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KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



he gave fifteen hundred dollars in gold. The 

 forest trees of Oregon are remarkable for their 

 straightness, loftiness, and very gradual diminu- 

 tion in size. They are destitute of large branches, 

 and have comparatively little foliage. Two hun- 

 dred feet in length of saw-logs have been cut from 

 a tree, the smallest end being 16 inches in dia- 

 meter. Lewis and Clark " measured a fallen tree 

 of that species (fir), and found that, including the 

 stum}) of about six feet it was 318 feet in length, 

 though its diameter was only three feet." — 

 Philip T. 



[A gentleman in the Oregon Territory, writing 

 to the Philadelphia Horticulturist, says : — " One 

 of our citizens has received an order from London 

 o cut one of our tall trees into segments, and 

 ship it to that city, there to be erected to adorn } 

 the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. It will be 

 done. Those persons therefore who desire it, will 

 be able to examine an Oregon forest tree, with 

 its top pointing up among the clouds that envelope 

 the metropolis of England."] 



Increase of Post-Office Business. — The labors 

 of the Post Office now, and in 1829, are scarcely 

 comparable. In 1840 it was said, with an ex- 

 pression of wondering surprise, that 40,000 letters 

 left London daily — and the entire number passing 

 through the office amounted to 76,000,000 an- 

 nually. The next year, at the reduced rate, 

 they were more than doubled ; and every year 

 the increase has risen higher and higher. During 

 the last six years the average increase amounts 

 to no less than 260,000 letters and 14,000 news- 

 papers daily. It is estimated that the number 

 of letters which will pass through the General 

 Post-Office in the present vear, will be about 

 95,000,000— the newspapers nearly 2,000,000— 

 over and above the numbers which passed 

 through it in 1846, though the reduced postage 

 law had then been in operation for some years. 

 The Keport of the Post-office of the United States 

 for twelve months ending the 30th of June, 

 1852, shows that the number of letters that passed 

 through the American post-offices during the 

 year was under 96,000,000, or less than a quarter 

 of the number transmitted in this kingdom ; but 

 it is worthy of notice that 88,710,490 newspapers 

 and other packages of printed matter were 

 charged with postage during the year; and that, 

 in addition, 27,073,548 passed free. — Lector. 



Portraits of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. — 

 There are, Mr. Editor, some thirty portraits ex- 

 hibiting in one shop-window, purporting to be 

 " correct likenesses" of Mrs. Harriet Beecher 

 Stowe. Yet are they all different, and no two 

 alike ! Speaking on this subject, the Editor of 

 the Liverpool Mercury says : — " All the portraits 

 of Mrs. Stowe which are exhibited in the shop- 

 windows are little better than caricatures. In- 

 stead of the hard, frigid look which they bear, 

 her countenance wears a soft and gentle expression, 

 quite in accordance with her affable and pleasing 

 manners. "When in repose, her face is of a quiet, 

 observant, thoughtful character; but, in con- 

 versation, especially on the subject with which 

 her name is now, and will for ever be identified, 

 those soft blue eyes light up with brilliant anima- 

 tion, betokening the strong emotional feelings at 



work within. She is quite ready to converse, and 

 promptly responds, with a confidence that manifests 

 intelligence, and not dogmatism, to every inquiry, 

 and all objections. The terrible facts of American 

 slavery she has at her fingers' ends, and, with 

 facile readiness, she marshals them to the entire 

 destruction of the clever sophisms which the 

 apologists of slavery know so well how to weave; 

 and yet the feeling always in the ascendant, with 

 regard to the slave-holder, is that of pity and 

 commiseration. She holds the scales with an even 

 hand, and no indignation at the atrocities of 

 slavery leads her to forget that to have been born 

 amid slave institutions is a dire calamity to the 

 "owner" and the owned. The same simple, 

 genuine naturalness, that gave such power to her 

 book, belongs, in an eminent degree, to the cha- 

 racter of the author, and will confirm the golden 

 opinions which her pen has already won for her 

 wherever she goes. No amount of unexpected 

 fame will lead such a woman to look with a less 

 pure and single eye to the righteous object of her 

 Labors — the emancipation of 3,000,000 of human 

 beings now held as chattels in the southern states 

 of America. Knowing, Mr. Editor, in what high 

 honor you hold this inestimable lady, I send you 

 the above, as being worthy a place in our own 

 Journal. — Sarah N., Liverpool. 



[Thanks. The same thirty portraits, or copies 

 of them, are now disgracing our London shop- 

 windows. It is really too bad so to libel the 

 intelligent face of this angel of mercy. We have 

 elsewhere paid her our meed of praise, and lamented 

 that, amongst our own countrywunen, no such 

 Good Samaritan exists. "We repeat it, there are 

 scenes of slavery to be met with among our wh ite 

 population, quite as deplorable as those related of 

 America. Yet is there no fair champion to be 

 found to fight their battle, or plead their cause. 

 The moment, however, any foreign grievance is 

 announced, all our ladies (we believe 660,000 of 

 them signed the " Monster Petition") are up " in 

 arms, and eager for the fray." This is sad, — a 

 national evil, and a national disgrace. Let it be 

 speedily amended !] 



Cruelty to Animals. — Cruelty to dumb animals 

 is one of the distinguishing vices of the lowest 

 and basest of the people. "Wherever it is found, it 

 is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; an 

 intrinsic mark, which all the external advantages 

 of wealth, splendor, and nobility cannot obliterate. 

 It will consist neither with true learning nor true 

 civility ; and religion disclaims and detests it as 

 an insult upon the majesty and the goodness of 

 God, who, having made the instincts of brute 

 beasts minister to the improvement of the mind, 

 as well as to the convenience of the body, hath 

 furnished us with a motive to mercy and compas- 

 sion towards them very strong and powerful, but 

 too refined to have any influence on the illiterate 

 or irreligious. — Jones, cf Nayland. 



The Eoad and the Rail. — Mr. Robert Weale, 

 Inspector of Poor Laws, has published a state- 

 ment showing the cost of railway travelling as 

 compared with travelling by private conveyance, 

 coach, etc., from which it appears that from 

 August, 1835, to Dec, 1852, he travelled over 

 88,298 miles by the latter mode, at a cost of 



