Star.
London, England, 1831-01-20 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Yemoirt of the Duke of Wellington, by Captain 110TLI Suzann.
Lesponan, ea Co.

This work is the first volume of • series, editing by Dr. Lordner,l
under the title of the " Cabinet Library," of the same sine with the
" Cabinet Cyclopeedia." It is likewiseonly the first volume of the Duke
of Wellington's Memoirs, bringing down the history of the Duke's
Military achievements to the year 1810—the period of his services in
Portugal; when the French in that country were under the command of
General Junot, the Duke d'Abrantes. In many respects, a soldier is
well qualified to be the biographer of a soldier; and Captain Bherer's
narrative displays considerable spirit, and more of the difficult tact of
proportioning the objects he introduces, to the miss of his canvas,
than is often observed in professional authces—not authors by
profession. In perusing these Memoirs, we have noticed
several remarks, on the political events alluded to, with which we
do not acquiesce. We cannot but think, fry instance, Captain
Sheen a little unfortunate in his expression, he describes " the war of
the first French Revolution, as raising England to that plasele ',power,
wealth, and influence, to which she has sow ot:oissed"..-an expression
very ambiguous, and which will generally be considered of Hibernian
extraction. He rejoices that the Duke had no hard in the bombard.
went of Copenhagen ; and yet, instead of honestly designating that
transaction, as one which will remain a disgrace to British history, he
vainly attempts to palliate its atrocious wickedness, by the tyrant's plea
of necessity.
His sketches of Indian warfare are able. He keeps his hero always
prominent in his picture ; and in pouxtraying the scenery and cha-
racters around him, he is clear and select in his delineation', without
being talloady minute. We may conclude by saying the work has
ask, noddle& both instruction and amusement.

From the French Papers received this morning, it appears
the Minister of Finance has published a table of the re-
venue of the year 1836; it presents a defieit of 18,031,496
francs on the valuation of the Budget : bat the deficit com-

pared with the year 1829, is only 5,406,834 francs.
It is a fact creditable to the Berkshire and Hampshire po-
pulace, that so few attended the late executions. How dif-
' forest would have been the assemblages, if the people bad
sympathised with the vengeance of the law 1 Life cannot
now be restored ; bat the crowds under sentence of tramper-
tation, die. may yet perhaps be saved to their families, by
suitable appeals to the fountain of mercy.

Mr. WILMOT HORTON'S LECTURES AT THE MECHA.

NICS' INS 1 I TUTION.

Mr. W. Horton h at present engaged in delivering a series of Lec-
tures on Political Economy, at the Mechanics' Institution. Last night's
lecture, which was delivered before a very emnerous audience, cm.
braced the following propositions:_" Have we a surplus population its
this country in a state of destitution ?" 2dly, .• Have we the means of
providing for that surplus population by colonization ?" And 3.31y,"A re
there any other means of providing for that p •pulation at home, prefer•
able to the expedient of their colonizasian abroad ?" Having de-
fined what he meant by the terms .• surplus population," and hay.
ving proved its existence la this c •untry, by instances- selected
from the town of Rome and from 114 littlish of Benenden, in Kent.
he proceeded to show that the only rente:y tor such an evil consisted in
an extensive and wen-conducted syst pf emigration. He stated, upon
the authority of Mr. Hodges, the present member for Kent, that in the
instance of the parish of ffenenden, the emigration a few years since, of
56 persons from that parish, cured the evil of an average redundancy of
from 70 to 90, whidt had previously existed there; and he further illu -
hated the beneficial effects of emigration by a detail of lac, coo_
nested with the emigrations which had taken place from
under the superintendence of Government, in the years 1813 aiiil
1825. In proof of the perfect success of those experiments, he ref tied
to the evidence of CoL Cockburn, and to a letter which had been re-
ceived from the Chief Justice of Upper Canada in the course of the last
summer. Having, at some length, en forced the principles which he has
so often maintained with regard to the expediency, practicability, and al-
most certain successful results of an extensive system of emigration, the
tight hon. gent. proceeded to the consideration of the question rt home
•niution, upon the waste and unreclainied lards of this country,
which had been suggested as a preferable measure to that of emigra-
tion- He argued that the removal of our redundant INTO: hurt
abroad would be attended with less expense than their loea non
upon the reclaimed waste lands in this country, and contended ;
would be much mote advantageous to employ that population op0:1 nt w
and fertile land in the colonies, than upon the reclaimed lands at hoot -
He maintained that, in such a case, the labour of that poputatt,..
(which was one of the objections urged to the plan) would not Its
lost to this country ; for it would be their interest to produce the
raw material abroad, to give in exchange for the manufactured ma-
terial which it would be our interest to produce at home, and in that
manner a new market would be created, of demand on the one hand, an I
of supply on the other. He professed hire self completely sceptical wait
regard to the p.-ssibilisy of carrying a plan of home colonization i; t
effect, at the same time that he expressed a wish to sec that, or any
other experiment which the ingenuity of man could devise, tried, with
a view to rescue this country from the disgrace of having so large a pau-
per population. We had talked long enough, he remarked, upon the
subject, it was now full time for us to begin to act. He should only
put one question to the advocates of home colonisation, and to it he ox.
peered an explicit answer. If a system of home colonisation were carried
into effect, how would it be possible to prevent the home colonists fro:.t
still throwing their labour upon the home market, as the Irish laborers
did at present, and thus creating that glut of labour in the market, the
evil effects of which it was the object of all to remove ? Those evil effects,
he maintained, could only be removed by a system of emigration, which
would alone restore the due and proper proportion between the demand
and the supply of labour in the market. He further contended, that
unless emigration were resorted to, no reduction of taxation would meet
the evils under which the labouring population of this country was at
present suffering; for that as long as a redundancy of population ex-
isted, inadequate remuneration must, according to the laws of nature,
be the lot of the labouring classes. In conclusion, he took occasion to
advert to the co-operative system which was proposed by Mr.
Owen and his followers. He did not seek, be said, to pre-
vent the formation of co.operativs societies ; all he wanted was,
that to the poor of this country the al:emotive ahi.uld be afforded
of choosing such a remedy for their evils as that held out by in igro.
tion, and that the boon should be placed within their reach by the in.
terposition of the Legislature. It appeared to him that the co.ere-a-
tivc system, even supposing that he assented to its principlt, to
he was directly opposed, involved too sweeping a change in all nit cir-
cumstances of society; and that the good effects anticipated front it, as-
suming that it was fit to be adopted, would be too far distant to induce
us to deprive the suffering poor of this country of a measure of substan•
tire and practical relief like that of emigration. The right hon. gen-
tleman concluded amidst the general applause of his auditory.

PROGRESS OF INCENDIARY

FIRES.

WHITSTABLE, near Canterbury, Jan. 17.—An alarming
fire took place on the premises of Mr. George Hayward, st
Bootsll-hill, Whitstable, this morning, at two o'clock. The
barn, stables, and stacks, were all in flames ; seven houses
were burnt to ashes; four men also fell victims to the devour-
ing element. Mr. Hayward is insured in the County Fire-
office. The fire is supposed to be the work of incendiaries,
las three men have been lurking about the premises for tl:e
'last four days, and questioning several of the men about tLe
wages and premises. It is understood that Mr. Hayward
has a thrashing-machine, and in consequence of his taking
it down, and secreting the same, Mr. Hayward has had
three letters, saying, that unless he brought forward the
machine, they would set fire to his premises. Although the
engines from Canterbury were on the spot about thres-
quarters of an hour after the fire broke out, and well supplied
with water, tbey were of no effect, as the whole of the
premises were burnt down to the ground, and with great
difficulty the dwelling-house was saved. A reward of 10001.
has been offered to any person who shall give information of
the offender or offenders.

Thursday morning last, a little after four o'clock, a fire
was discovered in the shop of Messrs. Riley and Son, bobbin
turners, at Cob-wall, near Blackburn, by a person residing
near the premises, who was awoke from his slumbers by the
effects of the smoke which had entirely filled his room. On
discovering from whence it proceeded, he immediately
alarmed Mess. Riley and the people of the neighbourhood,
who rendered every possible assistance ; but the materials in
the shop burnt with such rapidity as to render it impossible to
rescue any part of the property. The fire-engines belonging
to this town were sent for, and arrived as soon as the distance
would permit; but the fire had then reached too great a
height to be subdued, and in spite of every effort to resist
its progress, it raged until the whole interior of the build-
ing, together with its contents, were entirely destroyed.—
There are several cottages immediately adjoining the pre-
mises, and it was with great difficulty that the devouring ele-
ment was prevented from extending its ravages to them; arid
it was truly pitiable to see the alarmed inhabitants thus un-
timely aroused from their peaceful slumbers, and half•nuked,
straining every nerve to rescue their little stock cf " goods
and chattels" from the threatened destruction. Aleut 501.
worth of bobbins bad been completed on the preceding even-
ing, ready to be sent off, and it was peculiarly ur,fortunate
that the sufferers by this calamity, had laid in an additional
stock of wood, a week or two since. The cause of the fire
cannot be satisfactorily ascertained. The men employed in
the shop were at work until 11 o'clock on Wednesday night,
and had damped their fires upwards of three hours pre% iOllB
to their departure, and persons passed the place so late as
two o'clock on Thursday morning, and at that time per-
ceived neither smell nor any other indication of burning.—
The damage is estimated at about 1,2001. and we tee sorry
to state that only 4501. is insured with the Manchester Insu-
rance Company.

D•RIWG ROBBERIES IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY.
—On Tuesday night last, two or thrce policemen were in
attendance at this Court, but notwithstanding their presence
and endeavours to detect rogues, and, if possible, prevent
their entering the Court, which, it is almost needless to
observe, proved impossible, several depredations were com-
mitted undetected.— One gentleman assured us that, al-
though he kept his great coat buttoned, they bad actually
turned his breeches-pockets inside out, without his being, in
the least, sensible of the operation. He observed it was a
mystery to him how they could do it; and facetiously
added, that they really deserved what they bad go; for
their dexterity, which was nothing more than a few trifling
pieces of paper, a penknife and silver pencil-case, as in had
taken the advice of a friend not to bring any coney with
him.—Others were less fortunate, as several pocketband-
kercbiefe, and 11011111 watches, it was said, were aliening,