ters, he has announced that, as he believes that the time is at hand when one more blow may be struck with advantage to Poland, he and his sons will be found in the first rank of those who are prepared to march against the oppressors of their country. rights asserted, and a constitution established. English revolutions have cost something more than rose water, nor would they have ever been accomplished if Englishmen, in place of their iron gauntlets, had worn the kid gloves of the present generation. By the gross iniquity and rapacity, which the A Congress of Plenipotentiaries is again prochief despot of Europe happens at the present jected, in the hope of so settling the affairs of the time to have publicly displayed, the hopes of all East of Europe. There are plenty to preach to oppressed and persecuted populations have been the people of Europe the importance of quietly awakened. It is good to give them lessons of abiding the decision. We prefer hinting to the freedom. It is good to tell them that inconsid-Plenipotentiaries to remember that there exist erable and local insurrections merely lead to in Europe millions of men of oppressed races, fresh tyranny and bootless loss of life. But on deprived of all freedom, disinherited of all nathe other hand, to tell the enslaved and oppressed to trust to diplomacy alone, to fold their arms, to bow their backs, and scrupulously to avoid all show of resistance, because, forsooth, revolution is an exceeding naughty business - this is a cowardly morality, quite unworthy of our time as of our character. The Pole or the Hungarian thus addressed has but to turn upon the Englishman, and recommend him to look into his own history, if he would see how liberties are won, tionality. If the Congress of Vienna failed in its chief aims, it was because it would not take into account such national wants and rights. The Congress of 1854 has before it a lesson and a warning. Peace, says Napoleon, in one of his recently published letters to Joseph, is now clamored for; "but the question is, What peace? Peace itself is an unmeaning word. The being a blessing or a curse depends on its conditions, its justice, its durability. From The Spectator, 31 Dec. THE CARRYING TRADE OF THE WORLD. of shipwrights and carpenters in nearly every port in Great Britain has been greater than that obtained by any other class of artisans. Most people appear to consider that the principal cause of the advance in the rates of freight during the last eighteen months has been the gold discoveries in Australia, and the consequent exports of men and goods to that distant quarter of the globe. But if that sudden and extraordinary demand for shipping had come at a time when the carrying trade was dull, it would only have given to it a wholesome stimulus, instead of disturbing the whole commerce of the world, as it has done from St. Petersburg to Hongkong and San Francisco. Unfortunately for all that portion of the community which does not belong to the shipping interest, just about the time when this sudden demand for ocean carriage to Melbourne, Port Philip, and Sydney sprang up, our export trade was in an unusually brisk condition; as will be evident to any one who compares the quantity of goods we sent abroad in the four years ending in 1849 with the quantity exported in the four years ending in 1852. How is the carrying trade of the world to be accomplished, if the demand for foreign commodities should continue to outstrip the supply as much as it has done during the last year or two? This is a problem which may well puzzle many a mercantile head, for there is hardly a single branch of trade or manufacture into which the element of freight or carriage does not enter in a greater or less degree. As regards corn, cotton, coal, flour, iron, wood, and other bulky commodities, the cost of carriage is so very large an item, where the distance is great, as almost to extinguish trade entirely; and, unfortunately for the community at large, it is in some of the most bulky commodities, such as iron and coal, that the demand threatens to keep farthest ahead of the supply. Amidst all the complaints of dull trade which the dearness of food is causing in many parts of the kingdom, we hear of nothing but prosperity from the iron districts, from the workers in metal, and the subterranean laborers who supply the world with fuel. Twelve or thirteen years ago, we exported only about 1,300,000 tons of coals to the Continent and our own Colonies. Last year, we exported 3,636,621 tons; an increase of about 170 per cent in one of the bulkiest articles of export. In iron the increase has been far more rapid. In 1840, we exported, of bar-iron, pig-iron, and castings, For two years we went backward, and in the 204,406 tons altogether; last year, our total ex-last of the four we were no farther on than we ports of iron, exclusive of hard wares and cutlery, had risen to 1,018,148 tons; an increase of nearly 400 per cent in twelve years. Let any one consider what an amount of shipping must have been required for the increase in these two items, and he will not wonder at the notorious fact, that the advance which has taken place in the wages Official Value. Years. 1847 1848 146,172,008 148,609,056 had been in 1845. The average of these four years, which witnessed the potato rot in 1846, the commercial panic in 1847, and the Continental revolutions in 1848, gives an annual official value of £149,163,753. The next four years show the rebound with which our export trade went up with the returns of prosperity. Years. Official Value. 1849 £190,101,394 1850 197,330,265 214,301,017 1851 it was found that there was no one there but I for us. Called at three to take us to dine with his son, Major Scott, at Hampton. Scott very agreeable on the way. Told him our conversation at Holland House about ghosts, which brought on the same topic. His own strong persuasion, one night, that he saw the figure of Lord From an official value of £146,172,008 in 1846 Byron. Had been either talking of or reading to £219,545,699 in 1852! There must have been him; and on going into the next room, was a rapid advance in the demand for vessels to startled to see through the dusk what he could carry all that additional bulk, at so short a no-have sworn was Byron, standing as he used to tice. Taking for granted that the official value do when alive. On returning into the drawinggives a pretty fair measure of the quantity of room, he said to his daughter, "If you wish to goods sent abroad, we find that the increase dur- see Lord Byron, go into that room." It was the Ing those five years had been no less than effect of either the moonlight or twilight upon £73,373,691; more than 50 per cent. This year some drapery that was hanging up, which, to his our export trade shows a very large increase imagination, just then full of Byron, presented over that of last year in real or declared value; this appearance. Rogers's story of the young but we have no returns yet to show the official couple at Berlin in their opera-box, between valuation, and are therefore unable to exhibit the whom, at a distance, there always appeared to be still more rapid increase which has been made in a person sitting, though on going into their box, 1853 as compared with 1852. With so vast an amount of work to do, the themselves. From all parts of the house this wonder is how the shipping trade contrived to get through it all. Had our merchants been left supernatural intruder could be seen; but people differed as to its appearance, some saying it was dependent on that important class of the com- a fair man, others a dark; some maintaining that munity, the British shipping interest-for whom he was old, and others that he was young. It Mr. George Frederick Young used to make so should be mentioned, that there was some guilty many melancholy, patriotic speeches they would have been in a sad predicament. Fortu- these young people; and as, at last, no one venmystery hanging over the connection between nately for the interests of trade and commerce, tured to visit their box, they disappeared from the repeal of the Navigation-Laws had given us, Berlin. This anecdote Lord Wriothesley Russell so far as we could hire its services, the command brought with him from abroad. Scott (who of the mercantile navy of the whole world; and evidently did not like the circumstances being the consequence was, that notwithstanding a very left unexplained) procceded to tell a story of large increase in the amount of British tonnage Mrs. Hook, the wife of Dr. Hook, who wrote the employed in the foreign trade of the United Roman History; "it being as well," he said, "to Kingdom during the last few years, the amount have some real person to fit one's story on." of foreign shipping employed has increased still Mrs. Hook becoming acquainted and intimate more rapidly. In 1848 the amount of British with a foreign lady, a widow, at Bath; their reshipping entered outwards, with cargoes, was solving to live together on their return to London. 3,553,777, that of foreign 1,497,460 tons. In Mrs. Hook on coming down stairs one day at 1852, British shipping with cargoes entered out- this lady's lodgings, meeting a foreign officer on wards, had increased to 4,459,321, and foreign the stairs, saying to her friend next day, "You shipping to 2,413,260 tons. Protectionists may had a visitor yesterday?" the other answering, grumble at the large amount of our carrying" No; she had seen no one since Mrs. Hook left trade which foreigners have obtained, but, in do- her." Mrs. H. thinking this odd, going another ing so, they only show their unreasonableness, see-day into her friend's dressingroom by mistake, ing that, in spite of all the help we have got and seeing the same officer there alone stretched from foreigners, the cost of carriage has risen so on the sofa. Being now sure there was something enormously as to have caused a great dearth of coal throughout the South of England, and greatly aggravated the scarcity and dearth of food. How much the two evils will increase the mortality in London throughout the winter months, it would be difficult to foretell, but there can be no question as to their tendency to raise it considerably. As regards wheat and flour, a single good harvest at home may leave us less at the mercy of the ocean carrying companies for a time, but it is not so easy to find out how we are to obtain a sufficient supply of coals and other commodities at moderate prices, unless some means can be discovered by which the carrying trade of the world may be conducted in a cheaper and more expeditious manner. not right, determined to mention it to the lady; who, at first, said it was impossible, but, hearing a description of how the officer was dressed, fainted. Mrs. Hook, convinced that it was some improper liaison she was carrying on, determined gradually to give up her acquaintance. The foreign lady soon after was preparing to go to London; and Mrs. Hook, being in the room when her maid was packing, (the lady herself not being present,) saw a miniature-case fall out of the saw the portrait of the very person whom she portmanteau; and taking it up and opening it, had met on the stairs. "That," said the maid, "is the picture of my mistress's husband." husband?" "Yes," answered the maid; "he died a short time before we left Germany." In a few weeks afterwards, there arrived an order in England to have this foreign lady arrested on a charge of murdering her husband! - Moore's Diary. "Her From the Examiner, 7 Jan. WORDS VERSUS DEEDS. If the Czar quarrel with us now, he must be hard to please. He has had his will and his way in everything after all. In nothing have we thwarted him. He has done as he pleased with what was not his own, without let or hindrance. And at what has he now to take offence? He having stolen the steed at Sinope, our Government gives notice of its resolution to shut the stable door. He is not to be permitted to destroy any more Turkish fleets. And what of that? There are no more Turkish ships in the Euxine to be destroyed. The thing is done, un fait accompli. What more would he have? He cannot, however great and wilful, have his cake and eat his cake. He cannot slay the slain. He cannot have another Sinope. So glorious an exploit is not susceptible of repetition. The thing being done, the Western Powers interpose and say, "You shall not do the thing done. You have broken a Turkish fleet to shivers, and it is time for us to take care of the pieces." Why really this is very harmless language. When Alexander wept for another world to conquer, would he have quarrelled with any one who had warned him that another world he should not have to please him? When the Czar is apprised that he shall not have another Sinope, the sensible reply would be, "I know it, but I will have something else as good or as bad, and lead you a new dance." "You shall not do that again," is the language of threatening schoolboys. The Russian cannot but see that the Western Powers are like a bad fencer, who puts himself in the attitude of parry to the blow that has been struck. Surely the Czar may be content with striking, and leaving the combined Powers to their clever Let him take Conwards after the occasion. stantinople, leaving the allies to take in return, as they doubtless will, a vigorous resolution having only the one draw-back of being too late. Surely the Emperor may be satisfied with the substantials of rapine, and devastation, and conquest. He does not want war any more than we do; all he wants, "good, easy man," is to have his way and why, then, should he quarrel with mere words, threatening notices following the shot and smoke of his guns. There is a good old English word out of use, masterful. The Poor Act of Elizabeth, if we remember rightly, mentions masterful vagrants and valiant beggars. Now masterful in spirit to a most egregious excess must be the Autocrat, if he quarrel with the brutum fulmen of an interdict after a past occasion. He may be quite sure that Powers which are not avenging, will never be effectively protective. He can play the variations of wrong to his heart's content, all that is denied him is the bis. It is what we see on every stage at this season. The Czar is the Harlequin of the Pantomime, and England and France the Clown and Pantaloon following him to frustrate, but never in time, blundering and bungling, and misdelivering their most energetic slaps on the face. "Let me catch you at that fun again" roars the Clown of Sinope. To which the man in the black mask may respond with the familiar slang sign. As it is quite possible, however, that the Czar may be masterful to the highest degree, and may not even brook a word assigning even imaginary bounds to aggression, it will be as well for England to be looking to her arms. CHILD-MURDER IN INDIA. NEW attention has been drawn to an old crime in an extensive district of British India, "as large as an European kingdom." In 1851, Major Lake, the Commissioner of a district in the Punjaub, discovered a practice of murdering female children; and the attention of the Government has been drawn to the case with a view of putting down the offence. The usual auxiliary to the action of Government, however, was wanting. It was difficult to find a prosecutor, where all society shared the crime, and did not even think it criminal; so little criminal that the subject is freely discussed amongst the natives themselves, and is indeed adopted by some of them as a distinction. Live long, long years, but let thy old age be When other eyes search in thy withered cheek, For charms of beauty that I oft have sung, Tell if thou canst, my love, my faults beside, And, dearest, from the fireside's peaceful seat, Should any ask, “Was he a lover kind?” Him fickle, faithless, didst thou ever find?" I taught you, say, to mourn o'er our sweet France Inform her sons that my forgotten lays Let them remember 'twas the Northern blast Loved of my soul, oh! may my idle fame The first motive was of a mixed kind -avarice and pride. A Rajpoot of high rank must give to his daughter, if she marries, a great" dowry ten or fifteen lacs of rupees or more. At one time, perhaps, the Rajpoots may have been fond of their daughters, though the value for human life has never ranked so high in India as it does amongst ourselves; as we may see by the practice of Suttee, the sacrifice of Juggernaut, and by the ready destruction of life to gratify the smallest caprices. If in the Hindoo the contempt for life is not checked even by selfpreservation, so the instinct of daughter-preservation appears to have yielded long ago to the instincts of avarice. The Rajpoot, who must give a large dowry to his daughter if he disposed of her in marriage, shared the same feeling which English country gentlemen have sometimes experienced when they have thought the daughters were a serious burden; but the Rajpoot has a resource which the English gentleman does not find to his hand- he may murder his daughter. A provident Rajpoot would foresee the dilemma, and would naturally save the subsistence of the daughter, and much trouble, by disposing of her betimes. Hence the alternative to a splendid marriage becomes a confirmed practice of infanticide. A practice which is attached to rank and wealth naturally becomes fashionable; and hence it has befallen, that whereas some few Rajpoots murder their daughters, rather than alienate immense portions of their immense property, a larger number murder their daughters not because there is the same necessity but because the murder of daughters is a mark of distinction. Infanticide has extended to all classes of the community within the district above-mentioned, as the use of silver or British silver forks has extended to the humblest eating-houses in England, the practice in both cases being recomMr. Punch has a loftiness which happily renmended by its convenience and its gentility.ders him perfectly indifferent to all insult; but Spectator, 31 Dec. Beam o'er thy age, to cheer the gloomy hours, And when thy hand shall hold my portrait s frame, Trembling, as Spring returns to scatter flowers, Toward the unknown world raise thou thy eyes, Think we shall meet again beyond the skies? And dearest, from the fireside's peaceful seat, The songs of thy dead friend again repeat THE FIRST DOG OF EUROPE. In a good book in which Mr. Cruikshank (we do not mean our Temperate friend, George (describes the African Gold Coast, he says their rooms. George the Fourth, in his Coronation The Africans are exceedingly fond of pictures in robes, may be seen disputing for space with Punch and his Dog Toby, as they appear in the frontispiece of his publication. is requested by Toby, who is of a more excitable disposition, to say that he is quite incapable of such a dispute as is here attributed to him. Where George the Fourth, with or without his coronation robes, is admired, Toby declines to compete for homage, and nothing but the ignorance of these poor blacks can excuse their hanging George within perfume-reach of Toby. However, Toby hopes that missionary exertions may teach these Africans to set a juster value on public characters.-Punch. From N. Y. Times. THE RELIGIOUS PRESS. diately the public welfare. And, as might be expected, the Independent is specially remarkable for the ability, knowledge and practical discipline which it brings to the discussion of all the THE Religious journals share to the full extent events and developments of the day. It does in the steady and rapid improvement which char- this to a greater degree than any other journal acterizes the newspaper Press of this country. of its class within our knowledge; and it deThere is a great deal of complaint in all quarters serves, therefore, the abundant support we are of the shortcomings of the Press-of its inadequa- glad to know it is receiving. Of course, its cy to the proper discharge of its high duties, and opinions will often be doubted and disputed; but especially of its lack of the ability which its func- even those who esteem them least will be intions require. Much of this is just-but the very structed, stimulated and impressed by the manfact that complaints are made, shows that the ner in which they are discussed. Aside from its defect is felt, and that is always the first step to- peculiar views, we consider the Independent an wards reformation. With all its faults and weak-honor to the Press, and as certain to elevate the nesses, the newspaper Press is improving more profession, by the stimulus of its example, as rapidly and decidedly than any other institution well as by its own contributions to its best proof the country. ductions. monee, a distance of about 60 miles down the different mode of transportation must be employbay, in sleighs. From Menomonee a widely ed in order to get them to the distant and isolated places to which they are directed, and where their safe arrival is anxiously looked for. The religious Weeklies share fully in this advance. As a journal for secular and religious news, the Observer, which is the richest and most LAKE SUPERIOR MAIL.- Last Wednesday widely circulated of them all, is unsurpassed. morning the semi-monthly mail, consisting of six What it lacks is more editorial power, with great-large well filled, closely packed, heavy bags, left er courage and freedom of discussion, and this the post office of this village for their Northern it will doubtless attain in due season. It exerts destination. These bags are carried to Menonow a prodigious influence, and always on the conservative side of all the questions which it canvasses. The Evangelist, representing the new school section of the Presbyterian Church, is conducted with admirable judgment, its articles being always marked by candor, fairness and ability. The Churchman, which espouses highChurch sentiments, has become under the editorial charge of Mr. HUDSON, one of the ablest and most scholarly religious papers in the world. We know no journal either in Europe or America, which surpasses it in the thoughtful thoroughness of its editorials, or in the high-toned excellence of its literary selections. The Christian Inquirer, the organ of the Unitarians, combines ability with good taste and judicious views, to a rare degree. less and uninhabited woods, over untrodden and For nearly two hundred miles, through pathchilling snows, with no shelter, night or day, to mail bags are borne on the backs of frontier men protect them from storms, winds or frosts, these and Indians to the scattering post offices of the yet thinly settled regions around the southern shores of Lake Superior. Those hardy and rugged mail carriers are sometimes obliged to camp out for days in the open air, with nothing but a tree for a covering and a huge snow bank for a But we commenced this paragraph for the pur-bed by night. Day after day they wander on, pose of noticing the recent enlargement of the In- without meeting any stranger or receiving any dependent, which is the youngest of the religious aid; but with an energy and regularity astonishjournals of this City, but which, from the ability ing to all who are not acquainted with the enlisted in its conduct, is rapidly acquiring a par- strength and self-reliance of these rangers of the amount influence. It is the exponent of New-Eng- wintry forests, they perform their difficult and land Congregationalism, which, mainly through dangerous journeys. Such are some of the its advocacy, has already secured a strong foothold means that Uncle Sam uses to bring a few of beyond its original limits. It has just been enlarg- his remote and secluded children within the beed, and is now printed on a large quarto sheet, in nefits of the post office system, and give these the form most convenient for use as well as for pre- sturdy and self-sacrificing pioneers an occasional servation. It is edited by Rev. Messrs. Leonard glimpse of what is going on at home and abroad. Green Bay Advocate. Bacon, Joseph P. Thompson, R. S. Storrs, and J. Leavitt; and Rev. H. W. Beecher, G. B. Cheever, Mrs. H. B. Stowe, 'Minnie Myrtle,' (whom the Daily Times had the honor of first introducing to public favor,) and C. L. Brace, also a frequent con- THE INS AND OUTS OF PALMERSTON.-It aptributor to our columns, write regularly for its pears that the Home Secretary is again "in," or pages. Its foreign and domestic correspondents rather, that he has never been "out; " or, at all are evidently gentlemen of decided opinions, events, not so regularly and completely "out clear judgment, and large intelligence. These as those who have been speculating on the break men do not write merely didactic essays upon up of the Ministry. If his Lordship left the abstract topics; they grapple, weekly, with the Government rather abruptly, he at least made up leading topics of the day; they bring their talent, for it by the rapidity of his return, and we can their culture, their instructed and disciplined only hope that, on this occasion at least, it will judgments, to bear directly upon the events not be found that "quick returns" lead to "small which enlist current interest, and concern imme-profits."-Punch. |