MISCELLANEOUS. Serious Charge against Lord Pal

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 428, 8 September 1849, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS. Serious Charge against Lord Pal-

merston. — In a leading article of the Times, of Friday, April 13th, we find the following statement ; — "A story is current in the diplomatic world, with reference to the immediate cause of the resumption of hostilities by the Danes, and the proclamation of the blockade of the German ports, which admirably illustrates'the mode in which the important duties of the mediator have been discharged. The armistice between Denmark and Ge l r>

many bad already been denounced, and was to terminate on the 2nd of April, when a courier from Copenhagen arrived in London on the 26th of March, bringing the final proposition of the Danish government, in answer to the conditions offered by the German plenipotentiary. This communication was immediately forwarded to the British Secretary for foreign affairs as the mediating power, and it was of the more importance, not only from the nature of its contents, but because the Danish couiier was strictly ordered to leave London with or without an answer, so as to reach Copenhagen again before the conclusion of the armistice. This period of time, short in itself, and decisive as to the settlement of the question, gradually passed away. The courier left London, no notice having been taken of the communication, and his return to Denmark was the signal for the precipi'ate departure of that expedition which has coat the lives of several hundred brave seamen, and the Danish fleet two of its finest ships. At length, on the 29th of March, the Quren happened ,to hold a drawing room, at which some sort of personal- explanation took place between the ministers and the diplomatists. It was then ascertained that the all-important dispatch of the Danish government, upon which the question of peace and war was turned, had' not been opened or read by Lord Palmerston during the interval of two or three days allowed for the answer. No answer at all was, therefore, given. The German plenipotentiary remained in total ignorance that any snch proposals had been made, as, on the other hand, the Danish plenipotentiary does not seem to have been clearly apprised of the extent of the concession made in his favour. Thus the messenger of actual war was allowed to leave this country, because it had not suited the convenience of an English minister to read a letter. So laige a part may 'inadvertance' play in the affairs of nations. This anerdute has been so generally circulated, and so freely commented upon, that it deserves a place in the history of these transactions. The version of the case materially diminishes the blame which teemed to attach to the Danes for the renewal of the war. They acted in the belief that their final proposals weie contemptuously rejected, without even the honors of discussion. Ignorant as we ourselves are of, the nicer rules of diplomatic etiquette, we should have imagined that in a case of sucb gravity, the 1 peace of Northern Europe ought not to have been left to depend on the miscarriage or neglect of a smgle letter, even though that .letter was addressed to the piercing eye of Viscount Palmerston ; and we regret that the Danish courier started without more effectual measures having been taken to load his empty wallet. But, on the other hand, the notorious fact that the renewal of war turned on what should have been decided in London within those last days of the armistice, renders it inconceivable that such a despatch should have been overlooked by the person whose honour was most interested in the conclusion of this affair." Accounts have been received from St Louis and Fort Independence, to the effect that the whole of Colonel Fremoiu's men, supposed to be forty or fifty in number, had perished on the prairies, in dreadful frosts and snow storms, together with about 200 mules and horses. Col. Fremont is said to have been the only man who escaped, and he reached Taos, in New Mexico, after a route of 350 miles in nine days, much exhausted and frost bitten. The winter bas been the coldest ever remembered on the prairies and on the mountains, and the- sad disaster alluded to occurred among the deep mountains and gorges, which were filled up or rendered impassable by furious whirlwinds of snow, with the thermometer many degrees below Zero.

Too Much Anxiety. — Of the causes of disease, anxiety of the mind is one of the most frequent and important. When we walk the streetJJof large commercial tawns, we can "scarcely fail to remark the hurried gait and 'careworn features of the passengers. Some young men, indeed, we may see with countenances possessing natural cheerfulness of colour ; but these appearances rarely survive the age of manhood. Cuvier closes an eloquent description cf animal existence and change with the conclusion that ' life is a state of force.' What he would urge in a physical view, we may more strongly urge in a moral. ' Civilization has changed our character as well i as our body. We live in a state of unnatural ! excitement, because it is partial, irregular and ' excessive. Our muscles waste for want of action ; our nervous system is worn outby | excess of action. Vital energy is drawn from j the operations for which nature designed it j and devoted to operations which it never conlemnlated.

Natural Effects of Labour. — On the natural effects of labour, its benefits to the labourer as well as to tbe world, the following admirable passage taken from a lecture addressed to the working men of America, by ' the late Dr. Chamtins, will be read with i -pleasure':^' I have faiih iv labour, and I ste i

the goodness of God in placing vi in a worH where labour alone can keep as alive. I would not change, if I could, our subjection to ph - sical laws, our exposure to hunger and cold, and the necessity of constant conflicts with the material world. I wiuld not, if Icou'd, so temper the element*, that they should infuse into us only grateful sensations, that they should make vegetation so exuberant as to anticipate every want, and the minerals so ductile as to offer no resistance to our skill or strength. Such a world would make a contemptible race. Man owis his strength, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call Effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make robust minds, does not give men a consciousness of their Dowers, does not train them tp endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing. Mttncal labour is a school in which men are placed to get energy of purpos? and character, a vastly more important endowment than nil the learning of all other schools. They are placed, indeed,, under hard masters, physical . sufferings and wants, the power o^ fearful elements, and the vicissitudes of all human things ; but these stem teachers ! do a work which no compassionate, indulgent friend could do for us ; and true wisdom will bless Providence for their sharp ministry. I I have great faith in hard work. The material world does much for the* mind by its beauty and oider ; but it does more for our minds by the pains it inflicts, by its obstinate resistance* which nothing but patient toil can overcome, by its vast forces which nothing but uneraitting skill an.i effurc ea 1 turn to our use, by its perils which demand continual vigilance, and by its tendencies to decay. 1 believe that difficulties are more important to the human mind than what we call assistances. Work we all must, if we mean to bring out and perfect our nature. Even if *c do not work with the hands, we must undergo equivalent toil in some other direction. No business or study which does not present obstacles, tasking to the full the intellect and the will is worthy of a man. In science, he who does not grapple with hard questions, who does not concentrate his whole intellect in vigorous attention, who ! does not aim to petietrate what at first repels him, will never attain to mental force. The uses of toil reach beyond the present world. The capacity of steady, earnest labour is, I apprehend, one of our great preparations for another state of being. When I see the vast amount of toil required of men, I feel that it raust"have- -important connections with-tbeir future existence ; and that he, wbo has met this discipline manfully, has laid one essential foundation of improvement, exertion and happiness in the world to come. You will here see that to me labour has great dignity. It is not merely the grand instrument by which the * earth is overspread with fruitful ness and beauty, and the ocean subdued, and matter wrought into innumerable forms for comfort and ornament. It has a far higher function, which is to give force to the will, efficiency, courage, the capacity of endurance and of persevering devotion to far reaching plans. Alas for the man who has not learned to work ! He is a poor creature. He does not know himself. He depends on others, with no capacity of making returns for the support they give ; and let him not fancy that he has a monopoly of enjoyment. - Ease, rest, owes its deliciousness to toil ; and no toil is so burdensome as the rest of him who has nothing to task and quicken his powers."

The Adversity of Honour. — In a small, neat, com'ortable room, sat the, ruined family. The old man was reading, or thought he read. In & few weeks, the snow littd come down upon bis head with a heavy fall. In a few weeks his cheeks were lined -and lengthened. He had been held — so ruthlessly held — face to face with misery, that- his smile, that was constant ds the. red in- his cheek, bad well nigh vanished.* ' 'Now 'and then, as he exchanged looks with his daughter, it glimmered a little : played about bis month, to leave it only in utter hlanknest. Still he went on reading; still he turned page after page ; and he believed that he was laying in a stock of knowledge for his future life. For he had again — he would tell bis daughter with a bright 100k — he bad again to begin the world. Hard beginning! Dreary voyage, with neither youth to fight the storm, nor the hope of youth to wile away the long, dark, dreary watch — to sing the daylight in. But this he would not think of. At least he thought be would not. He felt himself as strong as ever ; yes, even stronger. He could not have hoped to have borne the blow so well. He was never better ; never. His glorious health was left him ; and therefore, why despair ? In this way will the brain of the stout man cheat itself. It will feel whole, and strong ; and for the viler cracks ajnd flaws, they are not to be heeded. Mere trlflps. And then some dry, some calm and, -£u,iu»y time, tnat peace has seemed to. choose for itself, fur a soft, sweet paufce-r-»ith.the.tvrsnt biain secure and allvaiu-gltorious— 'the ttifle

kills; In this way do strong men die upwards,' Gilbert Carraways was, at our first meeting,' set about by all the creature delights of life; He was the lord of abundance. The man who had nothing to do with want and misery, but to exercise the noblest prerogative of happy humanity — namely, to destroy them wheresoever he found them preying upon his fellows. Wealth was gone. He was a beggar ; but in his poverty were thoughts that might glorify his fireside. He had used his means for good ; and, at least, might feel enriched by the harvest of bis recollections. With his face anxious, lengthened, and dim, there was a dignity in the old man that we do not think we ever recognised at the Hall. Tor he had to bear a load of misery ; and be sat erect, and with his spirit conquering, looked serenely about him. — JerrolcCs Man of Money.

Shopkeepers' Signs in Shanghae. — A dyeing shop, Tenfang, recommends itself thus :—": — " Green double dye, black as ink : in skill we rival celestial workmanship." An I encomium rather more qualified might not be misplaced — their dyes are indeed splendid. Bazaars are very handsome and extensive, well filled with articles " for sending as presents, antique curiosities, ornaments for setting out the table, and presenting dowries ;" crystal for old and young eye-glasses. The spectacles are as large as teacups, set in heavy tortoiseshell frames, and slung round the ears with two strings ; their odd appearance may be imagined. Besides these signs, and many more different kinds not enumerated, each house has its carved sign, thus a doctor's shop will be ornamented with a patriarch leaning on a crook, and by his side a deer or a stork, the deer being the emblem of longevity, which, as is well-known, at least in China, pulverised dried deer flesh affords the surest means of attaining. A tea-house is known by huge vases almost surrounding it in all directions, filled with the water of heaven, i. c., rain water, which is preferred, and in private houses is often kept for upwards of a year to acquire considerable imaginary powers of extracting the flavour of the tea. It is in such celebrity, that the Son of Heaven himself, the literary Emperor Kang- He, composed an ode on the propriety of keeping the waters of heaven, and the mode of making tea, which may be read on many of the small tea cups, that is to say if you can translate it. A huge Tartar boot crowns the shop of a dealer in that line, with a carving of some kind or another, as is the case with most shops. Notice is sometimes given in this manner: — "All here measured by one rule, when favoured by merchants who bestow their regards on us ; please to notice our sign of the Doable Phoenix on a board, as a mark, then it will be all right." I would merely add, that the motto of " caveat emptor" would not be much out of place in any of them. The pawnbroker and the banker are olten synonymous terms with the Chinese. They are called three per cent, per month shops, that being the rate at which they advance money on any kind of goods whatever, beyond which they are not allowed to charge on pain of receiving sixty blows. These shops, as may be believed, from the rate of interest, are often immensely rich. About four feet from the ground, a strongly barred opening appears, through which the goods or security are passed, and if accepted, the money h banded out, and a ticket corresponding with the one placed on the article given, redeemable in three months is required. Using false weights is punished with sixty blows. There are bouses appointed by Government to direct these weights and inspect them, called Keaou Chun-Keoan-Ch'hin, " comparers'and determiners of government weights." — Lieut. Forbes five years in China.

The New Servant. — One morning going into the back bed-roorii to lay out some clean linen, I happened to approach the window, when, to my utter astonishment, I saw that impudent monkey of a iootman belonging to Simmons, (whose house is at the bottom of the garden), holding up a tea-tray, on the back of which was written, in large chalk letters, " My hangel, can I cum to Tee'" and I immediately saw by the fellow's ma-, noeuvres what he meant ; so I stole down the •tairs as quietly as I vOulJ, and in the back parlcur, just as I expected, I found my beauty of a Susan, perched on a chair, and holding up my best japanned tea-tray, on the back of which she had scrawled with the same elegant material, " Hadoored One ! You carn't come! Alas! Missus will be Hin!" You may I c certain I scolded her well. — The Greatest Plague in Life. The Belle. — Room for beauty ! The belle of the evening claims our next attention; the lovely dark-eyed girl, so plainly, and yet so elegantly dressed, who wears her hair in ■imple bands over her fair forehead, unencumbered by flower or ornament of any kind, and moves in the light of her own beauty, as the presiding goddess of the room, imparting fragrance to the enamoured air that plays urotucf her. How many quadrilles deep she

is engaged for I—bow1 — bow earnestly an introduction is requested ! — how fortunate it is to be her vis-a-vis ! and what a thrill of inexplicable happiness pervades our sense — what an ecstacy of admiration — what a mesmeric throb of pleasure, as we take -her hand in the chaine dcs dames ! And for the Polka ! those brilliant intoxicating moments which come so rarely to brighten our dim career, are cheaply purchased by hours of unpleasantness and disappointment ! And who does not associate the fairest portious of tbis life with the shadowy remembrance of some exquisite crealure, who endowed him, for a time, with a species of Daguerreotype existence, by thp light of her presence alone, her absence form* ing its shadows ! We appear to be getting philosophically poetical — we are not often taken so, and must plead in excuse the exciting cause of our present indisposition. The beauty of the ball has sometimes one uncomfortable characteristic, which her very position generates ; she is an out-and-out flirt. At one party she will talk softly to you, for half-an-bour together in the conservatory, with no other witnesses than some flowerpots, paper camellias, and a Chinese lamp ; at another she will all but cut you for a new cavalier with an imperial, which you do not wear. In the first situation, you will think evening parties the poetry of society ; in the last, you will pronounce them to be very indifferent amusements after £.11. She is moreover, very capricious ; and having refused all invitations to waltz, on the plea of giddiness, will eventually stand up with another handsome girl and twirl away d. deux temps for a quarter of an hour. Possibly this is for the express purpose of tantalizing all the young gentlemen in the room, upon the same principle that makes young ladies kiss babies so rapturously before company. The Professed Flirt is not always the beauty of the room, but still sufficiently good-looking to attract several pro tempore lovers. And it is remarkable what diplomatic ingenuity she puts forth in carrying on a flirtation with three or four young gentlemen at the same time. The mere shade, the very idea of a gentle pressure of the hand as she meets you in the last ! figure, induces you to believe yourself the j favoured one. But you are mistaken ; she has made three or four others equally self-sa-tisfied by the same proceeding ; and just as she has half-given half-allowed you to take a flower from her bouquet — which you intend to place in water when you get home to your chamber as a romantic souvenir, and afterwards when withered, to treasure up in your dressing-case for an indefinite period, amidst a similar collection of gages d' amour, such as old rose leaves, old sandals, shrivelled violets, very crumpled notes," scented patchouli, locks of silky and odoriferous hair, that ■ made the paper that envelopes them very transparent, and perhaps a vinaigrette or turquoise ring — you find she had offered to mark some other happy swain's hand- ! kerchief with his initials and her ' own j hair. Wherefore you set her down as a heartless coquette, and the gentleman as a thorough muff ; but you do not throw away the lily of the valley notwithstanding. And even when she waltzes with him, and asks you to hold her delicate scarf, which resembles point lace in a consumption, you are still gratified by the honour. She does not admire being cooped up in the ball room all the evening. She is very fond of going down for refreshment ; not that she stands in need of any, but it removes her from the espionage of her chaperon ; and if there is one situation she prefers to another, it is sitting on the staircase outside the drawing-room door, under pretence of enjoying the cool air. The Belle has different opinions formed of her. Old mammas, with unman iageable daughters, pronounce her " an exceedingly forward young woman." Y^ung ladies, who are a little jealous, think her a " very strange girl in her manners ;" and the young gentlemen speak of her according to their teroperarafnts and id,eas of perfection, as a " splendid creature," a " girl with no humbug about her," a " black eyed stunner," or (unfeminine yet expressive appellation) " a thorough-going brick : and no mtstake !" — Punch.