SEPTEMBER 30, 1843 No. XLY. Price One Penny, And now the time in special is, by privilege, to write anspeak what may help to the further discussing of matters in agitation. The Temple of Janus, with his two controvcrsal faces, might now not unsignificantiy be set open: and though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter. Her confuting is the best and surest suppressing.— MILTON'S AREOPAGITICA. LOCAL DOCUMENTS. CIRCULAR FROM MAJOR POLLARD. Sir,— As the Morley and Agbrigg Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry is now fully equipped, 1 think it my duty to inform the influential gen- tlemen of the town and neighbourhood, for whose peculiar protection it has been raised, that a serious pecuniary responsibility has been incurred beyond the allowance from Govern- ment, and it will now be for their consideration, how far they feel disposed to assist in liquidating the same, and providing for those yearly expenses which must of necessity occur. I can with confidence assert that should the services of the Corps be ever required ( which God forbid) that they will be found to equal the most sanguine expectations of those gentlemen who have the interests of the town and neigh- bourhood at heart, and who are desirous that the peace and tranquillity of both should be preserved. As it is absolutely necessary that these pe- cuniary liabilities should be directly discharged, I feel confident I may rely on the courtesy of an answer, and should you feel disposed to assist so laudable and worthy a cause, I am sure I shall be pardoned for saying that it will save me an infinity of trouble if you will either inclose the money or an order on your Banker. I do not wish to advert to the almost entire occupation of my time, or to the trouble and anxiety I have had in the arrangement of this Corps, further than to say, that I believe every gentleman will admit, that they have been quite sufficient to protect me from those pecuniary responsibilities which have been incurred, with a view to the protection of the life and property of the town and neighbourhood. I have the honour to remain, Sir, Your obedient humble Servant, GEORGE POLLARD. Stannary Hall, Halifax, Sept. 18, 1843, CILCULAR ADDRESSED TO THE TOWN TRUSTEES. Trustees' Room, Cheapside, Halifax, 21st September, 1843. Sir,— The next Quarterly General Meeting of the Trustees acting under the Improvement Act for the Township of Halifax, will be held in this Room, on Wednesday the 4th Day of October next, at 3 o'Clock P. MI The Cotnmitee's Report of Operations for the past Quarter will be submitted. The Surveyors Report for the ensuing Quarter contains— £ s. d. The Re- setting of part of Winding Road, estimated at 17 12 0 The Setting of part ot Lee Bridge Road.. 34 10 0 The Re setting of part of Union Street, and part of Church Lane 14 2 0 Paving of Causewav, Top of Woolshops 9 5 0 Do. near the Fountain, Ward's End 2 5 0 1) 0. Silver Street 10 8 10 New Setts for Repairs, £ 7 ; Carting of Old Setts, and opening Grate Drains, & c„ £ 11 18 0 0 Flags for the Yard, Repairs of Streets, Causeways, & c 50 0 0 For Repairs of Highways, including Dross, Stones, Carting, & c 70 0 0 £ 22G 2 10 Mr. Luke Swallow claims from the Trustees the sum of Four Pounds for damages, & c., done to his Fields in Green Lane, which the Com- mittee refers to the decision of this Meeting. The General Committee recommends the usual Water Rents to be charged, and a Rate of 2s. in the Pound to be laid for the year 1844, and Three Trustees to be appointed to audit the A ccounts for 1843, at the close of December next. Mr. H. O. Cadney gives notice that it will be moved at this Meeting,— " That Trinity Road be widened to the width of 8 yards from a certain point thereof to the " bottom ; the expense of which, ( as by an " Estimate and Plan prepared) will be about Three Hundred and Sixty- two Pounds Ten " Shillings. The numher of yards required will be about 158, being an expense of about " £ 2 6s. per yard, including the Buildings and " Erections thereon. Towards the expense the " neighbourhood will contribute the sum of « Thirty Pounds." I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, JOSEPH C. HOATSON, Clerk. THE TRIALS OF TRUTH. CHAPTER I. VARIETIES. During the last session of parliament, deputations from the Anti- corn- law League visited 18 counties, in which 22 county meetings were held. A letter re- directed from one place to another is legally liable to additional postage for tbe further service. BEANS.— A correspondent of the Eastern Counties Herald inquires, " What is the cause that beans should he the contrary way in tbe pod this year ?" and wishes the astrologers to say what is the sign thereof, if any I A retired tradesman of Chepstow has in bis posses- sion a poor's rate or assessment of that parish, for the year 1752, at one shilling in the pound, which amounts to the sum of £ 37 4s 6d. and was only the rate required that year. How widely different things are now! KIND WORDS.— Loving voices I domestic voices in happy families, what adversity, what suffering, is there which cannot be comforted by you !— Frederika Bremer. On the Dublin and Kingston Railway, passengers are carried in one of the trains at tbe rate of half a farthing per mile. Before they reduced their fares, shares were at 18 per cent, discount: now they bear 7 per cent, premium, and the passengers increased 400,000. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew are being enlarged by an addition of 16 acres from the pleasure grounds. The estates and property of an Iron Company, which cost them £ 1,644,626 15s. 4d. and which were valued in 1841 at £ 1,078,667, are now offered for £ 200,000. The York and North Midland Railway Company having made their second class carriages more com- fortable, an increase of 5,400 passengers in that class within six months has taken place. ADMIRATION.— It is often the mark of a philosopher to be astonished. Admiration is the source of philosophy.— Dialogues of Plato. The Morning Post denounces the laboured defence of tbe Peel ministry, in tbe Quarterly Review, as " silly, shallow, and self- damnatory trash I" The Rev. Thomas Scott, when engaged in writing his " Commentary," used to solace himself with the belief that it might be of use at a period when the public worship of God would be no longer tolerated in the land. FIRST CATCH YOUR HARE.— An observation made by one of the chartist delegates at the Birmingham conference, is strikingly illustrative of the sagacity of Mrs. Glass, who, in lier " Domestic Cookery," be- gins her recipe for dressing a hare in these words— " First catch a hare !" The question at the confer- ence was whether the chartists should " erect suit- able buildings on their land 1" on which Mr. Clark, the M. C. for Cheshire, very sagely remarked—" That it would be the wisest plan first to get the land, bes fore they began to talk about building their farm houses." Philosophy may infuse stubbornness, but religion » nly can give patience. " Truth," says John Milton, " is rarely born but, like a bastard, to the shame of him that begets it." Let not the veracious reader start at this dreary faith; for the same author goes on to declare that time at length legitimizes the base- born, and removes the odium from its father. Thus, though the living martyr may be burned to cinders, it may so happen that the greatest veneration shall be paid to his ashes. Now,— as we are given to understand from gentle- men of the learned profession, members of parlia- ment, party politicians, and other consumers of the precious article,— though truth be an inestimable treasure, still for that reason it is not to be produced on every light occasion. In the first place, a too great familiarity with it begets indifference. To be always speaking the truth, what is it but to wear a court- suit every day, — to go shopping in hoop, stomacher, and diamonds ? We shall never forget the apothegm of a late lamented attorney, whose only son,— how he acquired the antipathy yet remains a mystery,— had an invinci- ble aversion to a lie. " Joseph," said the father, with something like tears in his eyes, " Joseph, heaven knows how soon I may be taken from you ; and therefore I cannot too frequently check your preposterous extravagance. Truth, Joseph, truth is like gold. A really wise man will make a little of it go a great way." To our mind, nothing can be finer,— nothing more profound, than this axiom. Truth is like gold ; for how often does a reckless use of it bring its utterer to beggary. Let the fate of our hero be taken as an example. " One pound one,— the bird is yours, sir, cage and all." Thus spoke Mr. Brown, tbe auctioneer; declaring a parrot, one of a dozen that had been twenty times put up without a purchaser, to be the property of tbe guinea bidder. The owner of the bird knew not the dangerous treasure be possessed. The parrot was a very Solomon in feathers ; and, though its possessor failed to appreciate tbe virtue, like true wisdom, it was sparing of speech. Its master, mistaking silence for inability, disposed of the bird as a blockhead ; though, if it liked, it could, fifty times a day, have called itself a clever fellow. There was, however, this besetting sin in tbe bird. It never opened its mouth but it uttered an awkward truth,— blurted out a sentence turned with satire, reproach, or contempt. What is said would, at times, fall with a fatal crash upon the cogitations of its hearers; making them doubt if Beelzebub spoke not through a parrot. Unfortunately for its future quiet, its long sojourn in the room of the auctioneer, bad enabled it to store its memory with the choicest scrapsof the orator ;•— which undigested exclamations, interrogatories, opinions, and appeals, it would too frequently utter to the confusion of its owners. Our martyr so truth,— the parrot, became the property of tbe lady of Mr. Phocion,— a gentleman who bad struggled through many difficulties to become a member of parliament; some of his difficul- ties being considerably lessened by tbe attainment of the dignity. Yes ; he was a senator, to the confusion of his tailor. He was a man of considerable powers of address ; being beard at any part of Copenhagen- fields, when- ever he there condescended to deliver his sentiments. As his opinions were not fixed, he was in the happiest condition for improvement. If he had not read a great deal of history, he had attended and spoken at many public dinners. If he had cared to shine that way, he could have argued in the style of Fox or Burke; but tbe days were gone for rhetorical speeches. No ; tbe spirit of the times demanded brevity, and it was much easier to call names. Indeed, Mr. Phocion successfully exercised that great art of life,— the art of gracefully concealing our ignorance. He was a man with a face of undaunted metal, and with nerves of equally strpng, if not of the same, material. Sublimely unconscious of the ridiculous, he soared above bis own deficiencies, and was never so elevated as when utterly incomprehensible. Though not quite sufficiently skilled in the graces of literature to become a professor of poetry, be never made a speech without the support of the muse. No; never did he speak of tbe " poor man,"— and never did he speak that he did not, with an eloquent smiting of the heart, allude to that unfortunate individual,-- 173 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. but the oration was decked with that fringe of un- tarnished gold :— " Princes and lords may flourish or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made: But a bold peasantry, their nation's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied." On what he would call the philosophy of society, he had his own recondite opinions, for the adoption of which, as he would often lament, the world was not yet sufficiently prepared. That, however, all the generations of man had been brought up and educated on a wrong principle, was his unconquerable faith. With a severe disregard of the ornaments, and what are called refinements, of life, he would have looked on the statue of the Medicean Venus, and asked,— cat bono? Or, in his own downright nervous English, — What's the use of it ?" He would have resigned the Elgin marbles to the hammers of Mac Adam, and covered a polling- booth with tbe canvasses of Raphael. In a word, he was a mushroom patriot,— a thing produced by the corruption of the times. Yet, let it not be thought that Mr. Phocion would recant his faith in the hour of danger. Not so. He rather courted persecution. Often would he declare his readiness to lay his head upon the block; and so entirely was his wife influenced by some of his patriotic sentiments, that she would hear him with more than Roman serenity. As for the King's Bench prison, it was the vestibule to the house of fame ; and Newgate itself might, to a public man, become little less than the Mint. And this was the exalted creed of Mr. Phocion, until a full week after his admission to the House of Commons. We know not whether such a happy change comes upon all young members ; but cer- tainly Mr. Pbocion talked less, and at least appeared more thoughtful. It was an evening on which there was " no house," and Mr. and Mrs. Phocion sat with the only thing that ought ever to divide man and wife,— namely, a book, between them. The book was " Malthus on Population." Our statesman had no children ; and Mrs. Phocion, who had merely looked at the title page of the volume, contemplated her husband at his new studies with singular complacency. She would look meekly at her mate ; and, in tbe pride of her heart, feel certain that some public or private good must come of such hard reading. Mr. Phocion put aside the book, and leaned his head upon bis hand. Mrs. P. broke silence. " ' Tis now two months," she said, " since you've taken your seat, my dear; pray, when do you think you'll get anything ?" " Get any thing !" responded Mr. Phocion. " What should I get but the proud satisfaction of— of— I desire, Madam, that you never agaiu allude to so base a sentiment. Get any thing ! I should de- spise myself could I be induced to take office." " Well, but a salary," observed Mrs. Phocion,— " or— a something that—" Mr. Phocion frowned very darkly, and his wife was silent. Weeks went on ; and Mr. Phocion gradually lost that serenity of temper which, up to his return to parliament, had made bis house a dove cot. Mrs. Phocion, in the simplicity of her soul, thought that law- making could not be so very respectable an employment, if it kept husbands out until four and five in the morning; and then sent them home mote like ogres than rational, considerate help- mates. To do Mr. Phocion justice, no member was more regular in bis attendance,— more sedulous in his in- direct attentions to the minister,— more watchful of the public money. Still, it was but too evident that the dearest wish of his heart was unsatisfied. His merits and his zeal were alike undiscerned. He had, it is true, a vote in the house, but, for what it brought him, he might as well have had a voice in the great pyramid. Again and again Mrs. Phocion touched upon the probability of something lucrative being obtained ; and again and again Mr. Phocion, with grimmer looks and more passionate voice, declared that he should feel himself a wretch for ever could he be won to accept anything. " No ! to him place was little better than the pillory. He would maintain his independence. He would return to his constitu- ents with white hands." Mrs. Phocion marvelled at the obstinacy of the man ; and, one morning, after a late debate, resolved to speak out. " What!" she exclaimed, " was he mad enough to refuse a salary, for— if it pleased Providence,— doing nothing ? Was he—" " Mrs. Phocion," he replied, " I have seen too many sad examples of political tergiversation, to add to the black number. I have seen the patriot of to- day, the pensioner of to- morrow." Mrs. Pliocion seemed to smile approval of the promotion. " But, no," continued the senator ; " be it my glory to prove that there is still some public virtue left; and know, if I hold off from goiden temptation, ^ if I refuse, with inexpressible scorn, to sell myself to the minister,— it is for this proud reason, that I have had—" " No bidders!" " Heavens! Who's that?" cried the patriot turning as pale as though called by tbe accusing angel. " No bidders I no bidders! no bidders I" replied the parrot, from its auction vocabulary. Mr. Phocion stared and gasped at the bird, as if a demon spoke in it,— a malignant spirit that had pos sessed itself of the heart of the statesman's mystery,— of the secret that had lain like an ulcer in his heart, tormenting him with scheming days and anxious nights. There was something awful,— appalling, superna tural, in the words ; or rather there was a terrible humanity in them, that, as the patriot glared upon the bird, suggested to him the probability of metempsychosis : " Had aJSir Robert^ Walpole been transmigrated into a parrot ?" " In the name of heaven ! Mrs. Phocion," said her husband, taking breath from his astonishment; " Where did you get that plague " No bidders I" said the irritating parrot. Unhappily there lay upon the table a copy of the Report of the Law Commission. It will give the reader a very favourable idea of Mr. Phocion's strength, when we state that he seized the tome with one hand, and flung it at the speaker. The corner of the book caught the right eye of the bird, and ex- tinguished its light. We ardently trust it was the only case of blindness effected by the commission. " Nay, I'm sure, my dear,—" Mrs. Phocion would say ; but it was all in vain. With all her eloquence, she failed to convince the member of the many little amiable ways of her loquacious treasure; and well she might, for, every morning, after a long and heavy debate, Mr. Phocion,— jaded, drowsy, bilious,— was accosted by the parrot with aloud protracted chuckle, and " no bidders !" In a very short time, 5the parrot was thrust, with curses on its head, from the hearth of the senator. Mr. Phocion, we regret to say, in due season illustrated the instability of human genius ; for he accepted a place, which he held until his speedy death, — a fact communicated on a tombstone in that exten- sive churchyard, Sierra Leone. ( To be continued.) MISCELLANIES. SYDNEY SMITH AND THE AMERICAN REPDDIATORS. — The Rev. Sydney Smith's satirical petition to the American congress, enforcing the claims of British creditors, naturally excited much attention and no little anger in America. The New York Evening Post dismisses him as a disappointed speculator ; the Boston Courier calls his strictures impudence, bombast, and impertinence." Some writers are more candid : for instance, one in the Boston Daily Advertiser and Patriot, who says—" No doubt, Mr. Sydney Smith! does not present himself with a very cringing air. He uses strong phrases— strongerthan we like to hear— stronger than is respectful; but the real difficulty in the case is, that the strongest words he uses are true words. For just so long as the Pennsylvanians refuse to lay a tax of one percent on every 100 dollars of their wealth, to pay their honest debts, just so long they may be called ' men who prefer any load of infamy, however great,' tojany pressure to taxation, however light.' And this is the hardest and'sharpest phrase in Mr. Smith's petition. To be sure, it would not be easy, on the same subject, to say any thing more cutting or more terse, but after all, the bitterness of the words lies in their truth." WESTMINSTER HALL.— A committee of tbe com- missioners on the fine arts, appointed to make inquiries respecting Westminster Hall, have reported : —" That they have reason to believe, that the original hall of King William Rufus occupied the same area as the present building. That they believe, that whatever portion of the fabric of the Norman Hall of the Palace of King William Rufus may remain, it is entirely encased and concealed by the walls of the actual structure. That the walls of the actual struc- ture, as they now appear, with the exception of the surface alterations made in 1806- 7, and also the existing roof, were erected in the reign of King Richard II. in the year 1398 ; tbe walls being then heightened, and the original rubble of the Norman work being then encased in ashlar, and the buttresses added. That they have no reason to believe that there were any permanent decorations in the interior of the said hall, other than those which now exist. That the temporary decorations, on occasion of state trials, or of coronation banquets, varied with the need and propriety of the service to which the hall was applied. That, in the last year of the reign of King Richard II. the hall appears to have been " hung and sump- tuously trimmed ;" by which phrase your committee understand hangings of tapestry, and other temporary decorations; but there is no reason to believe that there was at any time any decoration of painting of any kind or. the walls; though, in making this observation, it is right to add, that your committee feel that there is in the existing hall sufficient light for the proposed exhibition of cartoons. That the use of banners or trophies suspended from the roof or rafters of the hall was not earlier than the reign of Queen Anne, and was soon discontinued." The Cheltenham Journal, in an article on Irish affairs, after speaking of O'Connell and his followers as the " hoary old traitor and his ruffianly and rebel repealers," thus concludes :—" We thirst for no man's blood, yet we conceive that it would be blessed day for Ireland to witness the hangman's office performed upon the artful agitator." THE PYRAMIDS.— At first I was absolutely shocked with the size of the pyramids ; their great effect is to make every thing around them look small, but they themselves never look large; and till I thought of Lincoln's Inn fields, and St. Paul's and St. Peter's and of their actual measurement, my imagination could not comprehend their vastness. Yet, after being accustomed to the desert, one sees that nothing but simple form and gigantic size could produce any effect at all upon the mind. Besides the three Great. Pyramids, the form is repeated in many smaller ones and in some views one mountain seems to rise above another, and the effect is very grand indeed ; and the mouldering rock on which they rest, the mounds of sand, the vast masses of stone work, of temples and tombs thrown down by violence— give to the whole scene a grandeur which, with the silence of the desert, it is impossible to describe.— Letter from Egypt. HAWKING.— The diversion of falconry, or hawk- ing, was the principal amusement of royal and noble personages, for several centuries. In the reign of James I., Sir Thomas Motison gave £ 1000 for a couple of hawks ! POPULAR APPLAUSE.— The people are a set of masters whom it is not in a man's power in every in- stance fully to please, and at the same time faithfully to serve. He that is resolved to persevere without deviation in the line of truth and utility, must have learnt to prefer the still whisper of enduring appro- bation, to the short- lived bustle of tumultuous applause.— Benthamiana. A Lyons journal states, that M. Mirlaveati, a silk manufacturer of that city, has applied the principles of the Jacquard loom to musical instruments. His first trial has been on the accordion. A card is used to vary the tunes, as it is used in the wearing to change the pattern. M. Mirlaveau has, it is added, devoted five years, and much expense, to this inven- tion. The British Lion, a London weekly newspaper, started about two months ago in opposition to the Anti Corn. law League, and for the purpose of ad- vocating strong Toryism and a " protective policy" towards British agriculture, has ceased to exist. A LONG SHEET OF PAPER.— Mr. Limbird, of the Strand, has a sheet of paper four feet seven inches wide, 600 yards long, and weighing 1371b. It is of fiue texture, and has been made expressly for the purpose of taking impressions of monumental brasses. THE " NEW YORK HERALD."— Mr. J. S. Buck- ingham has written a letter to the Timet, re- asserting that the statements in his book respecting Mr. James Gordon Bennett's paper, the New York Herald, are true ; and that that journal " surpasses the worst newspaper ever published in England :" " I may refer to Captain Marryat's accounts of the newspaper press of America, in the second chapter of the second series of his Diary, in which Mr. Bennett's paper is there described as the worst^ of all the disreputable papers in the United States, and, as Mr. Dickens truly says in his Notes, ' their name is Legion.' Captain Marrvat mentions also the fact, that before he had been in America six weeks he was attacked by Mr. Bennett, and a copy of the paper was sent to Captain Marryat, with these words written in the margin,' Send twenty dollars, and it shall bestopped.'" " WHEN ROGUES FALL OUT," & C.— It seems that the Rev. W. Hill, late editor of the Northern Star, who appears to have quarrelled with Mr. O'Connor, has j ist issued a letter, " To the chartists of Great Britain," dated from Dundee, in which certain reve- lations are promised, ere long, about the Manchester " strike"| agitation and conference. He says—" Mr. O'Connor does not tell you how much he knows more than you do. lam now bound— Mr. O'Connor has now compelled me— to say, that he does know a great deal more than you do ; he knows many facts which you do not know— which you ought to know— and which, if it may please God I live, you shall know, in due time." In reference to the con- ference, Mr. Hill says—" You shall know the exact position taken at that conference by every leading man in the chartist movement who was present at it, Mr. O'Connor among the rest. You will then be able to use your own sense in judging of the motives which may have influenced Mr. O'Connor's determi- nation not to have those statements in the Star." HOGS AND WAX CANDLES.— At the meeting of the British Association of Science, a curious method, recently adopted in the United States, of bringing their hog produce to market, was noticed. It appears that as the pigs, near the vale of the Mississipi, can- not be brought to profitable market as an article of food, they are converted by a chemical process into wax and oil, in which form they are readily tran- sported, and the pigs of the Mississipi are thus con- verted into wax candles for illuminating our drawing- The oil is of excellent quality, and well adapted for lubricating machinery, for which purpose the best sperm oil has hitherto been most used. The custom of the North Americans, who carry on the business of converting pigsMnto wax candles, is to drive the animals into the woods, where they feed for some months on the acorns, & c. and then they are fattened for one month on Indian corn, by which time they are quite ready for the process of conver- sion, and they are boiled en masse, fat and lean together, unless the state of tbe provision market make it profitable to spare some of the bams. CLERICAL HATRED TO METHODISM.— I know a town in Devonshire ( said Dr. Leifcbild, at a recent meeting) where the clergyman of the parish sent for an individual to slate a building he was erecting, but said, " You must not let your son come, for he is a Methodist; he goes to the Methodist place, and I will not have him upon my ground." " Why, he is the only man that can do this well." ( Laughter,) " He shall not couie ; you must get somebody else." " Sir, I am not a Methodist; but my son is a good man, and a good workman, and if my son may not come, I will not come." " Well then, neither of you shall come." ( Hear, hear.) He sent fourteen miles, or more, for a workman to slate the building ; the workman arrived, and he told him why he had refused the other, that it was " because he was a Methodist, and he would not have a Methodist upon his ground." " Well, I can do my work almost as well as John can do it, but I am a Methodist too—( loud cheers)— and I mean to go to the Methodist place as long as I stay here, and try to revive the cause—( laughter and cheers)— and, there- fore you must either have a Methodist, or go with- out your work being done." ( Cheers.) He was obliged to have a Methodist after all. ( Renewed cheers) The salutes fired at Plymouth, in honour of her majesty's visit to that port, were heard at a distance of 46 miles, by the mail- line road. — R0B ROY.— In the list of subscribers to " Keith's History of the Church and State in Scotland," pub- lished in Edinburgh in 1743, there occurs, amongst the names of a considerable portion of the nobility and sentry of the kingdom, that of " Robert Mac- gregor," alias Rob Roy. It would thus appear that this well- known freebooter had, at one period of his- life, some inclination for literature. 174 THE HALIFAX FREE PRESS. spirit of the journals. BEAUTIES OF THE SLIDING SCALE.— The fluctua" tions which liave taken place in the grain market8 within the last few months, and the operations in the grain trade consequent upon the rise and fall of prices, furnish an excellent commentary npon'Sir Robert Peel's sliding scale. I « the week ending the 8th of April, the Gazette average was 45s. 5d. per quarter ; from which point, prices began to rise slowly about the middle of summer, and continued rising till, in August, they had reached Gls. 2d. ; the declared average in the week ending on the 12th of August showing an advance of 15s. 9d- or about 35 per cent, in four months, under the operation of that sliding scale which was to secure steadiness of price. Could this comparatively high price have been main- tain for two months or so, those farmers who had taken land on the faith that they would not receive less than 60s. a quarter for their wheat, would have done very well; indeed, they might possibly have been led to suppose, that the corn- law was an exceedingly useful measure, and that it was almost worthy of all the praise which Sir Robert Peel bestows on it. Un- fortunately, however, for the farmers and their self- styled friends, the advance in the price of grain, which went on so steadily during the months of June and July, led to a belief that the home supply of wheat was short; and, accordingly, numerous orders were sent to the grain countries of the continent, under the impression that the duty would probably fall to a very low point before the new crop could come into the market. In that expectation the specu- lators have been disappointed, but not till they had purchased considerable quantities of grain, most of which has already arrived, and will immediately come into competition with the produce of our own foil, at the very moment when the farmers of Eng- land will feel that competition most severely. On Thuroday last, duty was paid on no less than 320,000 quarters of wheat at the port of London alone. At Hull, upwards of 60,000 quarters were taken out of bond last week; at Newcastle, upwards of 70,000 quarters ; and at Leith, about the same quan- tity. If to all this we add the 110,000 quarters on which duty was paid during the week before last, the quantity released from bond at other ports besides those we have mentioned, and the quantity still to be brought in at the 15s. duty, it will be seen that our former estimate of 800,000 quarters, as the total amount of foreign wheat likely to be thrown into the market at the present time, is not likely to have been beyond the truth. Whether that quantity will be sufficient, with our own produce, to keep prices from rising any higher than they were last year, remains to be seen ; but most assuredly it would be difficult to contrive a mode by which the importation of 800,000 quarters of grain, in its influence upon the market, could confer less benefit upon the public generally, or inflict more injury upon the farmers, than by the ingenious operation of the sliding- scale. With free- trade, we should never be exposed, as at present, to the evil consequences arising from a panic in the grain market, or a rumour that the supply was deficient; because we should be able, at all times, to import grain in exchange for our manufactures. Last year Sir Robert Peel complained, that his new corn- law had not had a trial. That excuse will hold no longer. It has now been fairly tried ; and all that now remains for it is, that due sentence of condemna- tion be formally passed upon it, as soon as parliament has assembled.— Manchester Guardian. THE SLIDING SCALE AND THE SHIPPING INTEREST. — We learn from the Scotsman of Wednesday last, that the duties paid at Leith on the wheat taken out of bond while the duty was at 14s. a quarter, amounted to no less than £ 73,400 ; from which we infer, that upwards of 100,000 quarters of wheat must have been liberated altogether. Of all this large quantity of grain, the shipment of which must have furnished a large amount of employment, only three per cent was brought to Leith in English vessels ; the specu- lators not having had time, under the beautiful operation of the sliding scale, to charter British vessels, and send them out, as they would thereby have been unable to clear their cargoes at the 14s. duty. Frequently have we called the attention of our readers to this result of the new coi n- law ; but sel- dom have we heard of a more signal instance of its injurious working than that which we have been al- luding to. Had Sir Robert Peel, when he introduced his " improved" Corn Bill into the House of Com- mons, entitled it " Ah act for the discouragement of British shipping," it would have been the most faithful description of that measure that any one could possibly have rendered, at least so far » s the grain- carrying trade was concerned. That the pre- mier had any intention to injure the shipping interest, when he brought forward his cunningly contrived sliding scale, no one will for a moment suppose; but we cannot acquit Lord Sandon who ought to con- sider himself on>- of the principal representatives of that interest, of such intention ; he having distinctly stated, that the reason why he lends his aid to the shifting scale is on account of its tendency to " pre- vent a regular trade in grain." In other words, he upholds a law for preserving the landlords' monopoly, because it prevents hundreds of the electors of Li- verpool from obtaining employment. What a miser- able opinion of the intellect and independence of his constituents must his lordship have had, when he could venture to urge such a statement as one of the grounds on which he rested his claim to their suff- rages '.— Manchester Guardian. YOUNG ENGLAND.— The new number of the Quarterly Review devotes a lenient but rather con- temptuous note to " Young England." The thorough- going ministerial newspapers attack " Young Eng- land" in daily diatribes. If the section of the legisla- ture known by this sobriquet were in reality so insignificant as those writers affect to think them, whence the soreness— whence the pertinacity in ridiculing and attacking them ?— It is true that " Young England" musters little more than half- a- dozen members in the house of commons. It is true that they rank higher as amiable, elegant, and accomplished private gentlemen, than as statesmen. But " Young England," though thus immediately of little consequence, is a type, an indication, of some- thing that is working in the public mind.— When the lake poets ratted from the jacobin party, they were received with open arms by the tories. Wordsworth and Coleridge were hailed as Christian philosophers. And so they were. Notwithstanding a deal of vagueness and mysticism in their writings, they abounded also with deep and valuable thoughts. But, like all thinkers who unable to rest upon their own unsupported convictions cling to existing formulae, both Wordsworth and Coleridge sought to give life to the mere letter of the law. The philoso- phical element in their minds was too powerful to allow of their remaining satisfied with empty and lifeless forms. Even while proclaiming their ad- herence to the standards of the church, they were busily, perhaps unconsciously, seeking to explain them away into something corresponding more with their own imaginative eclecticism. The mere dog- matists, who had welcomed the Lakers as allies, did not discover this until a considerable quantity of tares had been sown among their wheat. They have discovered it, and their praise of Wordsworth and Coleridge has of late been " craftily qualified." A spirit similar to that which characterizes the two authors alluded to became fashionable among the vonnger and more generous spirits of the conserva- tive or purely obstructive party, during the time that it patronized Wordsworth and Coleridge. This spirit has not been checked or suppressed because the wary old stagers have seen proper to draw back. Life, thought, and progression are at work, even among those whose party watch- word is " stand still." It shows itself under many forms. The Puseyites are not conservatives— they are innovators ; they would change what they find existing in the church. " Young England" is not conservative; it would change what it finds existing in the state. Peel and Gladstone are not conservatives ; they would change our commercial policy. Wherever the timid ad- versaries of all change turn their eyes, they see men in the garb of conservatives deporting them- selves like the most inveterate innovators. Were it not for the wide diffusion of this innovating pro- pensity, " Young England" might have escaped rebuke. Its members are scolded in the house and pilloried in the journals, not because it is feared that they can do much harm, but because they are setting a bad example. If they are allowed to go unchecked, it is apprehended that other and more masculine minds may follow them. It is not " Young England" in esse, but " Young England" in posse, that so many diatribes are levelled against.— Spectator. THE " FARMERS' FRIEND."— The Royal Bucks Agricultural Association has had its annual meeting this week ; and a wretched failure it proved. The Duke of Buckingham presided, and advised the farmers " to throw aside all political feeling, and unite together to carry out the objects of the associa- tion ;" after complimenting them by saying, that, " of late years, the farmers of this county had done much towards improving the cultivation of the land, but still much remained to be done ; if, however, they continued their improvements for a few years longer, they would prove that this county was not behind any other county in England in the cultiva- tion of the soil." Is it come to this, that politics are to be really thrown aside, and the association become at last what it has hitherto only pretended to be ? Is the duke sick of politics, or is a political engine no longer wanted now that the Whigs are ousted from office ? We thought that the duke gloried in making the Royal Bucks Agricultural Associi tion a political club, yet now we find him denouncing politics. Here is something not very easily explained. And then the awkward compliment, or rather unfortunate ad- mission, that if the Buckinghamshire farmers con- tinued improving a few years longer, they would not be behind other counties. His grace forgets that the appetite for improvement is increased, not satisfied, by success ; and is stupid enough to suppose that while Buckinghamshire is continuing its improve- ments, other counties will be standing still. We have every reason to fear, that our county will still be be- hind in the march of agricultural improvement; and that, instead of overtaking others, it will, by its slow movements, get further behind. Could any thing be more wretched than the ploughing match and cattle show of Wednesday last? And so will it ever be in this county while his grace is agitating to prevent the settlement of the- corn- law, and persists in his refusal to grant leases.— Aylesbury News. THE WEAKNESS OF MONOPOLISTS.— The weakness of the ultra- agricultural party is shown in their per- severing endeavours to evade fair contest; their leaders make a show of persuading them to stay- away ; and then, although numbers do attend, they say that the real strength of the party is absent. But why should it be absent? If the real majority of practical agriculturists are opposed to Mr. Cobden's views, why do they not manfully meet liim, and prevent the misrepresentation of their opinions by crushing it— by voting down the declaration which they say is imputed to them, with overwhelming majorities ? It is sheer nonsense to pretend that an absolute majority of working agriculturists can never get themselves fairly heard and counted at open meet- ings, often with those favourable to them in the chair. At least it is to be inferred from their absence, that they doubt whether they can command a majority— that they know their weakness, and hide it; that, like the Roman who affected to seem poor when he was poor, they pretend to malce their ranks thin at such meetings because they know they wilt be thin. At the Oxford meeting there were some such insinua- tions— cries of " No!" when Mr. Cobden spoke of the many farmers present; but when he persisted. the denial was not renewed; and the previous attempts to rouse the agriculturists, coupled with the presence of the protectionist members, give the lie to such pretences. Mr. Cobden obtained the adhesion of Oxford, in county meeting assembled, to the doctrine of untaxed corn; and none could gainsay it.—• Spectator. miscellaneous statistics. In Britain, 1,500 miles of railway have cost forty millions, or £ 26,000 per mile ; while in Belgium 350 miles have cost five millions, or £ 14,000 per mile; and in America, 6,000 miles have been laid down for twenty- seven millions, equal to an average of £ 4,500 per mile. Taere are 2,441 uninhabited houses in Sheffield, and 619 mills and warehouses to let, the amount of rental on which the rate is made being £ 17,922. 8s. 6d. CONSUMPTION OF COFFEE.—' 1 he average consump- tion of coffee in the United Kingdom is one pound per head ; but in the United States it is six pounds per head. The difference is mainly owing to the fact, that there is a considerable duty on the article in England, whereas in America, it is admitted duty free. The consumption of coffee in the United States in 1841, was 109,200,2471b. for a population of 17,000,000 ; in the United Kingdom, the consumption was 28,421,4661b. for a population of 28,000,000. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION — By a return issued the other day, showing the total number of members of Paliament sent to the House of Commons, it appears that the numbers sent by England and Wales collectively amount to 500, representing a total population of 15,906 741 ; Ireland, 105 mem- bers, representing a population of 8,175,238 ; Scot~ land, 53 members, representing a population of 2,620,184— making a gross total of 658 members of parliament, representing a total population of 26,702,163. The population of the kingdom of Prussia, accord- ing to the census just made, is 15,300,000 souls; and it is, therefore, the fifth state iu Europe in point of population. EXPENSES OFTHE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENTS. — By a table in the papers, it appears that the aggre- gate annual expenditure of the several States, in their executive, judicial, and legislative departments, was — Executive, 198,470 dollars; legislative, 747,253 dollars ; judiciary, 646,185 dollars ;— total, 1,591,908 dollars. NUMBER OF THE CLERGY.— From a return laid before the house of commons, we collect the follow- ing particulars concerning the staff of the church of England :— Number of benefices, 10,987 ; resident incumbents, 6,699 ; non- resident incumbents, 3,736 ; vacancies and recent institutions, 199; sequestra- tions, 37 ; no returns, 316; total, 10,987. Of the non- resident incumbents, there are absent from their livings 1,632 from residing on other benefices, 369 from infirmity or illness of the incumbent or his family, 421 from want or unfitness of parsonage^ hoitse, 965 absent without license or exemption ( though some of these " perform the duties of their respective parishes)," and the remain ler absent from miscella- neous causes. The number of glebe- houses is 7,589. The number of curates serving benefices on which the incumbents are non- resident is 2,711. The number of curates assistant of resident incumbents is 2,032. Total number of curates, 4,743, It is not possible to ascertain from this paper the total number of the clergy, because it is not stated how many of the^ in- cumbents bold more than one living. At least 1,632 do so, because they are resident on other benefices.;; but others of the non- resident clergy are also plural- ists- Perhaps the 3,736 benefices where the incum- bents are not resident may have 1,736 clergymen belonging to them ( 2,000 being assumed to be held by pluralists). Then the numberof the clergy would be as follows :— Resident incumbents, 6,699 ; non- resident ditto ( supposed), 1,736; curates, 4,743; total number of clergy, 13,178. It ought to be men- tioned, that a considerable number of the benefices where the incumbents are not resident are of small value: 476 of them are of the value of £ 100 a year » r under, and 112 of them are of the value of £ 50 or under. The curates receive small stipends.— Curates' stipends : Under £ 50 a year, 312 ; £ 50 and under £ 60, 575 ; £ 60 and under £ 70, 326 ; £ 70 and un- der £ 80, 482 ; £ 80 and under £. 90, 642 ; £ 90 and under £ 100, 184 ; total under £ 100, 2,521. This shows a monstrous inequality in the salaries of the clergy ; for, whilst 2,521 of the working curates are receiving less than £ 100 a year, some of the bishops and archbishops are receiving £ 12,000 or £ 15,000 ! OUR CHATTER BOX. Audubon's Letter, which we published in our 43rd number, was extracted fioni a periodical of great respectability; but we cannot furnish A Naturalist with any means of testing its authenticity. Internal evidence appears to us to be rather against it, as the language does not seem to be that of a scientific naturalist; but that may have been. intentional, or accidental. " Ellen," a sonnet, by G. is accepted. " The Silent Harp," by J. T r, shall be inserted. W. J. W. lias our thanks for bis paper entitled " Pokings about Halifax," which shall appear in an early number. If A Lover of Literature desires us to notice his friend's publication, he should transmit a copy to our publisher's, that we may see it. A LOVING COUPLE.— A gentleman who was about to sail for America, wrote to bis beloved spouse, the following choice epistle:—" Dear wife, lam going to America. Yours truly." The disconsolate lady's reply was equally laconic and equally loving .—- " Dear husband, A pleasant voyage. Yours, & c."'