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mini ¦¦ in. .i—i BEVIEW OF THE WEEK.
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The most important as well as ilie most excit | ng topic of the moment is the dispute between the English Government and the United States , as to the fisheries upon the northern coast of America , The Mowing appears to be a true statement of the facts : —In 1818 a treaty was concluded between the two powers by jvhieh American fishermen were admitted to exercise their calling * upon certain parts of the seaboard , but were excluded from other parts , and the terms
of exclusion provided that they should not fisl | ^ ithin three miles of any coast , bay , creek , or harbour reserved for the British colonists . The rough fishermen of ~ Massachusets and Maine , however , when in hot pursuit of a shoal of cod or mackerel , were not likely to be stopped by an imaginary line drawn ixoin headland to headland , or to measure tbeir three miles very accurately ; and the consequence has been perpetual complaints upon the part of the colonists that their privileges had been infringed , and disputes as to where the Yankees might go and where they might not . Out of
this arose another question , at first subsidiary , but now become of primary importance . Our cousins on the other side of the water were not only to keep three miles from the coast , but three miles from any bay upon the coast . That , probably , was an oversight in the treaty ; but there it is plainly enough . ! Now , some . spf these bays , the Bay of JEundy for example , where this dispute seems to centre , are so large that they may be called inland seas . There is plenty of room for fishing within them without going within three miles of the coast . Indeed that seems to be
the most profitable part of the fishing-ground , and so the Americans wished to strike "bay" out-of the treaty altogether , restricting their . exclusion within ' -three miles of . lan ^ l . Subsequently the American authorities laid " a case" before the English law officers , requesting an opinion upon the meaning of the treaty , and the Attorney and Advocate General for the time said in Teplv that a bay was an indentation of the sea between headlands , which we take it is a geographical fact ; and , farther , that three miles from a bay meant three miles from the part of the bay nearest the open sea . We do not exactly see what else the law officers could have said if they were to beguided by fact or common
sense ; but their opinion being adverse to American interest , by shutting the fishermen out from the immense bays , was not held to be conclusive , and , treaty and law officers notwithstanding , they contrived to follow the fish where the fish went , and the colonists continued to complain without result . That was what we suppose was only to be expected . Rough fishermen are neither statesmen nor jurists . They do not look at matters with the same eye as lawyers ana secretaries of state . The open sea seems to them too free an element to be staked out and made property of , and , when a hundred yards or a mile further on makes all the difference between a full net and an empty one , why , on they go .
Things remained in this unsettled state between Yankee poachers and colonial preservers till such time as Lord Aberdeen held the post of Secretary of State , and then the English Government appears to have given the Americans leave to infringe the treaty , so far at least as the Bay of lundy was concerned . That for the moment settled the question ; and as it does somehow happen that free Eepub-Hcans have more energy and enterprise than Boyal colonists , a iact for which , of course , we do not attempt to account ,
the former appear to have distanced competition , and made the fisheries almost their own . They invested millions of dollars , equipped hundreds of schooners and cutters , employed thousands of seamen , and , in fact , turned the British bay into a liquid gold-field and a nursery for American seamen . JN ow comes the crisis . . Suddenly , just as the fishing season is about to begin , and the hardy A ew Englanders are anticipating profit , the Derby Government shake hands warmly with the hitherto neglected colonists . A poaching
fishingvessel is captured and earned away . She was within three miles of the coa ? t , and clearly wrong- , according to both English and American interpretation , but the fact furnishes occasion for excitement when taken in connection with other steps . The people of the States are in a ferment when they hear that a man-of-war steamer , bearing the gentle name of the Devastation , is on the ground ; that more pleasanttychristened coadjutors are on their way ; that Kova Scotia is sending * forth armed vessels , and Canada , New Brunswick ,
and Newfoundland are following the example . American members of Congress make belligerent motions . Mr . Webster makes war speeches : the press writes after rather a pugilistic fashion ; and a very general opinion seems to be that the time has pretty nearly come for teaching " them Britishers a lesson , I guess . " How it is to end we really cannot guess . The Americans wem right as to the spirit of the treaty , and the English Town Edition ,
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Government right as to its letter ,-if strictly interpreted . But it . cannot be concealed that our-Cabinet have acted with discourtesy in taking warlike stlps in the face of the permission received by the Americans , and which , until revoked , overrules the treaty , and nave- ; aeted most unfairly in taking that course just wh £ n alH | e preparations were ready for the fishing , without giving pjgvious notice . It is equally plain that , right or wrong , theAjnerieans will li ght if necessary for the maintenance of a' ( trade upon which so many dollars depend , and it looks as . ik-thi ?; only way to a peaceable - settlement is for Sir John Fakinffton to back out
of the scrape . Probably that will be doctor the Morning Herald intimates that the fleet is not to settle the disputed points of the treaty—that is , the right Jolfishing in large bays—but : to protect the colonists from what are universally allowed to be infringements—that ia , ; frpm American fishermen coming within three miles of the } shore ., If that be so , and it may be so now although we nluch , doubt whether it is what was first intended , the wholejaiidr will turn out to be " muchado about nothing , " a epS&sion at which all Englishmen who estimate the importance of cotton , and all Americans who understand what a baistile slave population signifies , will cordially rejoice . " > ¦ " ;; ' ; ¦ % , ¦ . ¦ j
Turning- from cod and mackerel in ; the northrwest , we glance at . the cattle-stealing Caffres ; in ; the south-eastanother budget of the Caffre war , containing news rather more disastrous than the last . Sir Harry Smiti has come home , and General Cathcart has gone , out : • Riqketty . Government steam-ships , with much pern ^ to those , on board , have carried troops to the Cape . Heav ^ dragQpns | have been changed into light ; riflemen have been . . exported with Mihie guns . Officers have taken out Colt ' s revolvers .. Battles have
been fought ; forays have been Hia $ e ; liiountams and defiles have been scoured ; and all—atjeast ^ so say the despatches—with the greatest gallantr ^^ s ^^ eminent success . The gallantry we do mi doute ^^^ Sfirtunately , the mi ' """ TO A ^ iSp-i K& . '¦ ¦? ' i success is non-apparent . Inere is tlie UanTe-just where . he was . In the Waterldoof— in the Amatolas—everywhere where , there is rock and bush and scrub ; nay , spite of being beaten , he has come nearer to the towns . He has practical possession of all the frontier and a good space inside it . He captures soldier-guarded convoys under the general ' s nose , shoots woodcutters straggling close by the main body , and
steals cattle not only from the colony but from the camp itself . In fact , the savage looks like anything but beaten . The general who conquered the Sikhs , and the general who has conquered nobody , are equally useless . In the meantime Hottentots are joining Caffres , and Eingoes on our side are suspected of a taste for shooting our officers rather than our enemies . Above all , the colonists do not see the mark , thinking probably that those who do the governing are
bound to do the fighting also . The Caffre war may be over when the next new planet is discovered . At the present rate of discovering planets , however ( nearly one a week , according to the Astronomer Royal ) , the latter is the more probable contingency . We do not feel safe in fixing a more definite period ; but one thing we know , that if there is a surplus next year Englishmen need not expect much of it , for the Caffres have bespoken it .
Ihe Six-mile Bridge tragedy is still under investigation by an Irish coroner and jury ' , and excites the attention of magistrates and military , priests , peasantry , and public . It is difficult at present to understand much more than that shots were fired by the soldiers and stones thrown by the people , the bullets of course doing the most damage . There is evidently much malignity and rancour , and we should think there will be not a little hard swearing . One thing seems established , that the military fired without the
command of their officers , it . being doubtful whether a magistrate gave the onh-r or the men fired on their own hook . If the former , the presumption will be that party feeling had something to do with it ; if the latter , then it was in selt-detVnce , Whatever the verdict , it is apparent enough that the Irish voter , between the priest and the landlord , between fears of eternal perdition and temporal pauperism , is in a worse case than if he had no vote at all ; and even Conservatives agree that they must have the ballot .
One of the inquests arising out of the late fatal accident on the London and North-Western Railway has terminated , and another has commenced . The verdict already given attributes the accident to the defective state of the fastenings of the ash-pan of the engine , and consequently imputes blame to those whose duty it was to see the engine perfect . After that we suppose there will be sundry actions at law against the company for compensation . ' The inquest which has closed is worthy of remark in consequence of its varying- a little from the general run of such investigations . There are certain niceties which are generally preserved in railway inquests as strictly as the niceties of the acted drama .
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Scene : The Inquest-room . Dramatis Persona : The coroner , railway officials , and servants , a widow in tears , and passengers with their heads bound up and arms- in slings . Railway officials bow to coroner , and Mr . . Superintendent Something or other expresses the warmest desire of the company for a fall and complete , investigation . Coroner bows to officials , and is happy to acknowledge the willingness of the officers of the company to aid in the performance of a public duty . Servants give evidence : engines in first-rate condition ; carriages perfect ; rails in superb order ; pace moderate iuoueraie
: a sudden Hum ) : eneine off the rails : carriap-ps ; asuciaen jump ; engine oft me rails ; carnages down the . embankment ; passengers killed , mutilated , bruised ; cause , nobody knows what ; purely accidentalutterly inexplicable . Coroner sums up , blandly and regretfully . Verdict— " Accidental death , " with the occasional addition of no blame attached to the company or its servants . On this occasion this rule was slightly departed from . Up to a certain point the niceties were preserved . The officials were accommodating , the coroner complimentary , and the evidence suited . to the occasion . The ash-pan had come off .
That was the cause of the accident . How ? Ah ! that was the question . Probably it struck against something— -a stone , for example . Where was the stone ! Not to be found , although it must have weighed some tons . The driver felt no collision either . Possibly there would have been a verdict as purely supposititious as the stone , but there happened to be . in the room an alderman of Coventry , named Whitten , who thought there ought to be a fuller investigation . So thought also some contumacious jurymen . An independent machinist was called in , and he found defects in the engine .
The inquiry was adjourned ; the company procured the evidence of other engineers , who seconded the stone theory ; but the Government inspector deposed to the defects in the fastenings , and the jury found the verdict recorded . Perhaps juries awarding compensation will strengthen the doubts of Mr . Samuel Laing , the chairman of the Brighton Company , as , to their : common sense that , same Mr . Laingwho presided at the inauguration of the People's Palace and talked > so patriotically , but who , as a railway director , would apparently like to see some law to put passengers on the same footing with goods—damages not to be compensated " unless booked and paid for accordingly . "
In Prance , Louis Napoleon seems to be preparing * for the Empire . Everywhere the eagles are beginning to get ready to fly . The marriage of the Prince President with a princess " of equal birth , " as the journals phrase it , is expected to be made the occasion of advancing" the design . In some of the departments petitions are being signed praying- the Imperial adventurer to assume the purple and found a new dynasty . An amnesty has just appeared giving leave to some of the proscribed to return to France , but the "" writers in the pay of the Elysee take care to accompany it bv insults more
bitter than persecution . They say plainly that no danger is to be apprehended from a parcel of writers and thinkers and men oi science . They are helpless enough to be contemptible . Well , we suppose they are , now that liberty of speech is forbidden , legislative action rendered impossible , and the press silenced . The reigning power in France is , not thought , but force . Sabres are sharper than sarcasms , and Minie rifles carry farther than arguments . Brute power is the sole arbiter . The tyrant has taken care that it shall be so , and , if . there be truth in the teaching's of experience , or faith in the ordinary workings of human nature , to that at last will lie have to submit himself .
Royalty is afloat . Monarchy is beginning- to become migratory . While Disraeli is improving- the parliamentary interregnum the Queen is enjoying a trip to Belgium . The Court Circular tells us that the visit is strictly incof / nito . What remarkable notions some folks have ui' what inco / fnitu means ! The Queen of Engiand pays a visit to a neurlibouring- potentate , in her own steamer , with the Admiral « y flaii- and ilie Hoysil standard flying ' , atteuded by two steamyachts . Anutuer steam-ves : % ei lv-atU the wav , and some half
dozen men-ot-war steamers follow as an escort . That is called going' vicinmito . When the next Lord Mayor ' s Show takes place we should not wonder if the papers report that his lordship's visit to Westminster was " strictly incognito . " Amid the progress of civilization ; crime and disease aw progressing : too . The assize intelligence is full of murders , cutting' and maiming , and offences against women . In one of the northern counties we have a judg-e openly upon the
bench expressing his disgu ? t at the coarse and brutal manner * and habits of the people ; and as to disease , the registrar ' s return for the metropolis for the past week shows about as many deaths as during the cholera period . By and by , perhaps , legislators will see not only the wisdom but the economy of expending the taxes of the kingdom for education and sanitary reform , rather than upon prisons , armies , and fleets .
Mini ¦¦ In. .I—I Beview Of The Week.
mini ¦¦ in . . i—i BEVIEW OF THE WEEK .
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No . 1 . New Series . ] LOHDON , SATURDAY , AUGUST 14 , 1852 . Price Fohrpence Halfpenny . ______ — ^ ' " l" ' . ' * " —¦ S ; , -
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Citation
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Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 14, 1852, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1691/page/1/
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