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and amicable adjustment with Turkey on the subject of the Polish refugees. Enough yet remains unsettled to be improved into a cause of war, if, in the ever-changing circumstances and relations of European States, war should be deemed advisable.

ITALY..

The political condition of this peninsula is apparently now very nearly what it was in the beginning of the preceding year, though every part has been in the interval the theatre of war or civil commotion. In the papal states, indeed, the restoration to their former political condition has been begun, but is not yet consummated. France still retains her anomalous position at Rome, holding it as a conquered city, in which she has a garrison; but all the while professing sentiments of amity and good will to its former sovereign, the Pope, whom she urges to return to his dominions, and to resume his power. This he has shown himself willing enough to do by his agents, but refuses to do in person. He still remains a voluntary exile in the dominions of the king of Naples, and while he has profited by the interposition of France, attended as it was by violence and bloodshed, he seems loth to regard the French as his benefactors; but in a late manifesto, dated September 12, of his future plan of government, neither France, nor her President, nor the French army are mentioned: from which it would seem that their claims to his gratitude are no longer recog

nised.

In this proclamation, which being made in the Pope's name, and at his own suggestion, is called his propria motu, the holy pontiff sets forth those institutions which he thinks are calculated to ensure to his subjects a fit portion of privileges and civil freedom. They are,

1. A council of state, to give its advice on all bills before they are submitted to the sovereign for his sanction.

2. A council of finance, to determine all matters relative to the budget, or ways and means.

3. Provincial councils, the members to be selected from lists presented by the common councils. They are to discuss the local interests of the province, the local expenses, &c.

4. Municipal bodies are to enjoy the widest liberty compatible with the local interests of the communes.

5. Reforms and ameliorations in law institutions, in civil, criminal, and administrative legislation.

6. An amnesty is to be granted under certain restrictions.

If these several establishments are created by his holiness, and responsible only to him, one cannot see that any thing whatever has been gained to the cause of civil freedom or personal security. Of this we were soon furnished with an ample proof, if proof was needed. The three cardinals whom Pope Pius made his representatives in Rome,

issued their proclamation immediately after that of the pontiff himself, as to the amnesty which he had granted; and they excepted from it all who had taken any part in the provisional government, which exception is computed to comprehend no less than 13,000 persons.

M. Baraguay d'Hilliers, who succeeded General Rostolan_as the representative of France at Rome, lately made a visit to the Pope at Portici, with the expectation of overcoming his objections to returning to Rome, but this return, which has been announced from time to time, seems to be as uncertain as ever. He will apparently consent to no compromise either with the French government or his own people, by which he is required to concede any of his temporal power as a sovereign.

Since Venice has again been brought under subjection to Austria, she, like the rest of Lombardy, has been made to feel the heavy burden of Austrian taxation. By way of weakening or neutralizing the effects of her repugnance to her present rulers, it is said that it is intended to unite her territory with Tyrol, supposed to be the most loyal part of the Austrian domin' ons.

AFRICA.

Saving the partial insurrection in Algeria, which the French troops quickly suppressed, and the resistance at the Cape of Good Hope to the introduction of convicts, there is nothing on this vast region so worthy of our notice as the little colony of Liberia. The movements of its newly organized government have been thus far marked with regularity and success, and present a striking contrast to the political measures of the same race in Hayti. They have, in the last two years, received about a thousand emigrants from this country; and others are ready to embark as soon as the means of defraying the expense are provided.

Their efforts to destroy the slave trade on the coast of Africa are unwearied, and they cherish the hope that in time they will be successful. Their plan is to extend their possessions on the coast, so as to cut off all connexion between the foreign slave ships and the natives who supply them from the interior. They have enlarged their territory by the purchase of Grand Cape Mount and Sugaree, and they will soon receive further accession by the annexation of Cape Palmas, which the people of that settlement have proposed. They have also made a treaty with the British government, which has presented them with an armed cutter of one hundred and ten tons. They are exerting themselves to purchase Gallinas, part of the coast in which the slave trade has been particularly active, but the requisite sum cannot be raised without foreign aid.

When one sees the prejudices of race operating so powerfully in every part of the globe, and no where perhaps with the same force as

with the blacks of Hayti, it is very creditable to the same race in Liberia that they seem to be entirely exempt from it. The white missionaries who have gone there have always been regarded with the gratitude and respect due to benefactors; and the Rev. Mr. Gurley has lately received from them a cordial welcome. They have listened to his lectures for instruction, and have shown their sense of his services. by a public dinner.

All lovers of their country, whether abolitionists or slaveholders, ought to wish success to this colony; and we see with pleasure that a bill is now before the legislature of Virginia to appropriate $30,000 for the removal of free negroes to Africa.

ASIA. /

In this, the largest of the four quarters of the world, there is little to arrest the attention of those who are so distant, and so little connected with them as ourselves. A great outrage has been lately committed by the Chinese at the Portuguese settlement of Macao.

In August last, six or eight Chinamen attacked Señor de Amiral, the Governor of Macao, when on horseback, accompanied by his aid. Having dragged him from his horse, they cut off his head and left hand, which they carried off. The Portuguese soldiers, in revenge, attacked and destroyed a small fort, and some lives were lost on both sides. The American, British, and French there, all offered their support to the Portuguese authority in Macao. The death of the Governor, who had been distinguished for ability and firmness, was greatly regretted.

The Chinese seas have been for some time infested with pirates, which have afforded active employment to the British ships of war, and have more especially given to Sir James Brooke a new opportunity of exhibiting his remarkable enterprise, vigour and prowess.

QUARTERLY CHRONICLE.

OCTOBER, 1849.

Oct. 1st. The drought of 1849.-Accounts from all parts of the country concurred in pronouncing the drought at this period to be the most general and the longest continued which has prevailed within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. The streams were all very low; some of them were quite dry, and many of the cotton, flour, and other mills were doing little more than a tithe of their usual amount of work. In the country vegetation was literally burnt up. Farmers could neither plough their land nor pasture their cattle, and almost all the usual autumn farming operations were suspended. The York (Pa.) Gazette of this date remarked:

"There has been no rain of any consequence for more than a hundred days! During all that time hardly enough has fallen to wet the surface of the earth. The streams are lower than they have been since 1822; most of the mills have ceased grinding; wells and springs are giving out that had not done so before for more than a quarter of a century; our hydrants are closed by the water company for about twenty hours out of the twenty-four. The universal petition here is for rain."

The cultivation of Tea.-The cultivation of the tea plant, which was undertaken by Mr. Junius Smith, near Greenfield, (S. C.,) in 1848, has so far proved highly successful. In the fall of 1848, about five hundred plants were received from China, via London, and in December they were planted in his garden. A considerable quantity of tea seed was planted at the same time. Notwithstanding the severe winter and spring, the plants, which were left to take care of themselves, were unharmed, and are now in a flourishing condition. Several specimens of green and black plant are in bud. The tea plant buds one year, but does not fruit till the next. Next year Mr. Smith expects to pick tea, although his great object for some time to come will be to increase the quantity of his plants. Indian Legislature.-The following announcement was made in the Cherokee Advocate:

"To-day the newly elected members to our national council or legislature will meet and organize themselves for business; after which they will be ready to receive the message of the principal chief.

"The nation is now blessed with peace and harmony, and the

greater portion of the farmers are raising a competency of the staff of life, and other produce necessary for the sustenance of nature. Our common schools are in successful operation throughout the nation, so that many of our children are now in a condition to enter the seminaries for further advancement in their education, while others of our citizens have been improving the country with the erection of machinery of one kind or other, such as saw and grist mills, &c.; and to compare our condition now with what it was some twenty or thirty years ago, one would hardly suppose that we are the same people-but we are Cherokees yet."

Scientific Intelligence.-We learn from Newton's London Journal that zinc-white may be employed with great advantage as a substitute for white-lead, for painting and other purposes. This substance is said to produce no disease allied to the painters' colic, and it is also stated to be unchangeable.

An artesian well, near Southampton, England, has lately been bored to the depth of 353 feet, the further progress having been interrupted by a rock of unusual hardness.

A liquid glue has been invented in England which has the advantage of being stronger than the ordinary glue, and always ready, and will unite wood, iron, and plaster.

The number of exhibiters at the great scientific exposition, recently held in Paris, was 4,532.

A French chemist has succeeded in preserving water in a sweet state by placing 14 kilogrammes of black oxide of manganese in each cask of water containing 250 litres, equal to 64 pounds to a butt of 108 gallons. In this manner water has been kept perfectly sweet for seven years.

Geographical Discoveries.-The South African Commercial Advertiser contains an interesting account of the discovery of a great inland lake called Ngama. It is 556 miles from Kolobeng, and the party making the discovery traversed 200 miles along the banks of a beautiful river before they came to the lake. Two large rivers run into the latter from the north. When they came to the lake, "they could not see an horizon, except one of water, on the south and west." The information is contained in a letter from Rev. Mr.

Moffat.

Another important discovery of water in the wilderness has been. made by Major Emory of the Topographical corps: he reports the recent appearance of a river of sweet, delicious water in the desert, between the mouth of the Gila river and the mountains. It made its appearance somewhere between the 20th of June and the 1st of July. The river is some forty feet wide, and more than waist deep, and will be an inestimable blessing to the travellers over that route, as they have heretofore suffered dreadfully with thirst, and will

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