South Staffordshire Railway.-The half-yearly meeting of this company was held at Walsall, July 31. The total receipts had been £630,603 16s. 1d., of which £9,184 Ss. 8d. was from traffic. The total expenditure had been £600,250 5s. 9d. The report was adopted. the following particulars of this company, which has its head locale in Liverpool, as set forth in the recently published statement of its position and proceedings. The augmentation of the life business during the past six months, as contrasted with the similar period of last year, exhibits an increase of 66 per cent. £178,560 have been paid up by the proprietors. The report presented to the proprietors says: Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.-The half-yearly meeting was held at Glasgow, September 18. The total revenue for the half-year had been £87,605, which, added to the canal receipts, Notwithstanding the diminution in the value and amount of made the whole £96,661 8s. 2d. After providing for working produce in Liverpool, alluded to in the report of the Board of expenses and guaranteed dividends, there remained, in conjune- Directors, in August last, as having operated somewhat adversely tion with the balance brought forward from the previous halfon the amount of insurances effected in the months of the year yearly meeting, £80,209 14s. 10d. It was proposed to declare 1848 which had then expired, it is satisfactory to state that in a dividend on the consolidated stock, at the rate of 4 per cent. the whole year the amount of premium is but £2,360 less than per annum. This would leave a balance, to be carried forward to for the preceding year, whilst it actually exceeds by nearly £1,000 the next half-year of £38,430 15s. 9d. Resolutions adopting the the amount received for the year 1846, when the rates of prereport, and authorising the dividend, were unanimously adopted.mium were in some instances 40 per cent. above those which Notice was given, that a resolution in favour of Sunday trains prevailed during the period under notice. It is likewise not unwould be moved at next half-yearly meeting. worthy of remark, that in this trivial reduction the company only shares in the results experienced by the older metropolitan companies, whose amount of duty for the last year, according to a recent parliamentary return, shows, for the first time during several years, a large reduction of business, consequent on the unexampled mercantile pressure which then prevailed. South Eastern Railway.-The twenty-sixth half-yearly meeting of the proprietors of this company was held in London, September 20. The receipts for the half-year ending on the 31st July, 1849, have been £220,208 Os. 9d. The working expenses have been £78,630 7s. 6d. The rent of the Greenwich Railway, and the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway, £22,012 10s. Od.; the rates and Government duty, £22,884 9s. 10d., making the expenditure on the revenue of the half-year, £123,527 7s. 4., and the balance to be carried to the account of profit and loss, £96,680 13s. 5d. It was also noted that the amount of over-due calls on the 31st of July was £237,628 15s. Of this sum, £27,953 15s. was unpaid calls on No. 4 shares, which are now liable to forfeiture; £43,360 for over-due calls on No. 1 shares; £142,225 on No. 2 shares; and £24,090 on No. 3 shares. The mortgage debt of the company on the 31st of July, which falls due between the years 1850 and 1856, is £1,046,782; this has subsequently been increased to £1,169,182, by the issue of bonds to the amount of £122,400, at 44 per cent. per annum. A dividend was declared at the following rate:-10s. 6d. per share on the paid-up shares, 9s. 4d. per share on the No. 1 shares, and Ss. 4d. per share on the No. 2 shares. Glasgow, Barrhead, and Neilston Railway.-An extraordinary meeting of this company was held at Glasgow, Sept. 20-Mr. Graham in the chair. The report stated that the Caledonian Railway Company were to lease the line at a maximum dividend of six per cent. on their original eapital of £150,000, and a fixed dividend of five per cent. on another £150,000, to be raised under the powers of their act. The present meeting was called in order to raise the second £150,000 as proposed. The report was adopted, and a resolution passed to raise £150,000 in 6,000 shares of £25 each. Great Western Railway.-A special meeting was held on Sept. 21, at Paddington, to consider the expediency of appointing two or three shareholders to meet and confer with the Directors of the company on the exercise of their powers with regard to the management of the company's affairs. There was a very full attendance of proprietors. After a long and animated discussion, a resolution was passed, appointing S. Baker, R. Potter, C. Wardell, and T. Williams, a Committee of Investigation. INSURANCES, BANKS, &c. The following will be found to contain the most material tems of information relating to this important department of joint stock business, since last notice : The "The amount of claims in this department is but £9,777 6s.11d., which is even less than the average amount hitherto made on the company, and far below what the more lengthened experience of || other establishments exhibits. This amount, highly favourable as it undoubtedly is, cannot, therefore, in any way be considered as furnishing data by which to determine the future ratio of losses in this department. "An investigation of the state of the company's affairs for the six months ending with the present Midsummer quarter has, however, been made; and the result shows that an amount of £15,397 may be considered as standing to the credit of profit and loss in that period, and which may be added to the reassurance fund, making it in all £25,830 14s. lld." Eagle Insurance Company.-The report of this company for the half-year just ended, gives a very satisfactory exposition of the state of its affairs The income for the year ending June 30, Premiums on policies issued in the year Total number of policies in force, 4,050, assur- L s. d. 125,234 18 9 6,215 4 10 62,632 6 10 5,872 18 10 2,746,000 0 0 paying premiums of £95,758 19s. To the credit of the reserved fund Making, together,...£108,714 6 3 Of this sum it has been resolved to capitalize £89,280, and a dividend of 2s. per share has been declared out of the balance. Royal British Bank.-A new chartered Joint Stock Bank, conducted on the Scottish system of management, is commencing operations in the British metropolis, and about to dispute the palm with the many leviathan establishments on "the English principle," that have hitherto commanded a monopoly within the magic circle of monetary transactions. Gresham Life Assurance Company.-This company has just issued a statement of its affairs, made up to 31st July last. From this we learn that 419 policies have been issued up to the 31st of July; the gross sum assured being £149,160; the average of the policies being £356; producing an income of £5,615 11s The following banks have declared dividends within the past 8d. The society assures lives declined by other offices, and month. Bank of England at the rate of 7 per cent. per antransacts the ordinary business of an insurance office. num. The Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Bank, 7 per cent. lives seem selected with great care, for no less than 932 pro- The Stourbridge and Kidderminster, 5s. per share. The Birmingposals have been made, 229 of which were not completed at the ham and Midland Banking Company, £1 17s. 6d. per share. date of the report; 284 policies for £99,112 have been declined; || The Birmingham Town and District Banking Company 10 per and 419 have been accepted. The circular says" The society cent. The Bank of Bombay, 6 per cent., and the Bank of Benhas been established on the advice of many of the most experi-gal, 6 per cent. All kinds of joint stock property are looking up, enced actuaries, to supply a real want in the system of Insurance. with the exception of railways; banks and insurance companies especially so. Royal Assurance Company.-We have been furnished with OBITUARY NOTICES FOR SEPTEMBER. ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES HAMILTON. Museum. He married, in 1810, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Oswald Leycester, Rector of Stoke-upon-Trent, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son is a captain in the Royal Navy. The Bishop had been on a visit at Brahan Castle, and was only ill for a short time, but his malady terminated fatally in congestion of the brain. long been a popular work. In 1829 he published “A few Words At his residence, Iping, Midhurst, Sussex, on the 14th Sep-in favour of our Roman Catholic Brethren," and in 1835 "Obtember, in the eighty-second year of his age, Admiral Sir Charles servations on Religion and Education in Ireland." On the Hamilton, Bart., K.C.B., the Senior Admiral of the Red Squa- death of Dr. Bathurst, in 1837, he was elected to the vacant See dron, and the second oflicer on the flag list. He was a descendant of Norwich. He was also Clerk of the Closet to the Queen, of the Abercorn family, and the son of a captain in the navy, who|| President of the Linuæan Society, and one of the Commissioners was created a baronet for his services at the siege of Quebec.appointed in 1848 to inquire into the state of the British He was born in 1767, entered the navy in 1776, and received his lieutenant's commission in 1781. He succeeded his father in the baronetcy in 1784. He commanded the Dido at the reduction of Corsica, and the Melpomene at the Helder, in 1799, and at the capture of Goree, in Africa, in 1800. He was created a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1833. His half-pay for thirty-six years afloat, during war, was £766 10s. per annum, which was probably not one-half the annual interest of the money which the country derived as droits for the numerous prizes he captured. Sir Charles was the eldest brother of Sir Edward Hamilton, bart., Admiral of the White, who was knighted in 1800, and presented with a gold medal, for his gallantry in cutting out II. M. S. Hermione, then a prize of the Spaniards, from under the batteries of Porto Canalio. Sir Charles married, in 1803, the only danghter of George Drummond, Esq., of Stanmore, Middlesex, and is succeeded by his son, Charles James, who became a captain and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Scots Fusilier Guards in 1844. SIR GRAVES CHAMNEY HAUGHTON, F.R.S. At St. Cloud, Paris, on the 26th August, in the sixty second year of his age, Sir Graves Chamney Haughton, K.II., an eminent oriental scholar, Fellow of the Royal Society in England, and a member of the National Institute of France. The family to which he belonged is a branch of the Hoghtons, of Hoghton Tower, Lancashire. He was the second son of the late Dr. Haughton, of Dublin, by the daughter of Edward Archer, Esq., of Mount Jolin, Wicklow. He was born in 1788, and was formerly in the East India Company's military service, on the Bengal Establishment, but retired from ill health. He studied the oriental languages in the college at Fort William, Calcutta, where he obtained many honours. In 1817, he was appointed a professor in the college of Haileybury, Herts, but retired in 1827. He was a candidate for the Boden professorship of Sanscrit, at Oxford, in 1832, but withdrew in favour of Mr. Horace Hayman Wilson, M.A., Exeter, who was appointed. On this occasion Sir Graves received a complimentary address from 200 graduates, including seven heads of houses. In 1822, he was elected a foreign member of the Asiatic Society of Paris. In 1531 and 1832, he acted as Honorary Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society. He was knighted in 1833 for his distinguished attainments in oriental literature. In 1837, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Berlin; aud in the following year, a member of the Institute of France, and of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. He published an edition of the "Institutes of Menu," in the original Sanscrit, with an English translation, revised upon that of Sir William Jones; and was the author of a "Bengali Grammar," a " Bengali Sanscrit and English Dictionary," "Prodromus, or an Inquiry into the First Principles of Reasoning," "A Letter on the Encroachments of the Courts of Law," and other works. According to the Journal des Debets, he had been for years engaged on a work in which he proposed to explain in detail his views on specific languages, and on language in general, an introduction to which he published in 1837, under the title of " An Inquiry on the Nature of Language." THE BISHOP OF NORWICH. DR. COOKE TAYLOR. At Dublin, on the 12th September, of cholera, Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, LL.D., the well-known author. He was born at Yonghail, in the County of Cork, and in early life was employed as an usher at the academy of Dr. Bell, at Clonmel. His scholarship and acquirements were of a very high order; and whilst at the University of Dublin, he secured the friendship of Dr. Whately, the present Archbishop of Dublin, and other men of eminence in science and literature. He possessed great energy and industry, and wrote on various subjects. He was a contributor to the Athenæum, and several other periodicals. His earliest work was "The Civil Wars of Ireland," and his latest, the "History of the House of Orleans," recently published. Of late years, he applied his pen principally to party politics, and a number of letters and pamphlets have been attributed to him. One of the most readable was "Reminiscences of Daniel O'Connell, by a Munster Farmer." He was a zealous writer in favour of free-trade, and equally so against the repeal of the union between Great Britain and Ireland. "He possessed," says the Athenæum, “ a working power which deserves to be called remarkable; and, numerous as are his works, and considerable as is their value, to this diffusion of his mind over many themes it is owing that he has not left behind him something more important to literature, and more beneficial to his own fame." LORD METHUEN. Methuen, Lord Methuen. He was the eldest son of Paul Cobb was born in 1779. He married, in 1810, the daughter of the late JOHN MUSTERS, Esq. At Annesley Park, Nottinghamshire, on the 8th September, aged 72, John Musters, Esq., whose name is familiar to the readers of Lord Byron's life, as the husband of Miss Chaworth, At Brahan Castle, near Dingwall, Ross-shire, the seat of the the "Mary" of the noble poet, and the lady of his beautiful Hon. Mrs. Stewart Mackenzie, on the 6th September, the Right|| poem of "The Dream." Mr. Musters, then known as "Gay Rev. Edward Stanley, D.D., Bishop of Norwich. He was Jack Musters," married Miss Chaworth in 1805, and had by her the second son of Sir Thomas John Stanley, of Alderley, Che-eight children. The marriage was not a happy one, and a seshire, baronet, and brother to Lord Stanley, of Alderley, who was elevated to the peerage in 1839. He was born in 1779, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was formerly rector of Alderley, and during his residence there, he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. Zoology and Ornithology were favourite studies, and his "Familiar History of British Birds" has paration took place. She was the grandniece and heiress of the Mr. Chaworth who, in 1765, was killed in a duel with the fifth Lord Byron, granduncle and immediate predecessor of the poet, fought at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, London. She died in 1832. Mr. Musters is succeeded in his estates by his grandson, a boy 13 years of age. PRINTED BY GEORGE TROUP, 29, DUNLOP STREET, GLASGOW. TAIT'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1849. OUR ANGLO-SAXON EMPIRE. wave THE past month is celebrated as the termination of one vast and marked period in the history of the AngloSaxon race. Nations, like individuals, grow and increase in stature, strength, and wisdom-hitherto like individuals, to perish in their strength, or to sink into decay, dotage, and imbecility. Dating from the birth of Alfred, a fair landmark in history, the AugloSaxons enter in this November on the second millennium of their strange and noble career. The past thousand years have their vicissitudes of defeat and triumph; but borne onwards and upwards, the flag that has at last 'braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze," attained an influence and power far over the highest flights that the Roman eagle, in his ambition, dreamed. The Norman conquest of England, and its infusion of Norman blood and manners, is but an incident in Saxon history. The Normans are only branches of one great root with the Saxons-a “ let" in one tide of humanity, that, sweeping down from "the Persian mountains," from the world's centre, from mankind's cradle, through many lands te the northern coasts, the ends of the earth, were destined there to become, for a time, the agents of civilization, the teachers of the inhabited, and the conquerors of the wild parts of the carth. We do not confine these remarks exclusively and strictly to the British raceone member only of a family-the youngest, and now the most powerful-a family to which the sea-kings of old were patriarchs, and whose branches occupy the north-western coasts of Europe to the present day. The curious questions connected with the origin of this race are not hidden in mystery so inexplicable that they may not, even yct, be traced out and solved. Investigation and research have not yet been earnestly and fully turned upon this subject, and when they come to be employed in its elucidation, language, mythology, and usages, will throw, if we misapprehend not greatly, a very curious and startling light upon their original history. With that inquiry, undoubtedly a a most interesting examination, we have little or nothing to do at present. confined to modern history, to the last thousand years, by our own terms, and use them only to furnish the ground for speculation on the future. The Norman invasion we regard, in every sense, as more an apparent than a real inroad on Saxon rule. The invaders were in reality part of the same original stock, and they never occupied any great portion of the country, except as its proprietary. They forced back on the Northern English counties, and into Scot VOL. XVI.-NO. CICI. We are land, the Saxon nobles, and for a long period bitter animosity existed between the countries-bitter and unrelenting as the strife of brethren-but the Norman section of the race never greatly promoted the substantial interests of the country, for their victories in France were idle and worthless triumphs; and they are not the men who levelled the forests, tilled the soil, constructed our roads, built up our towns, drained our marshes, made highways of water over our mountains and through our valleys, explored the earth's recesses for their wealth, built and navigated our ships, invented new mechanisms, discovered new countries, extended our manufactures, improved our arts, planted our standard by the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, by the Ganges, the Jumna, and the Indus-who supplanted animal by steam power, and made the mighty engines that traverse land and sea, running to and fro upon the earth, and causing knowledge to increase. The Norman share in these triumphs is small, simply because the Normans, as the term is commonly circumscribed, are few. Their share is large as their numbers are great, if within the descriptive title are included all those to whom it really belongs, namely, the greater part of the north-eastern population, as distinguished originally from those in the centre, the western, and the southern districts of Britain. Some of Alfred's admirers regard him as the founder of a separate monarchy, who struggled long against the adverse Danish race. They have not, we think, any good reasons in historical facts, so far as they can now be gleaned out and substantiated, in considering his struggles as materially different in character from those of Robert Bruce against the English Norman Kings, except that the latter were more powerful combatants, and the persons more numerous who were involved in the issue. The difference between the English and Scotch wars, and a war between the British and the Russian people at the present age, is perceptible without much historical knowledge. The former might be more implacable than the latter, without a change of race following victory on either side. There are examples precisely illustrative, in the existing state of Europe. The Danes and Swedes have waged violent and yet they occupy, not so much in territory as in race, the position of the English and the Scotch in former times towards each other. The triumph of either Danes or Swedes would not involve any radical change in Denmark or Sweden; but the conquest of either, or of both, by the Russians, would be a widely different affair. Then, in the attacks of the British wars; 3 G fleet on Copenhagen, and in the alliances of the Danes || was it prostituted. A day of retribution arrived. with France against Britain, the Danes themselves found something unnatural; and the inhabitants of the eastern, and especially of the north-eastern districts of Scotland, participated in their feeling, because the connection of the races is stamped, like the brand on Cain's brow, in lines perceptible to all, and the intimate assimilation of language makes the proof of identity distinet. Another party arose into power, deficient in sentiment, careless of any influence not connected with ledgers and Adam Smith-as destitute of chivalrous feelings as their predecessors were devoid of justice-and they threaten to cut off the colonies. The influence that retains the British people together must be strong, to resist years of successive and violent temptations to separate. The design of casting off the colonies is now openly avowed by the subordinates of the Government; but, if ever their superiors propose a bill for that purpose in Parliament, they will learn that they have completely miscalculated the temper of the people. The birth of Alfred stamped a broad mark in the history of the British Empire, rather on account of his legislation than his wars. He gave consistency to the laws and power of the British Saxons, by collecting and embodying the scattered fragments of both. He ruled as king, with the assent, and after the instruc- The Ministry will not follow that plain path. They tions of the people, in their Parliament. His reign will continue to insult, misgovern, and oppress, in exwas, in every particular, prefigurative of the subsequent pectation of the consequences. They will sustain progress of the nation. He was a scholar, a warrior, Torrington, the Governor, and priest-whipper, in Ceya legislator, and the munificent patron of discovery lon; they will give certificates of good conduct to the and navigation-in themselves the origin and means More O'Ferrals, who may turn our fortresses into the of commerce. Alfred's reign commenced a millennium tools of the Jesuits-knighthood to Wards, who haug in British history, which has now closed. Hitherto Cephalonians like the Haynaus-peerages to the Elgins, we have gone forward in power, increasing in popula- who hide in the woods from the presence of the colotion, in influence, and wealth. Hereafter shall we nists whom they have successfully involved in trouble retrograde into the insignificance of eastern kingdoms and all manner of support to the dozens of governors and empires, that seemed born only to grow and die?in over-taxed islets who demand for themselves more The answer closely concerns all our population, and money than the colonists earn. This is the habit of should be pondered well. The withdrawal of the the Colonial office. An effort to part the colonies United States at the close of the last century neither, from home, made avowedly and manfully, would not we think, increased British influence, nor improved be successful. The people would at once lay the American manners. The United States are not so treason prostrate. Therefore, a deeper scheme is infree from vice as prudent parents would wish to see vented. The colonists are teased, tormented, and their children in their youth, or early manhood. They smothered with constitutions. Here they are threatseem to be hot in dispute, prone to quarrel, and fondened with an inundation of paupers; there with an of casting every misunderstanding into the scale of infusion of felons and felonry. Now they are pressed war, opposite their swords. They have displayed to-to the earth, and money squeezed out of them hydrau wards weaker races little of that philanthropy which lically to pay governors and officials, over whose apshould be the chivalry of our time. Their position pointments and dismissal they have no power; again presents many palliating circumstances; but, as yet, they are forbidden to employ labourers, except with ambition and avarice untit the democracy of the States || permission, behest, and benison, from Earl Grey. In for noble deeds. If we look upon the map of the one quarter land is rendered of dangerous and diffiworld, we find the possessions of Britain scattered cult attainment; in another it is squandered away in over every quarter. A superficial glance will leave grants to favourites and pets, with guilty profusion. the impression that they are disjointed and frag- An immense and valuable island, the property of mentary; and we only reach the conviction that the people of this country, is gifted bodily to an they are compact and naturally knit together, after idle company, who immediately advertise its former a careful examination of their position, population, owners, through the newspapers, that they are at and produce. We hold it essential for the interest || liberty to come and buy portions of their own land of the people in this country, of the inhabitants of back again at a reasonable price; and the Colonial Seour possessions, of our colonists, of great prin-cretary, Under Secretary, and the whole bundle of ciples in commerce, great objects in morals and science, officials, read the advertisements without blushing, in and a mighty result in religion, that this empire should the company of honest men whose property they have be maintained and upheld. It can be destroyed squandered. Losing shareholders in railways talk only from within, unless through some great interven- bitterly of Hudson, and have never a word to say of tion, which we have no reason to anticipate. Its chief Hawes. We believe Hudson to be comparatively updanger is, therefore, from within-from ourselves and right; for he never gave away a whole concern in bulk our errors. Some years ago, the aristocracy did all to Mr. Secretary so-and-so, or to self and others, like within their power to alienate our colonists, and destroy the York and North Midlands, or the Eastern Counties; our possessions. They refused to the former partici- but the transaction of Vancouver's Island with the pation in our commerce, in our legislation, in the ma- Hudson-Bay Company is a commercial story that will nagement of our affairs, and treated them as aliens. never tell well for the present Ministry. We hope The selfish principle blinded them even to their own that none of them, or of their connections, relatives, self-interest, and they treated the colonics, and ultra-subordinates, and menials, hold deeply in the Hudsonmarine possessions, as warming-pans for scions of their Bay Company; for in that case, instead of playing over families. The great power of the empire was never their remains "the fool's step," it would be neces conferred for that ignoble purpose, but to that endsary to employ "the rogue's march." Both Hudson 1st, The interest of the people at home. 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, of commerce and genuine free-trade. of morals and intellect; and, of religion. and Hawes are the victims in their several lines, perhaps, of a bad system; but the victimising may incapacitate them for managing public affairs. This is the charitable conclusion; and yet meek charity confesses, in a constrained whisper, that mortals of their calibre seldom giveaway their own property with the recklessness The first and the second may be stated together apparent in one of these cases. At home we are told with great brevity. A common argument by those assiduously that the colonies don't pay. Of course they who have given to the subject all the advantages of don't. They would be very remarkable colonies, in- very shallow study is, that we should sell and buy as deed, if they did pay. Though their log roads were freely and profitably with the colonies, after they were paved four inches deep with beaten gold, and their independent states, as in their present position. So plough shares glazed diamonds, how could they pay, we should, of course, if in the case of any large firm, with a determination, on the managers' part, that they Brown, Smith, & Co., for example. Mr. Brown would should cost more than they produced? The interest, have the same interest in Mr. Smith's doings and earndignity, and honour of the empire, are trampled down ings, and Mr. Smith in Mr. Brown's, after the dissobeneath fictitious crotchets and absurd fantasies, in lution of their partnership, as during its continuance. the name of liberal government and constitutional A partnership dissolved by mutual consent would not freedom. In the name of freedom! Did ever a de- be followed by a result of that character. The partics mocracy so govern colonics, oppress industry, and rob might say and believe that they could each do better its component parts? Give us a democracy, and we separately; and this is what some writers say and shall see, in three months, à different style of governsome thinkers believe regarding the colonial connecment, inaugurated amid a federation of colonies and tion. A company might, from that motive, be amistates, zealous for their mutual honour, profit, and cably dissolved; and, if no difficulties arose regarding power. The crush is coming because we are governed the accounts and settlements, the partners might reby an aristocracy of moncy, and a conglomeration of main on terms of personal intercourse and friendship, pot-house leglislators. The aristocracy is pitiful, for but the mutual interest in their respective personal they have no power in their own house, but are screwed endeavours would immediately cease. They might up by the iron Duke when he wants them. In memake more money individually than they had obtained chanics now, workmen call any great power employed for each share in their collective profits, but they could by them, a last shift in doing work-an ultimate renot have the same mutual interest that had previously sort of mind struggling with matter-"the Whigs' subsisted. The assertion we combat runs not that Iron Duke." The theory of management in politics the colonies and the mother country would both gain is comprehended in workshops. When a clever tailor by a separation; but that they might and would transwants to press down a stiff and rebellious seam, he act, after that event, the same amount of business todoes not ask the boy for the goose, but says, (C hand gether that now takes place between them. This me the Iron Duke, Tim;" and up to the board it is assertion is neither consistent with reason nor experiborne, hot and hissing, to do its work. The legislators, The United States occupy towards us the same in the Commons, are not pot-house members more than position now that the colonies would necessarily take any other legislators, in the ordinary sense of the term. after their separation. The United States afford a Perhaps there are more sherry cobblers used by the gen- most favourable illustration, because, on account of the tlemen of Washington, than goes of gin by the gentlemen British habits and tastes of their population, no other of Westminster, in a session. We know not the prevail- country takes so large an amount of goods from our ing custom, though occasionally honourable members do producers. The purchases of British manufactures in get drunk; but we do not call them pot-house legisla- the United States do not at present exceed 7s. 6d. for tors on that account, for they comprehend a large body each of the population. The purchases of British maof most decorous and respectable men; our reason nufactures in the poorest colonies approach to six arises from their official, and not from their personal times that sum. The Australian colonies form an capacities. Are there six borough members amongst exceptional case, on account of their small population them elected without the consent and by the influence and general prosperity; but, in 1945, their purchase of the spirit-shop and beer-house interest, especially of British manufactures amounted to £2,189,000, which, if in the calculation the votes of licensed victuallers be according to Mr. R. Montgomery Martin, was equivaincluded? We confess that the latter class of trades-lent to a sum of £7 14s. 3d. for each of that colonial men, except in small boroughs, where mine host goes with his customers, and puts it in the bill, give good votes, and many of the former also, or we should have a parliament of brewers, distillers, and refiners solely; but the fact remains, that, from the forms and peculiarities of our franchise, the interest named can often return the member against the world, and always so turn a point as to make their own bargain. Let us now return to our subject. This Anglo-Saxon empire is hastening onwards to a precipice. Is it worth while to turn the chase, save our position in the world, and use the gifts of Providence for our own and other nations' good? We hold that a variety of interests are concerned in averting this catastrophe : ence. population. Incidental causes, always following great legislative changes, have injured the trade of the West Indian and North American colonies; but their purchase of British goods have always amounted to five times the quantity taken by the inhabitants of the United States individually. We expect that Mr. Montgomery Martin's new work on the history and resources of the British colonies will be useful in explaining more fully, and in a more popular style than has yet been done, the value of these possessions. At page 20 of the first number, he recapitulates the general average exports to the colonies thus— * Published by J. & T. Tallas, London. |
