The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-08-29 00:00:00

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SITKA.—The alleged offer of the Emperor of Russia to
dispose of Sitka to the Americans has drawn attention to
that comparatively worthlets place, and inquiries are made
with regard to its commercial capabilities. The matter,
however, scarcely deserves attention, except as another in-
stance of the small artifices to which the Czar is reduced.
The territory of which Sitka, or New Archangel, consti-
tutes the chief port, belongs to the Russian American
Company, a body analogous to the Hudson's Bay Company,
established under charter from the Emperor Paulin 1799,
and consists of an archipelago and strip of land on the
Pacific coast extending north from Queen Charlotte Island
to a point called Mount St. Elias. The interior range of
this strip is limited to 30 miles, where it is bounded by
British North America, but its length is about 400 miles.
Sitka, or New Archangel, is its only point of importance,
and this simply from its being the spot where all the busi-
ness of the company is transacted, including that in con-
nection with its large continental possessions from Mount
St. Elias to Behring's Straits. The port was founded in
1805, and has been maintained on a considerable scale and
at a large expenditure, but if the Russian transactions of
which it is now the centre were removed elsewhere it
would not only possess no value, but would probably in-
volve some expense to maintain it against the Indians.
The town is built on the west side of a large island, called
Baronoff Island, and the harbour is formed by a number
of smaller ones. It is smooth and safe, and impregnable,
from its natural defences, while the Russians have also
fortified it with a battery which commands every part. It
has likewise an arsenal where the company build and repair
their vessels—the establishment comprising casting houses,
and also boiler-makers, coopers, turners, and every kind of
mechanic suitable for such work, even including the
building of steam-vessels. The number of Russians at the
place is believed, however, not to be more than a few
hundred, although they have a bishop of the Orthodox
Church with 15 priests, deacons, and followers, supported
by the Emperor, and the aboriginal population is likewise
extremely scanty. The trade of Sitka in 1842 was esti-
mated at 10,000 fur seals, 1,000 sea otters, 12,000 beavers,
2,500 land otters, foxes, martens. &c., and 20,000 sea-horse
teeth, but this is the export of the entire Russian possess-
sions m North America, and would, of course, be transferred
to such new port as they -might select after they had sold
the territory in question. As to the place being likely to
prove valuable to the Americanf for their whale fishery,
there is nothing to warrant any such expectation, the whole
coast being too forbidding and inhospitable to tempt the
vessels in that trade to depart from their usual course of
running down to the Sandwich Islands, were everything
they can require is immediately available. The purchase,
therefore,-would be a barren one, and as the parting with
it would put the Russian American Company to serious
inconvenience, the only motive of the Czar in the transac-
tion would obviously lie in the hope of giving us a trouble-
some neighbour. As he would, however, also bring this
neighbour to himself, and the trade of his American pos-
sessions is carried on in the most exclusive spirit—the
natives not being allowed to traffic with strangers—it will
remain for him to consider whether he may not ultimately
realise from the affair another instance equal to those he
has already experienced of the peril of clumsily plotting
against others.
TICE CONVICT ESTABLISIIMENT AT DORCHESTER.—
The announcement, that in consequence of the outbreak
of cholera in the Millbank Prison, the government had
decided on fitting up the vacant barracks at Dorchester
for the reception of the convicts, 'created no little excite-
ment in that borough. As soon as the intelligence
reached Dorchester that a number of government artificers
had been sent down to prepare the place for the reception
of the Millbank prisoners, the mayor (Mr. Geo. Andrews)
proceeded by express to London, and in an interview with
Viscount Palmerston at the Home-office, he strongly pro-
tested in the name of the inhabitants against the rash
resolve of the government in imperilling the lives of the
residents by bringing a large body of men peculiarly liable
to the disease from the scene of contagion. A meeting of
the Town-council was also specially convened, and, after
considerable discussion, it was resolved to forward a me-
morial to Lord Palmerston, the Home Secretary, praying
the government to reconsider their determination. The
result of these measures was a statement from the Under-
Secretary of State, to the effect that the subject com-
plained of had already been maturely considered ; that a
strong and pressing necessity existed for the removal of •
the healthy portion of the convicts, who were entirely
free from choleraic symptoms ; that, after full inquiry, the
barracks outside the town of Dorchester had been deemed
the most eligible, and that, as every precaution would be
taken, no danger whatever could be apprehended. A.
warm altercation ensued on this topic at a hastily sum-
moned meeting of the corporation, when the alarmists
were met by several gentlemen, one of whom observed
that the convicts must be disposed of somewhere, and that
they could not be sent to a more healthy locality ; even if
the government should choose another spot, there would
still be the same aversion to the proposal on the part of
the inhabitants of the immediate district. He, therefore,
thought it would be only humane and proper on their part
to show a frank and ready acquiescence in the proposition
and orders of the government. This appeared to be the
feeling of the majority of the people of Dorchester, the
hostility to the occupation of the barracks by the Mill-
bank convicts being evidently more warmly manifested
in the corporate body. After the arrival of the first batch
of 300 prisoners per London and South-Western Railway,
however, several families grew more excited, and at once
prepared to leave the town; and at another meeting of
the municipal authorities it was resolved to memorialise
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unsuccessful. The convicts are now housed in Dorchester
temporary These efforts, however,
cavalry barracks, which they seem to enjoy vastly over
their hate quarters.

CURE FOR STAMMER
I
closed. This should be