The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-03-12 00:00:00

Blackwood's Magazine.

We scarcely remember being more entertained, and we
may add instructed, than by a perusal of the greater part
of this magazine for the present month. Always good,
as a whole, it is on this occasion, we think, (to employ
mercantile parlance,) above the usual average. The first
article, on " Ethiopia," is a review of a recent admirable
work, " The Highlands of Ethiopia," by Major W. Corn-
wallis Harris, of the East India Company's Civil Engi-
neers, who, fro'm the high estimate formed by the Gover-
nor in Council in Bombay of his talent and enterprise, as
exhibited in his previously-published travels through the
territories of Maselakatze to the tropic of Capricorn, was
in 1841 selected to conduct a diplomatic mission to " Sa-
hela Selasse, the King of Shoa, in Southern Abyssinia,
whose capital" (continues the letter of instructions) " is
supposed to be about 400 miles inland from the .port of
Tajura, on the African coast." The narrative of the
gallant major furnishes the groundwork of an interesting
sketch of the perilous approach to Shoa from Aden, on
the coast of Arabia, (which is fully described,) through a
volcanic and scorching country intersperced with parched
and rocky mountains, heaps of cinders, and almost boiling
lakes; and the surprise and joy of the mission, when,
after almost indescribable sufferings from heat, want of
water, and fatigue, they reached the promised land, and
found it lovely and verdant, so richly cultivated as to re-
semble England herself, with cities, villages, hamlets, and
cottages; and, above all, peopled by Christians, albeit
displaying a strange admixture of civilised and savage life.
The mission, which took numerous presents, was well
and hospitably received. The monarch and his people
were found to be tractable, and renounced several of their
superstitious rites and savage customs at the desire of the
strangers, who ingratiated themselves by the presents
they bestowed. The chief object of the embassy was to
form a treaty of commerce with England, and in this the
major succeeded. He expresses himself. says the re-
viewer, ardently and eloquently on the hopes of com-
merce which might be maintained by Great Britain with
this little-known but productive part of the world. It
produces goid and gold dust, ivory, ostrich feathers, pel-
tries, spices, wax, and precious gums. "No quarter of
the globe more abounds in vegetable and mineral pro-
ductions than tropical Africa; and in the populous, fer-
tile, and salubrious portions lying immediately north of
the equator, the very highest capabilities are presented
for the employment of British capital." Coal has also
been found; cotton of the primest quality is everywhere
a weed ; and the finest-flavoured coffee may be grown.
But we must refer to the article itself, which will be pe-
rused with the deepest interest by all who are interested
in the extension of our commerce and the civilisation of
Africa, for which Abyssinia presents a most inviting and
highly promising point of operation.—" The Pirates of
Segna,' (part first,) is a well-told and interesting ro-
mance, founded on historical facts. " Marston, or the
Memoirs of a Statesman," is continued with unabated
vigour, and is full of military and court adventure. There
are several amusing pieces in prose and poetry, Which we
have not yet had leisure to peruse ; and the number closes
with an article on " Free Trade and Protection," in whicl
the writer ably exposes the system advocated by thi
Leaguers, especially with reference to old and new states
We elsewhere supply some extracts.

The Farmer's Magazine. London : Joseph Rogerson
24, Norfolk-street, Strand.

This useful publication contains this month more than
its usual quantity of valuable and instructive matter for
the agriculturist. It has at least fifty articles, in the form
of letters, reports, &c., in each of which some vital ques-
tion to the farmer and the landholder is discussed, the
result of some experiment detailed, or some judicious
advice as to tillage, seeds, manure, &c., conveyed. We
know of no work more deserving of the support of those
engaged in farm pursuits, or interested in the property of
the soil, than this publication ; and it is peculiarly so at a
crisis like the present, when it is beginning to be very
generally admitted that, if the people of Great Britain
consent to continue their protection of the land, the own-
ers and cultivators of that land must, in return, strain
every energy, adopt every judicious improvement in their
modes of cultivation, and even make large outlay in drain-
age, implements, &c., to make the land afford a full sup.
ply of food, at a reasonable price, for the people. In this
publication agriculturists will find an excellent guide to
enable them to operate with advantage, and with some
degree of certainty, based upon experience, of arriving at
the results at which they aim. The number is illustrated
this month with excellent engravings of Peach, the
Broughton heifer, and the celebrated horse Touchstone.

Simmonds's Colonial Magazine and Foreign Miscellany.
London : Foreign and Colonial Office, 18, Cornhill.
The present number of this valuable magazine—in-
finitely valuable it is calculated to be to all interested in
the welfare of our colonial possessions, and instructive to
the British public as well, by whom those possessions are
too little understood—contains several articles which will
well repay an attentive perusal. To one only of these,
however, by which we have been much struck, and which,
by-the-bye, was much misrepresented the other night in
the House of Commons, by Mr. Milner Gibson, we here
purpose directing the notice of our readers. The article
in question is by Dr. Binns, a gentleman for many years
a resident in Jamaica, pointing out the available resources
of that and others of our West Indian Colonies.
Dr. Binns expresses his regret that the views of the
proprietors of West India property have been so long,
almost exclusively directed to the cultivation of the sugar
cane, to the entire neglect of many of the old staple pro-
ducts of the country, and especially the minor products,
of which he enumerates a great variety which might be
profitably cultivated, at a considerably less outlay of that
commodity-labour, of which the West Indies are lament-
ably deficient, than the sugar cane. To Jamaica in par-
ticular, situated as that island is on what seems destined
to become the highway for the commerce of Europe with
the natives of the western world, with her fertile soil and
singularly varied climate, such a cultivation, he maintains,
would be most advantageous, enabling her to supply to
the trading world, not only the whole range of tropical
products, but the most highly prized vegetables, as well,
of Europe itself. With such capacities, he urges, that
Jamaica holds out an extensive field for the profitable
employment of a portion of the surplus capital of Great
Britain, and maintains that her high lands are capable of
being extensively and profitably occupied by European
settlers.
Perhaps, Dr. Binns may with justice be held as over
sanguine in some of his views ; but there is an amount of
truth and some argument, supported by the evidence of
past experience and statistical facts throughout his re-
marks, which entitle them to attentive consideration. In
particular, we think his views, as to the possibility of pro-
fitably restoring to Jamaica the cultivation of Indigo, most
important, and not less so his suggestion of restoring there
the cultivation of the cotton plant, which was once ex-
tensively cultivated by the planters. Both these articles
indeed may be said to have been driven out by the greater
profit formerly arising out of the growth of the sugar
cane, combined, in the case of indigo, with the very im-
politic imposition by the British government of an exor-
bitant duty of nearly £2O per cwt., which was only taken
off when the laws which had been employed in its culti-
vation had been diverted to other pursuits. For both, he
contends, there is now every encouragement ; and, when
the sugar cane has almost ceased to be a profitable pro-
duct, and there is, in addition, hanging over the planter
the probability of a reduction, at no distant period, of the
present high rate of protection, the experiment ought to
be at once and boldly tried.
But the most important question here agitated is, in
our opinion, the propriety of introducing, on an extensive
scale, the cultivation of the European wheat plant, which
it has been proved by a number of experiments conducted
by Dr. Bancroft and under the supervision of the Jamaica
Society for the Improvement of Agriculture, can be raised
of very superior quality upon every description of land and
variety of climate throughout the island. Thus, in the
mountains of St. Ann's, a small quantity of wheat (the
Victoria) was sown the latter end of January, 1835, and
the corn was ripe at the latter end of April, or in three
months, yielding very largely, and an improved sample.
And similar, and even more favourable, results have
attended a number of later experiments, which have
proved that in some districts three if not four crops may
be raised annually, and seem to flourish as well upon the
arid plains of Vere and the humid mountains of Clarendon
and St. Ann's.
The importance to the island itself of the extension, or
rather the adoption, of wheat culture may readily be esti-
mated, when we consider the vast consumption of wheaten
flour and bread in the West Indies alone, and the advan-
tages which such cultivation would offer to proprietors
and agriculturists deficient in the necessary capital re-
quired for sugar planting, and remember moreover that
nearly the whole of the flour used in the West Indies is
imported. Thus, the quantities imported into Jamaica
alone were—
In 1841 127,000 barrels.
In 1842....
In 1843
which, taken at an average of 30s. per barrel, (the lowest
selling price in Kingston, in December last,) shows the
large sum of £497,512, or half a million in round numbers,
to have been paid in three years for flour, every barrel of
which could have been profitably raised by the agricultu-
rists of Jamaica itself.
We recommend this article, and the magazine which
contains it, to the attentive consideration of our readers.
It will repay perusal.

Tom Burke of Ours. No. 15. W. Curry, jun., and Co.,
Dublin ; W. S. Orr and Co., London.

The present number is in part occupied with some par-
ticulars of the story of Tom's friend Duchesne, upon
whose peculiar character a little light is shewn, which
somewhat softens its general want of amiability. We are
also brought back to an old acquaintance, Capt. Bubble-
ton, whose amusing gasconading has procured for him
the honour of a rigid confinement as a detenu in Paris,
under strict surveillance. Our author keeps up fully the
spirit of his past works.

Martin Chuzzlewit. London : Chapman and Hall.
" Pleasant little Ruth—cheerful, tidy, bustling, quiet
little Ruth" is now established as the housekeeper of
Tom Pinch, makes her first essay in cookery, and suc-
ceeds in concocting a beefsteak pudding—we beg pardon,
the lady insists that it must be called a dumpling. John
Westlock brings the pair the intimation of a comfortable
situation for Tom, who is at length comfortably installed,
and happy as Dominie Sampson himself, in the care of a
set of chambers in the Temple, with an extensive library
to arrange, the ownership of which is somewhat of a mys-
tery. We have also a glimpse of Mr. Jonas Chuzzlewit,
who is apparently very uncomfortably entangled by Mr.

Montague Tigg and his Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested
Loan and Fund Society, and somewhat disposed to kick.
The next number, we suspect, will produce an explosion,
on the part of Jonas, and be somewhat tragical. This
tale increases in interest, and the present number is full
of those gems of descriptive writing, with which Mr.
Dickens adorns his productions.