Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI, November 1850, Vol. I

From California we have intelligence to the 15th of September. The disturbances at Sacramento City, growing out of resistance to the land claims, have entirely subsided, the squatters having been dispersed. Three or four persons were killed upon each side in the riots of which we have already given an account. A gentleman had arrived in California deputed by Mr. Letcher, U.S. Minister in Mexico, to attend to the settlement of land titles. He had expressed the belief that most of the grants made by the Governors before the acquisition of California by the United States will be confirmed by our Government, on the evidence Mr. Letcher is prepared to furnish from the official records in the city of Mexico, as to the invariable practice of the Mexican Government in this particular. His assurances upon the subject had given general satisfaction. – Early in September there was a complete panic in the money market at San Francisco, and several of the most prominent houses had failed. Confidence, however, had been fully restored at the date of our latest advices. The losses by the three great fires which had visited the city were supposed to have occasioned the monetary difficulties. – Fears were entertained that the overland emigrants would suffer greatly during the present season. It was believed that ten thousand were on the way who had not crossed the Great Desert, one half of whom would be destitute of subsistence and teams on reaching Carson River. They had been deceived into taking a longer and more difficult route, and had lost most of their animals, and not unfrequently men, women, and children had sunk under the hardships of the road, and perished of hunger or thirst. – Indian difficulties still continued in different parts of California, the troops and citizens were making some progress in breaking up the bands which caused them the most difficulty. – The accounts from the mines continue to be highly encouraging. It is unnecessary to give in detail the reports from the various localities; they were all yielding abundant returns. It was believed that much larger quantities of gold will be taken from the mines this season than ever before. – From the 1st of August to Sept. 13th, there arrived at San Francisco by sea 5940 persons, and 4672 had left. – The tax upon foreign miners does not succeed as a revenue measure. – The expedition which sailed in July last to the Klamath and Umpqua rivers, has returned to San Francisco. It has been ascertained that the Klamath and Trinity unite, and form the river which discharges its waters into the sea, in latitude 41° 34´ north, and that there is no river answering to the description of the Klamath, in 42° 26´, as laid down in the charts of Frémont and Wilkes. From this river, the expedition visited the Umpqua, which they found to have an opening into the sea, of nearly one mile in width, with some three or four fathoms of water on the bar, and navigable about thirty miles up, when it opens into a rich agricultural district.

From Oregon our advices are to Sept. 2. There is no news of general interest. The country seems to be steadily prosperous. New towns are springing up at every accessible point, and a commercial interest being awakened that is highly commendable. The frequency of communication by steam between California and Oregon strongly identifies their interests.

From England there is no intelligence of much interest. The reception of Baron Haynau by the brewers of London has engaged the attention, and excited the discussion of all the organs of opinion in Europe. Most of the English journals condemn in the most earnest language the conduct of the mob, as disgraceful to the country, while only a few of them express any special sympathy with the victim of it. The London Times is more zealous in his defense than any other paper. It not only denounces the treatment he received at the hands of the English populace, but endeavors to vindicate him from the crimes laid to his charge, and assails the Hungarian officers and soldiers in turn with great bitterness. In its anxiety to apologize for Haynau, it asserts that English officers, and among them the Duke of Wellington and General Sir Lacy Evans, committed acts during their campaigns quite as severe as those with which he is charged. This line of defense, however, avails but little with the English people. The public sentiment is unanimous in branding Haynau as one of the most ruthless monsters of modern times, and the verdict is abundantly sustained by the incidents and deeds of his late campaigns. After his expulsion from England he returned to Austria, being received with execrations and indignities at several cities on his route. – Further advices have been received from the Arctic Expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin, but they contain no satisfactory intelligence. A report, derived from an Esquimaux Indian whom Sir John Ross met near the northern extremity of Baffin's Bay, states that in the winter of 1846 two ships were broken by the ice a good way off from that place, and destroyed by the natives, and that the officers and crews, being without ammunition, were killed by the Indians. The story is very loosely stated, and is generally discredited in England. The vessel, Prince Albert, attached to the Expedition, has arrived at Aberdeen, and announced the discovery, at Cape Reilley and Beechy Island, at the entrance of the Wellington Channel, of traces of five places where tents had been fixed, of great quantities of beef, pork, and birds' bones, and of a piece of rope with the Woolwich mark upon it. These were considered, with slight grounds, however, undoubted traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition. The exploring vessels were pushing boldly up Wellington Channel. – The preparations for the great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, are going on rapidly and satisfactorily. In nearly every country of Europe, extensive arrangements are in progress for taking part in it, while in London the erection of the necessary buildings is steadily going forward. – A curious and interesting correspondence with respect to the cultivation of cotton in Liberia has taken place between President Roberts, of Liberia, Lord Palmerston, the Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester, tending to show that cotton may be made a most important article of cultivation in the African republic. – Lord Clarendon has been making the tour of Ireland, and has been received in a very friendly manner by the people of every part of the island. He took every opportunity of encouraging the people to rely upon their own industry and character for prosperity, and pledged the cordial co-operation of the country in all measures that seemed likely to afford them substantial aid or relief. – The statutes constituting the Queen's University in Ireland have received the sanction of the Queen, and gone into effect. – A Captain Mogg has been tried and fined for endangering lives by setting the wheels of his steamboat in operation while a number of skiffs and other light boats were in his immediate vicinity. – The ship Indian, a fine East Indiaman, was wrecked on the 4th of April, near the Mauritius. She struck upon a reef and almost immediately went to pieces. The utmost consternation prevailed among the officers and crew. The captain seized and lowered the boat, and with eight seamen left the ship: they were never heard of again. Those who remained succeeded in constructing a rude raft, on which they lived fourteen days, suffering greatly from hunger and thirst, and were finally rescued by a passing ship. – Two steamers, the Superb and Polka, were lost, the former on the 16th, and the latter on the 24th, between the island of Jersey and St. Malo. No lives were lost by the Superb, but ten persons perished in the wreck of the Polka. – The Queen has been visiting Scotland. – Some of the Irish papers have been telling astounding stories of apparitions of the Great Sea Serpent. A Mr. T. Buckley, writing from Kinsale on the 11th instant, informs the Cork Reporter that he was induced by some friends to go to sea, in the hope of falling in with the interesting stranger, and that he was not long kept in suspense, for "a little to the west of the Old Head the monster appeared." Its size, he truly avers, is beyond all description, and the head, he adds, very like a (bottle-nose) whale. One of the party fired the usual number of shots, but, of course, without effect.

Of Literary Intelligence there is but little in any quarter. A good deal of interest has been excited by a discreditable attack made by the Whig Review upon the distinguished author Mr. G.P.R. James. The Review discovered in an old number of the Dublin University Magazine some verses written by Mr. James for a friend who without his knowledge sent them for publication. They were upon the clamor that was then afloat about war between England and the United States: Mr. James, alluding to the threats from America against England, had said that "bankrupt states were blustering high;" and had also spoken of Slavery in the United States as a "living lie," which British hands in the event of a war, would wipe out and let their bondmen free. The Review denounces Mr. James, in very coarse and abusive terms for the poem, and seeks to excite against him the hostility of the American people. The matter was commented upon in several of the journals, and Mr. James wrote a manly letter to his legal adviser Mr. M.B. Field, which is published in the Courier and Enquirer, in which he avows himself the author of the verses in question, explains the circumstances under which they were written, and urges the injustice of making them the ground of censure or complaint. His letter has been received with favor by the press generally, which condemns the unjust and unwarrantable assault of the Review upon the character of this distinguished author. It is stated that Mr. James intends to become an American citizen, and that he has already taken the preliminary legal steps. – The principal publishers are engaged in preparing gift-books for the coming holidays. The Appletons have issued a very elegant and attractive work, entitled "Our Saviour with Prophets and Apostles," containing eighteen highly finished steel engravings, with descriptions by leading American divines. It is edited by Rev. Dr. Wainwright and forms one of the most splendid volumes ever issued in this country. They have also issued a very interesting volume of Tales by Miss Maria J. McIntosh, entitled "Evenings at Donaldson Manor," which will be popular beyond the circle for which it is immediately designed. – Other works have been issued of which notices will more appropriately be found in another department of this Magazine. – The English market for the month is entirely destitute of literary novelties. – A series of interesting experiments has been undertaken by order of Government, for the purpose of testing the value of iron as a material for the construction of war-steamers. When the vessels are comparatively slight, it is found that a shot going through the side exposed, makes a clean hole of its own size, which might be readily stopped; but on the opposite side of the vessel the effect is terrific, tearing off large sheets; and even when the shot goes through, the rough edges being on the outside, it is almost impossible to stop the hole. If the vessels are more substantially constructed the principal injury takes place on the side exposed; and this is so great that two or three shot, or even a single one, striking below water line, would endanger the ship. As the result of the whole series of experiments, the opinion is expressed that iron, whether used alone or in combination with wood, can not be beneficially used for the construction of vessels of war. – The wires of the submarine telegraph having been found too weak to withstand the force of the waves, it has been determined to incase the wires in a ten-inch cable, composed of what is called "whipped plait," with wire rope, all of it chemically prepared so as to protect it from rot, and bituminized. A wire thus prepared is calculated to last for twenty years. – In the allotment of space in the Industrial Exhibition, 85,000 square feet have been assigned to the United States; 60,000 to India; 47,050 to the remaining British colonies and possessions; 5000 to China. Hamburg asked for 28,800, and France for 100,000 feet. Commissions have been formed in Austria, Spain, and Turkey. – A correspondent of the Chronicle says that the great beauty of the leaves of some American trees and plants renders them an appropriate article of ornament, and suggests that specimens preserved be sent to the Exhibition; and that a large demand for them would ensue. – An edition of the Works of John Owen, to be comprised in sixteen volumes, under the editorial charge of Rev. William H. Goold, has been commenced. The doctrinal works will occupy five volumes, the practical treatises four, and the polemical seven. The first volume contains a life of Owen, by Rev. Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh. This edition is edited with remarkable fidelity and care, and will prove a valuable accession to theological literature. – Washington Irving has received from Mr. Murray £9767 for copyrights and £2500 from Mr. Bentley, who has paid nearly £16,000 to Cooper, Prescott, and Herman Melville. – The Principal Theological Faculties in Germany are those of Berlin and Halle. The subjoined list will show that almost all the Professors have attained a wide reputation in the department of sacred letters. At Berlin the Professors are: Nitzsch, Theology, Dogmatic, and Practical; Hengstenberg and Vatke, Exegesis of the Old and New Testaments, and Introduction; Twesten, Exegesis of the New Testament, Dogmatic Theology; F. Strauss, Homiletics; Jacobi, Ecclesiastical History; Ubbmann, Oriental Languages. The Professors at Halle are: Julius Muller, Theology, Dogmatic, and Practical; Tholuck, Exegesis and Moral Philosophy; Hupfeld, Hebrew and Oriental Languages; Guericke, Ecclesiastical History, Introduction; Herzog, Mayer, and Thilo, Ecclesiastical History. – A new apparatus for the production of heat has been invented by Mr. D.O. Edwards. It is named the "atmopyre," or solid gas fire. A small cylinder of pipe clay, varying in length from two to four inches, perforated with holes the fiftieth of an inch in diameter, in imitation of Davy's safety lamp, is employed. The cylinder has a circular hole at one end, which fits upon a "fish-tail" burner; gas is introduced into the interior of the cylinder, with the air of which it becomes mixed, forming a kind of artificial fire-damp. This mixture is ignited on the outside of the vessel, and burns entirely on the exterior of the earthenware, which is enveloped in a coat of pale blue flame. The clay cylinder which Mr. Edwards calls a "hood," soon becomes red hot, and presents the appearance of a solid red flame. All the heat of combustion is thus accumulated on the clay, and is thence radiated. One of these cylinders is heated to dull redness in a minute or two; but an aggregate of these "hoods" placed in a circle or cluster, and inclosed in an argillaceous case, are heated to an orange color, and the case itself becomes bright red. By surrounding this "solid gas fire" with a series of cases, one within another, Mr. Edwards has obtained a great intensity of heat, and succeeded in melting gold, silver, copper, and even iron. Mr. Palmer, the engineer of the Western Gas-light Company, by burning two feet of gas in an atmopyre of twelve "hoods," raised the temperature of a room measuring 8551 cubic feet, five degrees of Fahrenheit in seventeen minutes. The heat generated by burning gas in this way is 100 per cent. greater than that engendered by the ordinary gas flame when tested by the evaporation of water. 25 feet of gas burnt in an atmopyre per hour, produces steam sufficient for one-horse power. Hence the applicability of the invention to baths, brewing, &c. – At the late meeting of the British Association, Major Rawlinson, after enumerating many interesting particulars of the progress of Assyrian discoveries, stated that Mr. Layard, in excavating part of the palace at Nineveh had found a large room filled with what appeared to be the archives of the empire, ranged in successive tables of terra cotta, the writings being as perfect as when the tablets were first stamped. They were piled in huge heaps, from the floor to the ceiling, and he had already filled five large cases for dispatch to England, but had only cleared out one corner of the apartment. From the progress already made in reading the inscriptions, he believed we should be able pretty well to understand the contents of these tables – at all events, we should ascertain their general purport, and thus gain much valuable information. A passage might be remembered in the Book of Ezra, where the Jews having been disturbed in building the Temple, prayed that search might be made in the house of records for the edict of Cyrus permitting them to return to Jerusalem. The chamber recently found might be presumed to be the House of Records of the Assyrian Kings, where copies of the Royal edicts were duly deposited. When these tablets had been examined and deciphered, he believed that we should have a better acquaintance with the history, the religion, the philosophy, and the jurisprudence of Assyria 1500 years before the Christian era, than we had of Greece or Rome during any period of their respective histories. – M. Guillen y Calomarde has just discovered a new telescopic star between the polar star and Cynosure, near to the rise of the tail of the Little Bear – a star at least that certainly did not exist in October last. According to the observations of M. Calomarde, the new star should have an increasing brilliancy, and it is likely that in less than a month this star, which now is visible only through a telescope, may be seen with the naked eye. – The Senate of the University of Padua is at present preparing for publication two curious works, of which the manuscripts are in the library of that establishment. One is a translation in Hebrew verse of the "Divina Commedia," of Dante, by Samuel Rieti, Grand Rabbi of Padua, in the 16th century. The second is a translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," likewise in Hebrew, in stanzas of 18 verses of a very complicated metre, from the pen of the Rabbi. – Eliot Warburton is engaged in collecting materials for a History of the Poor, which is to appear in the spring.

The captain and second mate of the steamer Orion, which was wrecked in June, have been sentenced, the former to eighteen months' imprisonment, the latter to ten years' transportation, for gross and culpable negligence of duty. – Lieutenant Gale, somewhat celebrated as an aeronaut, lost his life while making an ascent on horseback at Bordeaux. He had descended in safety, and the horse was removed; the diminution of the weight caused the balloon to ascend rapidly, with the aeronaut, who was somewhat intoxicated, clinging to it. He of course soon fell, and, a day or two after, his body was found, with the limbs all broken, and mutilated by dogs. – Mr. Mongredien, a London corn-factor, has published a pamphlet, in which he endeavors to estimate the probable amount of home-grown food upon which Ireland can calculate the coming year. As the result of extensive inquiries, he is of the opinion that the potato crop will suffice as food for the masses only until January; and that the wheat-crop amounts to but three-fourths of last year's amount. – The Postmaster General has directed that all letters addressed to the United States, shall be forwarded by the first mail packet that sails, whether British or American, unless specially directed otherwise. – Viscount Fielding, who occupied the chair at the great Church Meeting in Free-Mason's Hall, on the 23d of July, has abandoned the English Church for that of Rome. – A number of the Catholic bishops of Ireland were appointed by government as official visitors of the New College, to which they were known to be bitterly opposed. The appointments have been scornfully rejected by the bishops. – The Britannia Bridge, one of the greatest triumphs of modern engineering, was completed on the 13th of September, by the lowering of the last of the tubes to its permanent resting-place. Some curious acoustic effects have been observed in connection with this work. Pistol shots, or any sonorous noises, are echoed within the tube half a dozen times. The cells at the top and bottom, are used by the engineers as speaking tubes, and they can carry on conversation through them in whispers; by elevating the voice persons may converse through the length of the bridge – nearly a quarter of a mile. The total cost of the entire structure has been £601,865. The total weight of each of the wrought iron roadways now completed, represents 12,000 tons, supported on a total mass of masonry of a million and a half cubic feet, erected at the rate of three feet in a minute. – Mount Blanc was ascended on the 29th of September, to its top-most peak, by two gentlemen from Ireland, Mr. Gratton, late of the army, and Mr. Richards, with a party of the brave mountaineers of Chamouni. The enterprise was considered so dangerous, that the guides left their watches and little valuables behind, and the two gentlemen made their wills, and prepared for the worst. The ascent is always accompanied with great peril, as steps have to be cut up the sloping banks of the ice; one of the largest glaciers has to be passed, where one false step entails certain death, as the unfortunate falls into a crevice of almost unknown depth, from which no human hand could extricate him. A night has to be passed on the cold rock amidst the thunders of the avalanche, and spots have to be passed where, it is said, no word can be spoken lest thousands of tons of snow should be set in motion, and thus hurl the party into eternity, as was the case some years back when a similar attempt was made. This latter impression, however, as to the effect of the voice upon masses of snow, is unquestionably absurd. An avalanche may have occurred simultaneously with a conversation; but that the latter caused the former is incredible. – The Turkish government has manifested its intention to set Kossuth and his companions at liberty in September, the end of the year stipulated in the Convention. Austria, however, remonstrates, contending that the year did not commence till the moment of incarceration. The prisoners are to be sent in a government vessel either to England or America, and are to be furnished with 500 piastres each, to meet their immediate wants on landing. – The two American vessels, Advance and Rescue, sent in search of Sir John Franklin, had been seen by an English whale-ship west of Devil's Thumb, in Greenland, having advanced 500 miles since last heard from. – The new Cunard Steamer Africa, of the same dimensions with the Asia, is nearly ready to take her place in the line, and the Company are about to commence another ship of still larger size and power. – Disastrous inundations have destroyed all the crops in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. Subscriptions were opened in Milan, the aggregate amount of which (about 50,000 francs) was sent to the relief of the unfortunate inhabitants. – There are in the prisons at Naples at present no less than 40,000 political prisoners; and the opinion is that, from the crowded state of the jails, the greater number will go mad, become idiots, or die. – Lines of electric telegraph are extending rapidly over Central Europe. Within four months, 1000 miles have been opened in Austria, making 2000 in that empire, of which 500 are under ground. Another 1000 miles will be ready next year. The telegraph now works from Cracow to Trieste, 700 miles. – On the 1st of October, the new telegraph union between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria, was to come into operation, under a uniform tariff, which is one-half of the former charges. – The Hungarian musicians accustomed to perform their national airs in the streets of Vienna, have been ordered to quit the city. It is said they will go through Europe, in order to excite popular sympathy in behalf of their unfortunate country, by means of their music, the great characteristic of which is a strange mixture of wild passion and deep melancholy. – After eight years' labor, the gigantic statue of the King of Bavaria has been finished, and is now placed on the hill of Saint Theresa, near Munich. The bronze of the statue cost 92,600 florins, or £11,800. – The will of Sir Robert Peel prohibits his executors investing any of his real or personal property on securities in Ireland. – From a late parliamentary return, it appears there are thirty-two iron steamers in Her Majesty's Navy. – Recent letters from the East speak of very valuable and expensive sulphur mines just discovered upon the borders of the Red Sea, in Upper Egypt. The products of these mines are said to be so abundant, that a material fall in the prices of Sicilian sulphur must inevitably soon take place. The working of the newly-discovered mine and its productiveness are greatly facilitated by its proximity to the sea. The Egyptian Government, which at first leased the mines to a private company, is now about to resume possession and work them on its own account.