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Leader (1850-1860), 21st December 1850, Edition Country of 1, Page 2, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL REFORM . W...

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      914 &T)$ ^Eaiiev. [Saturday,

      914 & t ) $ ^ eaiieV . [ Saturday ,

      The American President's Message. The Ne...

      THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE . The New York papers received by the last packet contain Mr . Fillmore ' s first Message to Congress . The document , although much shorter than such missives generally are in America , is much too long for us to quote . We shall content ourselves with giving a clever summary of its contents from the New York Tribune , which characterizes the several items in the following manner : — " 1 . Mutual reproach and crimination , leading to useless irritation , among the several members of the Union , should be avoided and deprecated . 2 . All laws , while they exist , must be enforced and obeyed , whether

      popular or obnoxious . The President must see the laws enforced , without exception or discrimination . 3 . Our l . rei ^ n Relations generally are amicable and satisfactory . " With Portugal , Brazil , Chili , Peru , and ' the IJiiivanan Kingdom , ' they are improved or improving ; Mexico is being importuned to grant a more unrestricted right of way for a railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec ; and the President hop « = s we shall fix things with Great Britain respecting the Ocean Ship Canal through Nicaragua . 4 . The receipts into the treasury during the fiscal year , which closed in June last , were nearly forty-» pvpn and a half millions : the disbursements therefrom

      were forty-two millions ; half a million of public debt has been paid off within the last year , and the surplus in the treasury encreased about five millions . The President is opposed to further loans , and wants to pay off and extinguish eight millions of public debt within the next two years . 5 . The public lands have been used up , at least for many years , as a source of revenue , by the passage of the Military Bounty Land Bills . 6 . The federal revenue should be raised mainly by duties on imports . Those duties should be so levied as to benefit incidentally home industry by shielding it from destructive foreign competition . They should be not exorbitant , but moderate ; should be specific so far as possible ; and , whenever ad valorem rates are tolerated , they should instead of the valua

      be computed on the home , foreign - tion . Ad valorem duties , based on the foreign valuation , tempt to fraud and give the dishonest importer an advantage over the upright . 7 . California ought to have a branch mint , and meantime gold stamped by the United States assayer there should be received in payments to the Government . 8 . An efficient agricultural bureau should at once be created . 9 . The railroad to the Pacific ought to be constructed . Congress should help . 10 . The Mexican land-titles in California should be promptly adjudicated , and our land-laws extended to California , Utah , and New Mexico . The gold lands should be sold in small quantities . 11 . We have bought a fresh lot of Indians of Mexico , which prove rather a hard bargain . A regiment or more of mounted men are needed in New South of it to to them within

      Mexico and help keep bjunds . A military asylum is also necessary . 12 . The navy will cost one million less next year than this ( owing to the speedy completion of the dry docks , & c ) , unless a dry dock is built in California . 13 . A revision of the naval code is rendered necessary by the iecent abolition of flowing . 14 . The post-office department has cleared 340 , 000 dollars the past year , and the P . M . General and President unite in recommending a reduction of the rates of postage to three cents for prepaid and five cents for unpaid letters , no matter what distance conveyed , with some reduction on printed matter also . Lastly , the President is absolutely in favour of the * Peace measures' of the late session , Fugitive Slave Law included . He says : —

      " The series of measures to which I have alluded are regarded by me as a settlement , in principle and substance—a final settlenieut , of the dangerous and exciting subjects which they embraced . Most of these subjects , indeed , are beyond your reach , as the legislation which disposed of them was , in its character , final and irrevocable . It may b ? presumed , from the opposition ¦ which they all encountered , that none of those measures \ va 3 free from imperfections , but in their mutual dependence ami connection they formed a system of compromise , the most conciliatory , » nd best for the entire country , that could be obtained from conflicting : sectional interests and opinions . " For this reason 1 recommend your adherence to the adjustment established by those measures , until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against invasion or abuse .

      " By that adjustment , we have bepn rescued from the wide and boundless agitation that surrounded us , and have a firm , distinct , and lejjjnl ground to rest upon . And the occasion , L trust , will justily me in exhorting my countrymen to rally upon und maintain that ground as the best , if not * the only menus , of restoring peace and quiet to the country , and maintaining inviolate the integrity of the Union . "

      The Slave Question". The Excitement In T...

      THE SLAVE QUESTION " . The excitement in tho United States caused by the attempt to carry out tho provisions of the Fugitive Slave 1 U 11 has greatly subsided , but it will bo revived , no doubt , with tho reopening of Congress . Mr . George Thompson has addressed a meeting at Rochester , where resolutions were passed severely denouncing ; several of the Boston journals . Mr . riiompaon is thus reported : — Talk of this country being free , it was not free . No honest Englishman , expressing his honest . feelings , could

      even travel through it . Ho himself might wish to visit the ninmmnth cave in Kentucky , but he could not do it , at least , with nny assurance of returning alive . He could not are the ' father of waters" at the South—he could not cross tho 1 ' otoninc—he could not travel anywhere in the South with one-half tho liberty that would be accorded to him within the most despotic territories i » f Europe . And if he could , not—if the country were not In e—then its example mid its history would bo cited by the advocates of Uingcrnft . and priestcraft all over the vvnrld na an evidence of the utter failure of republican or lo-cailcl frre institutions . The Legislature of South Carolina , has been dis-. ussing certain resolutions , declining their

      determination not to elect United States senators to fill vacancies , and instructing Senator Butler and the representatives of the State not to take their seats in Congress ; also , a resolution instructing a committee to report a bill of non -intercourse with the States that throw obstacles in the way of the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law ; and another , with a ^ long preamble of grievances , declaring that , in the judgment of the Legislature , secession was the proper remedy , and that South Carolina , sooner than submit to the aggressions of the Federal Congress , will interpose her own sovereignty to shield her citizens from future outrages and wrongs , at every hazard . The Governor of Virginia , in his message to the Legislature , says : —

      Virginia , and , I think , all the slave-holding States , can and ought calmly , but explicitly , to declare that trie repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law , or any essential modification of it is a mutual repeal of the Union . The faithful execution of this law is , in my judgment , the only means now left by which the Union can be preserved with honour to ourselves and peace to the country .

      The Undeveloped German Drama. German Aff...

      THE UNDEVELOPED GERMAN DRAMA . German affairs get on more slowly than ever . The meeting of the Free Conference , at Dresden , has been postponed , on account of the Christmas holidays , from the 18 th to the 25 th of this month . If that is the real reason of the postponement , it is strange that Chiistmas should be fixed upon as the day of meeting . The Augsburg Gazette states that Austria , Bavaria , and Wurtemberg will participate in the Dresden Conferences only on condition that the resolutions shall not be submitted to the Chambers of the separate states . Hitherto no such condition has been announced to the Prussian Cabinet , which , on the contrary , fully intends submitting to the Chambers any provision affecting the constitution before allowing it to take effect . A . note from London has been received at Berlin , requesting explanation touching the Dresden Conferences , which are said to contemplate such a revision of existing arrangements as causes some uneasiness . Those who pretend to know more than their neighbours affirm that the most striking act of the German drama remains to be played . In that case , we hope that poetical justice will be done to the leading villains of the play .

      The disarmament proceeds , but at a very slow rate . The entrance of the Bavarian troops into Rothenburg , has been signalized by further measures against the opponents of the September ordinances — soldiers have been quartered in the the houses of many refractory judges . Almost all the constitutional judges have resigned . Count Itechberg , previous to laying down his government at Rothenberg , has spared his

      successor , Count Leiningen , a disagreeable task , by again publishing an edict , whereby the Hesse territory is declared to be in a state of war ; the carrying of arms is forbidden to all ; the forcible deprivation of them is announced if they are not delivered up ; all public meetings , whether for political or other purposes are prohibited , and all unions and societies , whatever may be their object , are , by the bare will of the prince , declared to be dissolved .

      A Berlin correspondent in the Neuen Bremer Zettung makes some very remarkable statements ; he says : — " The causes of the turn our policy has of late taken are by no means fully known . Much is yet obscure ; only it is certain that the King till the last moment , hesitated between contradictory decisions . In the Cabinet Council of the 3 rd of December , the balance inclined towards the side of war . Not only the Prince of Prussia , by the King

      himself , had opposed the acceptance of the Olmiitz cornpact , and a communication to this effect was made by an illustrious personage to the Chambers . In the night between the 3 rd and the 4 th , other councils prevailed . What took place on this night , no one knows , but in the morning the traces of a Revere mental struggle were evident in the face of the King . On this morning the Cabinet Council was held , in which the adjournment of the Chambers was decided on . "

      The Law Of Marriage. An Important Decisi...

      THE LAW OF MARRIAGE . An important decision was given in the Court of Session , Edinburgh , on Saturday , in favour of Mrs . Geils , on the question of international law involved in the case of divorce , at her instance , against her husband , John Edward Ocils , Esq ., of Dumbuck . In this case , as our readers will recollect from a report we gavo some months ago , the lady withdrew from her husband's society in 1815 , and went to reside Avilh her mother in England , with whom she has resided ever since . The husband having instituted a suit against her , in the Arches Court of Canterbury , to compel her to return to his society , she successfully resisted that suit by pleading and proving his adulteries . Upon thia ground she obtained what in England is erroneously called a divorce , but which in truth is only a separation a mvnsa at thoro ( that is to say , a separation from bed and board ) , which is all that the Consistorial Courts have tho power to gront . In England , under tho present law , a marriage can only be efiretunlly dissolved by a special net of Parliament , which usually costs * from £ 700 to £ 1000 , according- to circumstances ; and it is even doubtful

      whether Parliament would interfere at all to df vorce a guilty husband at the suit of his innocent wife . But in the case of a judicial divorce or sepa ration , such as that of Geils in the Consistorial Court , the innocent wife , although relieved from cohabitation with the guilty husband , still remains bound by the marriage , which can only be dissolved by death , or by a special act of Parliament . In the case now alluded to , the husband , during the last five years , has been drawing £ 1200 a-year from his wife ' s estates in England , under their marriage setand the lish Courts have

      tlement , Eng no power to prevent this . In order to procure the effectual remedy of a Scottish divorce a vinculo mairimonii , which would not only set the lady free from the marriage , but would carry along with it a forfeiture of the £ 1200 annuity , and entitle her to her marriage provision of £ 400 a-year out of Dumbuck estate , she , in May , 1849 , brought an action of divorce against her husband , in the Supreme Court of Scotland , of which country he is a native , and where he not Only has a landed estate and domicile , but where the adulteries are said to have been committed . The question as to whether Mrs . Geils is entiled to sue this Scottish divorce , after having obtained all that the law of England could give her , has been discussed at great length in the Court of Session , and the Lords in the Inner House , affirming Lord Wood ' s judgment , have now decided , that she is not barred by anything that was done in the Arches Court , in which she was merely a defender , from seeking and obtaining the effectual remedy of a Scottish divorce , so as entirely to dissolve the marriage , and save her estate from the grasp of her husband .

      Industrial Schools And Social Reform . W...

      INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL REFORM . We are glad to see , from the Perth Advertiser , that Ragged School Farm , in that neighbourhood , continues to be successful , and that the practicability of carrying on a school-farm is now placed beyond a doubt . " About four acres of land were rented by the committee from Sir Thomas Moncreiffe , and upon this little spot the experiment has been tried , for the

      first time in Scotland , of employing criminal or vagrant boys upon the cultivation of the soil . So far as matters have hitherto gone , this experiment has been attended with the most gratifying success . The boys have evinced a great liking for the employment , and have proved themselves capable of performing such a very considerable amount of work , that sanguine hopes are entertained of the institution ultimately being made nearly self-supporting . industrial

      In connection with this and other questions , we observe that a lecture on " The Progress of Social Reform " was delivered in Queen-street Hall , Edinburgh , on Monday evening , by the Reverend Dr . Begg , at the request of the " Scottish Social Reform Association . " A number of gt-ntlemen were present , but the audience , which was large , consisted chiefly of the working class . Dr . Begg began by explaining the meaning of social reform as distinguished from political reform — gave an account of the origin of the Scottish Social Reform Association , and of the points which it advocated . It did not take up all questions of social reform . It did not take up the education or the

      temperance questions , however important , as others were engaged with these , and he trusted would secure their objects . He then proceeded to advocate better houses for the working classes , and to explain what had been done in that direction . He pressed the importance of each man seeking to be landlord of his own house . The important question of what ought to be done on the land was also largely discussed . The reverend doctor condemned compulsory emigration , advocated the total abolition of entails , and a great simplification of tithes . He explained the tenant-right struggle of Ireland , and the freehold land movement of England , and advocated the extension of the 40 s . freehold system to Scotland . He advocated labour on land by criminals

      and paupers . Tho lecture occupied an hour and three-quarters in the delivery ; and at its close a motion approving oi the objects of the Association , and pledging the meeting to support it , was unanimously adopted .

      Dinner To The American Ambassador. The M...

      DINNER TO THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR . The members of tho American Chamber of Commerce , in Liverpool , gave a splendid entertainment to his Excellency the Honourable Abbot Lawience , Minister of the United States , and his suite , at tic Adolphi Hotel . The invitations were confined ^ solely to the heads of departments resident in or immediately connected with Liverpool . The banquet t < : ofc place in the large room of the hotel , which whs tastefully fitted up for the occasion , tho most conspicuous ornaments being the flags of the two nations , lwgland and America , gracefully placed in juxtaposition , and designed as emblamatic of the commercial intercourse ! which is carried on between ourselves and our

      brethren on the other sido of tho Atlantic . The usual toasts having bom given , the health ot Mr . Abbot Lawrence called up that gentleman , win ) referred in the following passnge to the commercial relations of England and America : —

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 21, 1850, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_21121850/page/2/