The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-25 00:00:00

REFORM MEETING AT BOLTON.

A meeting of non-electors was held on Thursday
night, in the Temperance-hall, Bolton, " for the
purpose of discussing the question of the necessity
for Parliamentary reform, the basis on which it
should proceed, and how far the scheme of John
Bright, Esq., M.P., is entitled to popular support."
The hall was about one-half filled, and at twenty
minutes to eight o'clock Mr. Crook, M.P., Mr.
James Staton, and other members of the Non-
electors' Committee, ascended the platform, and
were loudly cheered. Mr. Wm. Eaton was called
to the chair.
Mr. J. HODSON, an operative cotton spinner,
moved the first resolution :—" That it is the opinion
of this meeting that ii is the undoubted right of
every man of sound mind and untainted w.ith crime,
who has attained his majority, to vote in the elec-
tion of members to serve in Parliament ; but that
it is prepared to support any measure that shall
meet with the coneurreneeof reformers generally."
He thought it the birthright of every t:lan in Eng-
land to have a Voice in the making of the laws by
which he had to be governed.
Air. W. HARRISON seconded the motion.
Mr. J. STATON supported it, and recommended
the meeting to accept household suffrage, as the
most they could get under present circumstances,
Iwhilst, at the same time, they asserted their claim
to.universal. suffrage.
A working man, named NEWTON, spoke in favour

of manhood suffrage, and moved as an amendment,
" That this meeting recognises manhood suffrage,
and as men will contend for nothing less."
Mr. WM. WITHERINGTON seconded the motion,
and on a show of hands the motion was declared to
be carried, though the division was a very close
one, and the show of hands had to be taken twice.

COMBINATIONS Alll 0 21' G P.RIXTERS.

(From the Times.)
A recent trial in the Court of Exchequer hag
dragged once more into the light of day those prin-
ciples and proceedings of Trades' Unions which.
NI%

ere so effectually exposed in the case of thet
Amalgamated Engineers some six years ago. It is
not often that the actual operation of these societies
can be clearly brought before the public, and the
lesson, at the present moment, is far too instructive
to be lost. Readers in general will require to be
informed that the leagues in question are by no
means confined to those purposes of mutual sup-
port which association naturally promotes. They
are not merely unions, but combinations—organised
bodies, charging themselves with the absolute
regulation of their particular trades, in defiance
alike of economical laws and individual liberty. In
the case of the engineers the society was leagued
and bond to keep the trade as select as possible,
by limiting the number of apprentices, and to
enhance-the remuneration of the workmen by
im-
posing terms upon employers and employed
together. In the case of the Printers' Union the
objects are similar, and they appear, indeed, to be
so devised that, if they could be once accomplished,
masters and men throughout the kingdom would
simply be the slaves of the Union Committee.
Fortunately the very violence of the principles
defeats their end, and the society can by no means
extend its control over the whole of this important
trade. Here follows a sketch of its operations, as
illustrated by the case of " Harrison v. Pearce :"
Supposing a man desirous of getting his bread
as a letterpress printer, he has, of course, the option
of joining the Trade's Union or not. This option,
however, although representing one of the simplest
of personal rights, the Union does its best to render
merely nominal, for it affixes a stigma and penalty
on all who choose to take care of themselves and
manage their own concerns in their own way. A
printer not belonging to the Union is called a
"yat," and Union men positively refuse to work in
his company. If in any printing-office the hands
engaged were Union men that office would be abso-
lutely closed against any independent operative,
however excellent might be his character or his
-skill. If the employers ventured upon taking him
all the rest would leave, so that on his very first
entrance into his trade a young artisan finds him-
self debarred as far as possible from employment
by men assuming to be his benefactors and protec-
tors. Let us next suppose that, with these terrors
hanging over his head, he joins the Union, and
accepts tho chances of membership rather than fight
single-handed against the machinations of a league.
From that hour he surrenders every particle of
personal independence and individual freedom. Ho
is the slave of an unseen and distant conclave,
whose orders are imperatively conveyed to him, to
be obeyed at his peril. To begin with, certain
large establishments are closed in his face. He is
positively bound not to accept employment in the
offices of the Times or the Queen's Printer, or in
those of the Morning and Evening Star, or Morning
Post, besides which, wherever he may be engaged,
he must resign his engagement if any non-Union
printer is called in to work by his side. This is
but the commencement of his slavery, for he cannot
even put a price upon his own work or measure his
own labour. The Committee assumes not only to
nominate the places of his engagement, but to fix
his wages for him, and determine the time and
period of his exertions. All this is no longer
matter of his own choice, capacity, or speculation ;
he is a mere unit in a mob—a living and a thinking
creature, but with no freedom in the exercise of his
will or power. These are the conditions of his
daily calling, which, under penalty of proscription,
and, if the society could insure it, of starvation, he
must needs accept.

The case came out with remarkable clearness in
the quarrel at Sheffield which occasioned the trial
before us. The plaintiff was a newspaper proprie-
tor in that town—a sort of head-quarters of the
Printers' Union, and the defendant pursued the
same profession in thesame place. In the plaintiff's
office were a number of society men, of whom he
wished to be rid. Why he conceived this desire he
stated with great plainness. " The great objection
was that their connexion with the Union enabled
them to rule me and be my master, and they were
so, instead of my ruling them and being their
master. I could not employ what men 1 liked.
They would have struck if 1 had employed a non-
Union man. They would not allow me to make
arrangements as to the wages I should pay—an in-
ferior man must be paid as much, as a gocd
man—and would not allow me to set a man his
work according to his capacity. They wanted some
type, and I gave them some, and they refused to
use it, although it was detrimental to them not to
do so. Then- would not allow me to print for whom
I liked." tinder these circumstances he took the
resolutiori of employing more manageable hands,
and the consequence was that the society issued a
placard so scandalous and injurious as to constitute
—when inserted as an advertisement in the defen-
dant's paper—a libel, which the jury visited with
£5OO damages.
There is one point in this precious illustration of
tyranny which we cannot pass over without special
notice. 'We need not advert particularly to the fate
of the unfortunate proprietor, who, because he
would not submit to dictation in his own office and.

his own business. was thus malignantly assailed.
On this head the jury spoke out pretty plainly in
their verdict • but what we wish especially to
indicate is the onslaught made by the Trades'
Unions upon evprything resembling excellence
in industry, patience, or skill. It was
precisely the same in the case of the
Amalgamated Engineers, whose chief object of
attack was the practice by which a man able and
willing to do better work than others received
somewhat better wages. This species of distinc-
tion is, in the eyes of Trades' Unions, an unlawful
and abominable thing. "An inferior man must be
paid as much as a good man ;" and no man must
presume to earn more than is convenient to his
idler or more dissolute neighbour. The result
aimed at is a dead level of mediocrity, with no
scope for energy or excellence either. in proficiency
or diligence, and with one uniform scale of wages
maintained as high as possible by combination and
terror. It is lucky for these Unions that they can-
not quite have their own way. Their success, if
they could ever be successful, would simply end in
ruining the trade altogether. When they talk of
" a fair day's wage for a fair day's work," they
forget that somebody must be found to provide the
work and to produce the wage, and that this some-
body is just as much entitled to consideration as
they are.
And now we should like to point the moral of
this story by one remark more. The people who
are cajoled or coerced into these Trades' Unions
belong for the most part to those very " working
classes" whom it is now proposed to invest not merely
with a share, but with a possible monopoly, of
political power. We say, a monopoly, because in
many towns or districts, if Mr. Bright's designs
were carried out, the new electors could of them-
selves, and of their own suffrages alone, out-vote
the entire aggregate of existing electors. In Edin-
burgh, for instance, it is computed that there would
be 9,000 of the new voters added to the 8,000 old
ones, and in Glasgow Mr. Bright himself antici-
pates a still larger infusion of fresh blood. At
first sight the obvious
reflection is, that these men
would not go in a body either one way
,or the
other, but would merge indiscriminately in existing
parties, as at the period of the last Reform Bill.
Look, however, at the examples given by these
Trades' Unions ; observe not only the organisation
of which the working classes are capable, but the
purposes to which they can be induced to apply it,
and then say if classes so easily ruled and so easily
led are qualified to exercise power so enormous
without even the obligation of exercising it in.
public. If these classes are capable of sub-
mitting to the dominion of Trades' Committees,
and of allowing the edicts of these conclaves to
supersede all their personal rights and privileges,
why should they not be banded together, behind
the shroud of the ballot, for any purpose which a
" committee" of designing agitators may choose to
conceive ? We are told that they are industrious,
intelligent, and thrifty. We believe it • but in
the operations of these societies we have ply
evi-
dence that they are not Proof against the machina-
tions of crafty leaders even in matters more imme-
diately within their own cognisance, and most
intimately. affecting their daily interests. Can we
assume, then, that they will be more so when the
questions at stake are less familiar, and the deci-
sions less apparently important ?

THE 'FLITCH OF BACON.—A circular has been
issued stating it is the general wish of the committee and
the inhabitants of Duninow that the ceremony "should be
postponed till the railway is completed from London to
Dunmow ;" but how far this will be agreeable to the candi-
dates who will be cou2elled to carefully bottle up the
rising connubial squabble till the parliamentary battle has
been fought and w0...1, and the pickaxe has paved a way of
iron to the ancient rill, is somewhat matter of doubt.—
Chamsforti Chronicle.
A LEAK STOPPFD BY Fisii—As a brig belonging-
, t%) the Tyne was on her passage from Shields to London
during a late gale, she sprung a leak off Winterton, and as
she made so niuch water the craw refused to go any further.
The captain put into Grimsby, engaged four extra men, and
proceeded much against the will of the obstinate crew.
After she was discharged in London and put on the shore,
the leak was found had proceeded from a hole in which was
found two fish, the one about the size of a sprat, and the
other of a larger size : the smaller one was quite in, and the
larger one had its body half in.- The captain is o opinion
that had these two members of the finny tribe not taken
shelter in the hole, he would not have been able to keepher.
afloat,—NortheriiDaily Express.

B2Z I

7314

(Front the Times' Special Correspondent.)

VICTORIA, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND, Oct. 26.
I resume mv-- report of the mining on Fraser
Ri4ver where lis .ft off in my last letter, dated the
6th-Ilth of the present month. In that letter I
endeavoured to carry your readers up from Fort
H6pe to Victoria Bar on the 13th of September.
Starting upwards from Victoria Bar, we pass an
island called, in. Indian, " Sctlaheness." The island
is covered at b oth ends with miners. Next comes
Texas Bar, on the same side—the right side—of the
river, which Nre did not visit till our return. From
this bar the river makes a reach of 21 miles to
Einory's Bar. s Opposite to the above island with
the unproreiv.nceable name we guessed the width
of the main. stream to be 250 yards—great depth
and strong a arrent„ seven knots an hour. A great
deal of mini! b has been done at the upper end of
Texas Bar, 'but now most of the miners have gone
higher up :the river. The cry is, " Up." Higher,
and higher still the nervous, unsettled miner
trudges, in -the hope of finding the real " Dorado,"
the source'of all the "float gold" which enriches
the lower banks. That many are disappointed you
may well conclude; hut, then, why should not the
miner go " up r Is he not a free agent who
knows no master, whose best employed time is
spent in grubbing in slush for "dross" and "filthy
lucre ;" and is not " push on," "keep moving," the
motto of humanity in the present age ?
There is not much mining being done in the
reach from Texas Bar to Emory's ; only one small
camp on the right side. The banks are very steep
here—sheer, and of sand, not a favourite "location"
with the miner; he selects a gravelly bank and
sloping beach.
Emory's Bar.—A great deal of work has been
done, and much active mining is now going
on here. Our first meeting was with a
gang of miners dining on fried bacon and pota-
toes cooked a la Maitre de Hotel, eating out of
the frying-pan in which the edibles were prepared,
set upon the stump of a tree. Many long huts
and shingle cabins were being put up for the winter.
The miners were a jolly lot. Little mixtures of
" chaff" and drunkenness are evidences of success.
Generally, the miners, are quite steady. Here is
the first case we have met with—an old-rascal from
Australia in that state of brandy and water known
" mellow." The water of a running stream has
been diverted into a canal two miles long cut by
the miners, and supplies two long sluices for " wash-
ing"—a great labour-saving invention, which sup-
plants the rocker. Five more sluices are going up,
to run from the bank to the river; and water
wheels—undershot—are being rigged, to raise the
water from the river to sluice with where the canal
does not " serve." Great things are expected from
this bar, but its brilliant prospects cannot restrain
the restless, " Many miners left this bar for up
the river. Got capsized, a lot of theM, and lost
their tools and provisions." Such slight mishaps
don't stop the upward exodus. "12 left to-day."
Now, for the " results." Ist Gang.—" Moderate
wages"—a favourite znswer when the miner wishes
to be enigmatical. "Put moderate wages. into
American currency" brought forth the explanation
of " 8 dols. to 10 dols. a man a day. That's what
I call moderate wages for an experienced California
miner who comes up here." The true Yankee pre-
tends to think that he does the country a great
favour to "tome up here," and carry off as much of
its treasure as he can bag. He's quite welcome to
the gold, but as to the compliment involved in his
visit it is not very clear.
There is a sandbank here, well back from the
river ; 10 to 15 feet below the -surface of which
there is a gravel " pay streak," three and four feet
thick. This superincumbent sand is to be washed
down into the river during winter, so as to lay
bare the gravelly bedwhich contains the gold. The
whole shore, exposed down to the edge of the water,
is auriferous from the surface. It has been
" washed" to a depth of from 6 inches to 7 feet. 2d
Gong whose earnings I inquired about—four men
to a sluice head.—Sometimes three ounces, some-
times an ounce a man per day. 3d Gang.-6c. to
the bucket ; can wash 400 in a day ; two man in the
gang. "This will makeyour earnings 24 dols. for the
two of you." " Yes, we have made 30 dols. per day
to the rocker."
I asked the miners if they had any notion or
theory upon the extent of the gravelly stratum, or
"pay streak," which underlies the sandbank. They
said, " 1.. t may ex tend for miles, or underlay
.the
whole country—who knows ?" Met here a miner
who had " prospected" for geld four miles inland,
on an elevated bench, 200 feet high, on the opposite
(left) side of the river, and found gold, " the co-
lour," as they call the result of a " prospect." 4th
gang—of three men at work in one small hole—a
very lucky hole, too, as their statistics verified.—
This ground had already been " worked" by these
men. They first washed the surface, or top dirt,
about 6 in. to 9 in. deep. From this they got loz.
each man per day. The ground was 25 feet wide by
40 feet long, as well as I could guess it. They then
" prospected" for deeper diggings, and struck the
" hole where they found 35c. to the pan. Here
was a real mine, which would yield 140 dols. a-day
supposing they could wash 400 buckets a day ; an
easy task, as it happens, for the wateris convenient.
Here are their own returns :—The first day they
got 10 oz. of amalgam, and left a lot of stuff over.
Next day they washed out this " balance," and it
produced 20 deb. of gold dust. Amalgam and gold
worth close upon 130 dols. As to the interval of
their time between the opening of the hole and the
present time, they did " very well," according to
one of them ; " off and on the same," according to
the other ; and had "no reason to find fault with
the country," according to the third. When I was
with them they retorted a portion of the amalgam
of this present day's work-6 dols. 40c. in value of
gold, at 16 dols. per oz. ; and I made them weigh
the rest of the lump of amalgam, 11 oz. They ex-
pect to make soon double the amount yet earned.
They overvalue their gold. It is not worth 16 dols,
but from 15 to 151 dols., and when a miner comes
to Victoria hard up, he is often obliged to take 14
dols. 50c. for "quicksilver"—i.e., amalgamated
gold.

Several of the miners gave me the average earn-
ings of the bar as one ounce of gold a-clay to the
man, and that frequently the rocker washes 100
dots. a day to two men. As we get up the river I
find the " yields" of gold greater. General mining
opinion corroborates this fact, which accounts for
the flight upwards-250 men on the bar.
Here a deputation of miners wait upon the Go-
vernor to get his exposition of. mining law. The
opening of the case was quiet enough, drawled out
in measured terms with a Yankee twang of great
power ; but the statement of facts of the first
speaker was " demurred" to by a defendant in the
outer ring of the circle. The demurrer was taken
up by a third man before it could be discussed. A
fourth and a fifth came into the arena, and they
all set to tooth and nail. They certainly did tear
the argument to rags with a will. The hubbub
brought up other miners, until the judge of this
curious court leet was surrounded by a crowd
which one of themselves called " the rummest pic-
ture I" Such assertions, denials, arguments, ex-
planations, and replications were never heard be-
fore. One quoted Californian laws, another Austra-
lian, and a third the " law of all creation." And
as they all spoke at once it seemed as if it would
puzzle an Eldon to untie the gordian knot. The
Governor endured it all like a stoic. He seemed to
think the best way to get hold of the end of the
skein was to let the fellows run down—expend
themselves in talk. I was in hopes that the heat
of the day would hasten this desirable consumma-
tion ; but the miners, being half-naked, suffered
nothing from the sun. I could barely endure the
heat of the sand, but they had the advantage of
me, for many of them stood in water. At length
one of the disseizors generously offered to " cave
in" if the Governor " would say the word." This
fellow was a reckless gray-headed old blade who
had mined in all the mining districts of California,
gone to Australia, made lots of money there and
' spent it, returned to his first love, but got out of
uck, and came to Fraser River, where he was
making his " pile," to be squandered as soon as
accumulated. Violent as this burly-burly seemed,
the discussion was carried on with good feeling,
with much reason' and in excellent temper.
The point in dispute was simple enough--how
far back from the water's edge can a miner work his
river claim. Decided—that he can work back on
the shore to high water mark, and that beyond high
water mark (inland from the bank) comes under the
division of mining laws kno
—a decision whicri all acquiels.cner. " dryddiggings"
ThenOldan
sent the
miners away in good humour.
reason for acquiescing hi it was of the oddest. Australian'sH
said he liked " a Governor who was down upon
sour flour-sellers."

yesterdal
Next above Emo'sar Ave cme
of Frenchmen who made 2 dols.o a-dau Pon a party
Y
and expect to make 5 dols. to-day to the man. lii:,:
mediately adjoining a party of 11 Americans and
Irish, only five days at work 4 dols. a-day.
Grumblei terribly, but full of hope of doing better
as the river falls.

Next scene is an Indian fishing village, redolent
of drying salmon, of which vast numbers hang from
every stick in the village. Legions of wasps. W ent
into a hut. Couldn't hear a word owing to the
buzzing of the wasps. Couldn't sit from filth, nor
stand from suspended fish, hut moved out pretty-
quickly on being seized round the ankles by a
strong detachment of fleas. Indian wigwams are
to be looked at, not entered. A village orator ap-
peals to the Governor for relief against the miners,
who are intruding upon the Indian domain. The
poor creatures ! They were very modest in their

demand. They only asked fora small spot to draw
up their canoes and to dry their fish upon, to be
exempted from mining. Their request w s granted
by the Governor, and the boundaries marked by
the sub-commissioner.
Just beyond the village a party were "prospect-
ing" in a cairn of big stones; result, 1 dol. to 3
dols. a-day, and so unsatisfactory that they in-
tended to " move up." The gold hereabouts is
mixed with garnets.
Half-a-mile above Emory's is Trinity Bar ; 24
men "making grub only." Beyond this there is a.
long spit of ground which has been worked and.
abandoned. Found two men lately arrived "pros-
pecting the worked-out ground at a result of less
than 2 dols. a-day to each of them. For a mile further
up several straggling miners at work. They an-
swered to our hails as to their earnings, " pretty
fair," " very low," " middling," " first-rate," " grub,"
the latter return meaning just enough to live upon.
Since we started met only one man who complained
of bad health. To-day a miner said he had a " bad
head," and asked for the army doctor.
On the left bank of the river between Emory's
and Ohio Bar there is a long string of miners at
work, whom we did not visit, as we must keep the
right side, owing to the current. These miners
number several hundreds, and all are busy, most of
them in the bank, which they are burrowing into
a great many tunnels, following the " lead" or
" pay dirt" inland. At Ohio Bar the miners re-
ported 4 dols. a day as their average earnings daily
to the man.
The miners very generally expressed their hopes
that the party of Marines and Engineers which ac-
companies the Governor on his visit to the mines
are to be " located permanently" for the preserva-
tion of order in the mining country. The soldiers
keep most of the time in the bateaux while we are
yarning with the miners, but they sometimes come
on shore and mix with them. The soldier has no
great fancy for the life of a digger. Some sailors
and two engineers, I believe, ran away from Esqui-
malt some time ago to the American territory on
the opposite coast. They have sent word to their
officers that if they will be forgiven they will re-
turn. They have become quite penitent, and say
the Yankee crimps deceived them. The officers
returned the very proper answer, that if they re-
turned the would be tried by court-martial.
I would here remark that the miners, as a body,
are quite willing to pay the license fee of £1 a
month. The expenses peculiar to a mining coun-
try—the making of roads, building of bridges, sur-
veying of new lines of communication, exploring,
the ordinary administration of justice, extra peace
officers for the miner's own protection where his
earnings are so much exposed in tents and insecure
huts—all require a considerable outlay ; and miners
have sense enough' to see that a tax of some kind
must be raised to defray all these expenses, and
that they ought to contribute a larger portion of
such tax than the residents of Victoria, the only
other community upon which the screw could be
put. The invariable remark was " Give us protec-
tion, and we'll pay the license willingly."
re have not yet seen any prairie or open land
upon the river. The vegetation is rank and thick.
Between the full-grown trees them is always an
undergrowth of young pines or of deciduous plants,
and in most places so thick that I cannot thrust my
arm through the plantation. I never saw so thick
a crop of trees or of anything else. The ground is
literally covered with growing trees. How so many
derive sustenance from a soil which looks rather
poor, a yellowish clay mixed with gravel, is a marvel.
A little way above Emory's Bar, where the mountain
range recedes, there is a plateau rather open—that
is less thickly overgrown—than the rest of the
country ; this strip might be cultivated, but such
desirable spots for tillage are very few—a fact much
to be regretted, for the labour of elearingthe forest
is so severe and so tedious that few farmers will
attempt it.
All the mining locations which I visited, and of
which I have given such details as I collected, to
enable your readers to judge of their present value
and future prospects, between Fort Hope and Hill's
Bar are on the right side of the river (i. e., the right
hand side, looking down stream, as taken by geo-
graphers, but the left hand side in going up.) The
gravelly spits exposed and called in mining par-
lance " bars" are on the first-mentioned side. The
banks of the other (the left) side are more sheer
and the river flows close to them generally, leaving
few spots on the shore dry. The current being
thrown on this side, navigators avoid it in ascend-
ing The current can be shot, but it is hard work
to pull against it. Small canoes get into smooth
water between the currents and the bank, and can
thread their way where our large bateaux can-
not venture. For perhaps eight miles of the
way there is a string of miners at work in
various places on this side also, but far fewer than
on the right side. The nature of the ground has
induced a different kind of mining. There being
but few " bars" to wash, the bank has been pene-
trated and the gravelly bed extracted to be washed
in the river, and in two places streams of inland
water have been turned and led to the diggings by
the miners to "sluice-wash" with. This side is
considered much poorer in gold than the opposite,
but I should think that 800 miners are at work on
the eight miles of it below Hill's Bar, and they
were all engaged most industriously. Certainly
there are f ewer " loafers"—that is, idlers, on the
poor side than I found on the " lucky" one. Per-
haps poverty begets industry here, as it has done
in many of the countries of the Old World.
The next bar we come to in our progress up-
wards is Hill's Bar, to which we only pay a flying
visit. A young fellow, of such solid proportions
as plainly betokened his nationality, and who, I
am sorry to say, was in a very patriotic state of
brandy and water, was waiting on shore to be " the
first Englishman to receive the Governor," a duty
which he performed with more warmth than
dignity. So as not to monopolise the honour of the
reception, he introduced a boozy friend in a fustian
jacket, as "a Sebastopol man, who had servedfire
years in the Crimean -war !" It was distressing to
hear this scapegrace mention his father, a man of
respectable position in London.
Before I had time to look about me the sons of
Mars had crossed the " Bar," and were steadily
making for a point on the edge of the forest,
whither they were attracted by the sight of a petti-
coat—the first seen on the_ river since we left Fort
Hope. The wearer of this attraction was a fair-
haired comely little woman who sported a sign-
board of white calico, which bore a strong resem-
blance to a bit of a nether garment, which majr be
guessed without being named, having scrawled on
it, "Boarding by the Meales." The fair hostess
was very well pleased with all the world in gene-
ral and with herself in particular, and paid a com-
pliment to her neighbours, which I doubt not
they deserved. " They men were all very brotherly,"
she said ; but on asking after the sisterhood the
answer was not so satisfactory—" There are not
many sisters to be sisterly;" an evasive answer, but
characteristic, as a married man of our party re-
marked. I had only time to note one other instance
showing that " the schoolmaster was abroad"—a
sign painted over a bakery, " Brad and pajes "
which is a sort of French-English for " Bread and
pies"—when Major Hawkins hurried us away, so
as to get to Fort Yale before nightfall, to give his
men time to prepare their encampment, a duty which
he would not neglect for all the gold, fun, and pet-
ticoats on Fraser's River.
Tort Yale is a collection of wooden houses and
tents improvised on a long curved shelf of land
rising gently from the river; the shore for about a
mile being in the hands of the miners, who are
working it by means of rookers and sluices. The
place acquired a certain importanc9 from the be-
lief that it would be the head of steamboat naviga-
tion, and that an up-river town of some size would
in consequence spring up. This hope has not been
justified. The current has proved too strong for the
steamers, none of them being able to come so far.
One tried it but had to put back, and their termi-
nus is now Fort Hope. I am informed by compe-
tent judges that iron boats with screw propellers
can be built in England which can run all the way
from Victoria to Fort Yale. This is a desideratum
not yet supplied by any of the steamers on these
waters, for those which ply on the river are stern-
wheel boats, which are not fit to navigate the Gulf
of Georgia and other waters intervening between
Victoria and the mouth of Fraser River. The pre-
sept arrangement, therefore is, that side-wheel
boats carry the freight from Victoria to Langley,
where it is transferred to the stern-wheel boats, to
be taken to Fort Hope. From the latter place it is
carried in boats and canoes to Yale, and from the
latter by small canoes, higher up still, through the
rapids called the little and big " Canones," and by
land packed on horses and mults and on
men's backs—to the Forks, being the junction of
Fraser's and Thompson's rivers, where there is a
considerable mining settlement. I will give the
distaxces of all these places before I finish this letter
—meantime let us retrace our steps to Fort Yale.
This place had acquired a very bad reputation for
gambling, drinking, and violence of every kind,
and gave the Governor more concern than the whole
of the rest of the mining country. Nearly all the
tfreas
ovifees of the place were due to the presence of a set
ds ie° TOPIC
gamblersand in from
defiance California,oflNavwh.o plied
e
ttheirpro
failure or " caving in" of the
American towns at-
tempted to be established in Puget Sound and
iu
Bellingham Bay, in opposition to Victoria
rm, sent a
large additional force of these harpies to Yale ; and
they spoke of making a last stand for their order
here. The operation of the law of the land has
driven them from California, and the operation of
the law of supply and demand has sent them, as
rats desert a falling house, from the embryo towns

on the coast. They have no other place to retire to,
and they will make a dying struggle at Fort Yale,
defy the legal authorities, and fight for their privi-
leges. If they are worsted here they will pitch
their tents and open " hells" on every mining bar
on the river, and resist interference in each rnl
every case until they weary out the authorities.
This was the doctrine preached to the justice and
constable up to the time the Governor reached Fort
Yale with the detachment of Engineers and Ma-
rines. Other kindred spirits had become inoculated
with this pestilent doctrine. Peaceably-disposed
men were kept in a state of discomfort and alarm,
every man was armed, and slight quarrels became
dangerous frays. The Governor's visit was none
too soon. His physical force was not large—only
a handful of Marines and Engineers and two officers
—but its moral effect was great.
Messieurs the gamblers kept very " shady,"
lowered their crests considerably, and before we
started to return, 50 of them left the place in
" disgust ; " their trade had fallen off. They became
convinced, somehow, although no overt act what-
ever had been taken against them, that " the game
was up." They were afraid something ould
happen, and, instead of favouring the " bars With
their presence, they " made tracks" for a more con-
genial country.
Some of them do still remain and ply their ille-
gal trade, for the simple reason that the Governor
is too cautious to rush into an encounter out of
which he is not sure to come victorious. I am very
happy to see that a judge has been despatched from
England for the new colony. If he is " the ri6lit
man" his very presence will soon create and elicit
so much wholesome public opinion from the well-
disposed portion of the inhabitants as will speedily
send the remnant of the gamblers after their de-
parted brethren.
We had one little episode—a legal episode I

might call it—rather am-using. A ruffianly Irish.
man refused to pay some small licence money im-
posed upon his calling. All his fellow-dealers paid
theirs, but the Irishman had graduated in the "free
and independent" country of our good neighbours,
and he would pay no d— Queen's dues, while
his better, half backed him up with the most voci-
ferous-energy, threatening to split the constable's
head open with an axe. Tax gatherers are unpo-
pular everywhere, and the virago had public sym-
pathy on her side for awhile.
The Governor was appealed to by the outraged
and deforced officers ; but, it being a case of which
he could not take direct cognisance, he referred
the matter to the law officer of the Crown, who ac-
companied him. The Irishman was summoned before
the justice, and on a hearing it was decreed that he
should pay the license or go to prison. He didn't
like either alternative, but determining to become
a martyr, he chose the latter. In this he made a
terrible mistake, for, there being no prison nearer
than Victoria, and the judge being too much of a
formalist to commit to any but a legally con-
stituted gaol, remitted him to Victoria, about 135
miles off. This didn't seem to appal him, and he
de clared.his readiness to start at one, and would go
without waiting for his coat, although the officer
offered to fetch it from his house. No, a martyr of
the highest grade he would be. And now comes
the funniest part of the Irishman's case. The man
was not poor. He had plenty of money, but was
stubborn and would not pay the State her just dues.
As he was on his way down the river he bethought
him of the " unprotected female" left behind, and
sent a man with a bag of money to her. This fellow,
having the fear of the violent Irish woman before
his eyes, came into the justice's office for advice, as
bad luck would have it for the refractory debtor.
A little consultation, a slight whispering, a little
shuffling, and the money was " garnished. ' As if
by the stroke of a magician's wand the debt was
secured without the owner's will or consent, and
the Irishman unwittingly became free. The canoe
was recalled, and be was told he might pursue his
calling in peace, his licence having been made " all
right.
Having found the law to be too much for him, it
is to be hoped the Irishman will keep out of its
clutches and play no more with edged tools. I
think the whole thing was capitally done. I tried
to speak to the fellow, and expected a civil recep-
tion, as I had nothing to do with his case, but I
found him such a brute that I was fain to with,
draw.

Since this example was made I learn that the
inhabitants of Fort Yale are piously conforming
themselves to the Divine command by " giving
unto Caesar that which is Caesar's ;" but I fear
Caesar is not much benefited in his exchequer
thereby, for the unavoidable outgoings with such a
community are heavy. Indeed, I fear it will be some
time before the new colony will realise the happy
consummation so devoutly to be wished for by Ra-
dicals and rulers at home—namely, support itself.

THE LEGALIZED TRAFFIC. IN FEMALE
CHILDREN IN INDIA.

(From the Friend of India, Oct. 28.)
Slavery in its worst and most hideous form has
been re-established in India by judicial decree.
Six months ago Mr. Toogood, magistrate of
Mongbyr, discovered that the Cazee was in the
habit of registering the sale of girls to brothel
keepers on legal documents. Three girls in parti-
cular bad been so sold to our Almcerun by deeds
prescribed as deeds of lease, but which assigned
over the girls for ninety years, and all their chil-
dren. The woman was entitled to " exact any kind
of service whatever," and was bound to furnish only
food and clothing. Mr. Toogood, with his usual
wrong-headedness, imagined that a lease of 90 years
was a sale—that slavery was not a British institu-
tion, and that justice was possible though the
Sudder still existed. He committed both Ameerun
and the Cazee for trial. At first it appeared as if
his imagination had for once not played him false.
The facts were clearly proved. Ameerun admitted
that she had hired the children. She admitted that
they were to be prostitutes. One girl testified that
she followed that trade. Another with a naivete
which has in it even a deeper touch of horror than
Ameerun's frankness, said she was young but was
being brought up to it. The judge seeing these
facts, and not having the Sudder to guid.e him,
considered the prisoners guilty of a misdemeanour,
and sent the case up to the Sudder Court to pro-
nounce sentence. He sent them up, one Sudder
judge says " to be pardoned," but as the Sudder has
not yet openly usurped that prerogative, this sup-
position is a little strained. However, the case was
sent up. The Sudder Court reviewed the evidence,
admitted the facts as proved, acquitted the prisoner,
and censured the magistrate for interfering in
matters with which he had nothing to do.
We say the Sudder passsd this astounding deci-
sion, and the expression is strictly accurate. The
court, however, as "usual, was all at sixes and sevens.
Four judges gave four Contradictory opinions, and
were at last so confused by their own folly that they
actually wrote four more opinions, to decide whe-
ther under the first four the prisoner was acquitted
or found guilty! Not only did they not know the
law, but they could not understand even the effect
of their own decisions. They referred to a fifth,
and at last by a sort of "fox and goose" process
arrived at the conclusion that the court intended to
acquit.
.The reasons assigned for the verdict are as extra-
ordinary as the verdict itself. The Cazee who
signed the deeds is acquitted at once. The poor
fellow had only lent the aid of his judicial office to
bind little girls, British subjects, for life to com-
pulsory prostitution. Who could be more innocent ?
As to the brothel keeper opinions were divided.
The first two judges, Mr. Money and Mr. Bayley,
would have punished Ameerun. The latter held
that a lease for life was legal, but that the present
lease, involving the lessee's progeny, was beyond
life and illegal. Being illegal, the hiring of a girl
for immoral purposes was also an offence, and as
an offence, punishable. He therefore inflicted a
sentence of two years' imprisonment. The two
judges not agreeing as to the extent of punishment,
the case was referred to a third.
Mr. Colvin held that the proceedings were
ab initio null and void. The crime was "not a seri-
ous one," and the magistrate had no power to inter-
fere. The charge should have been made by an
individual. We wonder if Mr. Colvin considers
kidnapping a serious offence. Perhaps not after
the decision of the Sudder in the Talineparah case,
but if he, does, we should like to hear him prove
the distinction between that crime and the one
Ameerun committed.
Mr. Sconce went further. He held that Ameerun
was rather an injured individual than otherwise.
Hiring a child, he remarks, does not "constitute
a crime." Certainly not ; but hiring a child
without wages for 95 years does, at least if slavery
be a crime at all. As to the immoral purpose Mr.
Sconce indulges in the following questions :
" What, then, is the crime, and under what con-
dition is it to form the subject of a prosecution ?
Dees the crime consist of the mere taking of a child
by a woman who at the time of taking can be
proved to be a prostitute ? Or, besides the taking,
does it extend also to the nature of the child?
Does the crime embrace actual prostitution, or is
it complete if actual prostitution be avoided ? Is
the age of the girl taken material, the same law
applying to a child of seven as to a child of fourteen ?
How is the crime effected by the woman who ori-
ginally- received the child changing her habit of
life—would the original reception of the child still
be punishable if she afterwards proposed to give
her in marriage ?"
To understand the ridicule of the thing one has
only to apply those auestions to a case of theft.
Imagine a magistrate asked to punish a proved case
of theft, and instead of doing it, mildly apostrophis