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    REVIEW OF THE WEEK.

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    The more we know of M. Webster's doings ...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

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    Review Of The Week.

    REVIEW OF THE WEEK .

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    The More We Know Of M. Webster's Doings ...

    The more we know of M . Webster ' s doings aud sayings with regard totlie rig hts of American citizens over the Lobes guano islands ^ the more we are astonished at ^ the inconsistently aud folly with which a man who lias won a reputation for statesmanshi p can act . A dog running round after his tail appears quite as reasonable a being as Mr . Webster if we view him solely in relation to this affair . Hisj conduct with regard to the fisheries question was bad enough , kt as the Americans seem in that instance to have got all thev

    ranted , the appearance of success gilds his folly . In the Lobos question , however , there is not one redeeming feature . His whole proceedings are a tissue of short-si ghted rapacity , disregard for right , aacl popularity-hunting and blundering fioni the moment lie opened his unfortunate correspondence with Mr . Jewett down to the time he disavowed the piratical expedition of that sharp-sighted trader . To all those who take any interest in American affairs , the details are so familiar that it is useless to enter upon them , but the last mail has put us in possession of information which makes Mr . Webster look smaller than before . It will be remembered he told Mr . Jewett in his first

    letter that the American naval officers had orders to protect Americans taking guano from the islands . It now turns out that they then had no such orders , and have not since received any instructions to that effect ; but the crowning point of all is , that on the very day he informed Mr . Jewett that the American Government would not countenance an act of " private war" against the territories of Peru , he wrote to M . Osma , the representative of Peru at Washington , that the territories in question did not belong to Peru at all , or that the

    evidence produced was not sufficient proof of sovereignty . English statesmen have committed many errors , done many stupid things as well as bad ones , but we cannot call to mind an instance of late years where a British Minister first prompted an act of piracy , then disavowed it under the pretence that a private individual had misled him upon a subject which it was peculiarly his duty to be well informed upon , and at the same time in his diplomatic correspondence maintained that he was right in the course of conduct he had the moment

    before disavowed . We are told upon high authority not to let the right hand know what the left does , but when Mr . Webster ' s own right Kind disavows itself by writing , upon the self-same day , two directly o pposing letters upon the same point , we are at a loss for any justification or palliation . It maybe true , indeed , that ambition , which plays tricks with everybody has been turning Mr . Webster ' s brain

    topseyteny . The election of a President was approaching , and he ^ Yante ^ l to become the chief magistrate of the Republic . If he could make a palpable hit he would do something toward the accomplishment of his wishes , but in his anxiety to do so , he consulted only the insane passions of the citizens , and disregarded prudence , moderation , and right , and now his own efforts recoil upon himself , giving us another illustration of how

    " Vaulting ambition doth o ' erteap itself , and fall on t ' other side . " The lPeruvian Government have prepared to give Mr . Jewett ' s « cet a warm reception , he will probably look to Mr . Webster to make good his losses , and Daniel will be likely to find that the judgment of the public is against him . In the mean time , the question of who W be the next President is still an open one ? The number of the c andidates , and the splitting up of parties makes anything like correct I'aleuktionalraost impossible , though as far as we can see the chances Hicline in favour of the success of the Democratic section .

    The most remarkable topic in the news from California is that reding to the Chinese emigrants . There is an immense influx of the Cele stials into the Golden Land , and they do not seem to manifest any Mention of returning to the protection of the great wall . It is said that there are already some thirty thousand of them in California , felling in villages apart from the other inhabitants , and paying obe-* oiee to laws and rulers of their own . This is a new element

    imported into the population of the American States which ' was already ^ most mixed in the world . English , Irish , Spaniards , Aborigines , wc mixed races , Preach , Germans , a remnant of old Dutch , Saad-* ch Islanders , Negroes , were there before , and now a people , shut out } centuries from the rest of the world pour in a stream of new life to « nnplete the greatest mixture of blood , which the world has witnessed ante the contusion of tongues . It will , perhaps , help in time to v ohe the problem which philosophers have disputed over , as to whether the pure or the mixed races are to have the predominance .

    Jlie troubles in Mexico still continue , and it is generally believed that Santa Anna is at the hoitom of them . With such a people as the " txicans it is utterly out of the question to attempt to predict the r j- ' « ilt , or to guess when a settlement will come . The descendants of f hc S paniards in the new world appear to be totally unfitted for selfgov ernment , or indeed government of any kind . While they are Qu arrelin g amoilg themselves , the Indians are invading the country ; committing fearful ravages , and perhaps the only safety to % \ ic 0 lies in the Americans seizing upon the territory , and infusing Mo its people new blood enough to produce steadiness in internal anYirs , ; uid sufficient courage to meet and drive back its barbarian demies . °

    The Indian mail tells of something like a dispute between the uoY erndi- General , and General Godwin , who commands the army in "urmah . Captain Tarleton ' s dashing exploit at Promo , has roused U the Indian authorities , and shewnjhein that something may be done tu put an end to the war without waiting for tlm season to which it

    The More We Know Of M. Webster's Doings ...

    has been customary to limit military operations . It is quite certain that Prome might be taken again and permanently held , and possibly a further advance made without danger ; but the general is an old man , chosen apparently for no other reason than his ago , and the fact that he served in the former Burmese war . More fitted for retirement than actual command , he hesitates and declines to take the responsibility of movement . He wants more troops , and he desires to wait , and to

    conduct the war as wars have been conducted before . This placing an old and wont out man in positions which require activity and energy , is a fatal error which has been committed before . It was the cause of one of the darkest pages in the history of British India . — - . the loss of the army which held Cabul , the disgraceful abandonment of Afghanistan , the captivity of ladies and children , the loss of material and the fearful slaughter of a whole host in the passes of the mountains , were the effects of the same cause . General Godwin indeed

    seems to err upon the side of caution , but if we are to have wars , the duration of the evil should be as short as possible , and their conduct should be confided to men with enough of youth left in them to prompt them to vigorous and resolute action . Men verging upon their second childhood are almost as much out of place upon the battle-field as women would be , and we hope the next news will be that the conduct of the invading army has been confided to a bolder and more capable leader .

    The infernal machine at Marseilles is now admitted by almost every body to have been a piece of a police plot . The device was so transparent , that it was impossible not to see through it . It served the purpose of procuring for Louis Napoleon a more cordial reception than would otherwise have been given to him , and that effected it is almost disavowed by its authors . Louis Napoleon himself has declined to appoint- ^ special tribunal for the purpose of trying the pretended conspirators , and the Times tells us , that in all probabilitwe shall not hear anything more of the affair . Such an

    inciy dent at once shows us the hollowness of the governmental reports of the spontaneous enthusiasm with which the usurper is said to have been every where received , gives a new edge to our disgust and contempt for the specious tricky theatrical charlatan , and increases our pity for the people , who , by the united efforts of traitors , priests , and bandit soldiers , are prostrated beneath his tyrannical sway . The only comfort is , that unless providence has gone mad , a day of retribution will come ,

    Little hints peep , out here and there , telling that the President ' s progress has not been all so happy as he would have us believe . At Nismes , for example ,, the shadow was on his path . All the efforts of the public authorities could not get the citizens to be enthusiastic or even cordial . A few . bands of the most ignorant of the peasantry , brought in from the surrounding country districts and paid and fed for their services , put ribbons and placards in their hats and carried banners with inscriptions , and shouted what they were told io shout ; but the inhabitants maintained a profound silence . That silence would have been a roar of execration but for the remembrance of the massacre of December , and the transportations to Cayenne and Algeria , and the consciousness that the homicide would not hesitate to wreak his

    vengance upon those who were bold enough to give expression to their real feelings . So the ceremonies were abridged and the stay of Louis Napoleon was cut short in the town which has set that example of dignity and independence so much needed . At Montpellier , there were more signs of the future . Two balls were given , one for the Prefects and Councillors and local authorities , and the other great people , who , servile tools that they are , bow themselves to the dust before the sheder of innocent blood ; another

    for the the meaner folks whom it was found necessary to propitiate . At the great entertainment , of course , there was nothing but bows , smiles , ' and flattery . The tuft-hunters and sycophants played their part to admiration , did what they could to disgrace themselves and their country ; but when the . would-be emperor visited the other ballhonored the poor people for a moment or two with the light of his presence , they forgot their mirth and remembered that they had relations aud friends proscribed , under surveillance and in exile—perhaps too , they remembered the dead when they saw the murderer . At all events , instead of that often repeated cry Vive VJSmpereur , so dear to Imperalist ears , there arose another Vive VAmnistie , " give us

    back those of our brothers whom your cruelty has spared for future suffering . " We must admit that the ruffian is a bold one , a fair mixture perhaps of Pecksniff' and Jack Sheppard , for he kept his presence mind and lofty bearing , and in a " dignified voice " replied that " the amnesty was in his heart more than in their mouths , and that they must try to deserve it by their jutti'ioUsm . " Ah , so the amnesty is inj & w heart is it . 'He has a heart then , though , how the amnesty ever managed to penetrate so hard a place is a puzzle . They must deserve it too , by their patriotism . If patriotism and some other qualities not quite so estimable , were properly rewarded , no amnesty would be needed , aud Louis Napoleon would be—at the galleys .

    At Bordeaux , there have been more tokens , not so much of danger arJ of the fears which always haunt the guilty . The prefect got scent of some gunpowder manufactories , and went on a hunt , much as our excise officers seek out an unauthorised whiskey still . He made some arrests of course , and captured the amazing quantity of two pounds of gunpowder , a few bullets , and not an internal machine , but some pistoh and a gun , " with a wide mouth . " That settled the matter , and confirmed the " suspicions of lurking treason , for , putting the pistols out of the account , what so likely as a wide mouthed gun to bellow forth the detestation in which his Imperial Highness is held .

    The More We Know Of M. Webster's Doings ...

    One ^ more little occurrence is worth notice , for its perfectly dramatic character . The prince had been on a boating excursion , on his return the evening was cold , —lie rejected the proffered fill's and spumed a cloak ; the one perhaps reminded him of Russia which has spoiled his marriage project , —the other was equally unsuitable as an emblem of charity , which covers many sins , —he preferred action , so he took an oar from a rower , and , at least so ' say the flatterersrowed

    , with all the skill of an old sailor . Jerdan , in his recently published recollections , tells us that the President and he were once together , in a boat , and that when the prince tried to row , he " caught crabs " in a most ludicrously undignified manner , instead of " rowing with the skill of an old sailor . " Put lxmis Napoleon has had practice since then , —he has navigated not a paltry English river , but a wide sea of blood , and that accounts lor it .

    The Minister of the Interior has been doing a little bit of mixed fawning and threatening . He has addressed " a letter to the prefects of the places through which his " Imperial Highness" has passed requesting to be furnished with all the details of the visit . What the authorities did , and what they did not , —how many processions they got up , and how many triumphal arches they erected , —what deputations of butchers and others waited upon the hero of December , and all about the flags that were carried and the cries that were uttered . The sickening pretext for this is a desire to record enduringly " one ot the first pages" in the history of Prance , the real object , to pick out those who have not been abject or active enough , and put a mark upon them .

    There have been two murders in Prance . In the one ease the Marquis de Dammartiu was shot just as he was on the point of setting out at the head of a deputation to welcome Louis Napoleon ; that crime is ascribed , with what truth we know not , to political causes : the other instance has more home interest . It is the killing of an Englishman by an Englishman ,. —the perpetrator of the deed is Mr . Bower , the Parisian correspondent , of the Morning Advertiser , the victim Mr , Morton , who was engaged in a similar capacity for the Daily

    News . M . Power suspected , and it would seem with some reason , that Mr . Morton , while his guest had violated the sanctity of his home , hv seducing his wife . When that conviction was formed , Mr . Morton was at his table , and in the frenzy o ? the moment he seized a table knife , aud inflicted a wound which caused instant death . Directly afterwards Mr . Bower took a passport and effected his escape ; the tragedy furnished food for the gossips of Paris , and it excites a deep sensation here , in circles where all the parties are well known .

    intelligence from other portions of the continent may be briefly summed up , French intriguers are active at the Court of Austria , to weaken the influence of Russia , and create a favourable impression for Louis Napoleon , but the boy Emperor is too hopelessly in the power of the autocrat to give the most skilful diplomatists a chance of success . Prussia in her attempts to reconstruct the Zollverein as it was , is embroiling herself with the lesser German States , which lean to a commercial alliance with Austria . The Piedmontese

    government is likely to come to an open rupture with the Court of Piome ; this arises from a desire upon the part of the temporal authorities to take all the property of the Church , and ensure the obedience of the priests , by . making them stipendiaries of the state . The ecclesiastics resist stontly , and Pome backs them by a threat of excommunication against the kingdom . A very pretty quarrel . The Catholic Irish papers exult in the feet that the Pope has thrown cold water upon the scheme for establishing diplomatic relations between England and Pome . As the time tor the Religious Equality Conference draws nigh , the tone of Archbishop

    M'Hale grows louder and bolder . He already clutches by anticipation the property of the Established Church and sees the priests of his own order , endowed with dignity and wealth . The Times on the other hand hints at a tightening of the bonds of the law and penal enactments , suggestions which are met by a howl of mingled rage and execration . The Exodus still goes on thinning the labour market , improving , we hope , in some degree , the condition of those who stay , and weakening the basis of the misery , propped structure of priestlypower . If true , it is a circumstance well worthy of thought that a large body of the Roman Catholic soldiers belonging to a regiment in Ireland have become Protestants , under the conviction that the murder

    of the private of the 31 st regiment at Permoy was the result of the teaching of the priests of the Roman Catholic church . j ^ Mr . Bright has made his public appearance at a dinner at Belfast , and has stated his views pretty freely upon most matters connected with Ireland . In opposition to the opinion so recently expressed by Mr . Hume , he speaks highly of the patriotism of the Irish members , to whom he gives the credit of being mostly on the side of " liberal measures , " and thinks favourably of the possibility of making them au element of a national party . In accordance with

    Mr . Hume he selects the ballot as the first point to be striven for . With regard to the religious question , Mr . Bright is very certain about what is wrong , but not quite so certain how to set it right . He is eloquent respecting the absurdity of paying a Church 5 <) 0 , < JOO / . ayear for doing nothing , and at the same time giving 70 , 000 / . a-ycar for teaching precisely opposite . doctrines . To the grand question , however , of what is to become of Church property when it is taken from its present possessors , Mr . Bright gives no answer , and until he does , there is no telling how he and the M'Hales will agree . A correspondence has been published between Mr . Joseph Hume and Mr . Collins the editor of the Midi Advertiser . Mr . Collins is a

• Citation
  • Northern Star (1837-1852), Oct. 9, 1852, page 1, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/ns2_09101852/page/1/