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4 * n elT 09 . I kHotr ttr ^ rrwrr probable that you will dia-¦ mprove ofth »« tt « m ^; bttt lam good enough Republteah 4 ofeel ' cwivin «* # tfe » t , when ft tMople are tywuariifced <> ver and oppjeiwed , ¦» tt « Onban « have been , Ifcey have a perjtof . r ^ ht to rjavdkitutaise the Government and appoint aftHera whq w » U represent the popular will t ergo , I do not argnp the point with yflu , but simply say I am willing tp 4 evot * niy bloo ^ and li / e , if necwsary , in aiding the cidlant patriots in their glorioua egbrts . "•• The American Government will make no effectual exertions to prevent as reaching the s < Jene of action , and General Lopttt , with his staff , is " actively pushing matteTS ahead in this city , without let or hindrance . I had an interview with the old general a few days ago , and
he complimented roe very highly on my exertions with my pen , and in other Ways , to aid the cause we are embarked in ; and , before I left , I received an implied promise that , if I preferred to be on the general ' s staff , an exchange should be effected . As to the pay , the terms are good enough if we win , and , if we lose , it , * WR t matter what they are . Ninety dollars per monttf , and a bounty of 10 , 000 dollars to be paid at the end of the war , is what I shall receive if we are ever paid—a fact which I deem somewhat problematical ; but so long as the island is made free , and the soldiers are decently fed and clothed , I shall be satisfied , and will readily resign * ny commission , and return to civil life again when the war is concluded . "
The first trip has been made successfu lly from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the Lake of Nicaragua . The Pacific left San Francisco on the 14 th of July , and arrived at San Juan del Sud on the Pacific on the 29 th . A mule journey of eighteen miles conducted the party to Revoes , and thence the Director steamer carried them through the Lake of Nicaragua to the Rapids , where the small iron steamer Sir Henry Bulwer awaited them . Thence they passed down a * ' most romantic river" fringed with lemon , orange , and banana trees , and fragrant with the perfume of flowers to the steam-ship Prometheus at San Juan on the Atlantic . The running time of the passage across the Isthmus was only thirty-four hours and a half . From San Juan the Prometheus started with 360 passengers , and reached New York on the 12 th . The whole transit from San Francisco
to New York occupied as nearly as possible twentynine days . Great praise is due to the American Company who have cut out this short route , and established upon it the fastest line of steamers on the Atlantic . The Times City article comments as follows : — " Thus , within thirty months of the time when the question of Nicaragua first became generally discussed , the American company have enttred into and secured a contract with that state , have gained the advantage of a grotective treaty between Great Britain and the United tates , have established a line of the fastest steamers both on the Atlantic and Pacific , have completed a survey which shows that the difficulties which for 300 years have
frightened the world from attempting a junction of the oceans were absolutely fabulous , have carried 200 passengers in a few hours down a river which was represented as almost impracticable from shoals and rapids even for Indian canoes , have removed all the uncertainties and terrors that rendered the Isthmus the great stumblingblock of a safe and cheap passage to Australia , have brought California a week or ten days nearer to New York , and have secured for themselves the monopoly of a traffic which is the most marvellous that has ever been known , and the disposal of fertile lands and trading stations and natural docks that promise ultimately to receive the commerce of the world . "
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SPECIMENS OF " LYNCH . " Certainl y Lynch , not Law , reigns in San Francisco . The New York papers , with Californian news up to the 14 th of July , have some startling intelligence . The Herald contains the following : — " The authority of the Courts has been disregarded , the executors of the law set at defiance , and the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco , composed of some 800 or 900 respectable citizens , have accomplished more good in the detection of crime than could have been accomplished by the police in a lifetime . My last gave an account of the hanging at midnight of a man named Jenkins , by the Vigilance Committee , for Htealing 200 dollars . A similar scene was witnessed on the 12 th iust .
A n »* n named Jim Stewart , a Sydney convict , the leader of a gang of desperadoeB , was arrested for robbing a house ; and notwithstanding the officers of the law attempted to get possession of him , he was tried , convicted , and sentenced to be hanged the same day . The signal bell was sounded , and the populace rushed by hundreds to the building of the committee . At the hour appointed for the execution Stewart was brought out strongly pinioned , and guarded by about 600 members of the committee , walking eight abreaRt , c-ach armed with a revolver , taken to one of the public wharfs , followed by
thousands , a rope adjusted to a crane erected for hoisting goods , and swung between heaven and earth in full view of the assembled multitude . Ho solemn was the scene that each head of that immense throng wa 8 involuntarily uncovered . No attempt was made to rescue him , nor was there any other feeling thun that of entire concurrence . The execution took place at two o ' clock in the afternoon . Previous to paying the forfeit of his crime Stewart made a full confession of his crimes . 1 he details establish the fuot that bo was the leader of the most desperate gang of villains that has ever preyed upon u community . "
San Francisco is not , however , tho only p lace m which the " practice" of the renowned Judge liiulu follower * . Bonoru is equally prompt : —
; "A man named David Hill , aU ** | tmj »» . * g ' arrested for stealing a horse / tned i and a W& * WJ * ouently restfned by Sheriff Wbrks , ^ . "g 2 Ju kH from fiim by the populace , after a hard struggle , and hung to a tree in tfce main street of the town . JRu ; the tragidy which has excited the most attention ** « £% pathy , was the hanging of a Mexican woman na * fid Jose ft * at Downlefille , on the Yuba , by the poplak Having had some < difficulty' with a miner , she ' rtabbe * him to the heart with a butcher ' s knife . The people immediately assembled , took her into custody , gave her a fair trial , and , upon conviction , sentenced her to behung in two hours . A gallows was erected on a ridge croswng the river , at the lower end of the town , and at the appointed hour an immense crowd assembled , and , after bidding adios and shaking hands with those immediately round her . she ascended the scaffold , adjusted the rope
herself , releasing a luxuriant head of hair from beneatn it , so as to permit it to flow free , and m a moment the cords supporting the scaffold were cut , and she hung suspended between heaven and earth . One more specimen . The inquest referred to is that which was instituted to inquire into the death of the man Jenkins , referred to above : — " At the coroner's inquest held June 12 , in San Francisco , Mr . David C . Broderick , who was present at the execution , but exerted himself to prevent it , testified that he was held back hy one Wm . H . Jones and another man } that this Mr . Jones <¦ had hold of the rope , and that Mr . Jones seemed to be in favour of hanging everybody that did not belong to his party ! I spoke to him , ' continued Mr . Broderick , « about the courts / and his reply was , « To hell with the courts . ' "
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THE PRESS OF FRANCE AND OF ENGLAND . The following are the replies of Victor Hugo and his son to the address of sympathy presented by a large body of English journalists to M . Charles Hugo , on his recent imprisonment for an article in the Evenement against capital punishment . Four points in these letters would bespeak attention , even if they were not , the one , signed by a name illustrious in the literature of Europe , and the other , by a young man who , at a period of life often dissipated in frivolities , is found worthy to suffer in a noble cause . A Journalist is imprisoned for Bix month * for an article advocating the abolition of the guillotine , while at the same time insisting upon the sacredneto of law . . The liberty of the Press under the quasi-republican dynasty of M . Louis Bonaparte is spoken of as " expiring / ' and this when the Minister of the Interior owes all he is and has to the Press . The reciprocal sympathy of a free Pree is invoked . The brotherhood of France and England is announced by the leaders of the most advanced political party in France : — LETTER OF M . VICTOR HUGO . Paris , August 20 , 1851 . Sin , —I leave it to my son to speak It is for him to convey to you—it is for him to convey to your honourable brother journalists—all that we have felt in consequence of that great support of sympathy which has just come to solace him in the depth of his prison . You have done more than recompensed , you have glorified , him . It will be the enduring honour of his life to have been the occasion of such a manifestation . This manifestation is something more than a mere letter addressed by 1 k * e writers to an oppressed writer ; it is a symbol of the alliance of all the forces of civilization , henceforth converging towards a common object ; it is the communion of two great nations in one idea of humanity .
Be so good , Sir , as to receive , and transmjt to your honourable friends , the assurance of my lively sympathy and profound gratitude . victor Hugo . Prison of the Conciergerie , August 20 . 185 i . Gentlemen and dear Friends of the Press of Great Britain and Ireland , „ I thank you from the depth of my heart for the words which in your kindness you have addressed to me . Did I condescend to honour with my regrets the condensation that bus been launched against me , this memorable proof of your generous sympathies would ampl y console me . I am touched at it , confused by it , proud of it ; I seek in vain for words to express the gratitude I feel for so much kindness , —I , who am but one of the least tried of the journalists of our press , and among the most obscure of those who arc in our prison .
You pay me , and far overpay me , for my But months of captivity . I am ignorant of haying done done anything to merit such a punishment . I know well that I have done nothing to deserve such a recompense . Permit rue then , gentlemen , to forget myself in answering you . 1 am an nothing in the cause which has procured my condemnation ; the very feeling which bus inspired your expressions is as far above the individual as that immenue question of the inviolability of human life , which has so long been troubling the conscience of legislators . Yes , gentlemen , every reader of your address can but have seen in it this two-fold fact—a great people stretching out the hand to a great idea- —the press of England stretching out the hand to the preas of France .
It . belonged , of right , to you , the most free-thoughtcd writers of the freest press in the world , to take the initiative in these cordial expressions of sympathy from preBB to prcgH . It in right for Kugland , in the actual condition of aiikiru , to unite herself to France , us every people that ia obeyed , ought to make oommou cause with v « ry
people that is oppressed . The sovereiSJfaniW v nf W fretwfnTBnglaad : owes the duty « # * p 35 SS&ffig pdtt te the dying liberty © JP tha pre < w in Fraafc ? v £ *«*• solemnised an act © f poKtiealtr « AbeThood ' n I will « ay more , gentleman , yfa have solemnized » n act of social brotherhood . . ^ Spgtadhiaa France , if I faay be allowe d the exnres . sioct , time the march of nations . It wouli seem that the ** two noble peoples have but ont emulation ' andone am bition—to outstrip one another in the oi ^ rard nath < # « agress . -Yojjf English liave giver * the world iC tr *™ Si ^ xam J' *« s - W * a it jw * you * Byron who first foagKt for Greece ? your WHberforce who entered tin * first protest against slavery 7 Concurr « at& with the public writers of France vou in the mask
are engaged , tearing . away from barbarism whenever you surprise it in theactof crime , in the broad daylight of the nineteenth century . Is It not from an English breast that there has gone forth that noble c-v of indignation against the manifold iniquities , wrough t in the name and under the shadow of the Church' by the infamous King of Naples ? Is it not one of your states * men who has denounced , in the face of the Gospel , the executioner king who calls himself the servant of the martyr-God ; We are both at the same post—we , when weoppose the shedding of blood on that guillotine which calls itself consecrated—you , when you suffer not the violation of humanity in the prisons of revalty . Both are committing —you against the throne of Naples — we against the scaffold of the Rue St . Jacques—the same crime of High Treason .
Gentlemen , the cause of Capital Punishment Abolition is , every day , making incalculable progress . It walksit runs—it flies . They may enchain its advocates , but it they cannot arrest . The cause leaves the writer in his prison , but itself remains free . Who shall , henceforth , stop the march of the Peoples , wiih France and England in their van , and bearing on their banner the two words which comprise all politics and all philosophy—Democracy ! Humanity ! Charles Hugo .
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ANTI- TRUCK . Mr . Tremenheere ' s report upon the state of the truck system in South Staffordshire and Wales during the past year , has just been published . The principal aim of the report ; is to ishow the inadequacy of the existing Truck Act . . It appears to be no check whatever to the mere mbijitey-grubfefing class of masters . The following extract will speak for itself : — " In November last I received a communication from trie committees of the ' Anti-Truck Associations of
Dudley , Wolverhampton , Walsall , Tipton , and Bilston , ' stating their wish that their solicitor , Mr . Duignan , of Walsall , should confer with me respecting the proceedings of the association , and the inadequate provisions of the Truck Act , to enable me to lay before you the results of their experience . In an interview which I had shortly after with Mr . Duignan , he stated to me as follows : — South Staf
* There are five Anti-Truck Associations in - fordshire—namely , at Walsall , Wolverhampton , Dudley , Tipton , and Bilston . ^ They were set on foot in the early part of this year . ( I 860 ) . They ar « composed of manufacturers and tradesmen taking an interest in putting down truck . Nearly all the cash-paying masters are subscribers , and all the leading tradesmen and many small shopkeepers . There ia a treasurer and secretary
to each . We have ample funds to carry on prosecuuou-, and to maintain man who in consequence of joining us i » our efforts have been thrown out of employment Dy " truck-paying masters . Tbe cost of these together has amounted to upwards of £ 800 in the ten months , we have laid between 600 and 600 informations , and obtainea about 260 convictions ; and notwithstanding this , i ™ not think that we have reduced the amount of truck n t
per cent . After suoh an expenditure , » o » nad * q « e " result is very discouraging ; and it is evident mat , in present atate , the act is insufficient for its pu » P . - d evasions resorted to have prevented our obtaining sec " convictions against really responsible parties . Un sec ^ convictions against men who cannot pay , we iia . ^ trained , and then sent them to prison . We nave it ^ politic not to enforce the convictions m many tu » ^^ receiving a promise not to pay again in » uoK - , m ! l . instanoes this has been adhered to , but in
jority not . incluil" 'The truck-paying masters are about a dozen »• Mr > ing three of the largest employers in the < " «» " her GeWge Jones , Mr . { Sparrow , and Mr . Lloyd ( a mem ^ of the Society of Friends ) . The other 8 Mr are Ha | tlund , Creswell , Mr . H . B . Whitchouse , Mr- " Joha Mr . Fryer , banker and mag istrate 5 J * fj iii » ton ) , Jones , magistrate ; Mr . J . James , Mr . Vernon ^ ^ Mr . Jamee Marlow , Meaars . Coleburn and G ^ JJJ of They employ altogether , I should think , U P * 8 ider-7000 people . In addition to these there is a co wh () able number of smaller iron-masters or eonuao ' i . ^ *^ j i __ * —a 1 » ort nnfl I L 1 H WC-la keep interested in truck-shops u «* " t | l 0
or are , hut and I have had it out in evidence fr «< l uen " ' beside profits of a truck-shop are from 7 to 10 per oiu , d 9 from four to six months' credit on the » m . "" o ° the <» to sold i »> it . It ia therefore too valuable a tUu » K \ Th 0 be easily given up when they have once a « " » P |* " 1 , ^ 0 profits of the shop in large works amount to a ^^ ^ Bum , as may be exemplified in this way . J BnriU , n , wages paid are £ 1000 per Week , ° * £ ' ' XroUah t »' an J thai one-third of this , or £ 17 , 000 , passes turoug ^ shop . Ten per cent , on this mm is * l / u" » J , 0 I 1 this is to be aided from four to « x m | 'II 1 J ° a . eque » co the above sum of £ 17 , 000 at 3 per cent-, »» « " . ul «» ' « of the credit to that extent given by tho mere" ^ 0 ( jO supplies the goods to the ironmaster , or m eT more : making a profit altogether of ™™ £ j ,, tW annum from tha truak-ahop . Tho cona *^* *
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 30, 1851, page 816, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1898/page/4/
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