MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YOR KER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND EMILY NEWSPAPER 
Congressional Proceedings. 
Feb. 27.— Senate —Mr. Cooper followed Air. 
to the Nebraska bill, and Air. 
The Way of the Transgressor. 
Du. George A. Gardiner, lately tried, con¬ 
victed, and sentenced at Washington to 10 year. ’ 
imprisonment for perjury, committed suicide 
March 3d, the day of his conviction. 
The history of the case is briefly as follows : 
an appropriation was made by Congress to pay 
off claims of American citizens for indemnity 
against losses sustained by them in consequence 
of the war with Mexico. A Commission was 
appointed to hear and adjust these claims, and 
this Dr. Gardiner, by means of forged papers 
and affidavits, obtained some $400,000 as an in¬ 
demnity for the alleged loss of a valuable silver 
mine owned by him, near San Louis Potosi.— 
Subsequent developments proved the whole 
claim to be a fraud, trumped up for the occasion, 
sustained by a tissue of tbe blackest perjury and 
skillfully prosecuted before the Commission, by 
distinguished Counsel, who, if tliey did not 
themselves know the depth of the villany, at 
least made a successful use of the instruments, 
pocketed enormous foes out of the ill gotten spoils, 
and ref used afterwards to disgorge l 
Over three years ago, the doctor was indicted, 
and has had two trials, the jury disagreeing the 
first time. The second jury, however, found a 
verdict of guilty, and to save himself from the 
ignominious punishment which was impending 
over him, the guilty man betook himself unbid¬ 
den into the presence of a higher and a more 
awful tribunal. He died in great agony on the. 
day of his conviction, it is believed by means of 
-Sir David Brewster is engaged upon a 
new Life of Sir Isaac Newton. 
-Cholera has made its appearance at Ba- 
lize, Honduras. 
-Two thousand colliers along the Monon- 
gahela river have struck for higher wages. 
-It takes 300,000 gold leaves to make an 
inch in thickness; ayd 170,000silver. 
-— Mdlle. Wagner has been appointed royal 
« chamber singer” to the King of Prussia. 
-The original manuscript of Byron’s 
“ Curse of Minerva,” sold recently in London for 
$107. 
_Austria has an army of 450,000 men, at 
least 250,000 of which number were pressed in¬ 
to service. 
-Among the literary novelties of the day 
is a plan for publishing a new monthly maga¬ 
zine, printed in embossed type, for the blind. 
-The territory of Nebraska contains 136,- 
700 square miles, and would make seventeen 
States as large as Massachusetts. 
—:— The steamers Samuel Dali and Ambas¬ 
sador, were burnt in Mobile Bay Feb. 26. Loss 
about $70,000. 
-The Supreme Court of Massachusetts 
has decided that the Maine Law of that State is 
constitutional, seizure clause and all. 
-The America carried off the pilot who 
took her out of Boston, not being able to put 
him oft' owing to the heavy sea. 
-The actual official vote on the Canal 
amendment, was 246,410 ; for it, 185,802 ; against 
it, 60,556. So says the Albany Journal. 
-A billbas been reported in the Kentucky 
legislature appropriating $20,000 to the Clay 
Monument. 
-The Alabama House has passed tbe bill 
loaning to tbe Mobile and Ohio Railroad $400,- 
000 at 6 per cent. 
-The time by railroad, from Pittsburgb 
to Philadelphia, is only fifteen hours, since the 
completion of the tunnel. 
-The Washington Globe says it employs 
a staff of sixteen short-band writers in reporting 
the Congressional proceedings. 
-The Argus says, there has been an un¬ 
usual amount of sickness among the members 
of tbe Legislature this session. 
_Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe is soon to 
be out in a new work entitled “ Sunny Memoirs 
in Foreign Lands.” 
-The proprietors of newspapers at Pitts¬ 
burgh, are about holding a meeting to combine 
agamst the use of the telegraph wires. 
-A man fell into a well in Toronto and 
remained there all night, and was taken out 
alive next morning. 
-There are twenty vacant Congregational 
pulpits in Massachusetts now, and a still larger 
number in the adjacent Eastern States. 
-A bill is before the Ohio Legislature com¬ 
pelling insurance companies of other States ta¬ 
king risks in Ohio to place with the State au- 
| thorities a guarantee to protect the insured. 
-Rev. Sebastian Streeter, of Boston, uni- 
! ted three hundred and seventy-eight persons in 
the blissful bonds of matrimony in tbe year 
1853. 
-Charles Fenno Hoffman, of Baltimore, a 
fine writer both in prose and poetry, is a con¬ 
firmed maniac in the Hospital at Harrisburgh, 
Penn. 
-The Brantford Herald complains of un¬ 
fairness in the U. S. journals in condemning 
Canadian hotels, railroads, eating-houses, wo¬ 
men and waiters. 
-A Yankee traveler in Egypt, writes that 
the Americans arc very often in those distant 
regions classed with Englishmen, doubtless from 
Lately, when a long freight train over 
the Northern Road reached Lowell, it was dis¬ 
covered that one of the cars was minus wheels. 
It was subsequently ascertained that the acci¬ 
dent occurred at North Chelmsford, where two 
lengths of rails (thirty-six feet) were detached 
from their connection. Twenty-four cars passed 
over this break in safety, and without attracting 
the notice of any one on the train. The car 
without wheels hung safely by the couplings. 
IW During the late snow storm at Quebec, 
several avalanches occurred. One buried two 
youths, who were engaged under the mountain 
in sawing wood. After a lapse of twenty min¬ 
utes they were dug out alive. On the same day, 
not far from the same spot, a man was covered 
to the depth of several feet, and lay beneath the 
snow for three hours. When rescued he was in 
a very exhausted condition. 
jgg” The great-grandson of Defoe is living in 
poverty at the age of 77. He is the Defoe of 
Hungerford market, mentioned by Wilson in 
his life of the author of Robinson Crusoe.— 
Some literary men of London have been ma¬ 
king up a sum of money for his benefit. Clias. 
Dickens has been among the most liberal of 
these. 
5^” Some curious relics of Roman luxury 
have been discovered under the foundations of 
the old excise office, in Broad street, London.— 
A piece of tesselated pavement, of considerable 
beauty, has been found. The pattern is a bold 
representation of leaves and flowers, in their 
natural colors, executed in the usual way. 
A company of five negroes, the property 
of James Merton, of Gallatin Co., Ky., succeed¬ 
ed in making their escape on the night of the 
Cass in opposition 
Brodhead took the floor in support of the meas¬ 
ure. 
House. —Mr. Babcock moved a suspension of 
the rules for the purpose of taking up the Sen¬ 
ate bill, authorizing the construction of six steam 
frigates for the navy, which was disagreed to.— 
The Secretary of the Navy was requested to 
communicate to the House, whether in his opin- j 
ion, the steamships employed in the Ocean mail 
service of the United States, are of proper con¬ 
struction to be converted into vessels of war. 
Feb. 28.— Senate —Many petitions were pre¬ 
sented against the repeal of the Missouri Com¬ 
promise. 
The bill granting lands to all tbe States for 
the benefit of. indigent insane, was taken up and 
amended, so as to give each State 100,000 acres, 
leaving the other 6,900,000 acres to be appor¬ 
tioned among them according to population and 
number of square miles. Bill ordered to be en¬ 
grossed. 
House. — Committee on elections reported 
auainst the petition from New Y'ork, contesting 
Mike Walsh’s right to a seat, 
A sharp debate of some length occurred on 
referring to committee of the whole, the bill 
granting to Wisconsin lands for railroad pur¬ 
poses. Before concluding, the morning hours 
expired, when the House went into committee 
on the Homestead bill. Air. Dean proposed an 
amendment, that the lands shall be chosen in 
the Territories and not in the States, which was 
rejected. 
Alarch 1.— Senate —Remonstrances were pre¬ 
sented from many Senators against the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, and the discussion 
on the bill was continued. 
House. —The House resumed the considera¬ 
tion of the motion to refer to the committee of 
the whole, the Senate bill granting land to Wis¬ 
consin for railroad purposes. The House refused 
to lay the bill on the table, after a sharp debate, 
by a vote of 101 to 78. 
Without further action on it, the House pro¬ 
ceeded to the election of printer. Nicholson, 
122; Gales, 48, and 33 scattering. Adj. 
. Alarch 2.— Senate —Mr. Clayton defined his 
position upon the Nebraska bill, and said he 
would vote for it He had not concluded his 
speech at the adjournment. 
House. —A bill was introduced granting the 
right of way for three railroads across the pub¬ 
lic lands from commercial points in California 
and Oregon. Ref. to Com. on Railroads. 
Air. Settlers asked leave to introduce a resolu¬ 
tion requesting the President to open negotia¬ 
tions with Peru, either for the purchase of one 
of the Chincha Islands, or for abolition of the 
Peruvian monopoly. Not granted. 
House then went into committee on the Home¬ 
stead Bill. An amendment to the bill, proposing 
to charge 25 cents per acre, instead ot donating 
the lands, was rejected. An amendment pro¬ 
viding that the bill shall not go into effect until 
one year after its passage, in order, as the mover 
said, to prevent the people of the West from 
stepping in at once, and selecting the best land, 
was also rejected. Before the disposing of the 
bill, committee arose, and the House adjourned 
till Monday. 
March 4.— Senate —The debate on the Ne¬ 
braska bill was continued till 5 o’clock this 
morning, and was participated in by Messrs. 
Cass, Bell, Dawson, Norris, Sumner, Wade, 
Toucey, Fessenden, Houston, Weller, and Doug¬ 
las. At a few minutes past 5 the vote was ta¬ 
ken and the bill passed by yeas 37, nays 14 ; 
after which the Senate adjourned to Monday. 
ROCHESTER, AIARCH 11, 1854. 
Those Premiums. —We have been unable, up 
to the present time, to go over our books care¬ 
fully and ascertain the respective positions of 
the competitors for our Premiums. Exlraordi- 
naries excepted, Ave shall do this during the en¬ 
suing week, and announce in our next, number 
the successful competitors for the January Pre¬ 
miums—and also give the respective positions of 
those competing for the April Premiums. As 
before stated, most of our agents and friends 
have preferred the Specific Premiums, Raving 
but few competitors for the Large Prizes. Our 
friends will please remember that both classes 
are open until the 15tli of April ensuing, giving 
abundant time for effort Read tbe following 
notice,—and see Premium List on next page. 
Agents and Friends will please remember that we aTe 
publishing a large extra edition, and can therefore furnish 
back numbers of this volume to all new subscribers. Those 
disposed, and we hope they number hundreds and thou¬ 
sands, can yet form new clubs or make additions (singly, 
or in fives, tens, twenties, or upwards,) to those already 
started. We are prepared, this year, for the “long pull, 
strong pull, and pull all together,” which the friends of the 
Rural are giving, and shall honor all orders for the com¬ 
plete volume until our edition is exhausted. But as we 
are receiving hundreds of new subscribers daily, those who 
wish back numbers should not delay. We send from the 
beginning of the volume, unless otherwise directed. 
Foreign News, 
We have foreign advices by two steamers 
witbin the week, and another steamer is now 
due with still later dates, the news of the Nash¬ 
ville being dated Feb. 15th. Rumors are afloat 
as heretofore of efforts being made to continue 
negotiations, but the extraordinary war prepa¬ 
rations which are going forward at all the naval 
stations, both of England and France, belie the 
statements which are made in favor of peace. 
Unless the Czar recedes from his position, a 
supposition quite unlikely, the war must go on. 
Active and offensive operations will be com¬ 
menced by tbe allies, both in the Black and the 
Baltic Seas, and the Autocrat may expect ere 
long to have a battery of Paixhan guns bom¬ 
barding the walls of his capital. It will be a 
new era in European politics when %e belliger¬ 
ents of Aboukir and Trafalgar range their fleets 
in one and the same line of battle against a com¬ 
mon enemy, instead of against each other as has 
been the case in nearly every former period of 
the world’s war history. 
The English papers say the Baltic fleet of 36 
ships, chiefly of the line, and powerful steam 
frigates, was to assemble in the Downs on the 
6th, where it would be joined by tbe 10 French 
vessels, chiefly of 80 to 100 ;guns each.. The 
whole fleet, which was to be under the direc¬ 
tion of Sir Charles Napier, is intended for op¬ 
eration against St. Petersburgh. The steamer 
Hecla had already left for the Baltic to make 
surveys for soundings. 
p. S.—Since the above was written and in 
type, the telegraph announces the arrival of the 
Cunard Steamer Alps, from Liverpool, Feb. 18, 
with later foreign dates, but nothing specific as 
regards the Eastern question. Breadstuffs, ac¬ 
cording to Liverpool advices, haA r e declined.— 
The Collins steamer Atlantic, which was to sail 
from the same port on the 22d, is now due at 
New York. 
creasing, and the same may be said of all the 
western ports. 
The Trustees of the village of Lockport 
have commenced a suit against the New York 
Central Railroad Company for the non-com¬ 
pliance of the Company Avith certain Ordinan¬ 
ces passed by the Board, in regard to obstruc¬ 
tions which have been placed by the former in 
the streets of that village. 
The Empress Eugenie having been pre¬ 
scribed exercise, she had a pair of skates made, 
fitted with Avheels, and on these she skims the 
polished floors of the salons of the Tuileries.— 
If the Empress would busy herself about house¬ 
hold duties a little, it would be quite as effectu¬ 
al, and a much more valuable exercise. 
A large bear, weighing about 200 pounds, 
was caught in a trap, in a barn in Stanford, Vt., 
not long since. Whether his object Avas mutton, 
or whether the extreme cold drove him to seek 
a comfortable lodging in the hay-mow has not 
been ascertained. 
Alexander Smith, whose worldly cir¬ 
cumstances Avere poor enough, has been elected 
to the office of Secretary of the University of 
Edinburgh. We learn from his American pub¬ 
lishers that over 20,000 copies of his poems have 
been sold in this country. 
The Roman Catholics of Boston contem¬ 
plate the erection of a cathedral in the south 
part of that city, Avhich shall out-do in dimen¬ 
sions, costliness and splendor all that this coun¬ 
try has ever seen in the Avay of architectural 
splendor. 
The American Army is the most expen- 
si ah; in the world, and it would beggar the most 
Avealthy nation in the world to keep up an army 
such as France has often done, and pay them as 
United States soldiers and officers are paid. 
Mat. F. and Robert Ward, charged with 
killing Mr. Butler, the school teacher, of Louis¬ 
ville for punishing their brother, have been re- 
’ , « 1 -r *11„ .4... 
Paid Doavn.—Rowland A. Smith, local bag¬ 
gage master at Ncav Haven, on the N ew Haven, 
Hartford and Springfield railroad, has been de¬ 
tected in tbe perpetration of a stupendous sys¬ 
tem of mail robberies. Mr. Holbrook, special 
agent for tbe department, traced the robberies 
to him, through means of decoy packages placed 
in the mails ; and secretly watching the rascal, 
he caught him in the act of opening the mail 
bags and abstracting letters therefrom. 
Smith was soon after arrested, and, on search¬ 
ing his private desk and trunk in the baggage 
room, a large number of post-bills, envelopes, 
letters, drafts, checks, and notes, to tbe amount 
of some $30,000, were found. Also, upon his 
person were found about $800 in bank notes, 
embracing the money contained in several of 
tbe decoy packages. The arrest was made on 
Friday the 24th ult., and one week from that 
day, viz. Friday, March 3d, the felon was ar¬ 
raigned in the United States Court, plead guilty, 
and was sentenced by Judge Ingersoi.l to bard 
labor in the State Prison, for a term of 27 years. 
Shocking Casualty. —About 2 o’clock on the 
afternoon of the 2d inst., a new tubular boiler 
driving a fifty-horse power engine in the exten¬ 
sive car factory at Hartford, Conn., exploded 
with terrible effect, shattering the building from 
floor to roof, killing seventeen men, and injuring 
many others, several of them mortally. 
About 300 persons were employed in this fac¬ 
tory, and about 100 were at work in tbe section 
of the building adjoining the boiler-room. The 
engineer was filling his boiler with water, Avhen 
the accident occurred, and probably tbe cause of 
tlie catastrophe was, as is too frequently the case, 
that the water had become too low, the boiler 
over-heated, and when the cold water was in¬ 
jected, the generation of the gaseous vapor was 
too rapid to escape through the safety-valve.— 
Its expansive force was consequently so great 
as to rend asunder the strong plates of the boil¬ 
er, producing the most lamentable results. 
The Nebraska BilL 
The question on tbe Nebraska bill, after a 
most exciting debate which lasted all night on 
Friday, the 3d inst,, was finally taken on Satur¬ 
day morning at 5 o’clock, and the bill passed 
tbe Senate by a vote of 37 to 14, as follows : 
Yeas— Messrs. Adams, Atchison, Badger, Ba¬ 
yard, Benjamin, Broadhead, Brown, Butler, Cass, 
Clay, Dawson, Dixon, Dodge, of Iowa, Douglas, 
Evans, Fitzpatrick, Geyer, Gwin, Hunter, John¬ 
son, Jones, of IoAva, Jones, of Tenn., Mason. Mor¬ 
ton, Norris,Pettit, Pratt, Rusk, Sebastian, Shields, 
Slidell, Stuart, Thompson, of Ky., Thompson, of 
N. J., Toucey, Weller, and Williams. 
Nays—Messrs. Bell, Chase, Dodge, of Wis., 
Fessenden, Fish, Foote, Houston, James, 
Seward, Smith, Sumner, Wade, and Walker. 
Senators Bell, of Tennessee, and Houston, of 
Texas, voted against the bill, and they are tbe 
only two from slave States whose votes are re¬ 
corded on that side of the question; while on 
the slavery side there is ranged a phalanx of 
fourteen Senators from the Free States !— 
Their names are printed in italics in the list of 
ayes, as recorded above. 
* Messrs. Bright, Toombs and Malory are sick, 
but would have A'oted for tbe bill. Mr. Allen, 
absent from sickness in his family, would have 
voted against it. 
Messrs. Phelps, Pierce, Cooper, Everett, 
Clayton, and Wright either dodged the bill or 
paired off, and did not vote. So the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, so far as the action of 
The Legislature. 
Charter Election. —As this number is clos¬ 
ing for the press (Tuesday, r. m.,) the Election 
of City Officers is proceeding—with the usual 
street accompaniments of music, clatter of Avheels 
and tongues, and sundry other elements of 
“noise and confusion.” There are three tickets 
in the field—one Whig, and two Democratic— 
Hard and Soft. Dr. Maltby Strong, Whig— 
W. F. Holmes, Hard — and Ej.eazer Conkey, 
Soft, are the candidates for Mayor. Dr. S. Avill 
probably succeed,— while the “City Fathers” 
will generally acknowledge Whig paternity. 
The Christian Times is an ably conducted 
and handsome weekly, published at Chicago, 
111, by Rev. Messrs. J. A. Smith and Le Roy 
Church, at $2 a year. The Times is worthy 
the attention and support of our readers in the 
West, and especially of members of the Baptist 
denomination, whose interests it advocates. Mr. 
Smith was for some years, and until recently, 
the able and highly esteemed pastor of the First 
Baptist Church in this city, and bears to his new 
field and profession tbe best wishes of hosts of 
friends, of all denominations. 
Spirit-ual Advertisement. —The Roman Cath¬ 
olic paper and organ ot Bishop Hughes, in the 
city of New Y'ork, contains the following, in¬ 
cluding also the name and place of business of 
the advertiser, both of which we omit, not being 
anxious to aid in circulating the advertisement: 
“-, Importer and Dealer in fine old AVmes and 
Brandies, Dublin Porter, Scotch Ale, and Segars.” 
Such advertisements are not out of place in 
secular newspapers, but in champion sheets of 
the different religious denominations, they are, 
to say the least, quite a novelty. 
Fire in New York. —On the morning of 
March 5th, a tremendous fire broke out at No. 
8 Spruce st., which spread with great rapidity, 
and speedily involved the adjoining houses, in 
one mass of ruins. The loss was over $300,000. 
