New-York daily tribune., 1857-04-24
NEW PUBLICATIONS
arrYOyy ABRrpGEMEH7 o. bkBATys o. CON
GrIsS IRON fso 10 itx. VOL IL D. Appstsn 4

gHEsS FROM M ro 's~' 'o1- IL " A'r'''"
Tn net;,;ns tho Gr,t volume Of this wsrh We
spsle Of i,s Aandscne typography, white paper and
general excellence Of getting up m mechanical
psis. Of view. In sh<se respeen, - we'll ~ III
other,, il ie great improvement su al previous
works Of the sort The present volume covers toe
,.riod from Dec. 5. 1896 to March 3, 1893, or
from the commencement Of the Second session OF
the Fourth Congress to the end Of the Seventh Con-
sress II has Ike the hrst volume, the valua'
be appendix Of 3 eopiOus index; but we nope
that these indexes TO the separate volumes, useiui
and indispensable as they are, win not be taken as
an entire fulflment of the duty in this respect
which the editor and publishers owe 10 the public.
A complete general index 10 the whole work will
be necessary complement 70 it which we trust
will not be- omitted We dwell the more on this
because the absence Of any index TO Bentons
Thirty Years in the Senate" detracts greatly
from its value and utility. And let US improve this
opportunity to suggest that it is not yet too late to
supply that deficiency. A good index would greatly
enhance the value OF that work to future pur-
chasers, and if printed separately in pamphlet
form, would, no doubt, be bought up BY many own
ers ef the present volumes for the sake Of being
bound up with them.
But to return to the book now before rs. Among
the curious and interesting matters in it is debate
on Dec 90, 1896, on kidnapping free negroes, on a
memorial from the State of Delaware for additional
laws for the protection Of that class Of people,
memorial which shows that free negroes figured in
our politics then as well as now, and that the Leg
islature of Delaware at that period certainly did
not participate in what ChiefJustice Taney repre-
sents as the universal opinion of the Revolutionary
generation that negroes have no rights which white
men are bound 10 respect. Nor was this deviation
from the Taney standard confined 10 Delaware
We find the following reported as the speech Of
John Nicholas, one the leading representatives from
Virginia, in reply to some slaveholding members
who wished to give the business the 60 by on the
ground that it was delicate matter, improper for
the House TO discuss or TO touch
"Hr. Nicholas hoped the business would not be dis
missed We, said he, who reside in the Southern
States are unfortunately possessed of such kind of
properly az has q considerable odium attached 10 IT.
butt We unfortunately hold slaves ought not to
contribute to the making slaves Of free men, but l
can give relief the thing exists, let il be; by all
means do it, whether it incur the pleasure displeas
ure Of some OF the slaveholder lie hoped the sab
gee. would have full investigation
Mr. Nicholas at least did ne+ believe shat negroes
we're r,ade only to be slaves.
At the same session serious debate occurred
upon a petition of certain colored men who had
been seized as fugitive slaves from North Carolina,
l.,k H. 10 baya haap al hv
their Quaker owners, and afterward by an CT post
fado law of the State unjusty reduced to slavery.
This same case and other similar ones were
urged on the attention of Congress at the next
sion by memorial from the Quaker Yearly Meet
sg in which also the general ssbject of Slavery and
Emancipation was strongly pressed. This memo
rial led to very hot debate, in which some Of the
Southern members were as violent almost against
the Quakers as Southern members are nowadays
against Black Republicans. Nicholas again sup
ported the inquiry asked for though it opposed
by most of the SOutherners.
He should indeed be sorry if his possessing prop
erty Of this kind obliged him to cover the violation Of
another mans right if this were the case he should
think necessary that this property should be takon
from him
IeOO, on petition from number of free col0red
residents of the city and county of Philapelphia,
asking for new laws against the sayetrade and o
revision of the Fugitive Slave law.
Other topics of interest to which the debates in
cluded in this volume refer are the Alien and Sed
ton laws and of the Judiciary.
SO far the execution of the worn is very salts
factory; but Mr.. Benton has not yet reached the
point which will put to the test his abilities in con-
densing debates into the necessary compass.
ARCTIC ADVENTURE BY SEA AND LAND Edited BY
Errs sIsCEsr. limo, PIP 4sc. Boston: PAIiPs SsmP
son, l. Go.
The commencement of Arctic exploration, according
to Mr. Sargent dates from earlier period than is
usually supposed. 1t seems 10 be established by the
of northern antiquaries that Newound-
land, Greenland and several parts Of the American
coa< visited by the Scandinavans in the ninth
and tenth centuries Within two centuries from that
time these daring sea-rovers made their way 10 the
seventy second degree of latitude and set up stones
with Runc inscriptions dated 1875 on the islands in
Bafiins Bay where they were discovered in 1924.
The colonists the eastern coast of this bay kept up
intercourse with Europe until l40t when 1t wa inter-
rupted by the accumulation of ce In the year 1880
voyagers from the south of Europe attracted TO-
ward those d,eary regions, and two Venetian nav-
gators named Tepi brought home accounts of what
they had there seen not knowing that the Scandina
yisns had preceded them by three centuries
II was not tlihe reign Of Henry W.. that the enter
prise Cf British navgators directed to quarter in
which they have since won such brilliant renown
although without achieving the main object OF their
ambition. In 1897, the younger Cabot landed at