The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-04-30
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
-.>-
Tuesday Morning. April 80, 1857.

POR1'EAND


The provincial papers for the past week con-
tain very little Of interest except to their own
readers. The approaching elections provided
for under the new Confederation schema on.
gross SO much attention, and questions of the
merest personal and local concern so fill nm
the press of the provinces, that scarcely an
item of interest to our readers can be found
They are also largely filed up with the debates
i'll the British Parliament on questions affect
ing the colonies, particularly the loan for the
international railway.
The gold fever at Madoc is unabatcd, and
large numbers are flockng there for gold dig
ging and speculation. New gold fields are
claimed to have been discovered in the vicinity
OF lake Simcoe, to the northward of Toronto.
The Quebec papers are urging tlle establish
ment oflines ofsteamers between that post and
the maratmie provinces .a... .......
new edifice tor the accommodation of the
Governor General of Canada is to be erected
at Ottawa, and $4,000 has been appropriated for
its erection and furnishing.
Rumors are rife that the delegation which
has been in London to engineer the Confeder-
alton scheme through Parliament, are to con-
stitute the first ministry privy council.
SINGULAR CONSERVATISM
The Montreal Gazette seems anxious, in set
ting up housekeeping in the new dominion, "
to go back to first principles, and so recon-
mends that the desks allowed to members in
the Canadian Houses of Legislature should be
removed, and that Norman French should be
employed in communicating Her Majesty's
pleasure about the passing OF bills
Upon this singular suggestion the Quebec
Chronicle remarks:
We are moderately conservative in our no.
tions, but we do not feel disposed to be quite so
retrograde as this. There are few OF our rep-
resentatives who are likely to relish the idea of
being denied facilities for taking notes, or writ
ing notes either, when debate is going on,
merely because the English House of Com,
mons was planned at a time when the convent
ences OF the present day were not thought Of
and the old model has been followed IN the
new building Englishpen at homo USUALLY
regard the American arrangement as greatly
in advance OF their own; but there are English
men III the colonies whose conservatism il of q
stamp vastly more antiquarian and anti-utili-
tartan than that of any English Tory. Our
friend at Montreal even objects to the use of
the English language-"a queer sort of Eng
lish, he calls it-in which with us the
lNoyu dooCAt W uiiiS - cOIuIUuulcdteQ.-
He would prefer the old Norman French that
has been used in England since the Conquest
He says 1--WE think there would be peculiar fit
ness IN this country in retaining the original,
and we should be glad to see it adopted by the
Parliament OF the Dominion, as weIlas by the
Legislatures of the several divisions = The
kind Of fitness our contemporary indicates is
just the opposite of that which existed in Eng
land eight centuries since. For our part we
think there would be a special unfitness in
h,a
the language OF the victor when England; was
subdued, but which has never since been spok-
en- in the country, or understood except by an
tiquaries. Why does not the Gazette borrow
another hint from the correspondent of the
MineyUe, and go in for reforming the indolent
habits OF the speakers who preside in our
chambers, and propose to remove the backs
from their great easy, chairs The
penance endured by the Lord Chancellor is
universally commiserated, and the inflictiOn of
the penance is not commended. The want of
convenience in the House of Commons is
matter of constant complaintin England The
use of an obsolete language in certain state
forms is simply tolerated ON account of its an
tquity. The idea OF transplanting these things
to a new country on American soil indicates a
retrogade sentiment in the matter of forms and
upholstery which is now almost as obsolete in
England as the Norman French language, and
which would be ludicropsly out of place here.
sHIPBUILDNG INTEREST AT ST. JOHN
The Globe draws gloomy picture of the
shipbuilding interest in ST. John, showing that
the business is quite as much depressed %
with us. The scarcity of new tonnage in mort
at the present time is remarkable, and is Sc
verely felt, particularly by the artisan and Ia
boring classes, who, to great extent, rely up
on the finishing, rigging, loading and discharg-
ing of vessels for means ot livelihood No
preparations are being made for building and
the encouragement for colonial builders is very
poor. The market is scantily supplied with
materials for building At tpresent there are
no new keels being laid down, nor is there any
likelihood of there being any for some time.
1t is not with view to discourage shipbuild-
ers, but to state facts as they stand, says the
Globe, that we add that shipping, the whole
world over, continues TO be very much depress-