The New York Herald Newspaper, December 26, 1853, Page 4

ON ATT A OES SO A a NEW YORK HERALD. JAMES ate hae cel ane ErT, Dy rice N’ W. CORNER OF FULTON AND NASSAU STS. ey cask a sluanee. Sa DAIL O Bw. HERAL, TH BRXLY APRAL! r copy or BY per snmum; the Dur: pean Sdition jouny part of Great Brion, and $8 to amy pabime nt to include poate ‘ALL LETTERS by moti for Subscriptions, or with Adver- Hisements, to be post pid, oF the postaye will be deducted from the Toney Females, z VOLUNTARY CORRESPONDENCE, containing tmpor- tam: news solicited from any quarter of the worbi; if used, will | @ Kberallypasd for BB VOR Fonmen Covassronperts B PARTIOULAKLY REQUMTED TO SEAL ALL Larre: Paewaces sexs ve é NOTICE taken of anonymous communications, We do wot return those ¥% JOB PRINTING executed with neatiness, oheayness, and ADVERTISEMENTS renewed every da’ Ne. 358 METROPOLITAN BALL—Juues's Concent BOWERY THRATKE, Bowery—Afternoon—PLovGHNAN Stunnen Lorp—Cueaky AnD Fain S¥an—Goop FoR formic. Evening—ULp ADAM—SIAMESE 1WIS—JOR LN DON BROADWAY THEATRE, Broadway—CaraRacr OF THE Garces—lne Rexvezvovs. BURTON’? THEATRE, Chambers street—Buack AND Wrare—Marm Wren ree Mrnkine ParL—MuMMY—CHRIST- Bas WY THE OLDEN Trix. NATIONAL THEATRE, Chatham strest—Morning—Lrr- wie Kary. Afternoon and Evening—Uncix Toat’s Cann. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway—Game oy Lire— @up Tix ano New Tivx, AMERICAN MUSEUM—Five Performsness—Hor Corn, @8100’slock in the Morning, and 2 snd 4 in the Afternooa. Rawr Heart Nevaa Won Faia Lavy, at 6 aud 8in the ‘Bvoning. BROADWAY MENAGERIE—Siaese Twins avy Wid Beasts. BOWERY AMPHITHEATRE, 37 Bowery.—BquxsTRiaw RMANCES. CHRISTY’S AMERICAN OPERA HOUSE, 472 Broad- qway.—Brusorian Mezopres ny Cunisry’s MivsTRELs, WOOD'S MINSTRELS, Wood's Minstre] Hall, 441 Broad way.—Eriiorian MinsrR BUCKLEY'S OPERA lio , 539 Broadway.—Bucx- aey’s Eruiorian Opera TROUPE. BANVARD’S GEORAMA, 596 BroadWay.—Pavonamua er vue Lory Lanp. RHENISH GALLERY, 665 Broadwsay.—Day and Evening. BIGNOR BLITZ,—Stuvvesant Ixstirute, 69 Broad- way. ACADEMY HALL, 663 Broadway.—Pernam’s Girr Ex- mmpITiON OF THE SeVEN Mite MikKoR. HOPE CHAPEL, 718 Broadway.—Joxxs’ Payroscors. THE WORLD IN MINIATURE—Broadway, corner of White evreet. oo New York, Monday, December 26, 1853. The News, The most important piece of news in this morn- ing’s paper {is that from Washington in relation to the probable departure of another expedition for Cuba. Thi: intelligence comes from the government. It fs that ax expedition has actually been arranged, and that it has two branches—ene to leave New York ard ‘he other to start from New Orleans. Sey- eral weeks ago a report was in circulation that an expedition was on the eve of departure fron New Orleans; but the papers of that city stated there was no truth in the rumors, We now have the report in amore tangible form, comiog from the government it self, and it is so fulJy believed by the Cabinet that in- structions have been sen‘ North and South to arrest certain parties said to be engaged in the enterprise. We have no doubt of some sort of organization for the purpose of annoying the government of Cuba, and compelling Spain to keep up costly military and naval establishments in and around the island; and if we may believe the aesurances of the Cubans in this country to the Creoles in Cuba, a formidable ex- pedition of at least four thousand men, with a dis- tinguiched Southera general as leader, is in exist- ence, only awaiting an opportunity to invade the Queen cf the Antilles. The mails of the America, from Liverpool to Bos- ten, were delivered in this city at halfpast one @’clock yesterday morning. Our telegraphic advices from Halifax con‘ained all the chief points of the En- yopean news to the 10th instant; but we publish this morning some interesting letters and extracts, waich elucidate s:ill more clearly the position of the Turco- Russian question. England, France, Austria, and Prussia, are now arrayed against the war on she Danube. We must row await the effect of the pro- tocol of these four Powers on Turkey and Russia; we may then kroy the result of the new arrangs- ment. The intelligence from California to the 1st instant, which we published in detail yesterday, possesses many items of tke greatest interest to the inhabitants of the eastern side of the continent. Gold continues $o pour forth from the mines in undiminished abun- dance, as proof of which we learn that at least thre millions of dollars in dust was despatched from San Francisco on the Ist of the month. For the next few nonths, however, it is probable that the shipments will be cornparatively light, owing to the fact that the rainy or winter season had set in, thereby throwing a msjority of the diggers out of employment. But the mivers were not by avy means idle: they were en- gaged in prospecting for new veins of the precious ore, repairing and perfecting their macbinery, and otherwise preparing to reap aricher golden harvest than ever. Their prospects appear unprecedeatedly bright; and with the experience they have acquired, improved machinery, and unflinching perseverance and enterprize, we may expect them, daring the coming summer, to immeasurably surpass all their previous efforts, to the astonish ment and gratification of their frievds and the world at large. No additional information has been received with regard to the expedition to Lower California. Indeed, 80 far as relates to that affsir, the advices published by us two weeke ago were later than had been re ceived in San Francisco op to the lst inst. It was understood there, when the fillibusters left, that they intended to invade and declare the independence of Sonora. Perhaps, after gettiag under way, they changed their course in consequence of the report that Santa Anna had appointed Count Raouseet de Boulbon a colonel in the Mexican army and governor of Sonora. {It being rumored that the Count was on the march, at the head of alarge military force,to take possession of his new post, the fillibusters, only some two hundred strong, may have deened i! prudent to avoid coming in contact with him. Another expe- dition, composed exclusively of Germans, and said to be peaceably disposed, was being formed in San Francisco, for the purpose of proceeding to Sonora and entering into agricultural and mining pursuits ‘We shall, doubtless, soon have more complete and accurate information relative to the movements of the Lower California and the different rumored filli- bustering expeditions on this side of the country, and, perhaps, a message from the President, deli- neating his views upon the subject of such unlawfal forays, and announcing what measures have been adopted to prevent the persons composing them from Jeaving our shoree. ‘The politivians of California were in a great state of excitement concerning the elestion of a successor to Mr. Gwin in the United States Senate. His term does not expire till 1855; nevertheless, @ portion of the democrats desire to “ take time by the forelock,” and prevail upon the Legislature to fill the pros- pective vacuum a year in advance of the proper time. As well might the coming cession of the New York Legislature elect a successor to Mr. Fish, whose term will not ron ont til] 1657. This flareup had eansed a regular split in the democratic ranks of California, and ot last dates the war was raging ‘with a bitterness only equalled by the recent intes- ‘ine commotion inthe ranks of the same party in this State. Foremost in the fight, and prominent as a candidate for the Senatorship, was Mr. David (. Broderick, a graduate of Tammany Hall. As usual, the California journals contain accounts of namerous outrages, iacluding fights, rovberies, yoarders, ynchings, &e ; but, upon the whole, it is quite evident thet the moral condition of the whole eople was gradually Improving. Marriages were gpeys ly abundant, aud these sovial bonds will tend more than anything ¢lee to restrain the angry pas ‘sions, and refine the feelings of men, until society becomes a8 pure there as in other parts of the world. Little was doing in the wholesale markets, and the warehouses were, there cre, still abundantly stoeked with goods. The jobb'ng trade for the interior was rather more brisk,“but there had been no material alteration in prices. The emigrants bound fer Oregon bad of !ate suf- fered mest severely on the plains. Many of them havirg exbausted their supplies of food, and the severe weather haying destroyed the grass and driven the game from beyond their reach, they were reduced to the necessity of subsisting upon horze- flesh, roots, bark, and such other masticable articles as fell in their way. Large numbers of them had already starved to death, and the condition of the survivors was represented as deplorable in the extreme. The letters from our Granada, Nicaragaa, corres- pondent contain a variety of interesting information relative to the distracted condition of affairs in the Central American States. The exeitement with re- gard to the attempted revolution in Nicaragua had died away; the leaders had fled, and the government had relapsed into its wonted feeling of security on that score. An agent had arrived with full powers to arrange with the government the difficulty with the Accessory Transit Company. The war between Honduras and Guatemala was still progressing with great vigor. The difficulty is likely to lead to a gene- ral revolution and overthrow of both governments, in which Nicaragua will be involved and may go down in the crash. Advices from Havana to the 22d inst. state that the new Captain General had given notice of his in- tention to use every exertion to prevent the landing of slaves. While declaring that he will endeavor to intercept and bring to justice those engaged in the nefarious practice, be remarks that he cannot inter- fere with the negroes after they have been landed, although it may be apparent that they are freshly imported. Qaite a brisk business was being done in the markets. £ee the Cnarleston despatch. The gale on Friday night appears to have done great damage to the vessels in Delaware Bay. Seve- ral were driven ashore, ané an unknown sshooner was wrecked near Cape May and all on board perish- ed. As yet we have not heard that any material damage was done by the storm in this vicinity. Forty-five thousand dollars worth of property was destroyed by fire in Bristol, R. I.,yesterday morning. The Judges in General Term, Supreme Court, de- cided on Saturday last in favor of the validity of the will of the late John Mason, thus sustaining the ver- dict of the jury, aad putting an end to further liti- gation in this long contested case. The written opinions of Judges Roosevelt and Morris, the majori- ty of the Court—Judge Mitchell dissenting—will be ready for publication to-morrow. The Cuban Democratic Athenzeum held its usual weekly meeting last evening, when Senor M. H. Ramirez spoke upon the geography of Cuba, ané Professor M. I. Toloz delivered his second lecture ugon the constitution of the United States. We give a report of the proceedings. Besides mucthother interesting intelligence, our pages to-day contain full particulars of the fatal ex- plosion on board the steamer Zachary Taylor, on the Ohio river; entertaining letters from our Boston, Missouri, and Paita correspondents ; movements of the anti-renters; monetary and trade reports, in- cluding the weekly statement of the fiaances of the city banks, &. Christmas day haying fallen on the Sabbath, this day will of course be observed as a holiday in most parts of the country. No business wiil be transacted in the custom house, barks, law courts, and other public institutions in this city. We elsewhere give reports of some of the religious ceremonies in our churches yesterday, and to-morrow shall furnish full particulars of the festivities to-day, besides the lead- ing political and general domestic news, and probably four days’ later intelligence from Ecrope, now hourly expected by the Collins steamer Pacific. ae Great Question of the Day—Where are we Golng t Congress has not been in session a month, and already the slavery sore has been re- opened and probed afresh,| As might have been expected, Gerrit Smith’s Congressional debut wasa violent onslaught on the institutions of the South ; and though the forbearance with which he was heard, and the temperate tone in which he was answered, establish satisfactorily that he will enjoy a monopoly of appeals to fanati- cism, intolerance and passion, we cannot reasonably expect that such eloquence as his will contribute to strengthen a friendly feeling between members from the different sections of the country. Even without the light which the spread of secessionism throws on the tendency of public opinion in the Slave States, we should not be at a loss to delineate the inevitable con- sequences of the agitation which is going on around us. The persevering efforts of the agitators of the North must bring forth their fruits both here and elsewhere. Some of those fruits are already before us. The comprothise is contemptuously shorn off its leading provi- sions by the government at Washington. A fresh lease of power is awarded to William H Seward in this State. The anti-slavery organs throughout the country are preparing to renew the siruggle with more zeal and activity than ever. Van Burenism revives in New York and the Vational Era prepares to issue a daily. Throughout the South—in Georgia, Mis- sissippi, and Alabama—public confidence is denied to politicians who are suspected ot fidelity to the Union.¢ Every sign distinct. tells us that the slavery quéstion is coming up anew in a more formidable shape than ever. It first entered into the politics of this coun- try at the formation of the constitution; but its dapgers were then averted by the wisdom and patriotiem of our ancestors. For half a century it slumbered—sometimes rising to the surface in a political debate—but never interfering seriously with the peace of the Union, until, some twenty years ago, it was geized and brought prominently forward by the anti-slav- ery fuctions of the North. It was not in its origin what we see it now—a moral and reli- gious crusade against slavery. The moral wrong of the Southern institution is quite a new discovery. Slavery was not abolished in the North in consequence of its moral iniquity, but simply because immigration supplied free labor at a lower cost than slave labor involved. It was abolished here as soon as it became un- profitable; and at the time the anti-slavery movement was commenced the bulk of think- ing men regarded its existence in the South as a temporary state of things, destined to ccase as soon as the increase of population cheapened the price of free labor. This was, we venture to say, the light in which slavery was viewed throughout the Union some twenty-five years ago. othe abolition leaders adopted a new view of the matter. They took high moral ground against slavery, and enlisted the fanatical sen- timents of many religious bodies in the North in their crusade. They agsailed the South with the virulence of pereonal enmity, and aroused a susceptibility on the part of our Southern fellow citizens which had been unknown be fore. Hence, in a very short while, two en- tirely new parties were called into existence ; the one, demanding the immediate abolition of slavery, in obedience to their fanatical instincts; ihe other, insisting on ite preservation, as mach as a matter of pride as of yolicy, and growing more irritable and more bitter against the North in proportion to the violence of the anti- slavery aseaults. For twenty years this party organization has served no other purpose than that of poli- tical intrigue. J¢ has been used by all parties: The whigs have used it to serve their ends; the democrats have turned it to equally good ac- count. W. H. Seward used it to rise to power, Martin Van Buren to defeat Cass, General Pierce to become President ofthe United States. It assumed a more practical and dangerous cbaracter in 1850, when California was proposed as a State of the Union, and for some time threatened the peace of the country. The crisis was, however, of brief duration. Stript of its dangers by the patriotic men who composed the Senate of that day, the slavery question again disappeared from public view; and there were many who indulged the hope that the compromise measures had effected its final set- tlement. There were statesmen who did not scruple to ayow their sanguine conviction that the slavery controversy would never more disturb our domestic peace. How erroneous was this belief we now see in the facts recorded above. The slavery ques- tion is again reopened. Nay more, itis naw the only question before the people—the only living principle of action—the only substantial groundwork for political argument or party organization. All other controversies and par- ties have died out. The names survive, but they are mere shadows of realities—ghosts of principles now sleeping in the grave. The slavery battle has yet to be fought. Twenty years of local agitation have not brought us one inch nearer its solution, or diminished either its danger or its interest. We may shirk it fora while, or gloss over the perils with which it is fraught; but the people of this country must rest under no delusion on the point—so long as Northern agitators exist it will always revive and reappear at periodical intervals—each time in a more practical, a more immediate, a more formidable shape than before. At the hour we write we are hurrying on to- wards the fatal dénouement. The solution of a question in which the happiness of the whole people and the prosperity of the Union are in- volved is ‘rapidly, approaching. Every step taken by the agitators widens the gap between usand the South, and begets a similar and equally dangerous movement in the slave States. Every such debate as that provoked by Gerrit Smith aggravates our position. Every abolitionist contributes his share to- wards the ruin of our national hopes and the frustration of our noblest projects. For, in yielding to his fanatical instincts, and heaping calumny on the South, he is in no wise serving§ the cause of religion or morality His efforts produce one result, and one only. They alienate the South from the North, feed the flame of secession, and familiarize our Southern brethren with the fatal idea of separation and disunion. Whether he call himself an abolitionist or a free soiler, or adopt any other party designation, if he make war on slavery, this is the only triumph he can win: the dissolution of the Union, and the prostration of our power the only substan tial conquest he can achieve. The bitterness of that sad prospect would be somewhat mitigated if we could reflect that our rulers were using their influence and au- thority to ward of the impending disaster. In- stead of this being the case, unhappily, we see the President and his Cabinet, with professions of love for the Union on their lips, actively be- stirring themselves to strengthen the abolition porty—giving comfort to the free soilers in the North—reviving the Van Buren dynasty—and invariably sympathizing with the foes of the Union in the South. Foremost in the van of the traitors who are hurrying on our beloved country towards a'consummation that is appall- ing to contemplate, stand the President of the United States and his advisers. It may be folly ; it may be blindness ; it may be wilful treachery. Whatever be their mo- tive, it is certain that these men whom we placed in power, believing them to he friends of the Union, are now its worst foes, and have contributed not a litile to resuscitate the sla- very question at this early period of their ad- ministrative career, by the policy they have pursued and the appointments they have made in New York and the North. Whe Real Revolution in Ireland. By recent intelligence from Ireland we learn that a revolution is going forward in that country ; not a sanguinary one, such as John Mitchel and his compatriots wished to bring about—not “a Slievegammon” affair, such as was announced in the New York Tribune in 1848—but a veritable revolution, silent, peace- ful. and bloodless. Its progress is gradual and slow, but not the less sure. It is a social revo- lution, breaking up to a very considerable ex- tent, some of the feudal institutions which lie at the bottom of the misery and misfortunes of the Irish race. It is a revolution in the owner- ship of the soil, indirectly abrogating the law of primogeniture, and creating 1 numerous glass of small proprietors, who will introduce the best system of cultivation, expend their capital in improvements, and employ at ad- vanced wages the idle labor in the market. We allude to the operation of the Encumber- ed Estates act—a meagure that has done more practical good, during the four years that it has been a law, than all the bills that have been enacted for Ireland during the last half century. What was it that brought this wholesome mensure of reform? We shall endeavor to an- swer. John Mitchel and the Youg Ireland party, though they failed in the revolution that they contemplated, succeeded in accomplishing two things—first, they got rid of O’Connellism; and, secondly, they forced the attention of the British Parliement to the actual condition of the country. As longas the O'Connell dynasty reigned, nothing couldjbe done for the ame- Hioration of Ireland. Its grand aim wae per- sonal aggrandisement and the acquisition of places under the British government for O’Con- nell’s relatives, friends, and all that long train ot followers familiarly known os his “ tail.” The agitation was used for this purpose, and not torevolutionize the country in any sense. The Young Ireland party were in earnest; and having exploded the O'Connell delusion, they went to work in such a way a9 to command the attention of the government and Parliament of England. Mitchel struck the keynote in the Trish heart by touching oa the land question He struck it again and again, and till he was sent away as “a felon” in chains, that was etill the burden of his song. British statesmen saw that here lay the danger, aad that, though they had caged one lad revola- tionist, another might soon arise. They saw that this wae a practical question of bread or starvation—life or death—and that if agi- tated it would unite the agricultural popula- tion from the Giant's Cayseway to Cape Clear and from Connemara to the Hill of Howth. Having suppressed the meditated iusurrec- tion, they addressed themselves to the work of land reform. The Eacumbered Estates act was the fruit of their labors. What is the nature of that measure ? By the law of primogeniture and of entailed estates not only were large quantities of land —square miles of the choicest of the soil—held by a single landlord, but, no matter what amount ef debt was incurred by him, no mat- ter how his estate was mortgaged and en- cumbered, it could not be sold, for it must descend to his heir unbroken, and by his death the whole debt was wiped away, the inheritor being under no obligation whatever to dis- charge it. By this system the creditors were robbed, the cultivation of the land was neglect- ed, the great proprietor absented himself in London or Paris, where he wallowed in luxury; and to enable him to pay the enormous interest of the loans raised, the very vitals of his tenants were squeezed out by agents and drivers in the shape of “rack rents.” Thus, the fruits of the soil were borne away to enrich other lands, and Ireland was impoverished. The bill ap- plied a remedy, by forcing the sale of encum- bered estates, the object of which was both tq pay the creditors as faras the produce of the sale s went, and, by selling the property in lots, to break up and divide large estates into small ones. The extent to which the estates that have been sold were encumbered would be in- credible were it not demonstrated by proccss of law. The mortgages have been actually found to be four times the value of the pro- perty, and the estates which sold for ten mil- lions and a half pounds sterling, were encum- bered to the tune of some forty-five millions. Such is the profligacy of the Irish landocracy. Since 1849 up to the present time 1,691,702 acres, or one-twelfth of the whole area of the island, have been sold by the commissioners under this law; and instead of 1,081 owners, who possessed all that property before, it has now passed into the hands of 4,214 proprietors. Thus, instead of estates averaging 1,564 acres, held each by a single “lord of the soil,” the million and two-thirds of a million of acres are apportioned into farms averaging 400 acres. Among the old proprietors were the follow- 3 Honorables. . 17 Bawonets .. 2 Knights... 5 6 Members of Parliament. 7 7 ~=Ex-Mem. Parliament. .18 Of the new proprietors, who have replaced such useless live lumber, 2,718 are small capi- talists or farmers, none of whose purchases exceed £2,000. The total produce of the sales was £10,430,463, The total number of pur- chasers, including English and Scotch, was 4,214, of whom 1,790 were for £1,000 and under ; 929 for £1,000 to £2,000; 868 for £2,000 to £5,000; 463 for £5,000 to £10,000; 134 for £10,000 to £20,000; and 30 for £30,000 and upwards. When this measure was first in- troduced into Parliament, it was apprehended by some of the Irish papers that Englishmen and Scotchmen would get possession of the whole island. But what is the fact? Out of all the purchasers only 181 are not Irish ; and of the purchase money upwards of eight mil- lions of pounds is Irish capital—proving that the country has still the means of developing its own resources without foreign assistance. If this process goes on at the same rate that it has done for the last few years, instead of ten thousand proprietors, there will soon be forty or fifty thousand, and instead of nominal proprie- torship and absenteeism, there will be actual resident owners, with real interests and sub- stantial responsibilities. Already the effect of this measure is felt in the gencral improvement ofthe condition of the people and the advance of wages for farming to more than double what it formerly was. No doubt the decrease of popu- lation from the ravages of the famine and the immense emigration will partly account for the increased demand for labor and a greater supply of food, because there are fewer mouths to con- sume it; but this does not entirely explain the phenomenon, and there can be no doubt that the operation of the Encumbered Estates act has much to do with the present gratifying evi- dences of improvement. It is true that it will not produce political elevation; but, with other measures of a kindred character, it may ulti- mately lead to political independence. Edmund Burke well said that all reform must begin with the stomach. Physical prosperity begets intelligence and education, and out of these spring personal independence and political lib- erty. The social revolution must be completed before the political begins. If so small a measure as the Encumbered Estates act has done so much good, what amount of improvement might we not ex- pect from a total abolition of the law of pri- mogeniture in Ireland, and the establishment of tenant right all over the island? Then indeed would the solitary place rejoice, the decert blossom as the rose, and the problem of freedom be gradnally worked out. In adverting to this measure, twelve months ago, the London Times, after enumer- ating all the nostrums that bad been admi- nistered to Ireland for long series of years by the quackery of British legislation, proceeds to say that this is “the last conceiva- ble experiment for the social regeneration of Ireland.” There is just one other experiment that has not yet been tried, and that is to let the Irish people make their own laws. This would be an experiment on a grand scale, and commensurate with the extent of the evils and wrongs which cry aloud for remedy and redress. If that failed, we know of nothing else that would be effectual unless the panacea proposed by Sir Joseph Yorke--to put the is!and under water for twenty-four hours. John Mitchel would probably prefer baptising it in the blood of a terrible revolation, in order that a rempant might be saved, and, 83 was done in France, destroying at a single blow the whole landed aristocracy, that the peasant farmers might forever after enjoy the fruits of their toil in the land that save them birth. This remedy might prove effectual enough; but the difficul- tiewin the way of applying it at present are tremendong, if not ineupcrable. Arcupisnor Huones’ Deranture—We un- derstand that Archbishop Hughes obtained his passports on Saturday, fur Cuba, where he intends to spend a portion of the winter. His Grace, we are informed, has not enjoyed as good health as usual of late; symptoms of a disease of the lungs have alarmed his physi- cians, and induced them to recommend a war- mer climate for the winter months. We trust the change of air will be preductive of the de- tired results, and that the Archbishop wil! re- turn perfectly restored in the spring. The Sandwich Islands. The Consuls of England ard France have offi- cially protested against the annexation of these islands to the United States, and have charged our American missionaries with an attempt to effect this. Our Commissioner, the Hon. Luther Severance, has replied to the protest with proper spirit, has repelled the charge brought against the missionaries, and has boldly denied the right of any foreign government to prevent a negotiation which may aim at results deemed desirable by the Hawaiian government and the United States. In a political, as well as a moral point of view, these islands may justly be regarded by us, at the present crisis, with peculiar interest, Frem our Pacific borfer we are naturally look- ing out towards Asia. There have long existed powerfu) considerations for our directing com- mercial enterprise to the alluring shores of that continent with increased vigor. The declared object of our national expedition to Japan, and the distinctly understood new duties that are to devolve upon our Minister to China,. mark an important epoch in our relations to those countries, aud are proemial to attractive and perbaps stirring scenes, in which the Anglo Saxon is to mingle, far more familiarly than he has hitherto done, with the Mongul and the Malay, and to make these Oriental races feel the power of his world-pervading influence upon human destiny. The geographical position of the Sandwich Islands, the most northern of the Polynesian groups, and one-third the way from California to China and Australia, together with the desir- able advantages they offer for harborage and ship supplies to vessels in their transit to the ocean “far west,” constitute them a suitable stopping-place, which nature, in her kind pro- vision for voyagers on the Pacific, has admirably ordered and constructed as the world’s depot. Once arrived at this snug harbor, vessels westward bound may re- ly with confidence upon the regular and stropg east trade winds to waft them onward expeditiously. The speediest way to India for vessels doubling the Cape is to sail first for the Galapagos, and thence to the Sand- wich Islands, for the Lenefit of these winds. In the southern half of the Pacific the trade winds are irregular, but from the latitude of this group of islands they are strong and steady. John Quincy Adams, a few years ago, when he was Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, expressed the opinion that America is united to the Hawaiian government by a power- ful and peculiarly interesting bond of national fraternity, He was familiar with the fact that American Christian missionaries were the means of a social transformation, in the case of these islanders, that is truly wonderful, and, in some respects, unique in the world’s history. Withia the last forty years of his life he had seen a race ‘of rude savages and idolaters become a civi- lized people, claiming a place among the inde- pendent nations of Christendom. “‘It is,” said Mr. Adams, “a subject of cheering contempla- tion to the friends of human improvement and virtue, that, by the mild and gentle influence of Christian charity, dispensed by humble mis- sionaries of the gospel, unarmed with secular power, within the last quarter of a century, the people of this group of islands have been con- verted from the lowest debasement of idolatry to the blessings of the Christian gospel ; united under one balanced government ; rallied to the fold of civilization by a written language and constitution, providing security for the rights of persons, property, and mind, and invested with all the elements of right and power which can entitle them to be acknowledged by their brethren of the human race as a separate and independent community. To the consumma- tion of their acknowledgment, the people of the North American Union are urged by an interest of their own, deeper than that of any other por- tion of the inhabitants of the earth, by a vir- tual right of conquest, not over the freedom of their brother man by the brutal arm of physi- cal power, but over the mind and heart, by the celestial panoply of the gospel of peace and love.” In the history of progress the case of this people is a remarkable moral and social phe- nomenon. <A part only of the islands was first known to Europe, through the discoveries of Captain Cook, in the year 1778, just three- quarters of a century since. Subsequent to that time much additional information has been obtained, a:d new discoveries been made by the successive visits of Portlock, Dixon, La Perouse, and Vancouver. Sixty years ago our American whalers in the South Seas first made Hawaii one of their trysting-places ; and then the fur traders, on their way from our North- west coast to China, availed themselves of the singular advantages of this stopping-place on the ocean highway. On the tropical circle, in the same latitude as Cuba, plentifully yielding taro, camotes, yams, oheas, cocoanuts, breadfruit, bananas, strawberries, and cape gooseberries, and other delicious fruits, such as oranges, mangoes, citrons, grapes, watermelons, pineapples, pome- granates, and sugar cane—its waters abound- ing in fish, one of its rivers supplying valua- ble pearls, its lakes furnishing rich supplies of salt, and its forests affording for export ‘the precious sandal-wood, so much used for reli- gious purposes by the Chinese—these happy islands soon allured the appetite of luxury and the adventures of commercial enterprise. The cluster, which consists of thirteen islands, five of which are inconsiderable, is the most northern of the numerous island families that constitute that Realm of Many Isles— * Polynesia.” Hawaii, formerly called Owyhee, the largest, ana at the southeast part of the cluster, is twice os large as all the rest together. Its form is triangular, and its extent is about a hundred miles from gorth to south, and nearly eighty miles in its broadest part, covering an area of forty-six hundred square miles, and having the same superficies as Connecticut. It is as long as Long Island, and about three times as broad. Byron’s Bay, on its eastern shore, a spacious and safe harbor, lying north and south, is about eleven fathoms deep, and is protected from the northeast wind by an ex- tensive coral reef. Along the shores, extending several miles toward the interior, there are afforded, by a rich alluvial soil, the most abundant vegetable products. There are seen, also, from the seabeard, dense forests of acacias. which supply the natives with their canoes, There are, also, in abundance, wanti- trees and paper mulberries. In the interior is one wide extended area of table-land, eight thou- sand feet above the cea level—a vast desert, the repository of volcanic lava, which bas for azo« been accumulating its deposits. The whole re- gion is volcanic. Mouna Kea, fourteen th u- sand feet in height ; Mouna Loa, sixteea hundred fee: ; Mouna Houalalai, ten thousand feet ; and Kiraues, four thousand feet; are mighty and fear- ful exponents of the facts which, at every glance arrest the attention and awaken the astonish- ment of the spectator, Kea is now mute and quict. The present crater of Loa is six and » half miles in circumference ; its ancient crater has a cireumference of twenty-four miles. Ho- ualalai, with its numerous cone peaks, is stil). disquieted. Fifty-three yearsago its eruptions were tremendous ; in 1832 the surrounding re- gion was, for three days, fearfully desolated by an earthquake and volcanic eruptions ; and in 1840 and recently these eruptions have been renewed. Kirauea, with its two lakes of liquid fire, (one of which bas an area of eighty thou- sand square feet, and the other a glowing sur- face nearly ten times as great,) spouting molten lava to the height of sixty or seventy feet, pours out with furious ebullitions, and rolls its fierce lava streams for'forty miles, until they enter a wide abyss, or vast lake of fire, and eventually quench themselves in the waters of the ocean, Oahu, the next island in size, with an area of seven hundred square miles, exceedingly irregu- Jar in outline. and traversed by two ranges of mountains three thousand fect above the sea, is the chief mart of commerce and the seat of government. Here rich alluvial soil, ten miles along the shore and three miles wide, forms a highly cultivated plain, in which is situated Honolulu, the capital city of the whole group. Its harbor, about halt amile long, and a quarter of a mile broad, is remarkable for its safety at all seasons. The two islands next in size to Oahu are Kauai—The Beautitul—(680 square miles,) and Maui, (600 square miles,) with its well wooded mountains, and its good harbor of Lahaina. Molokai, (200 square miles,) is a huge mass of volcanic rocke, with a few fertile spots along the shores; and so also is Lanai, (120 square miles.) with its volcanic barrens. The most western of the group. Nihau, (86 square miles,) has very good harbor on the west; but this island and Kahoolawee, (60 square miles,) have @ thin soil, avd in general are very unproduc- tive. The remainder of the group are small and unimportant. On the west coast of Hawaii there are two: harbors. One is at Kawaihae, and another, further south, at Kealakekua, which is, how- ever, too deep for anchorage, except near the rocky shore. This spot, Kealakekua, is mourn- fully associated with the name of Capt. Cook, killed there by the natives, in 1779. The me- lancholy catastrophe is without any relief, from the fact that the superstitious associations connected with his death won for him from, the natives a species of apotheosis—his bones hay- ing been, for almost half a century, preserved by the priests of Rono in their temples, and, until the national abolition of idolatry, ia the year 1819, having received religious worship. . The present population of the islands consists chiefly of three classes: Natives, Americans, and Englishmen. The natives call themselves Kanaka. They are very like Malays,\ with olive complexions, and other well-known char- acteristics of the Malay race. They are of middle stature, and have fine muscular forms and open countenaaces, with a mild, frank ex- pression, indicative of their naturally amiable dispositions. They are very unlike our abori- ginal red men. Instead of our Indian’s solemn gravity, the Kanaka has a bright, cheerful emile, which readily kindles and blends with that cf the Anglo-Saxon. Under the whole- some influence of sound moral training, such has been the rapid and sure progress of the Sandwich islanders that they have actually be- come patterns for our imitation in some quali- ties that deserve to be recorded. Judge Lee, an American by birth, the present Chief Jus- tice of the islands, says of them, in his official report to the government, in 1853:—“ It is our duty to add the universal remark, that in no part of the world are life and property more safe than in these islands. Murders, robberies, and the higher class of felonies, are quite un- known here, and in city and country we retira to our sleep conscious of the most entire secu- rity. The stranger may travel from one end of the group to the other, over mountains and through woods, sleeping in grass huts, unarmed, alone and unprotected, with any amount of treasure on his person, ané, with a tithe of the vigilance required in older aud more civilized countries, go unrobbed ofa perny. Where does the world. afford « parallel of equal security?” Well may the present king say, in the language of a devout heart, “ God has been very good to me and my people.” It is but thirty-three years since the Ameri- can missionaries first visited the Sandwich Islands. A great struggle between several rival chiefs had ended in the acknowledged supremacy of Kamehameha, In the year 1817, he placed his kingdom under the protection of the British government. His son and succes- sor, Rhio-Rhio, abolished idoistry in the year 1819, and visited England, where he died, at London, in the year 1824. Since his time there has been no interruption in the progress of civ- ilization. The Hawaiians have destroyed their idols, burned their temples, abolished human sacrifices and taboos, and become, in all re- spects, a Christian nation. From a state of the very deepest moral degradation they have been. elevated to the position of an enlightened people, remarkable for purity of morals and for general benevolence. They have a constitutional gov- ernment and wholesome laws. They have court-houses, courts of justice, a criminal code and reported trials in the courts; custom- houses, market-houses, prisons, roads and bridges ; water brought in iron pipes from the mountains to Honolulu; and mails from the United States every two weeks. Their language, which is a dialect of the Ma- lay, has been reduced to writing, and is pos- seseed of some peculiar and very remarkable forms of words, (especially in the pronouns ex- pressing in one word “Thou and I,” “He and I,’ “She and I,”) which deserve the notice of linguists. There is a chartered college at Honolulu, a seminary at Lahainaluna, a royal school, near- ly four hundred and fifty public schools, with. fifteen hundred scholars, sustained by the goy- ernment, and twenty-six churches, some of which are of the largest caihedral size, Two hundred millions of pages of books in the vernacular dialect have been printed for the people during the last thirty years. The Hawaiians are now themselves sending missionaries to the Micronesian, the Marquesas, and other island groups of the South Seas. Sixteen of the native churches last year contributed $24,000 to this beneyvo- lent enterprise. The appropriation made by the Iiswaiian government to the cause of pub- lic instruction, for the year 1853, has been $47,- 736, and for other purposes $270,000. The legislature of the island consists of a House of Nobles and a House of Representa tives, chosen by ballot at the polls, Progres