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silver, from being thrown more or less out of use, would then take its share in the depreciation. This is a very important element in estimating the future effect of an enlarged supply of gold.

well as in all our large towns being chargeable more than five per cent. in value, it would then be with a certain rent for the ground on which it selected as the medium of payment. In this way stands, ranging in many cases from £10 up to £100❘ the subsequent fall in gold would be retarded, and' or more per annum; then at all the money invested in life annuities, purchased from assurance offices or from private individuals, and finally at all the minor transactions of a similar character, and it will be easy to form a conception of the multitudes who are now calculating, either in delight or dismay, the possible consequences that may be approaching.

As regards the popular feeling, of course, it is one of satisfaction. Numerous as the holders of annuities may be, the public, from whose pockets the proportion comprised in the interest on the national debt must come, are still more so. For this reason the discovery must prove of far greater value to England than to the United States, since the one grand thing that was wanting, and which neither natural philosophers, nor financiers, nor moralists, ever hoped to discover, was some means of lightening the terrible burden of her public liabilities.

The question as to the necessity and feasibility of a ship canal across some part of central America-either Panama, Nicaragua, or Tehuantepecis beginning to excite a real interest. A detailed summary of the three routes has been given in the Times, and the preference is awarded to Nicaragua. The amount of capital required would be extremely large, and unless America and England were to unite in the undertaking there would be little prospect at present of any actual operations. The position, however, in which we should be put, if you were to construct your talked-of railway from the Mississippi to San Francisco, is calculated to awaken serious considerations. Such a railway would furnish an outlet for all your produce, and would leave us to find our way, as of

In conclusion, there are one or two simple cir-old, via Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope. cumstances connected with our monetary arrangements which it may be useful to point out. The bank is obliged to issue notes, on a deposit of gold, to any extent. These notes are issued at the rate of £3 16s. 9d. for every ounce of gold. The bank can then take the gold to the mint, where it would be coined free of charge into money which would represent £3 17s. 10d.—the additional three half-pence being considered the equivalent for the loss of interest sustained by the depositor of the gold at the mint, while he is waiting its return in the shape of coin. If the bank were not to issue notes for the gold brought to it, the holder could take it to the mint and get it coined at the rate of £3 17s. 101d. for himself. As the notes issued by the bank, however, are only payable in gold, the bank comes under no responsibility in issuing them upon such deposites to any amount, since in fact such notes are merely a promise to return what has been lodged for them. The silver coinage of England is merely intended for convenience. Its intrinsic value is about ten per cent. below its nominal value-that is to say, if a person were to melt down one hundred sovereigns and two thousand shillings, he would find his lump of gold worth £100 and his lump of silver worth only £90. Hence the silver coins of England never become articles of commerce, and they are, moreover, not a legal tender for a larger sum than 40s. On the continent gold and silver are equally a legal tender, but silver is there the standard, because, having fallen in price since the coins of the respective metals were originally struck, of course all persons pay their debts in that which is the cheapest. The premium on gold in these countries is usually about five per cent. [In Austria, at present, owing to the hoarding consequent on political terror, it is much higher.] If, however, gold should be reduced

There are no means of ascertaining what is the amount of emigration going on from this country' to California, but from such stray facts as come to my knowledge, I should imagine it to be by no means inconsiderable. It is asserted that the French government have decided on sending an engineer and staff to examine and report upon the mines.

In our House of Commons the only important. proceedings since the last date have been the introduction of a bill to do away with the present privilege of Parliament, which exempts members from liability to arrest for debt, and "for the exclusion of insolvent members;" the renewal of the discussion on the navigation laws; and the introduction of a bill for a form of oath which would enable Jews to sit in the House of Commons. None of these measures, however, have as yet advanced beyond their preliminary stages.

As regards Ireland the pressure of the poor law upon the landlords is the grand theme of complaint. The distress is in all cases local, so that while some parishes protest their utter inability to maintain their poor, there are others where society is in a better condition, and the rates are consequently light. To meet the outcry on the part of the destitute parishes, the government have proposed that when the rates of any given electoral division shall exceed 5s. in the pound on the rental, the surplus shall be collected from the union at large, excepting that contributions from the union shall not exceed 28. in the pound, it being provided that all beyond 78. must be raised by a rate on Ireland generally. This measure encounters tremendous opposition, on the plea that the well regulated parts of the country will thus have to pay for the improvidence of the other parts.

By this morning's mail it appears that the jury on the trial of Mr. Gavan Duffy have not been able" to come to an agreement, and that the prosecution

be again put on his trial, for the publication of other articles.

has therefore, fallen through. He is, however, to | creditable in itself, will now be faithfully adhered to; and the fifth (Illinois) gives ground for forbearance and hope by paying a portion of what is due from her, and by not denying her liability for the remainder. The indication afforded by this gradual progress is unmistakable. It was the sound feeling of the majority of the American people comprised in the non-defaulting states, which irresistibly impelled the defaulters to make these efforts to regain their standing in the Union, and with every instance of a return to good faith, the force of public opinion must have become still more severe in its operation on those that remain. When nine states, with an aggregate debt of $114,000,000, were banded together, they formed. a phalanx sufficiently powerful to comfort one another, and to resist for a time the example of the majority of the confederation. Now that the number is reduced to four, with a debt of not more than $30,000,000, they occupy a very different position. The number of states in the Union is twenty-eight, with a total population of 22,000,000. Of this population, the proportion of the four repudiating states reaches only 800,000. It is not difficult to see that, surrounded by such a majority who are compromised by partnership with them, they must speedily become honest in self-defence.

On the continent matters remain without any great change. In France, the people, forgetting their recent mission of European liberation, are all mad with delight at the balls and parties of Louis Napoleon, and are without eyes or ears for anything but the smallest gossip of his sayings and doings. That the farce will shortly be ended by his being elected emperor, either unequivocally or disguisedly as president for life, seems to be the general opinion. From Austria sickening accounts of the reign of terror established by the emperor and his army still come thick upon us, while with respect to Hungary, where excesses of the most frightful character continue to take place, nothing more is known of a decisive kind than had reached us a fortnight back. France, by whom all the movements were originated that have led to these severities, has now no word of succor or protest on behalf of the sufferers. In Italy revolutionary changes are yet going on with some rapidity. The Duke of Modena has fled from his dominions, and the Duke of Tuscany, a really liberal man, who was one of the first supporters of Pius the ninth in his popular movement, has followed the fatal example, from the dread, it is believed, which was inspired in his mind of yielding any further to the democratic tendencies of the time, and thus incurring the excommunication recently promulgated by the pope from Gaeta.

In Rome the temporal power of the pope has been declared at an end, and here as in Tuscany a provisional government has been established. Both in Rome and Tuscany these movements were preceded by a determination to promote the convocation of a Constituent Assembly, to decide the basis of an Italian union, but in Sardinia, although the liberal ministry still hold power, a wiser or more practicable course has been pursued and this step has met with no encouragement. Meanwhile the despotic powers, Naples, Austria, and Russia, are burning to pour in troops and to subjugate these disturbers. In the Sicilian question there is no new feature.

From the Times of Feb. 23d.

AMERICAN HONOR.

But it is not on this ground that the best hopes of the creditors depend. There are abundant signs that, in the ten years which have elapsed, a very decided change has occurred amongst the people even in the defaulting states. It is scarcely too much to believe that if the question of repudiation were now put for the first time, not a dozen individuals would be found to assent to it, or beyond this, that if each man by quietly contributing his quota henceforth could place the matter as if nothing had ever happened, there would be no further trouble of any kind. The difficulty is to get any one to agitate afresh so disagreeable a subject. Claims that have been dishonored for one third of a generation may well be left for another week, month, or year, and so the affair goes on. A single bold politician in each instance might not only carry the point, but gain an enduring fame.

Under these circumstances, it is plainly the policy of the creditors to commence an active movement, and to ascertain distinctly from the executive of the several defaulting states the ground they are disposed to take. If the result THE most interesting question connected with of these applications should prove unfavorable, the present prosperity of the United States is, they should then lose no time in drawing forth by what effect will it have in causing a return to petitions, and by every other available method, honor on the part of the defaulting communities the advocacy of the most upright and energetic of Mississippi, Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan. amongst those in each community who are capaIt is now more than ten years since the creditors ble of giving a direction to popular feeling. All of these states found themselves embarrassed or the South American republics are now seeking ruined by their misplaced confidence. In the to make arrangements with their creditors, and it crash which occasioned the default, five other would be disagreeable to find that if Spain does states also suspended. Three of these have since not soon stand alone in degradation, it will be beresumed, and, for the most part, in a manner cause she can point to examples amongst some of to leave them free from stain; the fourth has the most flourishing governments of the Anglomade a compromise, which, although not very Saxon race.

[We have prepared and postponed many pages upon Ireland; but make room for the summing up by the Times, in order to call the attention of our readers to the fact, that the question which no British ministry has been able to solve the question of Ireland—is about to be transferred to us.]

THE EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND.-It is a growing expectation in Ireland that we are now about to witness one of the most momentous operations of society—the removal of a people en masse to a distant shore. The half million who have got off with no very great stir, in the course of two years, are but an advance guard to the main body that follows. It must, indeed, be the most furious impulsé or the direst necessity that can urge men at this season of the year to cast themselves on the deep, to brave the wide Atlantic, to be thrown on they know not what headland or shoal, in the storms and the fogs which beset the wished-for shore, and, at the best, to land in a country still ribbed with ice and buried in snow. Yet we were told the other day of ten emigrant vessels taking refuge in the Cove of Cork, of crowds waiting at other ports for the chance of a passage, and of multitudes ejected from their holdings, and now lodging in towns, with no other hope upon earth than once to put their feet on the shore of the new world. We believe it to be even as it is described. The failure of the staple crop, the burden of maintaining the victims of famine, the impossibility of paying rates upon small holdings, and the invincible objection to pay them upon holdings of any size, constitute an expellent force of which the like was never seen. Pauperism, in all its bearings, is depopulating the island. They who are paupers, they who expect to be paupers, and they who loathe the thought of contributing their hard earnings to be squandered upon paupers, are equally out of heart, and resolved to go elsewhere. When the mind is resolved, the means only are wanting. But among the many redeeming virtues of this intractable and unfortunate race, is a strength of family affection, which no distance, no time, no pressure, no prosperity can destroy; and every one of the half million who have safely effected their retreat consecrates his first earnings to the pious work of rescuing a parent, a brother or a sister from Ireland.

'Tis a fearful thing in winter
To be shattered in the blast,
And to hear the rattling trumpet
Thunder, "Cut away the mast!"
So, we shuddered there in silence,

For the stoutest held his breath,
While the hungry sea was roaring,
And the breakers talked with Death.
As thus we sat in darkness,

Each one busy in his prayers,
"We are lost!" the captain shouted,
As he staggered down the stairs.
But his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
"Isn't God upon the ocean,

Just the same as on the land?"

Then we kissed the little maiden,
And we spoke in better cheer,
And we anchored safe in harbor
When the morn was shining clear.
Transcript.

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Lytton.

Franklin Illustrated. Part 5.

The Midnight Sun: a Pilgrimage. By Fredrika Bremer. Translated from the unpublished

original by Mary Howitt.
History of Queen Elizabeth. By Jacob Abbott.
With Engravings.

W. Smith.
Elementary Treatise on Mechanics. By Prof. A.

This is an important work on the science of mechanics, founded on the analytic method of investigation; a mode which affords scope for the exercise of the judgment and the inventive powers more equably by far than the geometrical methods. The him to adopt this mode in his professional teaching, mature experience of the learned author has led and we think it probable that this work will promote its very general adoption.-N. Y. Com. Âdv.

A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston, perpetrated in the evening of the fifth day of March, 1770, by soldiers of the 29th Regiment, which with the 14th Regiment were then quartered there; with some observations on the state of things prior to that catastrophe. Printed by order of the Town of Boston, 1770: and now republished by John Doggett, Jr., New York, and Redding & Co., Boston, with notes and illustrations. Price 50 cents.

NEW BOOKS AND REPRINTS. Poems by James T. Fields. An elegant volume of a hundred pages with this title has been pub- of Boston and a frontispiece showing the citizens Here is a handsome bound volume, with a map lished by William D. Ticknor & Co. The poem recently delivered by Mr. Fields before the Mercan- with their cocked hats, falling under the fire of the tile Library Association of this city is here included soldiery. How the sound of those guns has gone entire, and there are many pieces of a high order of merit now for the first time published. The book deserves a closer examination than we can give it to-day; but we cannot forbear quoting the following exquisite ballad, as a fair specimen of its quality :

We were crowded in the cabin,

Not a soul would dare to sleep, It was midnight on the waters, And a storm was on the deep.

into all lands in 79 years!

Many are now living who were then upon the earth. The vastness of the changes during the life of a man, overpowers thought! Will those of the next 79 years be greater? All movement is now accelerated with tenfold velocity, but we can hardly conceive, unless the SECOND COMING be near, of so great a change as has converted a few discontented colonies into an empire which now acknowledges no superior, and which needs but a few more years to be the greatest in the world!

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POETRY.-Sonnet on Mrs. Butler's Readings; Another, by Prof. Longfellow, 18.-Ballad from
Poems by James T. Fields, 47,

SHORT ARTICLES.-Songs, Madrigals and Sonnets; Count D'Orsay's Picture of our Saviour,
17. History, of England during the Thirty Years' Peace, 43.-New Books and Reprints, 47.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 256.-14 APRIL, 1849.

From the North British Review.

tendom-irritated at the progress of Protestant truth-inculcating the heresy of passive obedience to kings-exercising an authority over the souls and bodies of men-usurping the sceptre, and assuming the ermine of the church's head-sealing the ark of divine truth-and closing or poisoning the fountains of education and knowledge. In the lap of this superstition even Protestant England slumbered. Truth, secular and divine, had indeed begun to throw its mingled radiance among the ig

The History of England, from the Accession of James II. By THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY. In 2 vols. London, 1849. 1300 pp. We have never perused a work of literature or science, or even one of fiction, with such an intense interest as that with which we have devoured the two remarkable volumes now before us. We have cheated our mind of its usual food, and our body of its usual rest, in order to grasp, by one mental effort, the great truths which they teach, and im-norant and immoral masses of English life. It had bibe the noble lessons which they convey. Were we among the personal friends of Mr. Macaulay, or did we adopt the latitudinarian views of religious truth which he has presented to us in all the fascination of language and of sentiment, we might have suspected that our judgment was partial, and our admiration extravagant; but, though our Presbyterian feelings have been often offended, and our most venerated martyrs but slightly honored, and our national creed not unfrequently reviled, yet these penumbral spots disappear, while we study in his bright and eloquent pages the vindication of our country's liberties-the character and the fate of the sages who asserted them—and the righteous but terrible doom of the princes from whom they

were wrung.

There is no period of the history of England in which the events are so closely related to those of the present day as the few years of oppression and judicial murder which constitute the reign of James II.

long before gilded and braced the Scottish mind, and raised the Scottish heart to a sense of its duties and its wrongs. The noble doctrines of the school of Calvin, which Scripture taught and philosophy confirmed, had been accepted as the creed of Presbytery, and formed the basis of its simple discipline and worship. Through the unity and power of her faith, and the indomitable courage of her people, the church of our fathers would have maintained her ground against all the power of the Papacy, if wielded only by her domestic princes; but the union of the crown of Scotland with that of England, which in happier times has been the source of her glory and her strength, threw her back a century in the race of civilization and knowledge.

A despicable king, in carrying off its crown, for. got his duty to the land which gave him birth, striving to overturn its blood-cemented church, and launching against its priesthood and its people the formidable power of his double sovereignty. Her humble temple fell beneath the sword of the tyrant, but only to rise again with a nobler pediment and a loftier peristyle. The same godless princes who had desecrated our altars and slain our martyrs lifted their blood-stained hand against the sister church; but they lifted it in vain, for their dynasty perished in the wreck of the superstition which they upheld. Under a Protestant race of kings, and a Protestant constitution, the sceptres of England and Scotland have been welded into one. Their churches have flourished and grown together

In watching at present the revival of Popery, and in resisting its insidious approach, we must study its spirit and its power previous to the Revolution; and in contemplating our domestic disturbances, and the political convulsions which are now shaking the civilized world, we may discover their cause and their cure by a careful study of Mr. Macaulay's volumes. In the arbitrary rule of the house of Stuart-in the perfidy and immorality of its princes-in the bigotry and licentiousness of its priests in the venality of its statesmen-and in the blood-thirstiness of its captains-we see the germ of the one rich and powerful-the other humble and that revolutionary tempest which swept into one contented. Their literature and science—their trade irresistible tide the otherwise conflicting elements and their commerce- -their arts and their armsof society. The giant of Reäction, in his most have achieved throughout the civilized world a glogrim and savage form, summoned a patient and rious and imperishable name. We have now nothpressed people to revolt, and with its scorpion lashing to fear from perfidious and criminal sovereigns, hurried one sovereign to the scaffold, and another from unprincipled statesmen, from venal judges, or into exile. from sanguinary chiefs. We have nothing to fear But while we shudder over the recitals in which from political turbulence. The progressive reform these crimes are emblazoned, and through which of our institutions, and their gradual accommodation our liberties were secured, the mind searches for to the ever-varying necessities of man, and the eversome powerful principle of action to which they can changing phases of social life, can always be secured be referred. Why was the prince perfidious, the by the moral energy of an educated and religious judge sanguinary, and the priest corrupt? It was people. We have still less to fear from foreign inbecause an idolatrous superstition reigned in Chris-vasion. The diffusion of knowledge, and the local 4

COLVI.

LIVING AGE.

VOL. XXI.

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