The weekly Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1852-1855, 1854-12-28
New Central American Repnb,ic,

PSuitiOH VI NOl' hluHey anu DIS
fellow adventurers to the Mosquito Terri
tory for the establishment of new Central
American Republic has assumed a consist
ency that shows that it will soon become
one OF the actual facts Of the age. A grant
OF the greater portion of the Mosquito Ter
rory was made many years since by the
King of the Mosquitoes to Samuel Shepherd
and two a'socia es for pecuniary consid-
Grafton, amounting TO about thirty thousand
pounds, ,and it is under transfer Of that IT,
tle,that the present company, consisting Of
some thirty gentlemen, among whom are
Senator Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and VIII
liam Cost johnson, of Maryland, ,are acting.
Col. Kinney goes outas the agent and rep
resentative Of this company. He is well
known as the leader Of the Texan Rangers
in the Texan struggle, and is noted for his
resolution and energy. The members ofthc
expedition will number about thousand,
and each will reeeive,on landing,a certain
allotment Of land from the comp9ny's pos
sessions. All pretence Of fillibustering in
connection with the enterprise is discllim-
ed. The design ofthe parties TO the enter
prise is explained to be, to found a new in
dependent republic on the Mosquito coast;
then to take measures for convention from
the republics of Nicaragua, Honduras, San
Salvador, Costa Rica, Yeragua and New
Grenada, in order to adopt Federal Con-
sttu.ion and establish Government, a.
nalogous to that of the North American
Union.
It's stated that the most enlightened men
in these various countries are decidedly in
favor of the undertaking, and have conf
dence in its practicability. The lands orig
inally ceded to Shepherd and his asso-
ciates comprise about thirty Millions of acres
and its transfer 10 the present owners has
been pronounced by high legal authority to
be perfectly valid Ifsuccessful in forming
convention with the States mentioned
above, ,thenew Republic would extend over
an aera of five hundred thousand square
miles. The enterprise. if it can be peace
fully and legally carried out, promises to be
of immense benefit to Central America, as
well as to our own country. 1t would give
value to territory that is now almost useless
provide stable institutions for a country that
has been desolated by revolutions and
changes, and settle for ever erthetroublesome
Questions between our own government
and that OF Great Britain, of which Central
America has been the fertile cause. The
only opposition arises from Nicaragua, the
government of which claims proprietor
ship of the soil ceded, and threatens to
protest to our own and other governments
against the alleged invasion of her rights.
In regard to this phase of the case the WASH
ington Union says:
If the government of Nicaragua shall
object to the enterprise, it will present
question between the eolonists and tlat
government, with which the United States
will have no connection. The colonists do
not violate any laws in voluntarily expatri
ating themselves AMI seeking residence
in Central America. They will not go as
an organized military association, but as
individuals, upon their own responsibility,
and at their own risk. They do not con-
stitute a secret band of adventurers, but
they make their claim to the soil in open
day, point to the evidences of their title,
and avow their plans and purposes in the
most public manner. Their expedition is
purely peaceful and undertaken in no spir-
it Of aggression. They do not go as Amer
ican citizens, either instigated or encour-
aged to emigrate by our government, but
they voluntarily determine to change their
residence and citizenship, and to do so
publicly and peacefully. In this view we
cannot see that our government can be
complicated in any way in the enterprise.
But, to avoid all misrapprehensions, it is
proper to remark that we know nothing Of
the views Of our government on the sub
ject, and the sentiments we express are our
own.-Bahin1ore american.
ScHoLARs-N one can be made a scho-
lar; almost all persons can make them
selves scholars. Labor r-saving machines
do not apply to the mental world in the
same sense rs to the physical. 1t is not a.
mong vast libraries, surrounded by nume-
rous teachers and professors, that prodi-
gies of learning are produced. The per-
son who in youth learns to exercise his
own powers of mind, is sure to turn out a
scholar, and useful, practical man, if he
lives to the middle period of life. If he does
not learn to think for himself, as well as
to read books and receive facts from others,
he will never become really learned Who
ever heard ola scholar male by lectures,
or by teachers in any form? Has not cv-
cry scholar who has yet appeared in the
world became such by his own efforts
by personal application-by the patient and
persevereing use of the machinery within
him? Who ever heard of hereditary
learning, or ofideas manufactured like cot
ton cloth-by steam or water power? The
history of American colleges for the last
ten Or twenty years fully proves that stu
dents who perform the most mental labor
for themselves, and not those who hear the
greatest number of professors, make the
strongest and most valuable men. A large
library is another faculty in e.lucaiion,
which by abuse is likely to do injury TO tie
students A great reader, and especially
miscellaneous reader, is seldom good
scholar or useful man. He may have a
large mass of materials collected but he
has no power to use them, either for him
selfor his fellow men. His mind is mere
lumber yard, and himself an intellectual
miser--a blank in the beautiful and har-
monious creation around him.
Vanity is the great commanding pas
sion II is th;s tbot Yroducas tho most