AMERICA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 209, 23 June 1849, Page 4

AMERICA.

The proceedings of Congress had not been important. Nothing decisive had been done with the Panama Railway scheme projected by Messrs. As- . pinwall. The slavery question had exhibited no new feature. The bill before the House of Repre* j aentatives, providing for the formation of a Home I Department in the Central Government, had received the assent of a majority of 112 to 78. An Assistant Secretary of the Treasury was also to be created. A memorial had been laid before the Senate from certain parties, proposing to construct a railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It was not acted upon prominently. General Taylor, the President elect, was shortly expected at Washington. He had already offered the office of Secretary of State under his administration to the Hon. John M. Clayton, and that gen- j tlemau, our advices state, had accepted the appoint' ment. The National Intelligencer, the most "reliable" of the journals of the capital, states that Mr. ■ Crittenden '• will not accept any place in the Cabinet." Mr. Clayton is opposed to slavery, "in the broad sense of the term," it is reported in one quarter; in another he is said to be " a discourager of fanaticism." He is representative of Delaware. Accounts from Venezuela, via Puerto Cabello, of the 28th ult., state that the late naval engagement between the rival fleets of Monagas and Parez was j much more decisive than was at first reported. The Monagas party had been completely triumphant, and | war was now considered as being at an end. At the capture of the fleet of General Paez a large number of prisoners were taken, among whom were three of General Paez's sons. The provinces had become tranquil j business of all kinds was improving, and was likely in a short time to resume its usual activity. The accounts from the Californian gold regions continue ample. We extract the following official documents from the Washington Union of the 14th ult. :~ " Flag ship Ohio, San Francisco, Dec. 22, 1848. « sir, — My letters from Nos. 33 to 42 inclusive, despatched from Monterey by Lieutenant Linman, and from this place by the Lexington, will fully inform you of the operations of the squadron since our departure from the Gulf of California. Nothing material has occurred since my last date. Desertions are less frequent, the Ohio having lost but one man since her arrival here ; and I think the disposition to desert is not so general, but tint may be owing to the inclemency of the season, which, for a while, must suspend the digging and washing for gold, except by such persons as are most amply supplied with good houses and all the necessaries of life requisite for a winter's campaign in a rigid

climate, affording nothing for the use of man but gold. Incredible quantities of gold are yet daily collected, and scarcely a week elapses without some new discovery of the precious metal more startling than any previous one. It is said that a small party of five or six persons, a few days ago, struck upon a pocket, as they term certain deposits, from which in two days they obtained 45*30,000 of pure gold. 11 Within the last three weeks we have certain accounts of 15 murders. In one instance an entire household of 10 persons — a respectable ranchero, his wife, two children, and six servants. The man, , whose name was Reed, had been very successful in , the diggings during the summer, and had returned | to his house near Santa Barbara with a large amount of gold. His house was surprised by an armed party, and the whole family, as above stated, were barbarously murdered, and the house rifled of its golden treasure. The perpetrators of this horrid deed are still at large ; of the other five cases four are highway robberies committed on persons returning with gold from the mines. In a word, 1 may say with truth, that both person and property are insecure in Upper California at this time ; and I am sorry to add that, in all cases of outrage and violence, as yet discovered, emigrants from the United States, disbanded volunteers, runaway sailors and deserters from the army and navy, are believed to be the perpetrators. " The mutinies attended with murder have been fully confirmed, and have caused much uneasiness to shippers oj gold from this coast. " A recent arrival from Calleo reports that the Adehna had been taken into that port, and the mutineers, eight in number, promptly executed. " I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, " Thomas Ap C. Jones, " Commander-in-Chief United States' Naval Forces, Pacific Ocean. " The Hon. John Y. Mason, Secretary of the Navy. " p. S. — Since the above letter was written, we have accounts of more murders. One in the town of Sonoma, and another in the viciuity. •'December 25, 1848." " San Francisco, Dec. 18, 1848. « Sir, — In consequence of the late mutinous and murderous proceedings on board the Chilian bark Adelina and the English schooner Amelia, increased vigilance is required to guard the lives and property of all lawfully navigating the high seas. '• You will, therefore, henceforth, in making passages from port to port, scrutinize closely the appeaiance and manoeuvring of all vessels you fall in J with at sea ; and should you have reasonable doubts of their character you will board them for the purpose of ascertaining if such suspicious vessels remain in possession of the person who cleared them from the last port. Should you find, on boarding any vessel, that any act of mutiny or other unlawful violence has been committed to the prejudice of the rightful owners, you will repair the injur? in the best way you can, by restoring order on board, and by taking out any murderer or mutineer that the master or owner on board such vessel may request you to take on board. Should it be necessary to send any 6uch vessel into port, if other than one sailing under the flag of the United States, she must be sent to the port whence she last sailed, if west of Cape Horn, with a letter to the Government or Consul of the nation whose flag she may bear. Individuals and Americans sent in under this order will be sent to this port. " In discharge of the foregoing highly important and delicate duties, moderation and great circumspection are strictly enjoined on you ; and whenever it is necessary to board a vessel, especially ' when under a foreign flag, you will do so with the least practicable delay or hindrance, taking care to make known to the master the true and only object of your visit. " Respectfully, your obedient servant, " Thos. Ap C. Jones, '* Commander-in-Chief U. States' Naval Forces, Pacific Ocean. The Union adds :—: — " Lieutenant Lanman, of the United States' Navy, arrived last evening in Washington, as bearer of despatches from the Commander of the Pacific squadron. At Payta, on the 12th of January ult., he took passage in the mail steamer California, and arrived at Panama on the 17th. On the 26th the California was to Bail for San Francisco. We learn from Lieutenant Lanman that there were about 500 persons, including General Smith and other officers, waiting at Panama for a passage up the coast. Lieutenant Lanman is confident in the opinion that they were all accomodated with a passage in the steamer. The American ship Philadelphia and an English vessel discharged coal at Panama. There had not been much sickness or mortality on the Isthmus." The following extracts from a letter are from the National Intelligencer, published at Washington :—: — " To give you some idea of the state of things here, I will mention the prices of a few of the necessaries of life. Flour has been selling at 45*300 per barrel, pork 70c. per lb. brandy 4560 per gallon, and most other things in proportion. I trust J. will not take it into his head to emigrate. Goldhunting is a most dangerous amusement. The mortality is really frightful among the gold diggers, and the poor beggarly-looking creatures returning from the mines have, no doubt, paid dearly for their peck or two of gold." Touching the movement to the gold regions the New York Herald says,— " The golden sands of the Sacramento, and the auriferous produce of the soil bordering on ihe San Joaquin, continue to be an absorbing topic of conversation among all classes of society. Thousands of adventurous young men, armed with implements for gold digging, and for washing, smelting, and assaying the ore after it has been gathered, are on their way to El Dorado, and thousands more are preparing to embark for the same distant region. The accounts that have been recently received, confirmatory as they are of all the official statements that have been published concerning the great, and almost lavish, abundance of gold in California, have strengthened the wandering in a determination to seek their fortunes as gold diggers, and incited many who are in comfortable circumstances to throw up all — friends, relatives, and business — for the chance of making a fortune among the placers. In fact emigration to California has hardly yet commenced. Several thousands of our citizens, from various sections of the country, have gone thither, but that number is only as a drop in the bucket to that which will follow.

" Recapitulation of departures to California, " Total in 141 vessels, via Cape Horn .... 8,4. — 24 — Chagres 1,7. < — 6 ~ The Brazos .... 4 1 ' — 5 — Vera Cruz 4 __ 1 — - Tampico — 1 — San Juan River. . — — ' N "Total in 178 vessels Uj "If the gold excitement does not abate, we thi ~ it very probable that 25,000 more adventurers * f be*on their way to California and the gold diggk before the Ist of May next. There are many co: ' panics being formed in the Western and Sou;, , Western states, the members of which intend pr ceeding overland through our own territory, andi *? only waiting for the season to be a little more! , vanced to take up the line of march for the shor, ' of the Pacific. ' •' "The manner in which Colonial Governors i\ <_, Colonial Officials are chosen, is quite disgrace! to a representative government. I think I hew ' little bird that sings — - . 'The people will be wiser by and bye.' - That all minor officials should be sent out fro , England to learn their business by practising up' £ the colonists, is a piece of injustice still moreo f' pressive. The objection is not to their place' 1 birth, but to their ignorance of everything en; '^ nected with colonial life. — Sydney's Australia T$ Hand Book. \ |U Important Caution. —In a horse case, irk $j? lately in the Court of Common Pleas, the Ly; •$> Chief Justice, in summing up, said, "There aretu. £ prevalent errors against which the public shoj'! £ be guarded. One was that a person had a lien c- || a horse for the payment of money due for its keep; p the other, that a party might sell property left vli §t him to pay expenses incurred in keeping it. \ !jr, neither of these cases did any such right esfc \ i though from the appearance of advertisements t' i?* th^ papers, stating that property would be sold; sf| pay the expenses, the public seemed to be of a coy 1-1 trary opinion. , i"y Liability ok Purchasers at Public Aw. "' tion. — At the Court of Requests, on Monday hi. £] Mr. R. Fawcett, Auctioneer, obtained two or tkt C§ verdicts against parties who had bought goods 1 »r auction, and afterwards refused to complete th> j purchases. Mr. J. P. Smith, on behalf of someo f ' the defendants, contended it was illegal, inasami * as the buyers had not signed the conditions of sal: Jtbut this was overruled by the bench, who remarL ,f that such was clearly and distinctly understood i /v the time of sale. This decides the question tt. < j auctioneers have a power of sale over all goods upc 1 the non-fulfilment of the contract on the part t the purchaser.— Corio Chronicle, May 9. \ The Home, Foreign, and Colonial Depab' \ ments yersus the Treasury.— We understan • ' that the committee of investigation started t • meddle with all the government establishments hi ', received a check from the Secretaries of State f the Home, Foreign, and Colonial departments. . „ committee, or commission, at the head of which w: Sir Charles Trevelyan, X.C.8., was preparing I invade the above offices, when it was intimated ti >| the Board of Treasury that the heads of tbe thrt ~' departments above named would not permit any it;'.terference of the kind, and that if the Treasury w- ' of opinion that a revision was necessary, their ot officers were quite competent and willing to undt ' take the task. — Morning Herald, Dec. 16. !'! ' A New Mineral —A Mr. Blake, of Akro: [ (Ohio) has discovered a mineral, in the neighbo^ " hood of the latter place, which promises to be t. great value. He has visited Washington, and oV,\'i tamed a patent for it. " When first dug up, iU^ J of the consistence of tallow., and gradual.'y so as I) Jr v resemble slate, and finally it becomes as hard asi *J rock. It is of the colour of indigo, is imprevioi >$ both to water and fire, and admits of the final fi polish. When reduced to powder, and mixed t; 4 with linseed oil, it has the appearance of black pain. „' and may be spread over wood, canvas, &c. Rooi * have been guarded by it against fire ; and as it do* ' not absorb the rain, it protects the rafters fro; > decay. It consists of about one-half of silicia , on: ?: fourth alumina, with less proportions of magnesii |^ black oxide of iron, sulphate of iron, lime, as- >„ carbon." Amongst the literary novelties of 1849 is tb ; . commencement of a Phonetic newspaper, design^ as the organ of the spelling reform, invented i Mr. Pitman. Its conductors state that s,ooo,Of'j »' Englishmen cannot read, and that 8,000,000 tX & unable to write. They add, truly enough, that thJ , lamentable deficiency is principally owing to ttJ .> inability of the poorer classes to tell the sound f^' any English word from its spelling, or the spelHajj^ of any English word by the sound — difficulties whic||J phonetic orthography, otherwise spelling by floun^| will altogether overcome. It is stated that phonetV| publications are being sold at the rate of 100,OCy4! per annum. In an interview with the King of Naples^ Mr. Temple urged his Majesty to procee. J in a much more liberal course than t'|| intended towards his Sicilian subjects, anf- jf the King replied — "Mr. Temple, I w"s pledge myself to follow step by step £ *' Sicily whatever measures your governmet *"• shall set before mo in Ireland. If y* " withdraw your troops from thence, 1 "ffl, * order mine to quit Sicily. If you lea? » Ireland to the defence of native troops I will do the same for Sicily ; and ever. 1 ! *■ measure of liberal policy that you shi ; fpursue in Ireland, where there is no larg ?' party in arms, and no fortified town in i\^ hands of rebels, I will follow you in Siciljh* where there are both. If you will n-if' accept such terms, will you follow my e#* ample, and avoid any further interference <j| between sovereign and subject, until I p#!. ".j sume to direct your course with regard t< *' the people of Ireland ?" ■ \ „,„., -^p