University of South Carolina Libraries
OREGON TERRITORY. Ftoni the Natioi^i IuielUgencer. analysis $, gknats proceedings. Monday, January 9,13i2. After a variety of slighter matters, the detail of which will be found in another column, the Sonde returned to the bill providing for the occupation of the Oregon Territory; u{>on which a debate of some interest and importance ensued, opened by the Senator who had desired the delay of the bill that lie might have time to examine its provisions. Mr. Calhoun was glad (he said) to learn from he Senator reporting it that the bill was not designed to contravene our conventions with . Great Britain. He had now taken time carefully to compare it with our subsisting engagements to that power; and the result of his scrutiny was, that there was one provision in it which woulJ completely violate those engagements. The Senator proceeded to give, with his usual power of analysis, a summary of the allcdgcd rights of both parties to the territory, and of the manner in which those rights are claimed to have arisen. Our claim embraces the coast of the Pacific from latitude 51 dg. 40 min. to 10 dg.; and has three several grounds: 1st. That of the priority of discovery by Captain Gray, of Boston, in 1788, of the mouth of the Columbia, t rorn this, according to the universal rule among civilized nations, follows the right to the country watered by such river to its sources. This discovery was afterwards more completely explored by the exj>cdition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clarke. 2d. The cession by Spain of all her rights of territory north of the 42d parallel of latitude. 3d. The Trench claim, to which we succeeded. I On the other hand, Britain sets up her title to i the same territory on the following grounds : 1st. That they can plead priority of discovery by ."Vicars, sailing under Vancouver. 2d. That, by the convention of Njotka Sound i in 1793, Spain yielded to Great Britain free and open access, trade and settlement to British sub. jeets, in common with her own, upon this coast. 3d. They claim also the French rights, ceded to Spain in 1863 by treaty between those two nations. These were respectively the grounds, of claim. Now, as to the nature of the claims themselves, there was a difference. Great Britain alleged only a right of equal admittance of her citizens for all purposes of settlement, trade, or hunting; while we asserted a title to complete and exclusive possession. Since this conflict of titles began, various efforts by negotiation have been made amicably to adjust our rights. They terminated, on our part, in an offer of fixing, as a compromise, the parallel of 49 dg. as the limit between us ou that coast ; and they on their part, offered to claim nothing south of the mouth of the Columbia, which is in about latitude 46 dg. This last attempt failing, both sides withdrew the propositions which they had made, and left their rights as before. In 1817, by a fresh negociation, it was settled that our respective claims should for ten years remain on the ground on which the treaty of Nootka Sound placed Britain and Spain with regard to the same territory ; that is, common enjoyment of it for purposes of trade and hunting, or settlement for those purposes. In 1827 a fresh attempt, conducted by Mr. Gallatin, was made to adjust this conflict of claims. It was again ineffectual, and the parties returned, as a temporary arrangement, to the convention of 1817, yielding each other possession in common, with liberty to renounce the arrangeincnton either part upon a year's notice. It thus appears that Great Britain makes no claim to the right of colonizing, and that we, by the convention, have prohibited ourselves from taking exclusive possession or jurisdiction. Such being either the original rights of the partics, or the footing upon which, bjtrcaty, they had consented to have tlicm stand, the Senator must (he said) hold that this bill violates the treaty of 1827, by conferring upon our citizens fixed possession in grants of Jand. Wc do not, il is true, at once confer it, but wc bind ourselves to do so. Butting them in possession with this pledge on our part, wc in reality t.ikc fixed possession ourselves. It is a grant forming a complete reality as to our assuming po6soos;on. The grant of lands is the highest and completes! act of possession which a sovereign can perform. But since the claim which wc set up extends nothward to latitude 54 dg., and since, by this act, we limit the settlers whom wc invite only by our own alleged territory, it follows that you, by this bill, take possession up to the extreme northern extent of your supposed claim: so that you exelude Great Britain, by this act, from the whole territory in debate with that Government. To this full extent, the bill is a complete taking of i possession. Now if, on the other hand, you scrutinize the 1 British acts, you will find that they have nothing i ?f equal extent or force. Their act of Parliament as not to take possession of the country, or grant ] its soil, but te extend to British subjects there the i jurisdiction of their laws. 1 Mr. Calhoun, therefore, went on to contend that we should violate the subsisting convention, I if, without giving Uie year's notice, to which it I binds us, we should put in force an act like this. I He went on to insist upon the formidable issue to 1 which such a course must bring us with a nation eve- t ry where dangerous to encounter, and more than a c match for us on this distant coast, accessible to i our arms only by a land-march across the conti- t ncnt, while she pan command it, not only from I t those Asiatic possessions where she has of late f been so successful, but with her bodies of Canadi- 1 an voyagerp, themselves hardy and dangerous, but 1 an nnhnnndfid influence over all the In- c Him races of the northwest. With these to cut j e hFour communications in tlse rear, the difficulties : t of any hostile effort overland would be to the last c decree formidable. f He would, then pursue a juster and surer policy: t not .rush into a contest of which the event could v scarcely *? auspicious; but leave to time and the !i rapid march ot cur settlements the peaceful hut j n,,f/.rp?mpnl r.r our rights. Leave the thin^ ti V/tl iUIti VlMV?vv?v..v 0 o to its own natural season, and, by-and.by, you h iniy as easily as one plucks a ripe pcacli gather v what now it would be hardly pp:sible to tear o away. I?ct us (said the Senator) recall a little v the vast and rapid sweep of that population which s< we carry on, and you will see whether there is any ! ji extravagance in that on which I insist. Remem ! b her that eighteen years ago Mr. Monroe rccom. J tl mended to colon'ae the Indian tribes between the j Ohio and Ml&hssipri. where i i of Wisconsin, fc-jtilc, cultivated, and populous tli enough speedily to add another State to the pr Union. I al lie could not. from such a step as this, but ap-! ot prehend a breach with Great Britain. We should, ' cc at least, weigh the matter, in an us lorms, wiui si the utmost deliberation. lie thought it should be (i referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. K As to every thing else but the provision in ques- d< tion, he looked 011 the bill m?-st favorably; and 1 tl: spoke with a complete resolution to maintain all ; c< our rights over the territory, which could be exer- m cised in conformity with the treaty. n< Mr. Linn said that the .Senator had, with great tl force and truth, compared the mighty flow of i fr population westward to the rolling in of a great ! pi and wide stream. But he should remember that | pi the policy of the Government itself has of late, in | rc the disposition made of many of the greater Indian ci tribes, raised up artificial barriers, which have at present stopped that natural spread of population, it On the South and the Southwest it has reached h our limits. This outlet of the West must be open- w ed, or it will break across the bounds within which 1 h we have pledged ourselves that the expatriated ci Indian tribes shall dwell securely. The Oregon a region must be opened to the adventurous and si migratory spirit of our people, or the collected o flood must scon burst orer, and sweep away the h Indian, to whom we have pledged ourselves an p undisturbed refuge in the home to which we have, by so humane a policy, transplanted him. p Tire Senator regards this bill as going new and ii dangerous lengths. Yet the bills introduced with g the same object, long since, under Mr. Monroe and H Mr. Adams, by Gen. Floyd, were far stronger.? tl They provided for the erecting forts and custom, a houses. As for that formidable and perpetual im- v pediment, the treaty, it existed then just as much ii as now. s Adverting then to the English claims, as foun- t< ded on alleged discovery, Mr. Linn treated the ii pretended visit of Mears and others to the mouth o of the Columbia as altogether preposterous. The j narrative itself, which describes a region bound up f< in ribs of ice in the month of June, makes it im. a possible for any one now to believe that Mcars's t visit was to the Columbia?a coast never witness, ing such regions of cold, even in mid.wintcr, and o enjoying a soft temperature even in the curlier r spring. ti But, in truth, this whole British claim is recent. It was never heard ofc as against the discovery of v Capt. Gray or the explorations of Lewis and g Clarke. As late as lbl2, the question of our dis. v covery was minutely examined in one of the I leading British authorities on such questions, the t Edinbu-gh Review, and our claim admitted as in- ii controvct title. As to what England may urge of the Nootka d Sound treaty with Spain, it is snlficient to say that b any such claim must have fallen with that treaty o itsclr, temjwrary in its character, and speedily h dissolved by the war which cccurrcd between the ti two countries soon alter, uur rigiu ne piacco on e the strong and certain ground of discovery. s The Senator from South Carolina had urged g that we should, first of all, give the twelve months' a notice of our renunciation of the treaty. lie could only answer that he himself had repeatedly urged s that course in former years, but always in vain.? | ?: He had ever been met with the answer: " This is I & not the proper time?wait." Meanwhile the ad- n verse English possession was going on, fortifying, ic from year to year, the British claim and the Brit- ti ish resources to make it good. Two successive s< Presidents had encouraged the bold and well-ar- a; ranged si heme of Astor to fortify and to colonize, m But we suffered him to be dispossessed, and the 1? nuclous of empire, which his establishments si would have formed, to pass into the hands cj of the Hudson Bay Company, now the great in- w strumcnt of all the British scheme of possession. ry The Senator insists that, by the treaty, there fl< should be a joint possession. Be it so, if he will: fo but where is our part of this joint possession ? In bi what docs it consist or has it consisted ? Wc have fr< no post there, no agent, nobody to protect traders j p* ?nay, in truth, no traders: for they are butchered i tc as soon as they appear there, cither by the British Si agents, or those savages whom they can always make the instruments of such systematic massacre \v ' "* ?(\C tKn C 4UnL<A n f 01 auvitiiuruus uvuid. vi taiuu wi mtov vi murders, cr of the regularity with which they were cc employed, the Senator had probably but little notion. He could assure him that, before the year sa 1859, there had perished in this war, as was well ! in ascertained, full five hundred men, and the yearly j fo slaughter has gone on ever since. i til But what has ever been the history of your su peopling of these distant regions, always to be dis. th putcd with something which this Government G shrinks from encountering? You have never hi failed to turn your back upon every such hardy bl enterprise. The very navigation of the Mississip. pi, for forty years, would have been yielded to fo Great Britain but that it required the assent of in nine States to bring it into the validity of a treaty, j hi Six Eastern States were ready to abandon it for J th an interest the most wretchedly disproportionate. Jt If that mighty access to a new and greater em. j foi pirc of the West has been preserved to you. it is ! be in spite of your supinencss, in spite of your timid:- ' eh ty, in spite of your impolicy. ' ly As for me (said Mr. L.) I desire in this irresUti. ; pa blc advance of our population, destined to carry to I ry the very verge tf the continent the benefi's of our ! po "rec laws, to march with every public right in the vi< cad, while we carry to those regions of barbarism an .he Bible and the plough-share. And I would tin :vcn in these great purposes, halt rather than to it, nolate our national faith solemnly pledged in a tin rcaty. But I tell the Senator that we cannot to bus ritridlv adhere to what our rival so little re- j jn< jurds. That Senator docs not know, or has over, ni; ooked, tiie progress which British possession has >ccn for twenty years making against us, under bri rover of the Hudson Bay Company, the irrespon- by fibie instrument of British power in tliat quarter, tcr >y means of which wc and this treaty arc steadily le^ :ircumvented. There, as in the East, Britain sU: rcparcsher way to unchecked dominion through Nc lie stealthy advance of tluse trading companies, Sp I'hich scatter the seeds that are to spring up into a tia larvest of power for her. # in Finally, he insisted that the bill docs not attempt t a dispossess Great Britain of any thing she now "c olds. It does not define our territory. That Sp re have some there is certain. Can she object to at ur settling south of the Columbia on a territory to p0i ihich, with all her facility of c laiming, she has }1U rt Ui> no title ? She herself has extended her | bin jrisdiction oyer Oregon, built forts, set up csta- ] lishmcn's, settled farms. YS'liy cannot we do dis lie same ? |>oi Mr. Choalc rose next. Ife sol out with express- co, lg his regret at finding himself eompeiltd, like ic Senator from South Carolina, to oppose the ovision in the bill for fixed grants of land. In I other particulars, he was was warmly in favor the bill. He went on to cite the words of our invention with Great Britain in 1818, which ipulatcd that " any country west of the Stony locky) Mountains shall be free to both nations." either Government was, as a Government, to ) any thing to divest the citizens of the other of te enjoyment of the common freedom of that )untry. Certainly if wandering subjects of either lade, at their own risk, establishments there, either was called on to interfere. But we, by lis bill, do an act to hinder some part of this tract om being any longer open, except to our own roplc. We take and are to maintain exclusive ossession, guarantying to settlers, after five years' sidcncc, a fee simple of the lands they may ocupy. Mr. C. here entered into a minute view of one itf rpretation of the treaty, which might at first ave seemed possible?that either Government 'us to be at liberty to invite colonization. As, owever, no such view was advanced on the othr side as warranting our measures of occupation, nd as Mr. C. certainly showed how little any jch purpose could have entered into the treaty, r was practicable in itself, we need not follow is very skilful and elaborate argument on that oint. He went on to urge that there had been no apropriation of territory unt'l 1832, tbe country beig freely used, on both parts only as a huntinground ; that the language of our own envoys, dessre. Gallatin and Rush, made it clear that hey regarded all occupation of the country for ny purpose more fixed, as prohibited by the conention; that England has been equally guarded i the sort of possession which 6hc allowed her ubjecls to derive from her, limiting her licenses j them, always to the right of hunting, and guardlg even in such licenses against all exclusion of ur citizens. The Senator from South Carolina was thereare right; our legislation (if we pass such a bill s this) will not compare, injustice and faith, with, hat of Great Britain. Let us then build forts; that is permitted by ur engagements; and as England sends her juisdiction thither to her citizens, let us send ours o our own. Mr. Lina answered briefly that the gentleman i?as but reviving against land-granta, the \ery arutnents used in 1821 against vshut he was now rilling to admit, the erection of lorts. But the Intish Government, as a Government, has never milt a fort there. Will it not object to our doing .7 Mr. L. then gave vent to something of that inignation with which lie often speaks of the overearing and grasping spirit of England, and the mnipotcnce and ubiquity of that little island. For is part, he did not intend to submit our rights cnircly to the view which she might, in her policy, akc of them. He did not intend to stop b conidcr " what Mrs. Grundy thinks." He would o as far as Great Britain herself went, anl then little farther. At this moment she is doing, through her Iludan Bay Company, all that you wish not to do. ;hc is there employing the same policy and the amc mechanism, of a great trading company, by leans of which she made her way to the dornin>n of all India. She has already, practically iken possession of all she ever c.aimed of u.?, iiithward to the mouth of the Columbia. Her gents here have directly avowed that she could at give up the establishments which she has aimed iier people to form there. Her later mcaires, however, arc still more decisive of her polij. A branch of her Hudson Bay Company lias, itliin a few years, been established in the tcrrito for farming purposc*-a settlement already so jurishing as to have entered into large contracts r supplying the Russian possessions with lumber, itter, and such produce. Here is her fixed point, am which she is to work the lever of her looser >pulation, spreading itself out over your whole rritory, and reaching to the very borders of your latcs themselves. Mr. McRobcrts considered the provision to liicli the Senators objected as a capital feature ' the bill. Citizens could not be carried to the , ?untr' without the inducements there held out. But the Senators from South Carolina and Mas- , chusctts have considered Great Britain as ofler- , g us, in her conduct, an example of scrupulous , rbearancc to do any thing in contravention of. | c subsisting treaty. Now, let the Senators con- | lit the correspondence of .Mr. Huskisson, and j ey will there find that he plainly says that real Britain bae authorised the settlements which j ive l?ccn made, the posts which have been csta- . ished, and that both will be protected. The Senator proceeded to argue, with much rcc, that since the formation of the convention which this territory was looked on as a common inting-ground, an entirely different state of ings had, by our long supincness, come about.? was a hunting-ground no longer. The game ( rmerly pursued there for the sake of its furs has" t en, bv degrees, almost exterminated; and its x a*> no longer warrants the settleme nts originalmade for that purpose. Another mode of occunrr, with Other cbjecfc, and looking to station^ employments, has graduni-y eome about. T.:'j. , sscss'.on now maintained by the English is ob- t iusly of a fixed character, because its purpose*^ , ; no longer hunting and fishing, as of old, when , 3 convention was made. If they now occupy \ it cannot be for the purposes of the chase, for t i plain reason that the chase there lias ceased ^ be valuable. Vet their settlements arc grow t, just in proportion as the chase of the furani- 1 jls declines. The Senator from South Carolina has given a i of view of the several modes of claim alleged ( ourselves and Great Britain in regard to this j ritory. But let him look, not to the vague al- f ations of right, but to such claims as can be >tained in the mutual scrutiny of a negotiation, j >w, as to the rights which Britain derives from / ain. Mr. Iluskisson writes, in 1826, in the ncgotion with Mr. Adams, "The rights of Britain c that quarter arc defined hy the treaty of 1790 th Spainand they embrace (he further says) ^ very thing lying north of the places occupied by ^ aiu in 1789." Now, it is perfectly certain that, the time in question, Sp.iin had occupied no j . nt south of Nootka Sound; which is full three J ndrcd inilts north of the mouth of the Colum- i r I n Nor was it ditlicnlt to show that her claim of covcrv was equally untenable. Who, upon that nt, can he a more decisive witness than Vanivor himself, the commander whose subordinate, ears,) is claimed a? the discove.'er. Vancouver, a i his Journal, in 1792, distinctly admits Cap. i tin Cray to have made the prior discovery of thu j louth of the Columbia, which he himself had for >mc time completely discredited. Reciting, then, the words of the convention, ( Ir. McR. proceeded to argue that they would give | ireat Britain no reason to complain so long as cither party attempted to dispossess the other.? >o man would be able, under this bill, to go upon jc farm of a British citizen and appropriate it. In truth, Great Britain has for ten years done II that you now propose to do. Hitherto we avc slept over our rights, while she has been vigir tnt aud active. Let notice now be given that we I mounce the convention of 1818. It will be a ill twelvemonth before our citizens can get thithr: the Executive will of course in the interval ivc the proper notice to Great Britain. But, in reality, this bill will embrace every inubitant of the country, whether British or Arner. : jan. It can therefore dispossess nobody. Nor, j n the other hand, do titles arise under it before j ic expiration of five years. As to the enormous display of strength, which ' re arc told that she will make in that quarter, 1 ! ee no probability of any such gigantic effort.? ; Two facts render it most unlikely: in the first; lace, there is little or nothing there to fight for; j nd in the second, we shall have nobody there for j er to fight. Mr. Henderson, of Mississippi, succeeded Mr. 1 dc Roberts, in a short but exceedingly well-argued : ptech, principally on the question of mutual posession and rights under the convention. He urged that the act of Great Britain in exending her jurisdiction over the country was a ; cut and practical taking of possession. Mr. Choale here interposed. Great Britain but ! ut in practice by her law her rights over her own ' itizens, and assumed nothing else. Mr. Henderson resumed. Suppose, then, a case rhcre one of our citizens commits an assault on a Iritish inhabitant, will he not be seized and tried ieforc a British magistrate ? Can you doubt it ? so, her act of extending her jurisdiction over her wn subjects must cither imply the alscncc of any uch legal equality on our part?in which case he takes legal control and jurisdiction over our itizens?or else it implies that wo too have tribulals there, asserting our rights of jurisdiction; rhich latter state of things is at once a conflict of ( urisdictions, incapable of being reconciled. Forts vc might exclusively occupy ; but it would "be necssary to beware of going out of them?for who. I oKr-rt-.#! minlit frill within British iu- ! Vti niC|/|/V,U Ul/.VrfU KU^M* ^ isdiotion or encounter a British subject. It was clear that the convention looked to no uch state of things, and provided only for a free radc of both parties to the territory. The acts of he Hudson Bay Company must too, be held those f the British Government. Its possession is her ossession Her setting up a legal jurisdiction iin- ' lies that she takes possession of the country unless i re do the same. On our taking that step, a con- j Lict of jurisdiction ensues, which must at once ] oinpcl the adjustment of our final claims of right, ihe has asserted her right by these steps of posrssion. We must do the same; and, by this bill, re are going no faster than she. Mr. Bayard here proposed a modified provision ! s to grants of land. But, before any further pro. J ceding, the Senate adjourned. j TEXAS. Isew Orleans, Jan. 12. By the steamer New York, Capt. Vrigiit, 31 hours from Galveston, arrived esterday, we have dates to the 6th ilist. .'he commercial treaty concluded by Maj. teilly with our Government hns been raifiud by the Texas Senate, and is, so far s the Republic is concerned, the law of he land* This is an important treaty for 'exas, and promises goou 10 irie uicrcu. nts and shippers of this city, it allows as we stated several weeks ago,) the inroduction of Texas cotton into the Uniid States free of duty. We shall there- ; ?r?- ship a large portion of the crop of j 'exns, and furnish its planters abundantly I ith the ordinary farm supplies. William Bryan, Esq., has been confirmd by the Senate as Texiun Consul at lis port. Texas Exchequer Bills are J aily rising in value, as they are coming j i very fast at the different custom houses | nd land odiccs. Mr. Borden, the Col- j ictor at Galveston, carried to Washing. , >n lately, ?20,000 of them, leaving only 9,000 outstanding. j G. W. Terrell, Esq., Attorney .Genera I j ir the Republic, lias written out a long i nd lucid opinion upon the validity of the j 'herokee Land Titles. He concludes lat none of the locations made upon tho nds occupied by the Cherokee Indians jbsequent to the date of the guarantee inde by the Consultation to the Indians i 1835, are valid and legal ; and con>eicntly that none made since that date * e legally exempt from survey and sale rider the act of Congress of February 840. Much doubt still exists in relation to the cation of the seat of Government. It r.y be regarded as certain, however, ; rat the Government will not return to j '1 4 - IHm rro. . uslm during me present ywn. * ..v, - . jra! opinion among the people seems to j, that it will bo located temporarily titer at Washington, San Felipe, or some . >int between the two places. (icn. Somerville, with nn army of 809 en, captured the Mexican town ot Lit- j do on the 8th December. The lew j exican troops who occupied the place, ade a hasty retreat without tiring a gun. ! eing notified of this, the army sent a ' essenger to the Alcade to make requisi- j jus for necessaries, which were prompt- ! furnished. After taking the town, a w of the troops crossed the Rio Grande, j id planted the banner of the Single S:ur i the West bank. It is further stated, that about 000 of j o troops crossed the river on the 19th, 1 id took the lino of march for Guerrero, 1 tout 70 miles from Loredo: the balance, \ j 10, returned home. J'roin Guerrero, it j 1 presumed they will proceed rapidly onml and take Mier, Comargo, and Ulii?so. By which time it is to bo hoped . at reinforcements wdl join I hern to en- j ( uru2? a descent on Matamoras. ; O I It is reported that the Apache Indians I c committing fresh depredations in Chi- j huahun, and thought tint nearly all the Mexican troops under WoH have been I ordered there to dilve them back. It is i even rumored that Texas has ft secret agent among these Indian* to control their operations, and that the object of the ' various tribes gathered together at the I Waco'village, ts to enter into treaties with j the Government, defensive and offensive, | against Mexico. If this prove true, the1 I "Hi . _ i:.?i_ : I , army win nave 10 encounter nine oppnsi- : i lion in capturing all the towns and villa- }. ges between Loredo and Matamoras, if < they march with proper speed. Great numbers of runaway negroes from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, i have escaped to the bordering States of , Mexico; and if the invading army be# promptly reinforced, much valuable pro- j perty of this kind will he recovered.? < Were the sufFt-rers alone to unite and speed to tho rescue, a considerable force would thereby be marshalled into service. It is rumored that the President will recommend to Congress the passage of a hill providing for the sale of nil the vessels of war and every thing appertaining to the Navy. Tho Texas Times says:?"Wc fear , that wc shall he reluctantly compelled to | believe the rumors of his co-operation with i Mexico." | The steamer Mustang has returned from the Upper Brazos to Vtlasco with n cargo of 250 bales cotton-?At Galveston, * the ship Ebro had arrived in 62 days from < Havre, France, with 117 emigrants. An '< other vessel from the same place, which left previously, was expected every day. Two others were lip there for that port | when the Ebro left. Mens. Castro will despatch n vessel each month during ihe season with emigrants. His colony is < to be located in Bexar county. foheigtt seven days later from england. By the arrival of the packrt-ship Garrick at New York, intelligence has been received to the 15th December. The news is however of lntle importance. Lord Hill, the late commander in chief, died on the 10th, in the 71st year of his age, at his scat, Hardwick Grange, Shrop. j shire. An accident occurred on the London ! and Birmingham railroad, Dec. 8th; hv j which one person was killed and three olh- ! ers were dangerously wounded. The failure of J. L. Fernandas & Son, corn dealers, dec., at Wakefield, is announced. Their liabilities are ?99,000. Mission to China.?The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts intend establishing a mission at , Hong Kong, and will raise a special fund for that purpose. Lord Morpeth.?It has been stated in a paragraph which originated (we believe) with the Sheffield Iris, that Lord j Morpeth was preparing a work on the subject of ihe United States. We may say with confidence that there is no ground for the statement.?Leeds Merc. i Arrical of Maj. Malcolm ici'h the Chinese I Treaty. | 1 Plymouth, Dot:. 9.?Major Malcolm, j( of the lid dragoons, secretary to the lega- 1 tion at China, antl ('apt. Richards, of IIer Majesty's ship Coinwallis, 84, arrived ' here this morning from China, in the Locust steain vcsael, Lieut. Commander Ltinn, I Major Malcolm is tho hearer of the treaty of peace concluded by her Majes- 1 tv's plenipotentiary, Sir Henry Pottingcr, with (heEinpcror of China. It bears the ( signatures of the three high commissioners deputed by the Emperor and sent to :1 Nankin to arrange the terrn?, &c. Major j1 Ma Irnin brings n letter of assent from the I 1 ... "O ? Emperor himself, solemnly engaging to I ratify the treaty as soon as it shall be re- 1 turned to him with the signature of her 1 Majesty attached thereto. The Blonde frigate, 46, Capt. Bourhier. had sailed from China for England, ivith | two millions and a half of dollars of the Chinese compensation money. Watches xadz by Machi.nkrv.? * The Loudon correspondent of the New * York Journal of Commerce says that some gentleman has been devoting twenty * years of his life to the inventions, where- * by he is now enabled, by a variety of ma- | ' chines, to construct an incredible number < s of watches, of every variety of sizes, in a J t day ! By one macnine bOOO perfect plates [ can he piodurcd in one day?and by five $ machines, also centre, third and fourth r wheels crossed, polished and cut?with ! } balances for 300 movements. By another, t 300 pinions arc cut and rounded?anoth- \ er drills the holes, the tanning, screw- !| ' O ' iioles, &c.M planting the depths and cs t caonments. Four other machines will n ? r rriakc pivots tor 50 movements a day.? n *20 other machines for every description 0 of work connected with watch-making, a make up the set. The best chronometer fl makers tn London have declared that ev- \ ery part produced by them is far superior ? to anything that has been, or can be, pro- p duced by other means at the present day. s Michigan and her Oeiit.?Governor Barry, in ius late Message to the Lcgisla- ^ ture, states the whole amount of the deht a of Michigan at $3,535,334, of which sum ^ $544,840 is due to the citizens, tne coun- |j lies, and the school and university funds r< r?f ihe State. The Governor says : "Mich- (| igan, while the virtue of her population ; ^ remains, will never refuse acknowledge, j merit of her just debts, nor fail to make payment when the means arc in her power. A curious thing occurred in Philadel-j v ftliia, a few days since. A young woman 1 actually pawned "a baby." and got two n lollars on this * pledge" of love. The j infant was so enveloped that the pawnbroker took it for a roll of linen. He a p. J c died afterwards with the child to the ? o guardians of the poor, but they refined t have any thing to do with it until the fix ?r months are up, for which it is pledged. Comfort.?People's ideas of comfort vary. A celebrated hangman in England, showing the gallows attached to Newgate, observed to the foy-standersthat lie had hung twenty persona on it at one time! Some one suggested that it wa* ton small. * Oh, no! bless your honor,"f said the hangman, * twenty-five people could swing oh that gallows, comfortably. A Quack's Expedient ?A quack doctor was once called in to see a sick child, (lc looked at the patient, felt hi* pulse, shook his head, hommed thrice* and took a aeat, rose again, hemmnd, shook his noddle ominously, felt the patient's pulse, and cast his eyes upon the patient. What ails my ch.ld?" asked tbofath* er. 441 don't know," replied saddle bags. J 44 Can you do nothing for him?" breathed the nnx'.ous sire. 4 Nothing," was (he response : 44 but," added the distiller of roots and yarbs, 441 have some medicine with mc that will throw him into tits, and then I can cure him, fur I'm a perfect tiger on fit* /" An Illinois Court Scene.?A conitabie that had lately been inducted into iffice, was in attendance on the Court, und w as ordered by the Judge to call John Bel 1 and Elizabeth Bell. He immediately began at the tip of his lung*? 44 John Bell and Elizabeth Bell!" 44 One at a time," said the Judge. 41 One at a time?one at a time?one at a lime," shouted the constable. ? Now you've done it," exclaimed the judge, out of patience. 4 Now you've done it?now you've done it?now you're done it'' yelled the constable. There was no withstanding t i I U,t n/?'-i p t k>i ? I * ? ? *1- 1- ? ? I - ? ...i-., .... ^wwii, inn, uiiii itj mniiucr* u'uko into ji hearty laugh, to the perfect ?ur? prise and dismay of the astonished coo* stable. { Fxormols Fossil.?The Ozark Standard, (Springfield, Mm.) say a: * Wehavo in wur office a jaw tooth of an animal, dug tip near Warsaw, in Benton county, that weighs 14 1-2 pounds. Tnc tusks found at the same place, nnd supposed to belong to the same monster, are about 13 feet long According to the best calculation that can he made, the skeleton when completed, will be about 40 feet in length, and 23 feet high." Interesting Facts in Physiology.? We find the following statement* in the Boston Medical nnd Surgical Journal: 1st. That the longevity of the pure African is greater than that of the inhabitants of any other portion of the Globe, 2d. That mulaftoes, i. e. those born of parents one being African nnd the other Caucasian or white, are decidedly the shortest lived of the human race. 3J. I hat miilnttocs are no more liable to die under flu; age of 25. than the ahites , i>r blacks, but fn.nri *20 to 40, their death* [ire as 10 to 1 of either the whites or blacks, between those ages?from 40 to >5, 50 to 1?and from 55 to 60, 100 to i. 4th. Tnal the mortality of the free people of color, in the (Inited States, is more than 100 per cent, gieater than that of the slav?rs. 5th. That those of the unmixed African extraction in the * Free States,' are not more Itahie to sickness or premature death, than the whiles of thcii rank and condition in society : hut that the striking ^ mortality so manifest among the free people of labor, h in every community and section of the country invariably coiifinedto the Mulattoc*. ILLINOIS. Fn a Lecture before the Mechanics' Fnilitutc of Chicago, by Isaac N. Arnold, lccur lh? following paragraphs, showing he resources of the State of Illinois.? Surely such a state is, or soon will be, till** 4 /% (iMti ila /li.ktd. II'IU IU |iil V nn ??? #?r*v "The S ate of Illinois contain* 33, )41 60*2 acres of ax fertile land an any vherc exists, or 56,159 square mile*.? t is larger than New York. Ohio, or Pennylvunia. It contains more arable land hnn al! New England, and more than old Rostand and Wales together. Twelve uch States as Connectinit could be arved o .( of it. and a fraction left. The Mississippi washes its whole western fronier. It has the Ohio rirer on the South, he Wabash on the South-East, and Lake Michigan on the North East. The Fox, he Rook, (he IllinoH river*, and other lavignhl* streams pass through the iofcri* r. For prodiictivenea* of soil it is withut a rival. Its mines of lead and coal re inexhausfnhle. It had in 1930, 157,. 00 and in 1840. 476.000 inhabitant*.? Vere it as densely settled as Massnchu* etts it would now contain 5,000.000 of icoplc It can. under proper cultivation uxtain 13.000.000 of inhabitants, better hnn it now does its present population. m There are now probably about 15 000.. ?00 of acres of taxable lands in this State; nd the whole taxable property of the irate, real and personal, rannot he lea* ban S75 000.000. And this amount ia .ipidiv increasing. Every year i* adding bousand* of acres to the taxable proper. v of the State, and its value is fast in* reasing bv improvement, bv the intro uction of labor and capital." ifiittvr nr.*9*. Experiment* have been made in England with a iew to test the adhesive qualities of a composion invented by Mr. Jefflry, bearing to? above amc, which have resulted in showing it to be ot only insoluble in wafer, hut of to binding & aturc, that, when a ball formed of two solid piers of hard wood joined together by means of the hie, lud wyiglihqj eight iwmda-aad a quarter.