Editorial-Literary-Miscellaneous, Etc. 89 written so much as Mr. Simms, and many of the chances of success in deepening the Bar, his novels have had wide and deserved repu- a matter of vital importance to Charleston if tation both in this country and in Europe. she would carry out her steamship lines to In the same position with the Quarterly is Europe, etc. The same importance attaches the Literary Gazette, to which Mr. Simms to our own movements at the mouth of the contributes, and which is edited by Mr. Mississippi, as was fully shown in our DeHayne, one of the most talented gentlemen cember No., and we are glad to see that a and finished belles-lettres scholars yet sent out Tow Boat Company have now undertaken the by our old alma mater, the College of Charles- work for the money appropriated by Congress. In regard to Charleston, Prof. Holmes says: of these beds of calcareous limestone rocks "The borings have been made, the extension proven, and the practicability of deepening the Bar is no longer a doubtful question. ton. The New-Orleans Medical Journal speaks consolingly of the future prospects of NewOrleans. It regards the yellow fever as accidental and not original, and a disease that may be expelled by sanatory regulations. The summer which has just passed has been one of unusual health. The following is the list of deaths for the weeks ending In Charleston, on the other hand, the present season has been disastrous in many respects, though more from false and exaggerated rumors than from the actual mortality. The first case of yellow fever took place, says the Charleston Medical Journal, on the 8th August, from that period the deaths ranged from 15 to 45 weekly, and the total of deaths up to 1st November, when the disease ceased, was 279. The number of deaths in 1838, before the city and Neck were consolidated, was 353. The disease was, for the most part, in its fatal effects, confined to the Irish and other foreign residents. When in Philadelphia last summer we were presented by Mr. Job Tyson, whose acquaintance we were happy to form, with a copy of his admirable Letters on the Resources of Philadelphia," addressed to the British Consul, Mr. Peter. The letters are classical as well as statistical, and we shall hereafter extract liberally from them. Mr. Tyson also presented us a copy of his address before the Girard College. Prof. Holmes, of the College of Charleston, who was kind enough to exhibit to us the magnificent museum of natural history and geology which has been collected in one of the halls of the institution, presented us at the same time a copy of his report upon the nature of the "Borings" now being conduct ed by Capt. Moffitt, at the bar of Charleston, in order to remove the impediment to its navigation. In the opinion of Capt. Moffitt, the existence of a bed of calcareous or limestone rock in the channel would greatly promote "It would be presumption in me, even to intimate the mode of accomplishing this great desideratum, but with deference I may be permitted to suggest, that the excavation be extended to eight or nine feet below the surface of the calcareous bed, which is of such consistency as to resist the erosive action of currents and waves, and preserve the walls of the submarine canal. "The sand accumulating with the flood tide, will undoubtedly be removed by the fourknot current of the ebb." In the October number of the Review we extracted a page or two from the work of Mr.Wheeler, on the History of North Carolina, and by mistake credited to Mr. Williams. The work has had extensive circulation, and is well worth the study and perusal of the very many citizens not only of our state, but of the whole valley of the Mississippi, who have emigrated from the good, old and unpretending State of North Carolina, and who are proud of their " fatherland." It proves that North Carolina was the first state of the old thirteen, upon which the colonists landed (in 1584), the first in which the blood of the colonists was spilled in defence of the principles of liberty (in 1771), and the first to declare their independence of the English crown at Charlotte, in May, 1775. We have lately received in pamphlet form two addresses upon the death of Henry Clay, one by W. H. MacFarland, Esq., of Richmond, and the other by Alexander McClung, of Miss. They are both interesting productions, reflecting honor upon the heads as well as hearts of their authors. Mr. Macfarland tells us, "as we meditate upon the illustrious life of Mr. Clay, our faith in the reality of public virtue, and in the certainty of Christian truth, grows stronger." Mr. McClung, most eloquently and truthfully adds: "His memory needs no monument. He wants no mausoleum of stone or marble to imprison his sacred dust. Let him rest amid the tokens of the freedom he so much loved. Let him sleep on where the whistling of the tameless winds-the ceaseless roll of the murmuring waters-the chirping of the wild bird, and all which speaks of liberty, may chant his eternal lullaby." Jefferson Davis delivered the last annual during our stay in New-York last summer, address before the Societies of the University of Mississippi. The effort was worthy of his reputation as a man of high intellect and scholarship, a good citizen and pure patriot. His concluding remarks are worthy of note: "If I am competent to form an opinion in a case where I am certainly not free from prejudice, there is enough of talent, enough of energy in the youth of Mississippi to warrant the expectation that they will reach the highest degree of attainment, and in their day and generation, as circumstances may permit, fill the brightest pages of their country's history. Such is the cherished hope of him who addresses you. Of him who, as a Mississippian, has spent a large portion of his life in the service of his country; whose heart from youth to age has ever beat responsive to the demands of Mississippi's interest and honor; who has rejoiced in the power and glory of the Union, and loved it for the objects it was established to secure; who has striven against the perversion of its grants, as the means of destroying either the Union, or the more sacred ends for which it was founded, and who now appeals to you by all that is ennobling in the memories of the past, and inspiring in the anticipations of the future, that you will address yourselves earnestly to that highest duty of a citizen, to know and to maintain the permanent welfare of his country; and that, at whatever sacrifice, you will discharge your trust to guard and to uphold the principles confided to your care as an inheritance for all posterity.' The Rev. J. H. Thornwell's Report on the Subject of Slavery, preached to the Synod of South Carolina, is a masterly paper, which, whilst it defends the rights of the South, marks out the duty of the Christian master in all the matters of moral and religious culture of the slave, &c. The South has an important part to perform, and will conscientiously do it, if left alone by the meddlesome and officious people who have hitherto so much interfered with the true happiness of the negro. The Lemmon case in New-York is the last of these acts of aggression, and it would have set the South on fire again but for the liberal and patriotic course of the merchants of New-York, who, in raising the amount necessary to indemnify the master for the loss of his slaves, and in furnishing the means requisite to carry up the case before the highest court of appeal, evidenced their determination to protect the laws and constitution of their country. We cannot doubt that the opinion of Judge Payne will be reversed as false in principle, subversive of the rights of the South in the Union, and calculated to lead to the most mischievous consequences. We cannot quit this subject without recurring to a case which happened and of which the particulars were furnished us at the time. Mr. Simonds, of New-Orleans, executor under the will of Mr. Creswell, arrived in New-York with thirty-eight slaves for the purpose of emancipating them. His plan of sending them into the country was interfered with by the abolitionists, who persuaded the negroes that the purpose was again to sell them into slavery. The largest proportion of them therefore refused to go. Having interrogated Mr. Simonds in regard to their condition afterwards, we received in reply a note, from which a brief extract will be interesting: "Most, if not all, of those that refused to leave the city of New-York have done very badly. Some are in the most abject and degraded condition. Several of them have begged me to take them back with me-saying I might keep them as slaves, or sell them— that they were happy before and wretched now. A "There was, among these emancipated slaves, a very interesting quadroon girl, about 12 years old, in whom I had taken special interest. Agreeably to her wish, I had procured her a most desirable situation. highly respectable merchant of New-Orleans had agreed to take her to Vermont to his mother, who had no young children, to be by her brought up and educated as one of the family. Accordingly the gentleman started with her from New-Orleans in companionship with his own daughter, of about the same age. I was to meet him in NewYork, and furnish the girl with her emanci pation papers. But on the gentleman's arriving at Buffalo, and just before the steamer landed, the emancipated girl was kidnapped by abolitionists, transferred to a British steamer and conveyed to Canada. "The gentleman having her in charge, employed an attorney-at-law, and spent several days in the endeavor to recover her. He went over to Canada, and ascertained where she was, but was not permitted to see her. He was even in imminent danger of being mobbed. "In the New-York Tribune of July 19th, is published a letter, dated St. Catharine's, Canada, boasting of the abduction and rescue from a slaveholder. "On my arrival at New-York with the other slaves, a friend showed me the letter in the "Tribune," and informed me that he had addressed the writer, stating the facts, and urging him to send the girl to New-York, to be properly disposed of by me. In the answer, which he afterwards received and showed me, he met with a flat refusal and a volley of abuse of the 'inhuman and hellish slaveholders.' "I presume the girl is still in Canada. Whatever may be her condition, it cannot be any better than that I had secured for her. Editorial Literary-Miscellaneous, Etc. J. W. Randolph, of Richmond, sends us a copy of a Plantation and Farm Book, which he has published, the object of which is to promote the more systematic management of our estates. It contains blank pages, ruled and lettered for inventories of negroes, stock, utensils, products, etc., with rules and regulations in regard to a hundred matters of plantation management and detail. In truth, we consider it an invaluable work for planters. It can be had from J. B. Steel, of New-Orleans. We shall refer to it again. Through T. L. White, Bookseller, New Orleans, we have received several of the valuable series of scientific and practical works, which Henry C. Baird, of Philadelphia, is now issuing from the press. These volumes are handsomely executed, and they are calculated to advance very greatly the progress of the arts in our country, by diffusing the most valuable practical information at an insignificant cost. The volumes before us embrace: 1. The Arts of Tanning and Leather Dressing, from the French, with emendations and additions by Campbell Morfit, chemist, with 200 engravings, 550 pages. The volume is prefaced with a portrait of Zadoc Pratt, the great American tanner, and gives all the details of his extensive operations. 2. Electrotype Manipulation, or the theory and practice of working in metals, by C. V. Walker, with wood-cuts. 3. Complete Practical Brewer, by Dr. M. L. Byrn. 4. Pyrotechnist's Companion, or a familiar system of recreative fire-works, by G. W. Mortimer. 5. Rural Chemistry, in relation to agriculture and the arts of life, by Edmund Solly, F. R. S. A very valuable volume for plantters, who should all study it. 6. A Treatise on Screw Propellers, and their steam-engines, with rules to calculate or eonstruct the same; and also, a Treatise on Bodies in motion in fluid, by J. W. Mystrom. We have been favored with a paper from J. W. Scott, of Toledo, one of the best statistical writers in the country, upon the commerce of that city, which shall appear in our next, when we expect also to resume the publication of the interesting papers upon "Taxation, Ancient and Modern," which have been interrupted, as the author, Judge Shortridge, informs us, by unavoidable causes. CLOSING NOTE. Subscribers to the Review, who have not paid up their dues, will ask themselves if it is fair and just to us. In the universal prosperity of the country now, towards which our 91 labors for many years have contributed, ought we not to be among the very first remembered? What we ask is small, and has been earned ten times over. Remittances are frequently neglected from an oversight. Many think that another time will do as well, and thus they embarrass us without serving themselves. Our bills have all gone out-we ask the money or orders upon merchants, assuming ourselves all risks, and acknowledging payments on the cover. If there are errors in accounts, we are prepared to correct-if numbers have not been received, we are prepared to supply them. In fact, we want to do everything that is right, and want every one to do the same to us. Our expenses have been greatly increased in the improvements now made upon the Review. Again, we solicit orders for the new work we have published, entitled INDUSTRIAL RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH AND WEST, of which, prospectus appears in another place, and of which the general index appeared in December number. It is embraced in three large and beautifully bound volumes, and supplies a mass of information which can be had from no other source. It is intended to bind the volumes of the Review, hereafter, every six months, uniformly with these, and no subscrîber should be without the complete set. We have incurred an enormous expense upon the work, and appeal to the friends of the South for reimbursement. Subscribers who wish their volumes of the Review bound, can always have it done at the office, at cost. We trust it will not be considered immodest, from the numerous complimentary letters which the publication of the "Industrial Resources" has induced, to extract from one addressed to us by the Hon. George Bancroft, the brilliant historian of the United States, a man whose good opinions upon such matters are very gratifying to us to have won. He says: "Be assured, I value exceedingly the work you were so good as to send me, both as evidence of your kindness, as also, for the wonderfully rich and carefully prepared information with which it abounds. If the statistics and past and future of the South and Southwest have been less displayed than those of the North, it can be said so no longer. Your work exceeds in merit any similar one with which I am acquainted, in any other part of the Union. "It will be a work to which I shall constantly look for instruction and for a solid foundation for my habitual and ever unshaken confidence in the durability of the Union and the glorious future that awaits the near development of its resources.' PEABODY'S CELEBRATED ACCLIMATED HOVEY'S Seedling Strawberry Plants. I am now prepared to deliver plants of this wonderful Strawberry, that produces fruit six and eight months in the year-fruit of monstrous size and exquisite flavor. I will pack them in moss and earth to go safely to any part of the Southern country, and deliver them at the stage office, on board steamboat, or at the rail-road depot, at $4 per hundred plants, with a sufficient quantity of the Large Early Scarlet. put up with them, to insure impregnation; or $20 per thousand plants. These plants may be transplanted as late as the first of March, but the sooner now, the better. These plants have been in fruit since the 25th of March, and are now, November 16th, in full flower and fruit. Packages of plants may be sent with safety to Montgomery and Mobile, Ala., by rail-road and steamboat, to New-Orleans by steam, via Apalachicola, to Savannah and Charleston, and from thence to any of the interior towns having communication with these cities. Orders, accompanied with the cash, will receive prompt attention. For full directions in Strawberry culture at the South, see Soil of the South, published at Columbus, Ga., at $1 per annum. CHARLES A. PEABODY, PLANTATION BOOK. J. W. Randolph, RICHMOND, VA., Has published the Plantation and Farm Instruction, Regulation, Record, Inventory and Account Book, for the use of managers of estates, and for the better ordering and management of plantation and farm business, in every particular. by a Southern Planter. Order is Heaven's first law.-Pope. Price $2, or six for $10; a larger edition for the use of cotton plantations, price $2 50, or five for $10. CONTENTS.-Actual number of pounds to a Bushel, articles received for use of Plantation, Brick Kiln, Births of Negroes. Balance Sheet, Cows, Cultivation, Contents of a Corn Crib, Clothing to Negroes, Diameter of a Horse Mill, Deaths of Negroes, Directions how to use this Book, Expenses and Sales for the Year, Form of a Contract with Manager, Force of a Draught Horse, Horses, Hogs, Instructions to Managers, Implements, Journal or Daily Record, Medicines, Manure Tables, Mechanical Power, Effect of the Labor of an Active Man, Inventory of Negroes, Oxen, Washington's Letter to his Steward, Plantation Management, Police, Plowing Rules. Planting Distances, Physician's Visits, Quantity and Value of Produce Made, Quantity of Work of a Man and Two Horses, Rules for the Government and Discipline of the Negroes, Rotation Tables for Cultivation of Crops, Rural Economy, Sheep, Steam Engines, Stock and Implements, Tools, &c. used by the Negroes, Weight of Materials, Weights and Measures, Wind Mills, Water Wheels, When a Horse Draws to Advantage, &c. There are extra sheets for monthly and yearly reports, for the use of those who do not live on their farms. The Book will be sent by mail free of postage to any one who will remit the price in money or postage stamps to 121 Main-street." This book is one of the best and most systematic farmers in Virginia; and experienced farmers have expressed the opinion, that those who use it will save hundreds of dollars. "Every farmer who will get one of these Books, and regulate all his movements by its suggestions, cannot fail to realize great benefits from it. We cannot too highly commend it to the consideration of agriculturists."-Richmond Whig. "It will prove a most valuable assistant to the planter, manager or overseer, and a work that will facilitate them greatly in the transaction of business."-Richmond Dispatch. "We hope many Farmers will buy the work, and make an effort to keep things straight."- Southern Planter. "The form is concise and methodical, while it embraces every thing appropriate to such records." -Plough, Loom and Anvil. "It is the result of mature experience and obser vation."--Methodist Quarterly Review. "It is full of useful information."-Richmond Enquirer. "A friend, in whose judgment we have great confidence, and who is one of the best farmers in Virginia, assures us that this publication is one of real value to Southern agriculturists."-- Southern Literary Messenger. This book is also for sale by Booksellers throughout Virginia, and by Little, Brown & Co., Boston; C. M. Saxton and O. A. Roorback, NewYork; E. H. Butler & Co., Lippincott. Grambo & Co., and E. C. & J. Biddle, Philadelphia; Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore; F. Taylor, Washington; H. D. Turner Raleigh, N. C.; H. R. Babcock, and McCarter, Allen & Co., Charleston, S. C.; J. K. Randel & Co., Mobile; B. M. Norman and J. B. Steel, New-Orleans. TRI-WEEKLY CHARLESTON COURIER. Terms: $5 per annum. Published by A. 8. Willington & Co. This is the oldest paper in the Southern country, and yields to no other in the ability with which it is conducted and the expense that is lavished upon its columns. CHARLESTON MERCURY. By Heart & Taber. Postage on the Charleston Mercury, under the new law: Daily Mercury, in South Carolina, 78 cents per $1 50 per annum. annum. Daily Mercury, to any part of the U.S. Carolina, 39 cents per annum. Country Mercury, in South Country Mercury, to any part of the U. S. 78 cents per annum. THE WESTERN CIVILIAN & JOURNAL Published monthly at St. Louis. arts, internal improvements, commerce, public Devoted to agriculture, manufactures, mechanie policy, and polite literature. M. Tarver and H. Cobb, Editors and Proprietors Terms: $3 per annum in advance. SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER. J. R. Thompson. Editor and Proprietor, Richmond. Va. Monthly, 64 pages, (large size,) $5 per annum. Contents-November Number. 1. Voyage to China; 2 Death Punishment; S Literary Coincidences; 4. Virginia Constitution of 1776; 5. Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi: 6. Original Poetry; 7. Editor's Table; 8. New Books. Etc., Etc. BANKER'S MAGAZINE AND STATISTICAL REGISTER. J. Smith Homans, New-York, 167 Broadway. per annum. Contents.-November $5 I. Suffolk Bank System. II. Bank Statistics. 1 New-York. 2. Illinois. III. The Gold Fields of Australia. IV. Recent Pamphlet on the Gold Ques tion. 1. A letter to Thos. Baring on the effects of the Gold Discoverics. 2. A few words on the effect of the increase of Gold upon Currency. 3. Observstions on the effect of the Californian and Australian Gold. V. Lectures on Gold, delivered at the Museum of Practical Geology. VI. A sketch of the business and management of the Bank of England. VII. Banking and Commercal Tables. DE BOW'S REVIEW, A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, STATISTICS, VOL. XIV. ETC., ETC. ESTABLISHED JANUARY 1, 1846. FEBRUARY, 1853. No. 2. ART. 1-THE ISLAND OF CUBA-PAST AND PRESENT. GEOGRAPHY-NATURAL HISTORY-MINERALS-CIVIL AND POLITICAL HISTORY-PRODUCTSSOIL-CLIMATE-HEALTH-POPULATION-GENERAL RESOURCES-REVENUES AND EXPENDI TURES-SYSTEM OF SLAVERY-GOVERNMENT, LAWS, ETC. [WE promised in our last a paper which should examine our political relations with the island of Cuba, but are prevented from giving it by the length of the present article, by a gentleman of New-Orleans, which is full of valuable information, and which it would not have been well to divide. We may say in brief, however, that the administration and laws of the island of Cuba are matters with which we have no more concern than with those of France or Hindostan, except as subjects of history, and that in this regard only we make any reference to them. We do not believe in "manifest destiny," in "forcible intervention," in propagandism of political more than religious tenets, and have quite as little faith in what is called the "Monroe doctrine," but which has come to be a very different thing from what was intended in the sentiments of that cabinet. In regard to Cuba, it will only be necessary for us to quote the opinion which we ventured three years ago in the Review, Vol. IX. 173, and which we have seen nothing yet to change-"No one can doubt at this moment, there is a well fixed and almost universal conviction upon the minds of our people that the possession of Cuba is indispensable to the proper development and security of the country. We state the fact without entering into the reason, or justifying it, that such a conviction exists. Call it the lust of dominion-the restlessness of democracy-the passion for land or gold-or the desire to render our interior impregnable, by commanding the keys of the gulf-the possession of Cuba is still an American sentiment, not to be sure a late, but a growing and strengthening one. There are honorable means of achieving the purpose, and if these fail, the purpose itself becomes dishonorable. ** Let us negotiate with the cabinet of Madrid, as we did with that of Versailles. Perhaps ✶✶✶✶ Should these negotiations fail, honor and the preservation of national faith demand that we give no countenance to any movements hostile to the cause of Spain in the island."]-EDITOR. No portion of the insular world has, of late years, attracted more attention than Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles, the largest, richest, and most beautiful of the West India islands. It is now just 360 years since the eyes of the great Genoese navigator first beheld its bright shores glowing with all the beauty and luxuriance of Flora's fairest tropical creations. Cuba was then a brilliant gem set in the bosom of the ocean, fair * “Antila Americæ dicuntur quasi ante insulas as the fabled isle of Calypso, whose America," says an old historian. The idea was that America was only a large cluster of islands, shores welcomed the wandering Ulysses, instead of a continent, before which, that is, east of and whose sylvan beauties charmed which, lay the Antilles. Some derive the term even the dwellers of Olympus. from the words Ante Ilos, (Forward Islands ;) whilst others assert that in maps drawn before the may well question whether indeed the existence of a new continent was known, the name genius of the author of the Odyssey, Antilla was assigned to the supposed country west of the Azores, and that when Columbus first saw even in fancy, invested the famed the Antilles, he gave them that name in conse- Ogygian isle with half the scenic beauquence. Peter Martyr, who wrote in Latin only ties that find reality, even now, along eight months after the return of Columbus from his first expedition, says: "He gives it out that he the shores of the Queen of the Antilles. has discovered the island Ophir, but after carefully When Columbus, wafted by breezes considering the world, as laid down by cosmogra- from its enchanting groves, first glided phers, those must be the islands called Antillæ." VOL. XIV. 1 We |