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    temper and self-possession , -with the avoidance of that abusive language which set to the crew an example of Billingsgate from , ths quarter-deck . And not the least important of the official improvements is , that example of agricultural statistics which the Board of Trade has just issued . This particular example has been long brewing . The statistics wore collected in the countie . s of Haddington , Roxburgh ,.-and Sutherland by th&Boyal Agricultural Society of Scotland some time since .

    Statistics are in . process of collection in the English county of Hampshire , where Lord Asliburton and Mr . Pusey have bean giving those who have been called upon to furnish the information such excellent advice . There ' are two great obstacles to the collection of the information—indifference of the fawners to the object , and the fear that their personal affairs may be e . vposed to their neighbours and competitors . Lord Asliburton endeavoured to persuade them that tbe latter fear

    ¦ would not be realised , and this example of statistics from Scotland will corroborate what be said . The totals of the calculated produce of wheat , peas , or potatoes , for an entire county , derived from the details of individual returns , expose nothing that the farmer need fear to have known , though they will guide him and his fellows in regulating his preparations so as to avoid the production of commodities in which he may . be anticipated , or to supply deficiences in their plans , to his

    own profit . These statistics Lave been long in collection , because tbe business is new ; but when the public collectors are properly instructed , when farmers perceive the convenience of the arrangement , and when the arrangement itself has been improved by the light of experience , - the process it ill take comparatively little time , and the returns can be presented at the close of each season , so as to guide the operations of the farmer in the next .

    The news from our colonies to the Soutti and East ought to be extremely satisfactory to the public generally , but especially to the workingclasses . The accounts from Australia announce inci'eased pi-oduce of gold , general prosperity of business , and such a condition of all the three principal colonies as bespeaks large exports , particularly of gold , large imports from this country , nnd increased demand for labour . There had

    been great outcries about the probable " glut" goods—outcries repeated not only in London , but in Melbourne and Sydney : the consuming power of the colonists , however , had proved to be so great , that the supposed glut melted away like snow in summer , and for the main articles of consumption the demand continues steady . The gold diggings were turning up new riches , but particularly the earliest in Victoria ., that of Mallarat : here , lyy penetrating deep into the ground , to the

    depth even oi a hundred or a hundred and forty feet , the diggers came upon streams of goldmeandering veins six or eight feet in breadth , and worth , it is reckoned , 800 / . a running foot . As the gold in near the surface , and also at so great a , depth , and aH it lies scattered over so great an extent , it Ifl to be supposed both that the intermediate depth will bo found richly strewn with

    the mineral , and also that the primary sources must be exhaustions ; since it must have boon flowing down through the . soil of Australia for ngcH upon ages . People have talked of the exhaustion of the gold mines , forgetting-that our less productive tin mines have been worked from the beginning of history , and are still productive , even in the washingH .

    While thus prosperous in natural produce and business , the colonies were also doing well politically . In New South "Wales the Legislative-Council , deferring to public opinion , had delayed its Constitution Jiill for three months , in order 1 that the provision of a Nominee Council , with an hereditary constituency , might be deliberately considered . In South Australia ., where the debates

    had proceeded not more hastily , but mudi more smoothly , the Council had arranged for two Chambers , the upper one to be nominated by the Crown , -with seats for life ; , but with a provision that , after nine months' experience , the Lower Chamber should have the power of converting the Upper Chamber into an elective body . The demand foi : labour continued to be very great . ¦

    Notwithstanding * the probability that the GafFres will renew their depredations and border warfare , the intelligence from the Cape is also satisfactory in its marked political progress . . The last meeting of the Legislative Council under the old system had been held . Lieutenant-Governor Darling justly complimented that body on its ^ deathbed for having , upon the whole , exerted itself for the public interests . His „ speech , acknowledging that the old constitution was no longer suited to

    the wants of the day , might be studied with advantage by many persons at home who tiilk about preserving old institutions , as if it were impossible to adopt new improvements . No Ministry has shown ' more than the present how easy it is to be thoroughgoing in reform ; but it has shown that capacity always in places where it acted under one peculiar condition . The present Ministry has been thoroughgoing in reform where the general body of the people were prepared to extort thoroug h ^ going reform .

    The Spanish Government is , for the hundredth time , reported to be contemplating a coup d'etat . The occasion is offered by the resistance of the Senate to the Government in pushing its railway schemes : the Government dissolves the Cortes , and threatens the coup . What does it matter ? The Government of Spain is but one continued coup ( Vetat ..

    Like that . of Rome—still coercing its subjects , and occasionally extending its iron favours to foreigners . Mr . Desain , a native of Gibraltar , is the new victim—imprisoned seventeen days without warrant , and then reluctantly handed over to the British consular agent , who is negotiating for redress on account of this Papal aggression . " Naples also ^ igain thrusts herself upon notice for her criminal treatment of her own subjects , and her defiance of international relations . The

    distinguished prisoner Poerio , ex-Minister of the King , has again been subjected to a petty restriction upon his personal comforts , his leave to spend his oivn money being-hardly limited to fourpence a day . The Government having but lately succeeded in mollifying that of France , for an insult upon a French oflicer , is now trying its hand at ollending England and America . Mr . Baggio , a British

    Ionian , who has long conducted business in Naples , is arbitrarily excluded , on the plea that he has political relations with refugees , Mr . Carbone , an American citizen , is equally excluded from Sicily , notwithstanding the offer of the American Consul to be answerable for his conduct . Quarantine hardships of a very disgusting character arc also inflicted upon travellers . Naples appears to be determined to trv how far our Foreign Ofliee

    can be made to bear insults . Hitherto , unquestionably , the experiment has been very satisfactory to Naples . The internal Government of the kingdom , however , is in the most shocking state . Travellers contrast it with the state of'Piedmont , - where tha effects of constitutional liberty . already appear in the demeanour of the people . There is an air of freedom in the city , in tho countenance and

    actions of the inhabitants , which . shows that they aro Hullered to think and speak . Order and contentment are everywhere apparent ; and the political movement now going on in the elections shows how the public at largo appreciates the confidence of the Government , since , while the retrogrades have but few successes , even the Liberals remain in a minority , and tho Government is acquiring an overwhelming majority . In Naples , on the other hand , a moral wilence ia

    everywhere enforced by the tyranny of an all-pervadinopolice ^ and the gaol expenses must be enormous ° Naples has "been cultivating an army , to be given to Rome ; ai * d ' If * costs . money to grow soldiers Naples suffers also somewhat from the dearth which has visited a considerable part of Europeand her finances are rotten to the core . Th ' papulatrcm , . jj * tabmy and discontented , exhibits the worst signs of bad government . The Lazzaroni are reduced to such excessive poverty as to have

    occasioned a ; new and peculiar treatment . Hazard and , emaciated , unable to procure sufficient clothing , reckless of decencies even beyond the type of " Ould Ireland , " they are not fit spectacles for the civilised part of Naples , and their quarter has been walled zip to hide them . Indian tradition tells us how Alexander , unable quite to reduce the terrible and mystic tribe of Gog and Mao-otr drove them into the mountain and walled them up with a wall of brass . The Lazzaroni of Naplesare the Gog and Magog of King Bomba .

    Once more a true Christmas is ushered in with snow and frost—such a Christmas as , in these days of reform and oblivion of the past , is almost numbered among our old institutions . But if the cold is sharp without , the blaze is-all the . brighter ,, and the hearth more cheerful , which forms the centre of many a happy group in every town and hamlet of Old England . Still , there is another side of the picture . The pinching frost is hard to bear for the poor , who are clothed in rags ; and even working mechanics , with large families around them , can tell us that provisions are dear ,

    and that , even at " merry" Christmas , the battle of life is fierce . Let wealthy England look to this . Perhaps a few shillings spent in charity may not mar the comfort of the happiest fireside . Some thousands of Englishmen in Lancashire and in other districts of the North , will find it difficult to echo the cry of " merry Christmas" in the December of 1853 . t

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    LETTEKS FROM PARIS . Letter CIII . Paris , Thursday Evening , Dec . 15 , 1853 . The denoument of this sorry drama , which history will cull The Second of December , seems to be nearer than might be supposed . At least , jt is generally felt to be so here . Every day , every hour , intensifies and precipitates the crisis . Every one is in expectation of great events . [ Meanwhile , commerce , and labour , and industry are in suspense . The empire is like a dying man . The heart still beats ; but the extremities are already frozen with the dews of death . The pulse is fluttering ; the minutes arc counted . To describe to you the state of suffering in which France is now , would be impossible . N °

    work here , and no bread there , is , after nil , only one aspect—the physical aspect of our present position . llic moral aspect is far worse . The clearness of provisions and the stoppage of work have envenomed the common hatred . Passions are let loose ; private revenge is busy in the provinces . Torch in hand , it lights incendiary flames from village to village , from mill to mill . Wherever corn ia left in the mill while the poor peoplo around arc starving , that mill is burnt . Only in tho large towns are the stores of corn in safety . Twenty-sovon departments the chief corn-producers have been ravaged with fires this last fortnight . J » tho toAvns the popular indignation lmsVinother source ,

    and takes another shape Manufactories and workshops are closing one after the other . The masters , deprived of their usual ' markets , are lowering from day to day tho wages of their workmen when Uioy do not discharge them altogether . The fin" ™ : workmen yield without resistance , but they |! |! terrible threats , and hoard up a suvngo retalmtio . i . Tho tactics of tho Legitimists are already , you bu , producing their effect . It is tho Parisian elioP ' keepera who fed it most . For tho last three weei ^ purchasers have ceased to appear . Tho trades » wanders about his shop solitary and moody , Jus y fixed on tho door which no customers ai > i > roncli .

    , is roc koning tho fugitive hours that must elapHO uforo t ho day on which bills fall due which lie Jyw ' resources to meet . His house-rent is r . , ']](] price of everything , exempting bread only , is < l <>" . ' and hiH prolltn arc null . Kuin stares nun m

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    1202 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1853, page 1202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2017/page/2/