ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 40, 16 December 1842, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

iff roiti the Sydney Morning Herald) . New American Tariff. —A French paper (La Presse) devotes a long article to the consideration of the new American tariff, which it pronounces to be the work of “ a barbarous nation,” and recommends the French Government to retaliate by raising the import duty on cottons, and by instantly revoking flie treaty of 1822, which places the American merchant navy on a footing of perfect neutrality with that of France. The .packet having brought out her Majesty’s commission, elevating our Lieutenant-Governor Sir Henry George M'Leod to the rank of Go* vernor of this colony, a special meeting of the Legislative Council was held this day, at which his Excellency was sworn into office with all the customary formalities. His Excellency abandoning (out of respect for the Sovereign ( we presume) his usually unostentatious manner, ! came to the Council board in his full-dress mij litary uniform and orders; whilst a Captain’s : guard of the 59th regiment, with its fine band, were drawn up in front of Government House. A despatch from Lord Stanley (highly flattering to his Excellency) and her Majesty’s commission having been read, and the requisite oaths taken by his Excellency, a royal salute was fired from the sea-fort, the attending guard of honour at the same time presenting arms. The several members of Council having also renewed their oaths to the new form of government, it was moved, and carried unanimously,, that her Majesty be recommended to restord to the Governor the £SOO sterling per annum formerly taken from the emoluments of the appointment, and given to the GovernorGeneral ; a motion to which her Majesty, we are convinced, coming as the money will from the island-chest, will not oppose a negative. Our cordial support of this proposition has already been expressed more than once. His Excellency afterwards attended a special meeting of the Town-Council for the purpose of communicating to that body information of the restoration to the colony of its former independence, and of the honour which her Majesty had been pleased to grant to himself.— Trinidad Standard, May 9. Neglect of Children, the Great Cause of Fatal Accidents and Juvenile Crime.— Monday morning has arrived ; and, before the sun can take off his night-cap, the factory bell ,is clanking in their ears, and they [husband and wife] are off to the labour of the day, with breakfast —perhaps dinner—in a small tin can. The poor children meanwhile are left to Providence and an empty house, generally locked up for fear of straying away r or in the care of a juvenile nurse, scarce older than themselves. From this cause principally arises the numerous deaths from scalds and burnsno fewer than one hundred and twenty-three have occurred within the last eleven months to children under ten years of age, to say nothing of the numerous cases not terminating fatally. We frequently hear people, who know little of the matter, remark upon the wickedness of manufacturers employing young children in factories ; but, believe me, wretched as the system may be, until the means of education are more extended —until some mental employment be provided, those left at home are much more to be pitied,—are in greater danger morally and even physically. The casualties from machinery. for the same period, I have ascertained to be only twenty-four, including all ages. Day after day, these poor children are left at home unprotected, the younger perhaps maimed or killed, the elder a prey to the professed receivers' of stolen goods, the practised burglar, or the wretched female decoy. And here we perceive the beauty, and I had almost said the holiness, of .infant schools. In a town like Manchester,- there should not be a district without them; and if provision were made upon a large and economic scale, for meals being taken during the hours in which the parents were absent, what a blessing would it be . to the neglected children; and what a burden of anxiety would be removed from, the hearts of those who love them-! Many a time, during the whirl and bustle of that tedious day, are the thoughts of the anxious mother in the midst of her deserted children, her heart throbbing at the welcome of joy or grief waiting her return. Gan we wonder at discontent now and then- filling the breasts of poor and uneducated creatures so situated. — Characteristics of Manchester, in North of England Magazine.

The Tuition of the Beggars of the Metropolis. —On Monday, an inquest was held before William Carter, Esq., the coroner for Surrey,, in the receiving room of the Brixton house of correction, respecting the death of John Gilbert, aged sixty-six, a prisoner’in that establishment, and well known as a beggar in Surrey, an occupation which he turned to good account. It appeared by the view which the juiy had of the body, that, although his age was stated by him to be sixty-six,, he had the appearance of a man of eighty, which was no doubt brought on by his habits of' dissipation, and then sleeping in barns or fields in all sorts of weather, notwithstanding he had frequently large sums of money which he had gained in the way of business. So skilful had he become,

that he was in the habit of taking' apprc-iiticeg? to learn Ihem a trade which had Wen! so profitable to himself, and as a matter of course, the tuition was well paid for. It may be supposed that a beggar had no means to pay for a ma'ster, and this, to some extent, is true ; but a skilful master can well pay himself by showing the youth he has in training how to be blind one day, dumb the next, on the third to pass as his son, subject to fits, which he has previously practised, and always to have them wheri a party of ladies is coming near. The tutor is then the father, and has a readymade tale of the goodness of his son, and the sad affliction which he has been suffering from the time his birth. This over—and generally very profitably—he can become, by disguises, and when it suits his purpose, a wounded sailor or soldier, a starving Spitalfields’ weaver, or a distressed agricultural labourer, in which the instructor has a part to act, and of course pays himself, and liberally. Such was John Gilbert, and on the 10th June he had for a pupil William Gibbon, a fine country lad, about eighteen years of age. When their career commenced could not be 1 ascertained, but the master unfortunately took his pupil to Richmond, and near the Residence of the Duke of Buccleueh # # commenced his operations, but it so happened that an old constable was well acquainted with John Gilbert, and seeing the tricks of William Gibbon, took both before Sir Thomas Newby Reeve, who forthwith committed them for a month to the treadmill at Brixton. Gilbert had been in that prison twice before for the same offence, and was a Well known inhabitant of other prisons. Gibbon was not known by the turnkeys, and when his term 'of imprisonment expires, he will probably have had enough of introduction to roguery. When Gilbert was admitted, he appeared in good health, and did not complain until Thursday, when -he was taken into the infirmary, and Mr. Gardener,the surgeon of the prison, paid every attention' to his case, but he died at eleven o’clock the next morning, from a total decay of nature. The Jury returned a verdict to that effect.