THE UNITED STATES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 501, 22 May 1850, Page 3

THE UNITED STATES.

New York, December 18. — Considering the season of the year, and that a fortnight elapsed yesterday since the assembling of Congress, there is much less than usual to communicate of a description which, will be interesting to foreign readers. This in a great measure arises from the position still maintained by members of the different parties in the House of Representatives. Each adheres to the determined stand on the slavery question which was assumed by it on the first day of the session, and the nearly equal strength of their ranks has thus far prevented the election of a Speaker, and the consequent organization of the house. The freesoil members still hold the balance of power, but refuse to vote for any candidate who is not committed to their very ultra views regarding the constitutional power of the government to interfere with and prevent the existence of slavery in the territories, and to abolish it in the district of Columbia. No such candidate can be found among Whigs or Democrats who by any possibility will command a majority of votes from the rest of his party, and, such being the case, there is no present prospect of an election, unless some new mode of securing it is mutually agreed on. Additional steamers, of the first class, have been purchased for the Pacific, and the Tennessee lately left for that station. It is intended to run a line of steam-packets from a port in that ocean to one in China, stopping at the Sandwich Islands, where every necessary convenience has been secured. — Times Correspondent.