318 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Satm-daij, May 15, 1841. 



The Britannia steam-ship arrived at Boston on May 

 6th, bringing accounts 12 days later, and to April 20th, 

 of which date we have received our Englisli papers. 



No news had been heard of the President steam- 

 ship, and therefore there remains scarcely a possible 

 chance that it has not been lost, with all on board. 



From China the news is important. (Date from 

 Macao, Jan. 27.) The British forces had attacked 

 and taken two of the Bogiie forts, and attacked and 

 defeated the flotilla of junks. Considerable loss of 

 lives to the Chinese, and scarcely any to the English. 

 Hostilities were stopped in consequence of the annun- 

 ciation of peace having been made. By the terms, the 

 British seem to have gained very little, and much dis- 

 satisfaction was felt and expressed. The British aie 

 to evacuate the island of Chusan and their other con- 

 quests, and to receive ^0,000, 000 in six years as in- 

 demnity, (which the Chinese can raise by imposts on 

 the British trade,) and the island of Hong Kong is 

 surrendered in perpetuity to the British government. 

 The direct ollicial intercourse between the two go- 

 vernments to be on eqbal terms, and the trade of the 

 port of Canton to be opened as formerly. The future 

 opium trade left unsettled. 



We have iio doubt that the Chinese authorities 

 consider and will treat this termination of the v.-ar as 

 a victory on their part — and that by subsequent man- 

 agement they will make it so in results. 



Great excitement prevailed in Philadelphia, amongst 

 the anti-bank men, in consequence of the passage of 

 the bank relief- bill. It was even thought that the per- 

 sons of " the recreant members" would not be safe, if 

 they were there. One of the features of that bill, and 

 which no doubt greatly aided its passage, is a loan of 

 three millions {in irredeemable paper, of course) to the 

 state, by the banks, whose bankrujitcy it was necessa- 

 ry thus to protect by law. This loan is to be carried 

 out by the issue of tliat amount of small notes, which, 

 as " bills of credit," are deemed by some unconstitu- 

 tional, and an attempt will be maae to arrest the ope- 

 ration of the law. Exchange on New York had 

 risen in Philadelphia, iiom 3^ to 5 per cent., owing to 

 tliis law, and the expectation of the increased issues of 

 bank paper. 



Of thill relief law the Philadelphia Ledger speaks 

 thus : " But the last, which has now become a law of 

 the state, is the boldest, most barefaced, impudent spe- 

 cimen cyi legislative dishonesty of which we have ever 

 heard ; and we should not have believed, without wit- 

 nessing it, that any legislative body, unless consist- 

 ing of discharged convicts, would have had audacity 

 enough for such an experiment upon the burden- 

 bearing patience of the peoi)le." — And yet this law 

 is, in etfect, to bind Virginia to irredeemable anci 

 depreciated paper money, (as the bank-men here 

 maintain,) as much and as long as it does Pennsylva- 

 nia. We trust that neither Pennsylvania nor Virginia 

 will long submit to this state of thint'S. 



Mitchell, the forger, and recent member of congress, 

 has been again arrested in Canada. 



The governor of Pennsylvania has pardoned Dr. 

 Dyott, the celebrated banking swindler, and who is ac- 

 cordingly released from the penitentiary. We infer 

 that Gov. Porter gave this i)ardon on the ground of the 

 gross partiality of the case^Dr. Dyott being punished 

 as a convicted felon, when Messrs. N. Biddle, Cow- 

 persthwaite, and sundry others, who have done much 

 worse, escape unpunished — and when the legislature 

 of Pennsylvania has, by its " bank relief law," just 

 enacted, legalized bank-swindling on the broadest 

 scale, and for an indefinite time. 



• The negroes condemned in Virginia for crimes, to 

 be transported beyond the limits of the United States, 

 liave been heretofore regularly bought from the go- 

 vernment, under those stiiiulations, and bonds given 



for compliance, and then the negroes sold in Lou- 

 isiana. We rejoice that one of these systematic vio- 

 lators of obligation has at last been caught in the act, 

 and punished in part, in New Orleans, and we trust 

 that the penalty of his bonds will be fully exacted by 

 the governor of Virginia. Wm. H. Williams had 

 bought, as above, 24 slave convicts, which he carried 

 and sold in Louisiana. He has lost there the value of 

 the slaves, and a fine of ^500 for each, and his bonds 

 forfeited to this state will amount to $24,000 more — a 

 justly deserved lesson, which we hope will stop these 

 offences hereafter. 



The American squadron in the Mediterranean, un- 

 der Com. Hull, set sail homeward, in 12 hours after re- 

 ceiving, from England, the recent reports of expected 

 war between that country and the United States, and 

 in consequence of that report ; and the Brandywine 

 frigate, which had separated iiom the others, has ar- 

 rived alone at New York. This movement was, 

 at least, being on the alert. 



In Philadelphia efforts are making to push the claims 

 of Commodore Stewart to the presidency. If military 

 services alone, as seems likely, be hereaiter counted as 

 the best claims for the chief magistracy, then there is 

 some alleviation of the evil that the field of selection 

 shall be extended, by including the naval as well as 

 the land service. 



The National Intelligencer, which may be now con- 

 sidered as the organ of the administration, sums up as 

 follows the measures expected to occupy the delibe- 

 rations of the approaching extra session of congress : 



" 1. The distribution of the proceeds of the sales of 

 public lands among the several states. 



2. A revision and augmentation of the duties on im- 

 ports, for the purpose of securing from that source a 

 revenue adequate to the wants of the government. 



3. The repeal of the sub-treasury law. 



4. The establishment of a fiscal agent, central or 

 other, to aid the government in collecting and disburs- 

 ing the revenue and equalizing the currency. [In 

 plain English, a national bank.'] 



5. A temporary loan, if necessary, to supply the im- 

 mediate necessities of the Treasury." 



"./^ Model Republic. — Connecticut presents a repub- 

 lic which secures more good and avoids inore evil than 

 any other political community of ancient or modern 

 times. All the public statutes, after two hundred 

 years' legislation, are contained in a single volume ; 

 the annual expenses do not exceed .'(,^80,000 ; the state 

 owes nothing, possesses a school fund of more than 

 .^2,000.000 well invested, yielding an annual income 

 of $113,000, is without dislDursernents or superintend- 

 ence of public works, employs but few offices, and yet 

 enjoys the security of law and the administration of 

 justice as economically as any other state in the 

 union." — Nat. Int. 



The perpetrators of the recent horrible murders and 

 arson at St. Louis, have been discovered. They were 

 three free negroes, and a slave who was permitted to 

 go at large, as if free. The slave (Madison) told the 

 circumstances to another companion, (who has since, 

 and much too tardily, given the information,) before 

 the flames had burst out of the house. The murder- 

 ers had all gone off, in different steamers, before being 

 suspected ; but two of them have since been arrested, 

 and the others cannot long escape the hot pursuit. 

 Their sole object was jdunder, in which the villains 

 entirely failed — having been unable to enter the iron 

 chest, after being in complete possession of the house. 



A plan is in progress for establishing an American 

 line of steam-packets of the largest size, to sail be- 

 tween New York and England, and by arrangements 

 expected to be made between the proprietors and our 

 government, these vessels are to be converted to steam 

 frigates, whenever war occurs. The National Intelli- 

 gencer says, " that contracts for buildiug two of the 



