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lat ^ - almost usurping the functions of Providence—that we ^ hJuld go m almost all parts of the world to redress wrong and to see that right is done . I think . we ^ should confin e ou rselves to those legitimate international rights which a moderate army and a " m o derate inihtary power will enable us to command . " ' . _ Windsob . —On the resignation of Xord Charles Wellesley , Mr . Samson Ricardo and Mr . Hope issued addresses . A very sharp contest was expected , but at the last moment Mr . Hope withdrew , and Mr . Ricardo was returned without opposition . In returning thanks to the electors , he said that he was in favour of aDy measures for educating the people , and would do all in his power to improve their condition . He would support the new Ministry , believing they-would do all they could to alleviate the sufferings of our troops , and to bring about an honourable peace .
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CANADA . The late accounts from Canada say that" the new Governor , SirEdmund Head , is likely to become very popular . Parliament will meet en the 23 rd . The Canadian sympathy for the Allies is strong , every steamer ' s news being anxiously looked for . Subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund continue to flow in from all parts of the country . Meetings are held everywhere for the purpose . Toronto and Hamilton have voted each 1000 / . Quebec has subscribed 600 / ., and other places in like proportion . The pro-Russian feeling in the United States continues to excite indignation in Canada .
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INDIA . The Overland Mail brings us more than usually exciting intelligence from the East . The Bombay Times thus sums up recent news "' : — ' " Our Indiah ' annais for the past fifteen days have not been without their interest . A battle has been fought at Bunder Abbas between the Arabs and the Persians , in which the latter were successful . A Persian force of 12 , 000 horsemen , with six guns and two mortars , appeared before Bunder Abbas in the beginning of December , and " shelled the place for two days and nights i jon the third day . the garrison , consisting of
1700 men , met the Persians at the gates , and an engagement took place . which lasted for several hours . The Arab force , overpowered by numbers , took to their boats and fled to the man-of-war belonging to the Imaum of Unseat . The Arabs lost in killed and wounded about 1400 , whilst the Persians lost about 4000 . The Arabs were commanded by the eldest son of the Imaum . He is determined to hazard another battle before giving up Bunder Abbas to the Persians . The Imaum is said to be mustering a large force , . which he will command in person ; so that we may shortly expect to hear of another engagement .
" Our little fleet in the Persian Gulf has had some employment against an Arab piratical chief , with two thousand followers . The account of the affair , as given by a confem ^ rary , is ' aa'follows : —The attack-was made in 12 boats , containing an armament of about 300 men and boys , eight guns—two twelve and six three-pounders —and one rocket boat .. The Arabs fought well , and several of the seamen were wounded , but none of them severely . The water was very shallow and several of of the heavier boats were aground during the whole time of the action . After having been shelled and well peppered with canister shot , the chief sent a flag of truce , with an intimation that he" would deliver up the bungalow , which was immediately burned upon the spot . The pirates must have sustained a loss of upwards of 100 killed and wounded . The expedition seems to have been well planned , and a dmirably executed ; not a single life having been lost .
" Thelatest news from Burmah is to the 28 thDecember and is unimportant . The Burmese ambassadors have returned to Rangoon . At their final interview with the Governor-General they- > revealed their , real object in coming ; they had been sent to seek restitution of the whole of the captured Provinces in Burmah . Lord Dalhousie told them they would obtain nothing . " The communication by electric telegraph is now complete between the thr . presidencies , the North-West Provinces , and Lahore . The Hne 3 between Bombay and
Madras were joined ( by moonlight ) ncarBelgaum on the night of the 81 st of December , and the communication between the two presidencies completed on the first day of the year . " There have beentmeotings in all three presidencies in aid of the Patriotic Fund . By the latest accounts tho subscriptions to the fund amounted in the city of Calcutta to 70 , 000 r ., in the city of Madras to 80 , 000 r ., and in the city of Bombay to 65 , 000 r . These figures represent pretty fairly ihe comparative intelligence , wealth , and influence of the three presidential cities . "
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CALIFORNIA . Nbwb from California generally menus the state of the Gold Diggings . By tho arrival of the last mail , we hoar Jihat though the amount of gold is estimated at rather lew than uaual , the difference is immaterial . Th « ainount of ( jol ^ exported , as " manifested in tho
last four years , was 186 , 684 , 088 dols ., divided thus in 1151 34 , 492 , 000 dols . ; in 1852 , 45 , 779 , 000 dols . ; £ 1853 , ' , 906 , 956 dols . ; and in 1854 , 51 , 506 , 132 dols This shows a decrease in the present year of 3 , 400 , 821 dols from 1853 , but which is accounted , for by the drought of this winter . These amounts , however , give but a very imperfect return of the gold which really left the country , as great quantities are carried away by passengers leaving by every steamer na Panama and Nicaragua , while considerable sums are also taken by passengers and remitted , for the purposes of commerce , by the masters of sailing vessels destined for the various countries on the Pacific coast , for the islands nv the Pacific , and for China , and other countries , which it is not necessary to manifest . Nor do the amounts « manifested" by any means indicate the production of the latter fact must add to ^—^^— «« -.
mines . To ascertain this , we the account the gold taken away by the miners returning to Mexico by land , as well as that coined in San Irancisco , that used in the manufacture of jewellery , &c , and the amounts in circulation and hoarded in the mines , and throughout the country generally . These latter amounts exceed the amount exported as , " manifested . " But $ he population of miners engaged in extracting gold , and a computation of their earnings , afford the most reliable data from which to form an estimate of the production . The number of miners is ascertained to be about 100 , 000 . Taking them at this number , and allowing that each miner extracts three dollars a day—a moderate estimate —the aggregate amount of gold extracted in the year ( counting working days only ) would exceed 93 , 000 , 000 dols ., and persons competent to form an opiuion estimate this year ' s production at 100 , 000 , 000 dols .
A striking evidence of the rapid growth of San Francisco is afforded by the large number of vessels owned and registered at this port . These amount in number to 631 , having a tonnage 66 , 423 , while there are in addition 23 steamers of an aggregate tonnage of 23 , 566 , belonging to other ports , engaged in the trade of the place . Altogether there are 80 steamers engaged in the traffic and in the passenger trade of the port of San Francisco . This is " goingahead" in four years . California is this year visited by one of its periodical droughts , which has continued so long as to be called a " water famine . " The want of rain is seriously felt by all classes . The miners are in many cases idle and poor .
The farmers have not-been able to plough or sow ^ they cannot " break" the ground until after the first winter rains ; and merchants , tradesmen , mechanics , and labourers ; ail suffer from the stagnation caused by the shor t supply of gold . .
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SIR CHARLES HOTHAM'S POLICY . From the corresponden t of the Times at Melbourne , we are treated to an insight into the internal economy of the colony , and the steps taken by the new Governor , who appears to be most desirous of qualifying himself for the high office to which he has been called . It is already well known that his activity has already resulted in some unpopularity . "_ Sir , CharlesJEIothjun isi proceeding to institute extensive inquiries into the details of the administration" every branch of the Government . No one doubts that there has been laxity and abuse of every kind in every quarter , and when that is the case , public opinion very often takes an exaggerated view of the evil . There has no doubt been a good deal of what is called 'jobbing ;' first opinion , and then rumours , have converted this into something far worse . The case of one magistrate charged with accepting a bribe from a person desirous of obtaining a public-house license , is now under investigation . He must be a clumsy practitioner , for , generally , the ' squaring , ' as it is called , is so managed as to elude full exposure .
" The method adopted by Sir C . Hotham for the prosecution of these inquiries is to issue a commission to inquiro and report , similar to commissions of a like nature issued in England . Thus , we have had a Finance Commission , and have now a Police Commission , a Goldfields Commission , a Squatting Commission , and others are talked of . These commissions arc unpaid . In most cases they are composed of Government officers in whom tho public have confidence , with ono person wholly independent of tho Government . Tho officers of tho Government , especially those who are connected with the department suspected of laxity or jobbery , do not half liko these boards , and in some cases very palpable attempts are made to thwart them . They have , howevor , tho su ]> port of the head of the executive , who seems disposed to give thorn all the powers they require , and the , public will aid thorn , because it is perceived that they may be instruments of good . "
From the same source we derive some information relative to the wool-trnde . " There was a general impression two years ago that tho attractions of tho gold-ficlda would deprive tho wool-growers of labour to an extent to cause a very considerable decrease in tho production of wool . This fear has not been realized , for tho quantity exported has increased from 21 , 766 , 1041 ^ . in 1858 , to 22 , 508 , 0881 b . in 1854 . I think it nof ; unlikely , liowover , that wool is now shipped in not quite such , clean condi t ion , and not generally so well prepared for exportation as it used o bo . "
LOUIS NAPOLEON'S VICTIMS AT CAYENNE . The following letter , which , to its honour , our contemporary , the Morning C / tronicie , has published , finds a ilatural place in our columns . We beg our readers not to forge _ t that the author of these atrocities is that sovereign whom Lord Derby recently described with emphatic adulation as " that great man . " M . Louis Blanc says with strict truth , that this is not a question of political feeling , but of simple justice and humani ty . We may remind our readers that these tortured victims are men who have never so much as been accused of any crime , who have never been tried by any court , nor even prosecuted by anv form of law . " But they are men whose votes were wanting to complete the astonishing unanimity of Imperial France in January , 1852 . . . —¦— ~ s ~ . ¦»» * v % eri «• ¥ Srv » . TIC 1 fTT / TPTIll O . A m ' -
( To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle . ') giR ) Every one knows that there are in Guiana a great number of Frenchmen who were transported some years since , not in consequence of any lawful judgment , but by the mere impulse of political passions , on account of their enemies having got the mastery through force . It so happens that four of them have lately succeeded in making their escape from Cayenne , and three have just reached England , amidst numberless dangers . The account they give of the distress of our poor countrymen at the Isle St . Joseph is really heart-rending . The contents of the following letter , which I am desired , and feel it my duty to make as public as possible , ^ perfectly concur with the verbal statements I have received , and , I hope , will not be found unworthy of insertion in your hospitable columns , even ata time when public attention is engrossed by events of such momentous importance .
Whether the French Government are aware or not of the gratuitous acts of barbarity committed in their name by agents whom , at a distance of about 6000 miles from France , the absence of control and the sense of impunity may goad into all sorts of violence , is not for me to decide ; but in the latter supposition , who can be more concerned in being- apprised of the facts , as below stated , than those whose character and power would be brought to shame by such shocking deeds ? I therefore apply to you , sir , with confidence— -the liberty of the English press _ remaining the only possible chance for the oppressed ~ to-have the justice of their complaints at least examined . It should be borne in mind that -the transporte ' s de Cayenne are political victims , belonging to all classes of society— -artists , tradesmen , workmen , barristers , physicians , farmers , journalists , scholars .
. " TO THE CITIZEN LOUIS BLANC . "Citizen— -In the name of the republican martyrs of 1848 , I , as one of the proscribed in French Guiana , call upon you to lay before the civilised world the unworthy treatment to which we are submitted , at a distance of 2000 leagues from our own country , in a colony called French . " Without any regard to the laws of civilisation , in the nineteenth century , men who have committed no other crime than to be conquered , after taking up arms fofthedefence of their "rights ,- are penned on a- rock- in Southern America , and used more cruelly than the blacks during their period of shivery , under a burning sky . '
" Side by side with the most vile criminals , they have been subjected to forced labours ( travaux force ' s ) . The regulation of the galleys are applied to them in all their rigour . They wear the old clothes of tho deceased convicts , with the letters T . F ., and the very word ' galleyslave' is written in capitals on the upper-leather of their shoes . " Like galley-slaves they have been compelled to cut their hair ; and when they go to mass it is their degrading duty to give the military salute to tho gaoler before whom they defile . " Liko galley-slaves , they are bent eight hours a day , without any kind of remuneration , oh the hardest and most dangerous labours . In tho dockyards , after tho manner of those in galleys , they are conducted and watched by des gardea-chiourmes , a barbarous sot of men who are as sharp upon them as can be imagined .
" Their food is that allowed to galloy-slaves . lor tho first months of their sojourn here they have exclusively lived on motuel and couac , which was tho diet of the blacks boforo the abolition of slavery . "Tho money sent out to them by their families ia kept back . " Starvation being added to sorrow , and tho influence of a deadly climate to ill-treatment , five-and-thirty bodies , out of 200 men , have been , in a few months , cast as prey to sharks ; for in the Isle St . Joseph tho prisoners have no other cemetery than tho soa . " Dungeon , chains , and protracted fasting are tho mildest punishment inflicted , under tho most flimsy pretextupon the unfortunate men .
, " If one of thorn ventures to remonstrate against tlio boundless insolence of their subaltern tyrants , woo to him J lie is immediately put to tho rack . This ia an improvement for which wo are indebted to M . de Bonnard , a captain in tho navy , Governor of Guiana . The sufferer is tied to a stake , with thick ropos around his arms , legs , nock ,, belly , and breast ; tho duration of such a corporal punishment being four hours a day , during
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V&i THE liEAPEB ,. [ Saturday , I '¦" '" ' - 1 ™ "" " ii ¦ ^ m ^^^^ BM ——^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ¦ " ¦ ^ HB
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 17, 1855, page 152, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2078/page/8/
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