6fl froles for the Month. [JAN 



case the circumstances of which are but imperfectly known to us - 

 we do trust especially as the case is not a capital one that if the 

 crime of negligence is found to attach to any individual who had the 

 direction of that steam-boat, the offender may receive such a sentence as 

 shall render him a public example. This course has already been taken 

 in Scotland ; and it is the only one which will be effective here. Every 

 body knows the feeling with which a man drives, whose strength is such 

 that it must bear doAvn all before him : he has no desire to run over any 

 body ; but those who are afraid of being run over, must look sharp, and 

 keep out of the way. We have not the least doubt, that the horrible 

 accidents which are every week occurring with steam- vessels, are quite 

 unavoidable ; or entirely owing to the fault of the parties who are killed ; 

 but, nevertheless, we do very confidently believe, that, whenever half a 

 dozen of the parties surviving shall have been sentenced to smart terms 

 of imprisonment, such accidents will cease to happen. The approaching 

 era of '' steam carriages," renders a determination to execute the law upon 

 this point with strictness, absolutely necessary. If the steam-coaches 

 should do as much mischief as the steam-boats, the roads, for ordinary 

 travellers, would be impassable. 



Hay tian Legislation. "Nothing" (says a recent traveller) " can be more 

 discouraging to commercial intercourse with Hayti, than the irregular system 

 under which every thing is conducted, from the highest to the lowest office 

 of the state. The delays and procrastinations of the officers of the customs 

 are exceedingly injurious both to the consignee and the vessel; a studied 

 dilatoriness pervades all their proceedings. This delay is well known to the 

 government, and repeated remonstrances have been sent to the proper autho- 

 rities ; but they have all been unsuccessful; and the only way to obtain a 

 little dispatch, is to present a douceur ; for the principal officers are open to 

 bribes, and seem determined never to do their duty without them" 

 " The inconvenience and imposition of the Hay tian tariff, furnishes another 

 ground of complaint among foreigners. The delay which ensues between the 

 landing of the merchants' property, and the examination of it by the officers of 

 the customs, is not only most injurious, but in a country where theft is so pre- 

 valent as in Hayti, there is but little security for property ! I have seen many 

 instances of goods being most unwarrantably exposed, and all the remonstrances 

 of the consignee have been unavailing; there appeared, on the contrary, 

 every reason to suspect connivance on the part of those whose duty it was to protect 

 against plunder, &c. !" * * * " The way in which goods are valued also, 

 agreeably to the tariff, is a monstrous imposition, and calls for the most 

 prompt and efficient remedy. Many of the articles of British manufacture 

 are subjected to a duty equal to twenty per cent, instead of twelve the avowed 

 rate of duty], from the excess of valuation: the tariff fixing a value nearly 

 double the actual sale price of the goods !" * * In no other country have I 

 ever witnessed such impositions and such depredations, and the injured 

 individuals have not the least possible chance of redress." HThe account of 

 the legal authorities from whom redress in these cases should come, is very 

 amusing. ^ * * * " The judges form, perhaps, the most extraordinary 

 selection of personages that could ever have been found in any country. The 

 grand judge, Monsieur Ineshmall, is a man of colour, nearly eighty years of 

 age. Until he arrived at middle age, he had been actively and successfully 

 employed in the career of a pirate. His legal knowledge is what might be 

 expected from his previous avocations. He is a modest old man, it is true ; 

 for when his present appointment was offered to him, he declined it, as he 

 said himself, from his incompetency to perform the duties which it required ! 

 Boyer, however, insisted on his accepting it ; and remarked ' that it did not 

 require talent or legal knowledge : he had only to do as he wa* directed by the 

 orders he might receive from the bureaus of government." * * * " The 



