AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 45, 14 January 1843, Page 180

AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE.

[From the Morning Chronicle."] The advices received from the United States by the Columbia steamer are only four days later, and contain nothing new in regard to the tariff, except that the Message of the President had been referred to a select committee of thirteen members, with instructions to report. It was, however, a question of some doubt whether an attempt might not be made to pass the Revenue Bill without the distribution clause ; but objections of a serious character had been adduced against such a course, in consequence of the inequality of some of the provisions of the vetoed bill, its high protective principles towards some interests,, and its total neglect of others. It seems to have been the general impression when the steamer sailed that no new Revenue Bill would be sent up by Congress, and that the session would be adjourned forthwith. But some of the American papers express -strong opinions in favour of an e> tension of the session to make a settlement of the tariff, as they consider that, without some such enactment, no legal authority exists to collect any revenue at all ; and this view is strongly supported by Mr. Adams, the chairman of the select committee to whom the veto message of the President has been referred. It is satisfactory to observe a marked improvement in the tone of the American press on the subject of repudiation. There is one article on this subject, and on the great question of ike rights of the stockholders of the various States, which we look upon as a healthy symptom in the .disease which has stricken the vitality of American credit. The remarks to which we allude appear as the leading article of the Morning Courier and New York Inquirer of the 13th of August, and commence as follows : — " ' Be just before you are generous,' is a maxim which it would be well for the representatives of Mississippi to bear in mind ; and a little modesty would well become a state whose acts have rendered her name synonymous with fraud. To be a Mississippian is a by-word and a reproach — and it is only by declaring their hostility to the principles of the dominant party in that state that the high-minded and honourable amongst her citizens are received and treated as honest men by their fellow citizens of the United States." Our American contemporary uses terms of reproach here against Mississippi which we do not adopt. He adds — " Of what use is money to them and to their state ? They have only to borrow millions from honest and confiding creditors, and then, when the day of payment arrives, repudiate their debts! This game has been successfully practised ; and Mississippi has the proud satisfaction of knowing that, although a state of very little importance, she is the greatest swindler of the age." The American uses very hard words : needlessly severe, and perhaps therefore less calculated to make a lasting impression than if he had been more moderate in bis denunciations ; but, at the same time, ■we cannot refuse approbation to the honesty of feeling which dictated such expressions, and we appreciate that feeling the more because we know that it is general amongst all -classes and all parties of the intelligent and educated citizens of the United States. We know this to be the fact from our own correspondents, and .from other equally unexceptionable authority, which assure us that the adoption of some general and efficient plan for ■the maintenance of national faith, the protection of American Stockholders, and the restoration of American credit, is an object as much desired by Mr. Tyler as it is by Mr. Clay, and that the Democratic as well as the Whig leaders unite in that feeling, which we hope they will persevere in treating as a national and not as a party question. The debate and proceedings in the United States. Senate, on the treaty or treaties with Great Britain, will be conducted in "executive/ or secret session, with closed doors. A banquet, on an unusually grand scale, is to he given to Lord Ashhurton in New York, chiefly by the English residents and a number of American merchants. His lordship formerly resided in 'I bird-street, Philadelphia, where be married Miss Bingham, and he has considerable property both in the city and in the suburbs on the banks of the Schuylkill. The President's veto of the Tariff Bill, which has caused such intense excitement, has been referred to a committee of thirteen in the House of Representatives, of which committee Mr. J. Q... Adams is chairman. As Mr. Adams is opposed to Mr. Tyler's tariff views, a severe report is anticipated ; but, as there are several members of the committee who think with Mr. Tyler on the subject, there will probably be two reports ; one from (ha majority, the other from the minority. The President evidently incline* strongly to the Democratic party ; but another attempt

to pass a tariff will, it is thought, be made in a few days. Mr. Webster is expected to retire from the Cabinet soon after the treaties are settled. Thousands of the newly-arrived emigrants in Canada are without the means of living, and without work. The interest on the United States Loan, due July 1, is advertised to be paid duly at all the chief cities. The prospect for the cotton crop was never better. Some southern writers are of opinion that it will be 2,500,000 bales. An immense water serpent, fifty-eight feet in length, has been shot and captured by a large party of men under command of Lieutenant Brookes, of the United States navy, in the river Mississippi, near Baton Rouge. It had devoured cattle, frightened negroes, and terrified the passengers of the steamboat Plagemine. The bulk of this monster is described as enormous, and his general appearance terrific. Storms and tempests continue, and' deaths by lightning are unusually numerous. In North Carolina more than one million bushels of Indian corn have been destroyed by a sudden flood.

Doob Grass. — It is not known how or when this grass was introduced into New South Wales, but it has made such rapid progress since then over the face of the country as to threaten to supersede, in a great measure, the native grasses. Its roots not only strike many feet deep into the soil, but ramify in all directions through it, while its tendrils shoot rapidly along the superfices, taking root at intervals as they proceed, thus forming a thick net-work above ground, as well as below, binding the miry as well as the sandy soils, so as to make them passable for both animals and wheelcarriages, and, at the same time, furnishing places with abundant food for stock which yielded nothing before. It has also been successfully applied in preventing, by its binding qualities, the washing away of land by floods, of which Mr. Macarthur was the first to test its merits in this respect, at Camden. Indeed, from the rapidity with which it spreads, it bids fair, at no distant period, to convert the numerous wastes of interior Australia into grassy meadows and downs ; as, from the enduring nature of the roots, it is so constituted as to defy the severest droughts or floods to which the Australian interior .is subject from making any deadly impression upon it. It would, indeed, be conferring a great future good upon the colony were all travellers into the interior to carry a store of its seeds along with them to scatter at intervals in their route, so as to hasten the covering of the present interior wastes wiili verdure. It must strike any one who has witnessed the binding effect it has upon the Australian sands, what great benefits would attend its introduction into Southern France, which moving sands are fast converting into deserts, as its binding qualities would not only arrest their progress, but convert them into pasture grounds. The doob grass stands heat and drought infinitely better, but cold worse, than the native grasses ; while it is always the first to show, by its leafy shoots of lively green, the influence of a passing shower, as well as the longest to reap its benefits. Though much coarser in blade in its wild state than the native grasses, yet it improves greatly in this respect by cultivation — is much relished by cattle, as well as a good fattener of them, particularly when its pastures are intermixed with white clover, which agrees well with it, while it also makes good hay. Its roots form in some parts of India no small portion of the horse and cattle food, and were similarly used in the vicinity of Sydney during the great drought terminating in 1829, the horses relishing them much when washed and chopped up. — Portland Mercury. Marshall's Flax Mill at Leeds. — The following particulars respecting this stupendous building have been furnished by an eye-witness, who was permitted to inspect it a few weeks ago. The building- is 135 yards long, and 72 yards wide (inside measure) — one story or 20 feet high. The roof consists of seventy-two brick arches, supported on seventy-two iron pillars of the Corinthian order, and secured together by strong ironwork. The brick roof has a thick coating of composition, to prevent the water from coming through, and is covered with earth, from which has sprung up a beautiful grass close. There are 66 glass domes, 48 feet round, 11 feet 6 inches high, containing 10 tons of glass ; all iron window frames. Total weight of roof, 4,000 tons. Cost, with the machinery, upwards of £200,000. There are four steam-engines, 100 horse power each : and two 80 or 85 horse power each ; and one engine 7 horse power, which does nothing but blow either hot or cold air into the room. The building covers more than two acres of ground ; it is supposed that 80,000 persons might stand in the room, 60,000 upon the roof, and 50,000 in the cellar. — English paper. A Tranquil Old Age. — In Pliny|i Letters there is an interesting account of his friend Spurinna, and of the methods he took to preserve his activity ; arranging his life by that uninterrupted regularity which seems to be peculiarly fitted to old age. The first part of his morning he devoted to study. At eight o'clock he dressed, and walked about three miles for contemplation and exercise. Conversation and reading, with a little indulgence of repose, filled up his time till noon ; when be took the air in his chariot, with his lady or some friend, and used a little more walking exercise. Between two and three he went to the bath ; after which he played some time at tennis, and then reposed while a favourite author was read to him ; at six o'clock he sat down to an elegant repast, enlivened by the recital of a dramatic entertainment, and extended by mirth and good-humour to a late hour.— The Conrfbrts qf Old Age. The consumption of butchers' meat eaten in England allow* an average of twelve ounces a day to each individual; in France it does not exceed an ounce and a quarter. — If tbia calculation is a correct one, there must be a very great waste, either by actual destruction, or unnecessary consumption. ; for while there U enough for every man to have three-quarters of a pound to his share daily, we know that numbers seldom taste it. — Ibtglkh pap*r.

Man compelled to br Free'. — Among the Arabs, even at present day, the pastoral life is accounted more noble than that which leads to a residence in towns, or even in villages.-. Th«y Ihink it, as Arvieus remarks, more congenial jfr liberty ; because the man who with 'ins )>Jk ranges the desart at large, will be far less^..*!ely to submit to oppression than people with houses and lands. This mode of thinking is of great antiquity in the eastern part of the world. Diodorus Siculus, when speaking of the Nabathaani relates that they were, by their laws, prohibited from sowing, planting, drinking wine, and building houses. Every violation of the precept being punishable with death. The reason assigned for this very singular rule is their belief that those who possess such things will be easily brought into subjection by a tyrant; on which accofinf' they continue, says the historian, to traverse the desart, feeding their flocks, which consist partly of camels, and partly of sheep. — Palestine. Keeping op the Temper. — Why should sourness and peevishness of temper have anything todo with old age ? They are the vices of the narrow and selfish. The liberal and benevolent, like rich generous wines, improve with keeping. What will turn acid in so short a life as ours, must owe its sourness to poverty of spirit and meanness of character. Noble spirits soften and ameliorate, and become more and more kind and disinterested with length of years.— Sir Thomas Bernard?— [The best excuse, perhaps,^** peevishness of temper— second, indeed, to ■Fdjefective understanding—is continued ill health. An old age that is tolerably healthy and free from, pain, has no privilege to be peevish. The association of fretfulness with old age, is only a consequence of associating advanced years with physical decay •, and a healthy old man, who gives way to strong ebullitions of temper, is infinitely more to blame than his grandson. — Tatler.]