State or the Country.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 150, 6 May 1848, Page 3

State of the Country.

Dublin, Nov. 16. — Thuggee has achieved another victory, and in a quarter where till now the bloody system was almost unknown. Mr. William Hassard, the treasurer of the county of Fermanagh, who was fired at by some unknown assassin* on Satuiday evening, in his own lawn, expired of his injuries at an early hour on Monday morning. |No less than twenty slugs were lodged in the thigh of the ill-fated gentleman, some of which, it is presumed, must have entered the groin, inflicting a mortal wound in some more vital part of the body. Mr. Hassard was an ultra liberal in politics, and is described to have been a humane and indulgent landlord, neither of which qualities appears just now to weigh as a feather ia the scale when once the victim, it may be unwittingly, sins against the secret code which regulates the tenure of life and property in ' Ireland. Tne Ennislillen Chronicle states — and private letters concur in the belief — that the conspiracy which now disgraces the southern and western counties is but smouldering in Fermanagh, and that the murder of Mr. Hassp.rl is but the commencement of a systematic resistance to the rights of the landlords, by refusing to pay rents or surrender possession of the lands to the owners. " We greatly fear," says the above-named paper, " that this is only the first of a series of intended murders, which a por* tion of the infatuated combinators ia this country intend waging against all such persons as refuse to resign the management of their own properties. We had hoped that the murderous character of that body had confined its operations to Tipperary and the south of Ireland, but we fear the north is also to be deluged with human blood this winter. If active, resolute, and energetic measures be not speedily adopted, the entire of this island will be one sea of human blood. We more than a month ago announced that a systematic conspiracy was Carrying on in this county against the rightful pro« Prietors of the soil ; yet, it is not in this county alone, but it extends over the entire length and breadth of this island. Although this, combination has not assumed the same turbulent form as it has in Tipperary, nevertheless the same spirit actuates a larger portion of the. lower order of society here ; their imagination has been led astray : wild spouters have painted fancy scenes of rights which never existed, and of unalloyed happiness such as this world does not produce, which have the effect of engendering discontent. Again, we say, lectures won't do, remonstrances won't do ; try what rigorous measures can effect ; desj crate diseases require desperate remedies. The lawless conspiracy at present only in its infancy in this country can only be subued with an iron hand." - Tutor to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.— It is rumoured in this quarter — and the rumour has some semblance of tru'h — that Dr. Philpott, master of Catherine Hall, who performed the honours of vice-chancellor during the visit of her Majesty and Prince Albert at the late installation, is about to be appointed tutor to his royal highness the Prince of Wales. It is certain that Dr. Philpott has just returned from a visit to Windsor Castle, at which he is reported in the Court Circular to have dined twice with her majesty. At the late installation her Majesty and Prince Albert honoured Dr. Philpot as vice-chancellor by dining at Catherine Lodge.— Cambridge Advertiser. Italy. — The new 3 from Italy is rather important. It is confirmed that Cardinal Ferretti had resigned, and a Roman journal states that in the conference between the pope and the Austrian ambassador on the 3rd instant, (November) the question of Ferrara was discussed in a conciliatory manner. Important from Tuscany. — The Patria of. Florence, of the 9th instant, contains the following : " Blood flows at Fivizzano ! The Modenese are the aggressors I Pietra Santa has risen up inarms I An express from Firizzino has just arrived bringing U 3 these tidings. The Modenese arrested, whith.ou.fc knowing why, the sergeant-mBJor of the Tuscan carabioiers. The people took his part. The Modenese fired upon the people, killed one, and wounded several. Upon this all the cidsens flew to arms, and a skirmish ensued, which was going on at the departure of the courier, who, in passing by Pietra Santa, found that town in arms, andjon the point of going to the rescue of their brethren. M^y God protect justice and liberty 1 Courage! The Tuscan government has published an official statement of the occupation of Fivizzano, ending with the following paragraph : — ' Thus an act was perpetrated which the Tuscan government could neither foresee nor prevent, and which, with respect to the rights and the dignity of the sovereign and the state, must be the subject of grave and serious consideration.' " Dr. Musgrave, the new Archbishop of York, and Dr. Hampden, the new Bishop of Hereford, are both liberals in politics, and friends of universily reform. Mr. Bonham, who was formerly governor of Sin« gapore, is to be the new governor of Hong-Kong, in the place of Sir John Davis, who has resigned..

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China.. The ill-feeling wbicli had arisen between the English and Chinese Beemed to have increased rather than diminished since oor last advices, and there j was every prospect of renewed hostililies. The j Biitish consul at C mton had issued an official notice , stating that he was in hourly expectation of having to proceed to Hongkong, and the publication of this notice had been followed by all the confusion which might be expected under such circumstances. Tnere was, at the moment, a lull, but reinforcements both by sea and land were expected, and active hostilities would probably be commenced immediately on their arrival. A privafe letter from Hongkong dated 18tn Janu- j ary, has the following remarks : — We have been in r xpectation of getting into a war agtfin with China, on account Df the murder by some of the villagers, n.ar Canton, of six Englishmen, clerks in the employment of some of the mcrch-mti ut Canton, who went out for a little recreation ; but you will see the particulars in the papers. If war had comm.need, I with all the Eoglish here, were to have been embodied as a militia, to defend the place while the troops were away. Only fancy my shouldering a musket, and being made a full private, and then becoming food for powder ! However, matters at present are a little quieter, bat I think it is only till a larger force is collected here, »b troops have been sent for from India, and are expected daily ; and every thing betokenß another war with China. It seemed to be a general opinion that the six men who were executed /or »li? murder of the Englishmen at Canton were not. in reality the guilty parties, but persons who had been induced to offer themselves as victims upon condition of a sum of money beiug given to their families.

DnEADifUL Affray on board a Slaver. — The following is an extract from a private letter, dated Sierra Leone, October 6, 1847:— "On the 22nd of July last Her Majrs'y's ship Walerwilch, with Her Majesty's ship Rapid in company, caplured the Brazilian brigantine Borneo Primer o, which was subsi quently given in charge to Lieut. W. G Mansfield, R. N-, and four seamen, to be conveyed to St. Helena for adjudication. Owing to adverse winds, and the unmanageable qualities of the prise, the officer in command found it necessary to alter his destination, and to bear up for this place. On the 11th of August, about midday, two of the crew being engaged aloft, and the others in the bunks, where tue arms were stowed, the Lieutenant being at the moment pulling a rope which had been recently spliced, was murderously assailed from behind by one of the prisoners (who were four in number, and during the daytime allowed the liberty of the vessel), with an axe used for chopping firewood. At the same moment the other prisoners furiously attacked the sailors in the bunks, wbo, from the unexpected nature of the assault, were driven from their post wounded 'and unarmed. Lieut, M-ins-fielJ, laying hold of a pece of firewood, gallantly, but unequally, contended with a Brazilian armed with a -cutlass ; in the course of a desperate struggle the officer received no fewer than nine wounds, more or less severe, in the head, arms, and abdomen ; a great coat wh cb he wore, being, under Providence, the means of saving him From instant death. The two sailors who had been occupied in the shrouds, having reached the deck, of course unarmed, the Lieutenant, nearly exhausted by profuse hssmorrhige, made a violent effort to join them, in which be fortunately proved successful, though in his progress one of the prisoners discharged at him a matint's musket, the contents of which took effect, inflicting a most dangerous wound on hia head, and bringing him for an instant to the ground; Having succeeded in recovering his feet, and gaining his men, he encouraged them to rush aft upon their armed antagonists, a piece of service which three of their number performed in the most daring manner ; the fourth seaman (since dead) being hors de com ■ bat by his wounds, and the Lieutenant himself fainting at the instant from losd of blood. The intrepidity of the three British tars rendered them more than a match for their armed antagonists, ■whom they speedily overpowered, one of the prisoners Jeaping overboard and perishing in the waves. EelieviDg their officer to be killed, the seamen, in the excitement ot the moment, were about to hurl tbe surviving prisoners over the gangway, when Lieutenant Mansfield, parcially reviving, ordered them to be .imprisoned, tlut their woupds should be washed,. and that they should be reserved to be dealt with'by tne authorities here. On the Ist of September, the Romeo Primero, the scene of this bloody encounter, entered our port. Lieut. Mansfield, who since. the day of conflict had scarcely been able to Btir hand or foot, wa» promptly conveyed to sick quarters, and for many days his life was entirely despaired of by his medical attendants. The gallant little crew, all wounded, were also looked after in the best manner whan skill and sympathy could BUggeEt ; but, alas ! two of them were soon removed beyond the reach of human succour, one dying of the direct consequence of hifl wounds, and the second of fever induced by them. After a fortnight of extreme danger on shore, Lieutenant Mansfield's powerful constitution showed sjmptoms of triumphing over his injuries, and he is now so far convalescent as to justify sanguine hopes of his complete restoration. Yesterday the Brazilian prisoners were brought to trial before the Chief Justice,|hts Honour Chief Justice Pine, and Assistant- Judges Ileddle and L nnon, on charges of piracy and attempt to murder Lieutenant W. 6. Mansfield, R.N., and others. On the indictment being read, several preliminary objections were taken on tbe part of the prisoners Ly the Spanith Consul, as the only representative ot a foreign country in tbe colony. The Cuurt, after some consultation, declared the following objection fatal to the proceedings :— ' That the alleged ciime had been commuted in an attempt to re-capture their own vessel, ihen nnder the Brazilian flag, and not amenable to British jurisdiction, the sentence of a Court of Admiralty not having been then pronounced.' His Honour, in announc* ing the decision of the Court, said, that the case being thus shut out from an investigation on its Hieri'.a, be felt called upon to state that, having read attentively all the depositions corrected with it, he considered the conduct of the prize officer to have been marked, throughout the trying circumstances, by mo6t praise-worthy courage and forbearance. The prisoners were then discharged. The brigantitfe has been condemned by the Admiralty Court as a slaver." — London Record. The gentlemen-at-arms have recently bean ordered, by authority, to promo'.e the growth of hair on the upper lip.— Globe.

PtJNISHMENT OF A BANKRUPT IN HaIIBUKGH. Hamburgh witnessed a curious proceedir-g on the Bth Nov. Tbe scaffold was erected as for an execution before the principal front of the Exchange, ant) at twelve o'clock a large furnace filled wiib resinous wood was placed on it. The wood having been set on fire, the bell of the Town HaU was ruig violently, as is usual during the execution of decrees inflicting infamous penalties. At one o'clock, the hour at which merchants are assembled on the E\chinge, the public executioner ascended the flcafl'old, followed by two of hia assistants, and after having caused a drum to be beat, proclaimed in a loud voice tbe name of a merchant wbo had been declared guilty of fraudulent bankruptcy, and who had taken to flight. He then displayed to the spectators an enormous placard bearing tbe name of the culprit in gigantic letters. He next caused the drum to be beat a second lime, after which he tossed the placard in the flames. For twenty-three years no similar execution had taken place at Hamburgh ■ By the law« of that city, when a tradesman fails.^the state of his affairs is immediately examined into by a jury nominated by the Tribunal of Commerce, and the jury has to declare on oath if the bankrupt be irreprochable, if he be guilty of negligence, or if lie has committed fraud. In the first case, the Tribunal of Commerce declares him innocent ; in the second he is subject to imprisonment for a period more or less long ; in the third he is liable to be] confined in a bouse of correction for from t>n to twenty yearß, and to be exposed on the pillory ; but if he takes to flight, his name is publicly burned by the hangman, in the manner we bJve described. Why the Government of our Colonies is so Costly. — It is one of the many evils attending over-government, that party spi< it is created and fostered by the mere hope of partaking in the profits of the great expenditure which accompanies it- Our own times are probably the first in which the governing body, in large states, has sought to acquire strength by multipljing dependents on the public purse ; a matter of statecraft now well understood in some great European kingdoms. Under our old colonijl system, no temptation whatever was held out to self-interest assuming the mask of patriotism — the commonest form of hypocrisy in these days. The expense of the civil establishment in Massachusetts Bay, before the commencement of the American war, was estimated by Adam Smith at about .£lB,OOO a year ; that of New Hampshire and Rhode Inland, j£3 500 each ; that of Connecticut, .£4,000 ; that of New Yoik and Pennsylvania, i? 4,500 each; that of New Jersey, ,£1,200; ihat of Virginia and South Carolina, £ J B,OOO each. '• An ever memorable example," as he most truly adds, " at how small an expense £"3,000,000 of people may not only be governed, but well governed. In 1536, the civil expenditure of Newfoundland, paid outjof its revenue, was £'36.000 ; of Prince Edward's Island, i£l3,UOO ; New Biunswich, £52, 00 ; Lower Canada, at least £100,000. If this enormous difleience were compeusated by superior government, I, for one, should be litle disposed to cavil at the ' amount or" the sums which the people of the colonies are called on to advance for the purchase of so inestimable a blessing. But I might safely ask those who entertain the highest notions of government and its du'ies, whether any of its functions, moral or material, are better fulfilled in our colonies of the present day than they were in the ancient American provinces. — Merivale's Lectures on Colonisation. Value of Land in- Gallicm. — Land jg of extraordinary little value in Galticia. The archduke John has sod his vast' estate at Nadworo. which contains upwards of 500,000 acres, for 750,000 florins (1,950,000 francs), or H florin (3. 90c) per acre. It is stated in the Dramatic Review that 'twelve symphonies of Moz-irt, never heard in England, will shortly be published." Mr. W. B. McCabe, the author of the Catholic History of England," has been appointed Consul in London for the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, and the Tuesday's Gazette records Her Majesty's approbation, Mr. McUabe is a member of the London press, and rendered essential service to Ge» neral OBrien, when representing Moute Video at the British Court. The culture of the vine is rapidly spreading on the Ohio river", U. £•