THE UNITED STATES. [From the Weekly Despatch, Feb. 22.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 733, 11 August 1852, Page 3

THE UNITED STATES. [From the Weekly Despatch, Feb. 22.]

The House of Representatives had passed a resolution appropriating 6,000 dollars for relieving arid bringing home the remnant of the Lopez expedition. . In the Senate, Mr. Shields had moved to postpone the special ordei of the day, for the purpose of taking up the resolution for the intercession of the American Government with' England, to obtain the release of Mr. Smith O'Brien and other exited Irish. The motion was agreed to, and the resolution taken up. Mr. Shields then submitted his substitute for the resolution so as to dispense with the necessity for diplomatic application. The substitute .offered by Mr. Shields is as follows :—: — "*" " Resolved, tha,t while we disclaim all intention of interfering in any way in the internal affairs of Great Britain and Ireland, we deem it our duty to express, in a respectful manner, our firm conviction that-it would.be highly gratifying to the people of United States, many of whom are natives of Ireland, and connected by blood with the inhabitants of that country, to see Smith O'Brien ai.d his associates restored tojiberty, and permitted, if so disposed, to emigrate to this country. We would regard this act of clemencyas a new proof of the

friendly disposition of the British Government towards our republic, and as calculated to strengthen the bonds of affection now happily existing between the people of the United States, and tlie United Kingdom of "Great Britain and Ireland." The subject was then made a special order of the day for a subsequent day. An explosion had taken place at the Charleston arsenal, and the Ohio 1 State House was burned down. , Official intelligence had been received at Washington relative to the discovery of an extensive vein of silver ore in New Mexico. v . - It is stated that the Commhtee intended to report in favour of an additional grant to the Collins' line of mail bteamers. A fire had occurred in i<Jew York, by which 500,000 dollars worth of property had been destroyed. Captain Jonas P. Levy had been arrested for holding unlawful correspondence with the Mexican Government, for the purpose of frustrating and rendering null the Tehuantepec treaty. On the Ist Feb., a large piece of the Horse Shoe, Niagara Falls, fell in on the American side, between Goat Island and the Tower. A large number of the inhabitants of New Hampshire, assembled in State Convention, at Concord, has passed a resolution declaring that they will not vote x for any man, for any office whatever, who is not known to be opposed to the sale of intoxicating drinks. The most recent advices from New Mexico, received in New York, represent the Indians as getting rather the best of the troops in that locality. More discoveries of gold and silver had been made. Kossuth declares that he does not desire to take the money which is contributed to him out of the country. He wishes to purchase with it arms, ammunition, and ships. When it was represented to him that he could not fit out armed expeditions here without violence to our neutrality laws, he asked; " Why cannot a special exception be made in my favour ?" Mormonism. — The New Yorlc National Police Gazette contains, a mass of disgusting- details relative to'the procedings of this sect at the Salt Lake. A correspondent of that paper, writing from Utah, says : — "The pluralist wife system is in full vogue here. Governor Young is said to have ninety wives. He drove along the streets a few days ago with sixteen of them in a long carriage, fourteen of them having each an infant at her bosom. It is said Heber B. Kimball, one of -the Tribune Council, and the second person in the Trinity, has almost an equal number, and among them are a mother and her two daughters. Eaph man can have as many wives as he can maintain, that is, after the women have been picked and culled by the head men. Whole pages might be filled with }he surprising and disgusting details of the state of affairs here." It is a lamentable fact that, at the present time, numbers of people are leaving Great Britain to join the Mormons, notwithstanding the disclosures that are so constantly being made.

Cuba and the Slave Trade. — The FJavannah correspondent of the New York Herald writes, under date the 30th December — " Since your correspondent, ' Q.U.O.' ceased bis letters to your journal, four cargoes of negroes have been landed upon the island of Cuba' — of course, not without the indirect knowledge of the authorities — two on the south side, one at the east end, and one east of Cardenas — making a total of 1,980 human beings drawn into the light of civilisation by the chains of slavery. One of the vessels under American colours, the barque Jasper, entered this port for refitting, after landing her cargo near St. Jago de Cubar under clearance from that port, and .will in six or eight weeks be ready for another descent or invasion of Africa, ' dla Lopez.' A Spanish brig with 700 slaves was detected in the landing, and 430 of the slaves seized, to learn the advantage of the treaty with .Great Britain, while 270 escaped undei the duplicate blind to official eyes made by the ' Felix auspices ' which will be found upon all Spanish ' ounces.' The seized negroes were brought to this port, and will be leased for seven years, when they are to be given up to the Commissioner of the British and Spanish Mixed Court of Justice for transportation toJamaica. That is, those will be given up who are. not dead-; and it so happens, that just before the expiration of the seven yea; s' a fatal epidemic always creeps into their cabins, so that from SO to 90 per cent, perish, of which certificates with the seal of the church, pro forma, are produced in satisfaction of the bodies and the bowels ; and what is remarkable, the ravage always attacks the young and vigorous, while the ' old and decrepid escape, and are turned over to waste the balance of their days under English care.