the inhabitants designated as scholars in that year
were 212,834. The school districts of the State
numbered 3,771, and the aggregate expenditure
was $592,598. The people are as thrifty as they are
hardworking ; there are 28 savings banks, wi h an
aggregate of depos:ts amounting to $5.,032,247,
which would he equal in proportion if the working
clisses of England deposited £60,000,000 sterling.
It is not a little surprising that, go where we will
throughout the Union, the inhabitants of the various
States claim that through their territory is the most
direct road to the Pacific. Minnesota asserts St.
Paul the head of the Mississippi navigation, and the
head waters of Lake Superior tobe the grand starting
point for the Pacific. Texas maintains Galveston
to he the true Atlantic terminus, awl gives many ex-
cellent reasons why that port is so. The Kansas Paciti c
Railroad was the first commenced, and that State
will not be content till her line crosses the Colorado,
where it is navigable and pushes on through South-
ern California. California is the end and aim of
all these efforts, yet we have taken these States, not
from choice, but simply from their locality,embrac-
ing as they do the extremes of the latitude and lon-
gitude of the Union; and now we stepintoMaine, and
the first thing we hear is that through it the best
route lies at any rate in connection with Nova Scotia.
Everywhere they are building short lines to work
out their through line to the Pacific, asserting that
inasmuch as they _shorten the sea carriage and.
lengthen that on land they m ►ke travel quicker,
safer, and more agreeable. Texas maintains
the reverse, declaring sea-carriage to be the
cheapest and easiest transport; while we contend
that both are right, the one for mails, pas-
sengers, and valuable goods occupying small space,
and the other for the more bulky articles. We
have now finished our task, but wn hope not with-
out interesting our readers into further inquiries
for themselves. The subject is important, for if
the teaching of ill-advised men prevails, the fairest
portion of the earth's surface now open for emigra-
tion will be barred to the English people ; not that
they deny its excellence, but that they dread the
power being there built up. On this fact they may
rely, that built up it will be, with or without their
aid ; and knowing this we ask every lover of the
Anglo-Saxon race if it be not better that England
should take part in the great construction, mould-
ing it as much as she can to her own form, than
to hold sullenly aloof and leave German and Irish
blood to preponderate in the veins of the people
destined to rule the earth.