raffic in slaves, and the abolition of slavery itself. | public curiosity to give some additional facts It appears that as early as 1711 a law was enacted, along with all the corroborative evidence that has when the legislature consisted chiefly of Friends, fallen under my observation. prohibiting the introduction of African slaves into the province; but this act, being opposed to the declared policy of the mother country, was peremptorily abrogated by the crown. Pennsylvania is well known to have been the first to enact a law, soon after the authority of the British government was renounced, by which negro slavery was at length banished from the State. Extracts from this valuable work will probably appear in some of our future numbers. DIED,-In Dartmouth, N. Y., the 13th inst., MICKETSON SLOCUM, a member of Dartmouth Monthly Meeting of Friends, aged 65 years. On the 19th of 5th month, in Azalia, Indiana, PHEBE PEASLEE, in the 77th year of her age, a consistent member of Driftwood Monthly Meeting. At the residence of her parents, in Knox County, Ohio, on the 3d inst., RACHEL, daughter of Jehu and Hannah Lewis, in the 23d year of her age, a member of Alum Creek Monthly Meeting. Of consumption, in Brunswick, Maine, on the 11th inst., at the residence of her father, Thomas Jones, MARIA J., wife of John Henry Buffum, in the 29th year of her age, a member of Durham Monthly Meeting. HAVERFORD SCHOOL. The Winter Term will commence on the second Fourth-day of the Tenth month next. Application may be made to JONATHAN RICHARDS Superintendent, at the school, in person or by letter addressed to West Haverford, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by whom all the information required will be given. When more convenient to do so, parties applying may register the names of applicants with the undersigned. CHARLES YARNALL, ROMANTIC ADVENTURE WITH AN OURANG OUTANG. paper read "While at Mintock, Palambang, and Batavia, I heard many remarkable stories of the agility, audacity, and especially of the superhuman strength of the ourang-outang. I will trespass upon your attention by relating one of the most attested, which I heard while at Batavia: Lieut. extraordinary, at the same time one of the best Schock, of the Dutch East India army, was on a march with a small detachment of troops and coolies on the south-eastern coast of Borneo; he had encamped on this occasion, during the noonday heat, on the banks of one of the small tributaries of the Bangarmassin. The lieutenant had with him his domestic establishment, which inlittle girl of the age of thirteen. cluded his daughter-a playful and interesting One day while wandering in the jungle beyond the proscribed limits of the camp, an ourang-outang sprang upon her and carried her off. Her piercing screams rang through the forest to the ears of her dozen protectors, and roused every man in the camp. The swift bare footed coolies were foremost in pursuit; and now the cry rings in the agonized father's ears that his daughter is devoured by a binatang-again, that an ourang-outang has carried her off. "He rushes, half-phrenzied, with the whole company to the thicket from whence the screams proceeded, and there, among the topmost limbs of an enormus banyan, the father beholds his daughter, bleeding, and struggling in the grasp of a powerful ourang-outang, who held her tightly, yet easily, with one arm, while he sprang lightly from limb to limb, as if wholly unencumbered. It was in vain to think of shooting the monster, so agile was he. The Dyak coolies, knowing the habits of the ourang-outang, and knowing that he will always plunge into the nearest stream when hard pressed, began a system of operations to drive him to the water; they set up a great shout, throwing missiles of all kinds, and agitating the under brush, while some proceeded to ascend the tree. By the redoubled exertions of the whole company the monster was gradually driven toward the water, yet still holding tightly to the poor girl. We copy below a passage from a before the American Geographical Society by Captain Gibson, lately returned from the East Indies, and bringing with him some new facts as to the tribes of Ourang Outang inhabiting the "At last, the monster and his victim were deserts of that part of the world. He says: seen on an outstretched limb overhanging the "My statement of the extraordinary peculiari-stream; the coolies, who are among the expertest swimmers in the world, immediately lined the ties of these apparently semi-human beings has banks; the soldiers continued the outcries and led to the expression of so much curiosity to know throwing of missiles. He clasped his prize more more of them by some, and of skepticism as to the fact of their existence on the part of others, tightly, took a survey of the water and of his that I have deemed it due to myself and to the upward-gazing enemies, and then leaped into the flood below. He had hardly touched the water ere fifty resolute swimmers plunged in in pursuit; as he rises a dozen arms are reached out toward him; he is grasped: others lay hold upon the insensible girl; the ourang-outang used both arms to defend, and after lacerating tho John Woolman, who was unquestionably one of the most efficient laborers in the cause of emancipation, was a native and resident of West Jersey. The subject, however, had obtained considerable attention in that yearly meeting, before he was old enough to take part in its transactions. bodies of some of the coolies with his powerful nervous claws, finally succeeded in diving beyond the reach of his pursuers and in escaping down the stream, while the bleeding, insensible Ledah was restored to the arms of her father and nurses, in whose hands she was ultimately restored to consciousness, health, and strength once more. The girl, now a grown-up woman, is at Ambyna, in the Moluccas.-Late paper. THE BALANCE OF POWER. of the author is in this sentence. If it be that the "spread of Christianity," &c., has been the object of British aggressions in all quarters of the globe, and that therefore the end must be held to sanctify the means, we deny the correctness of both the history and the morality in volved in that proposition. Is it true that the "immense power" of "this little island" has been sought for the above disinterested purposes? Take India as an example. Will any human being venture to affirm that when Lord Clive and Warren Hastings conquered HindosIt must strike every one of our readers, at the tan, by mingled violence and falsehood-by unvery first blush, that there is no country in the provoked aggression, by forged documents, by world that would have so much reason to dread simulated treaties, by the torture of prisoners,the political application of this precious doctrine that they did this for the sake of spreading as England itself. Nor does this escape the at- Christianity and civilization. Was this the motention of the writer before us. And most tive that induced Lord, Auckland to invade Affamusing, certainly, is the perfect näiveté with ghanistan, or Sir Charles Napier to annex which he provides a means of escape from the Scinde, or Commodore Lambert to attack Ranconsequences of his own theory. "It is not, goon? Can any body pretend that there were however, so much the amount of power possessed any motives at work in these cases but the gratiby any one state that is objectionable, as the fication of the ambition or revenge of the actors, direction and tendency of that power. No state, or, at the very best, the acquisition of power and perhaps no two states, on the habitable globe glory for themselves and their country? But possess such immense power as this little island. even if "the spread of Christianity," &c. had But that power has been almost uniformly exer- been the object, would that have justified "this cised to the spread of Christianity, civilization little island" in grasping such "immense power" and commerce-to the humanizing and improving by such means? The answer shall be given in of the common species." We do not remember the words of another British Quarterly Rein the whole of our comic literature so exquisite an illustration as this of profound and unconscious self-complacency. "You must not take more than your share of that orange," quoth John to Bill. "Neither must you," replies Bill to John. "O yes, I may," says John, "for I am a good boy, and you are a naughty one." Let it be remembered that the question is, the maintenance of an equipoise between certain great powers in Europe, all of which are recognized as legitimate But perhaps the meaning of the Reviewer members of the commonwealth of nations, and was, that though England may have acquired the problem to be solved is how to prevent any her inordinate power by very questionable one of these from attaining a preponderant politi-means, all Europe should acquiesce in her recal influence. The preservation of this equilibrium tention of it, because, when acquired, "it is is so important that the rules of morality must almost uniformly exercised for the spread of be sacrificed to it without compunction, and Christianity," &c. But historical facts again every means which political wisdom can devise directly contradict this overweening assumption. must be held lawful for the depression of any state "acquiring acquiring a dangerous predominance." But, says this writer, England must be an excep. tion to this rule, because she employs her power in the right "direction and tendency." And who is to decide that? Oh! England herself, of course!! viewer, in the very same number, who, undertaking to rebuke the Peace party for deprecating the present war on grounds which they had never taken, says, in language which we commend to the attention of his colleague, "We say that of all the forms of religious bigotry there is none that we execrate so deeply as that which prompts men to assign a religious reason for a moral wrong." It is notorious that so far from trying to spread Christianity, the British power in India was for many years strenuously "exercised," to resist its introduction among the natives, and that the Protestant Missionaries who entered that country had to do so under the protection of the Danish flag, in order to evade the stern interdict But let us examine, a little more closely, the of their own countrymen. And since then, as reason assigned for this special exemption of those Missionaries sorrowfully testify, the most England from the operation of the ordinary laws formidable obstructions to the success of their which govern "the balance of power." Eng- labors, is the practical comment on the religion land may have more power than all the other of peace afforded by the incessant wars of ag states, because it has been "uniformly"-we beg gression and conquest by which our countrymen pardon-"almost uniformly, exercised to the have whitened the soil of India with the bones spread of Christianity, civilization and com- of its own inhabitants. And as for civilization merce." It is not very clear what the meaning and commerce, where are the tokens of them? Are they to be found in flourishing cities falling into decay-in a soil the most exuberant in the world going out of cultivation-in a country without roads, bridges, harbors, tanks, or irrigation works-in a miserable population, oppressed by extortionate taxation, and starving on insufficient food-in a financial administration which shows some two or three hundred thousand a year expended on internal improvements, against ten millions absorbed by military establishments? We doubt very much whether the Emperor of Russia could not give a far more satisfactory account of his conquests in Poland, than we can of our conquests in India. And yet so enormous is our national arrogance, that while we loudly exclaim against any other state extending its power, we expect the rest of the world to believe that we ought to be allowed to do so, to any extent, because we uniformly exercise our power for the spread of Christianity, civilization, and commerce. But to recur to the balance of power, on which we have a few more remarks to offer. Bacon, in a passage which they are constantly citing, thus frankly explains their doctrine: "Princes should keep due sentinel lest their neighbors do overgrow so (by increase of territory, by embracing trade, by approaches, or the like), as they become more able to annoy them than they were." But we remark further, that the "balance of power" theory rests altogether upon the basis, that the great object of international policy is to secure the prerogatives of sovereigns and not the rights of peoples. The "power" that is so sedulously "balanced," is the power of a few great families, who seem to think that Europe has been given to them to be carved and distributed among themselves. And very curious it is to find journals which are zealous champions of the doctrine of independent nationalities, at the same time strenuously uphold a principle which is its direst and most formidable antagonist. In an admirable little work recently published, entitled The State-System of Europe, by Dr. Reinhold Solger, the writer traces the origin And first let our readers observe, that it is a and development of this system of political system which proceeds on the assumption, that equilibrium, and demonstrates, as it appears to the interests of nations are and must always us most triumphantly, that in all the dishonest remain mutually antagonistic, and that conse- intrigues and desolating wars in which Europe quently they can never assume towards each has been involved in support of this theory, the other any relation but that of malignant jealousy sole object has been the interests and honor of and reciprocal distrust. Montaigne laid it down some half-a-dozen royal dynasties. If any one as an axiom, that "the loss of one nation is the doubts this, let him cast his eye over European profit of another." Montaigne, however, had history for the last three centuries. What were the apology of living three centuries ago, in a the sanguinary wars which laid waste Italy and semi-barbarous age, when violence and plunder Germany and all the countries of central Euwere deemed the most honorable arts of life. rope during the seventeenth and eighteenth cenBut the wonder is, that in this nineteenth cen- turies, but struggles for predominance among tury, after a more enlightened and generous the rival houses of Hapsburgh, of Bourbon, of philosophy and a more frequent and cordial Vasa, of Brandenburgh? The people, indeed, intercourse between the countries of the world, whom the princes find it always so easy to gull, have reversed this narrow creed, and taught imagined that they were fighting for religion or men, that in the family of nations, as in the for liberty; but with the dynasties they were human body, "when one member suffers, all the mere pretexts for the accomplishment of their members suffer with it," and when one pros- own ambitious purposes of personal or family pers all the others should rejoice, we should find aggrandizement. But this is most fully brought intelligent and liberal men uphold and eulogize out by the acts of those great political cona system which embodies and consecrates, in its ferences, expressly and avowedly convened for adnakedest form, this ancient and barbarous justing the balance of power, such as the Conmaxim. For is it not manifest, according to the gress of Westphalia in 1648, and the Congress principle above avowed, that when any country of Vienna in 1815. What took place at the proceeds rapidly upon the path of progress and former? "After having been balancing their development, and thereby augments the power armies and their treasuries against each other which might render it dangerous to its neigh- for many years," says Dr. Solger, "and each bors, all other countries should regard them-power having found it impossible to appropriate selves as aggrieved by its prosperity, should the whole (of Germany), an understanding was watch for an occasion to arrest and cripple that at length effected that the three powers should prosperity, and should rejoice over any calamity go shares. Thus the house of Bourbon obtained by which it might be overthrown? It is vain to say, that you mean only the undue growth of military and territorial power, because that is not what merely or even mainly contributes to the strength by which one state can overbalance another. Besides that, in fact, the advocates of the balance do not so restrict their meaning. Lord the German province of Alsace, the house of Hapsburgh the province of Bohemia, and the house of Vasa the greater part of Pomerania, whilst their respective allies amongst the German princes obtained by stipulation a proportionate increase of territory. On the whole 140 pieces of land were in this manner parcelled out among the contracting parties at the peace of Westphalia, that is, other parties were despoiled of 140 pieces of land, to satisfy the greediness of those who had the greatest number of troops in the field, or employed the greatest skill in outwitting their colleagues at the diplomatic conferences. . . . This was the first General Congress of all the European Princes, by which it was established as a principle, that the greater dynasties might, by common agreement, enlarge, or curtail, or entirely abolish, the small ones, and might dispose of the countries and peoples of Europe amongst themselves as so much property."Precisely the same process was repeated, as our readers too well know, at the Congress of Vienna. And what at this moment is the pretext employed for suppressing the aspirations of the Continental people for liberty and independence? Why, the balance of power. Why must not Hungary be free? Because that would rob the house of Hapsburgh of a part of its inheritance, and by enfeebling the Austrian Empire, disturb the European equilibrium.But, on the other hand, why is a French army marched into Rome? Because Austria was in danger of acquiring an undue preponderance in Italy. Why was Schleswig-Holstein detached from Germany, to which it belonged by race, language and sympathy, and transferred to Denmark? Because that increase of territory to Denmark was necessary to keep the political equipoise in that direction. sis simply ridiculous." The idea of the balance originated, as we have already shown, in the rivalry of a few large monarchies, who seemed to regard Europe as a bowling green on which they were to play a game at bowls for their own advantage or amusement. At that time everything favoured their purpose. The divine right of kings was a dogma which none dare question; constitutional government did not exist even in idea; the people, sunk in ignorance and oppression, were regarded as the mere instruments to be employed by the monarchs for their own profit or glory; communication between the inhabitants of different countries was difficult and rare; commerce, and especially international commerce was a matter of small account, and fighting seemed to be the only serious business about which the age concerned itself, and by which all questions, whether in politics, theology, or morals, were to be summarily solved. And our statesmen seem to imagine that the clumsy expe dient, which but imperfectly answered the purpose even then, when the elements to be ruled were comparatively few and simple, will meet the requirements of that new and infinitely more complicated state of society, which has developed itself in Europe within the last hundred years. Yes, in an age which, instead of king-worship, has seen almost all the sovereigns of Europe fugitives from their own dominions, when the aspirations of popular liberty have become universal, when knowledge and a daring spirit of inquiry have inspired the masses every where with the consciousness of their own importance, when the industrial and commercial element has grown to such prodigious dimensions as utterly to outweigh the military, when the question which ferments the people of Europe is not the aggrandizement of empires, but the independence of oppressed nationalities, when social and political problems of new and awful significance are on all hands pressing for solution, when nations are daily drawn together into closer relations of intercourse and dependence, and new worlds beyond the ocean have been brought so near as to affect most vitally our own European orbit—in such a state of things as this, we repeat, our statesmen still complacently dream that they can govern the universe by virtue of the same barren fiction as their predecessors did, when, to quote the languge of Lord Bacon "during that triumvirate of kings, King Henry the Eighth of England, Francis the First, king of France, and Charles the Fifth, emperor, there was such a watch kept that none of the three could win a palm of ground but the other two would straightways balance it, either by confederation or, if need were, by a war."-Herald of Peace. And finally, we observe, that those who adhere to the principle of the balance of power, obstinately ignore the new and important elements that are constantly imported into the European system, and which utterly overthrow this antiquated tradition. It is noticeable that if any person be found who refuses to bow to this idol, and to utter the shibboleth of its worshippers, they are straightway branded with being "men of narrow minds" (that is the cant phrase), unable to take a comprehensive and statesmanlike view of European politics. Now we say it, not by way of mere recrimination, but from a deliberate and sincere conviction of its truth, that the charge of narrow-mindedness lies far more justly against our opponents. For what are they attempting to do, but to regulate the affairs of the modern world upon a system which sprang up in the midst of circumstances totally different, and which, grossly selfish and immoral in principle as it was at the very best, has become wholly inapplicable to the exigencies of our age. "The diplomatists of Vienna," says Dr. Solger, "are still unconscious, to this very day, that the progress of the United States of America-the opening of the Chinese empire-the rapid rise of California and Australia-the incredible facility of communication, and the progress of science and enlightenment-must, sooner or later, break through their treaties, and make their efforts to balance the world upon their ba- more. One folly is generally, the parent of many MAVOR. NEBRASKA-ITS GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune. St. Louis, June 15, 1854. sides are nearly perpendicular, their surfaces flat, and often covered with mountain cherries and other shrubs. They have the appearance of having been suddenly elevated above the surround The passage of the Nebraska and Kansas Ter-ing surface by some specific cause. This marl ritorial bill, with the peculiar clauses in it and and limestone formation is, in many localities, the peculiar circumstances under which it was worked into fantastic or picturesque forms by enacted and approved, have created a more than the action of the elements. In one place, esordinary interest in the public mind of the na- pecially, called by the traders Mauvaise Terre, tion relative to the natural capabilities of those (the bad ground,) and about thirty miles in di Territories and their prospective condition. Iameter, it has assumed a marvellous variety of propose to give you for the information of your readers, an accurate geographical description of these Territories, derived chiefly from personal observation and diligent inquiries of traders and trappers during a long period of familiar intercourse with them. In this letter I shall begin with the Nebraska Territory, leaving that of Kansas to occupy a future one. The boundaries of Nebraska, as given in the late act of Congress, are as follows, viz: North by the 49th parallel of latitude, separating our territories westward from Great Britain; South by the 40th parallel a few miles below the north-west corner of the State of Missouri, east by the Missouri River, the western line of Minnesota, and west by the main ridge of the Rocky Mountains. The face of the country from the Missouri River westward to the spurs of the mountains is rolling prairie, but little diversified in its aspect save by the intersection of its streams. The soil, for a space varying from 50 to 100 miles west of the Missouri River and the State line, is nearly identical with that of Iowa and Missouri. The highlands are open prairies, covered with grasses; the river bottom a deep rich loam, shaded by dense forests. From this first district to about the mouth of L'eau qui Court (Running Water River,) it is one boundless expanse of rolling prairie, so largely intermixed with sand as to be almost unfit for ordinary agricultural purposes. The prairies are, however, carpeted with succulent grasses, affording an inexhaustible supply for herds of cattle and sheep. The third district is a formation of marl and earthy limestone, and extends in a belt of many miles east and west of the Mandan Village, on the most northern bend of the Missouri River, and southward across the southern boundary of the Territory. This soil cannot be otherwise than very productive. I should think it especially adapted to wheat, rye, barley and oats. I have seen, also, very fine Indian corn along the upper valleys of the Missouri River. It is in this district that what are called buttes by the Canadian French and cerros by the Spaniards, are profusely scattered. Here and there the traveller finds surfaces varying in diameter from a hundred feet to a mile, elevated from fifteen to fifty feet above the surrounding surface. They are not hills or knobs, the sides of which are more or less steep and covered with grass. Their singular forms. From one point of view it assumes the aspect of an extensive and frowning fortification; from another, the appearance of an oriental city crowned with domes and minarets; and from a third, the appearance of a sterile broken and unattractive congregation of incongruous elements. These delusive appearances are produced by distance and the position of the sun. The wrecks of the diluvian period of geology are spread all over this region, and most profusely on that portion north of the Mississippi River. Detached masses of rock, some of them hundreds of tuns in weight, wholly unconnected with the adjacent geological formations, and evidently allied to those of the northern Rocky Mountain region, dot the whole country. The district which I will call the fourth, lying north of the Missouri River and west of Minnesota, is a succession of undulating plains, the soil of which is quite fertile, but rather dry. These plains are covered with a thick grassy sward, which sustains innumerable herds of bison, elk and deer. The fifth district is at the base of the Black Hills, between that range and the Rocky Mountains, and includes the valley of the Yellow Stone, of the Maria's River and a variety of other small valleys, circumvallated by an amphitheatre of mountains and gorgeous mountain scenery. The valley of the Yellow Stone is spacious, fertile and salubrious. The streams are fringed with trees, from whence the valley expands many miles to the mountains. The traveler can almost imagine himself upon the Danube, for the valley is sprinkled over at long intervals with cyclopean structures of granite closely assimilated in appearance, from a distant view, to the stern and solitary castles with which Europe was covered and guarded during the middle ages. these structures exceed those of Europe in magnitude and grandeur, and the woods and waters are disposed with a taste and beauty which the highest art must ever toil after in vain. It is encircled by a rich girdle of heights and mountains, the bases and dark sides of which are obscured in shrubs, and the summits tufted with noble forest trees. And here is to be the seat of a populous and powerful community in the far future. But The Missouri River was ascended by Lewis and Clarke, in canoes, a distance of 3,000 m.les. |