Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

SOUTHERN SENTINEL. COLUMBUS, GEORGIA; THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 20,1850. Pub. Doc.—We tlvank Judge Weliborn for 3 copy of the President’s California Message, and the ac companying document* The Agricultural Society.— Tlie Society at its ; last meeting appointed the following gentlemen a Board of Managers, Gen. A. Abercrombie, Col. \ an [ leonard, Hon. A. Ivcison. Geo. Hargraves Esq., and Charges A. Peabody, Esq. The Society will meet •again on Saturday, the 29tli, inst., in its room adjoin- j ing Concert Ilall. Read Mr. Wallace's letter to liia constituents. It is an able exposition of our rights, and our wrongs. Imtortant Vote. —ln the Senate, on the 11th inst., , Mr. Turney, of Tenn., moved to strike out of the Compromise Bill so much as relates to the Boundary *,f Texas, and upon that motion the vote stood as fol io.vs: Yeas: Messrs. Baldwin, Benton, Butler, f has-, Clarke, Corwin, Davis, of Mass., Davis, of Miss., Dayton, Dodge, of Wis.• Greene, Hale, ! Hamlin. Hunter, Mason, Miller, Seward, Smith Soule, Spruance,Turney, Upham, Wales, Y nice—24. j Nays—Messrs. Atcliinson, Badger, Bell,Berrien, j Bright, Cass, Clay, Cooper, Dawson, Dickinson, j Dodge, of lowa, Downs, Foote, Houston, Jones, i Morton’ Norris, Pearce, Pratt, Rusk, Shields, Stur- j geon, Underwood, Walker, Whiteeomb.—27. Found Dead. —The body of a man who had evident- j ly been dead several days, was found in the woods near this city on Sunday mornfjng hist.. The remains were j with some difficulty identified as those of John llyrne, j a young man of this city who was by trade a painter, j Mr. Byrne was in feeble health, and it is supposed I that ho was taken suddenly ill in walking out and was j unable to make his way back home. The Census.—A bill lias been passed by Congress, ! making provision for taking the United States Census. ! It is intended to collect informotion, not only as to the population, but on all subjects of general interest, in the ; 1 nion.. We may therefore expect soon to open our hen coops and old chests to the inspection of Uncle . tain's agents. Gen. Lopez.—A most redieulous farce is being en- i acted ill New Orleans in the form of a judicial exami nation of the Cuban Liberator, before a United States j commission. As yet, the prosecution have been to- j tally unable to elicit any proof of the General’s guilt! , and the defeat which the attorney general has encoun- j tered, seems to have excited his indignation into ven- j otn, and he is now vigorously persecuting rather than j prosecuting the accused. The Nashville Convention. This body adjourned on the 12tli inst., after a ses- i sion of nine days. In another column we publish the j Resolutions which were unanimously adopted, and I also an article from the editorial of the N. Y. Herald , I which will be found very interesting, not only as indi cating the impression which the proceedings of the convention have made upon the public mind at the North, but oh account of the ability with which it is written, and the remarkably friendly and patriotic tone which characterizes it. Wc have also received the address to the people of the South, which was passed by the unanimous vote of the States, and against the dissenting voices of only six members of the convention. We think we may congratulate the country as well as the friends of the Southern conven tion, upon the triumphant vindication of its objects and utility, from the base and unfounded slanders of its enemies. The proceedings of the convention, do not meet the undivided approbation of the South; that was not. to have been expected. There are men at the South who arc determined to square ev ery plan of adjustment by the interest of party , and with such men, it is a sufficient objection to any scheme which promisee a settlement, that it presents obstacles in the way of a party triumph. The ques tion with them is, not whether it settles our dift’er •enccs on an honorable basis for the South, but wheth er it will interpose barriers to the unity of their par ty. Such men prate loudly about union , and half j witted credulity might be deluded into the idea that they were really actuated by an honest zeal in be half of the perpetuity of the government. They do love union, but it is the union of party for which they clamor, and they love party, not because it pro mises any good to the country, but because of the spoils it secures. Such men still oppose the conven tion, and we implore them not to abate their opposi- J tion. They have so long sneered at every thing j that gave promise of good to the South, that their ; approbation would absolutely excite suspicion. The j ease of the South has nothing to fear from their vi- j tuporation. bq.t it might sutler serious detriment front ! their praises. With such exceptions, the csult of the Nashville convention is hailed with joy throughout the South. I The address is a plain, unadorned and truthful expo sition of the wrongs of the South, on the one hand, and a mild but determined expression of her rights on the other. It is addressed to the people of the Southern States, and in view of the circumstances in i which it originated, and the earnestness and honesty ; •which pervades every line of it, it will go more di- i -rectly home to the hearts and feelings of those to j whom it ,ie addressed, than any either paper which j ‘has yet appeared on this subject. We shall publish it next week. lu the meantime, we invite theatten- ; tion of our readers to the Resolutions which are found j in another column. Read them carefully, one by j one, and if they contain one improper sentiment, if j they assert one unwarrantable right, then discard them; but on the other hand, if they do not lay claim to any thing juore than belongs to the South, j we ask if the people of Georgia are not prepared to j stand by them ? We know there are those who, for : the sake of the Union, are even willing to make an absolute surrender of some of the unquestioned rights of the South. But why do either ? Wc need ncitli- j er surrender our rights nor the Union. Does toy •man In his senses believe that the North would rath- j er dissolve the Union than do the South justice ? If j there was any thing involved in this contest, of tital 1 importance to the interests of the North, there might i be some ground of apprehension that she would per- i eist in her demands even to the extremity of divi ding the Union, but the North has not one dollar to lose, nor one right to surrender in acceding to the just demands of the South : and on the other hand, she perils every thing by forcing the South to a dis solution of the* Union. When the issue then is nar rowed down to the alternative of cither doing the J South justice, or surrendering the Union, there can ; he no question as to her choice. If, then, these Res olutions claim nothing but justice, shall we not insist upon them ? Shall we be frightened from their sup port, through tear that we might thereby endanger the Union ? We trust not. Let us have both the Union and our rights. If they are not inconsistent, we moy have both ; and if they are inconsistent, wo Appeal to Southern men to know which they hold most dear ? The Cuba Prisoners.— We are pleased to learn that the accounts brought by the Isabel, of the ex ecution of 6ome, and the torture of others, of the Cu ba prisoners, are altogether unfounded. By the ar rival of the Saranac bringing Havana dates to the 6th inst. we learn that fill the prisoners including the five who had been taken at Cardenas, and who were reported to have been shut, were still ip confinement, but were treated with great humanity, The Sell. Fairy, has also arrived at New Orleans, confirming the accounts by the Saranac, and bringing the addi tional gratifying intelligence that all the prisoners were to be liberated and sont home. The Cuban, au thorities have some “discretion.” The Remedy worse than the Disease. An argument which we hear frequently us ed in support of Mr. Clay’s compromise, is, that if the South aids the ultras of the North j in rejecting it, the result will be, we ; shall have to swallow California alone. We j are by no means so sure of this; but admit- ! ting the truth of the argument, we see no i force in it. We have an indistinct recollec tion of having been threatened when we were quite a shaver, by the physician, that ; if we did not take a dose of oil which he had j prescribed, he would pour a dose of salts down in its place, and we think we never ! took the oil after that threat. The compro mise itself embraces the admission of Cali fornia, and what is there, we ask, in its ac companying provisions, which sweeten that bitter pill. Is it the feature which proposes to abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia ? Or is it the proposition to bribe us with $15,000,000 of our own money into a surrender of 125,000 square miles of our land, to the rapacious spirit of free-soilism l Or is it the condescending agreement not to I | gag ns with the Wilmot Proviso in Utah and i New Mexico ? Or is if the milk and cider i scheme of re-enacting our right to recover J j fugitive slaves, a right which the constitution , could certainly secure as well as any law en acted under it ? Which of these accompa nying provisions, is it, that makes the com promise so much better than California alone* The admission of California exacts but one surrender on the part of the South, and the compromise bill demands three concessions equally grave, and does not give us one right which is not ours without it. Give us the i .salts, by all means. Corre pondcnccof the New York Herald, dated, Washington, Jnne 13,1850. After the scenes to-day, in both houses, the pros pect of a compromise looks black enough. The House of Representatives is getting heated up to the | fighting point. The Senate is already there. 1 Some friends of Mr. Clay assure us, however, that . he will take no further notice of his aftair with Ben- i ton, so that no bloodshed is apprehended on that score, j But things in the House have a very warlike com- ‘ | plexion. The Compromise bill is good for two weeks yet in the Senate, and its passage then is extremely doubtful, ■ if not hopeless. The Senate have confirmed the appointments of ; Bcnj. Biddle as Consul for Chihuahua, and Daniel I Riggs as J udge for the U nited States District Court j | at Arkansas. Captain Ditperu publishes a card, in the “Intelli- j gencer” of this morning, denying the report that he ‘■ was one of the five sliotyt Cardenas. From California. —We have recived a letter from our former townsman, Col. Seymour R. Bonner, bearing date at San Francisco, California May Ist. which the crowded state of our columns prevents us j from publishing. He writes: “I shall for the first! time leave thus city, for the mines, tomorrow. My j Brother with our men have been there since the 24th. ! of February last. I presume they havo not done much as the waters have been very high all the spring. The mines remind me of the Northern lotteries; a man occasionally draws a small prize; it is magnified by the seller of the ticket to a magnificent specimen, and every body runs there to buy tickets. Nine out of ten lose their investment, and it is so with the mines. Y'ou hear of all the good luck, but could you know and publish the fate of the many, yes, very many unfor tunate individuals who conic here to seek fortunes, it would be the means of keeping a large number of our countrymen from starvation and death, suffering in the extreme See. To show you what I think of the mines, I have come to the conclusion not to work them. That some places are rich, very rich there can be no mistake, but they are like all other mines; ! every dollars worth of gold dug here, costs upon an average, one dollar and fifty cents. I am now Deputy Sheriff, and hope to make dollars, where I made dimes in 1840 and ’4l. If I do not, it will be my own fault. We have five courts here which sit all the while, and Col. Jack Hayes is Sheriff in them all. It only requires from seven to twelve days to obtain judgement and sell property, and the fees arc enormous.” Success to the Col. We are also indebted to some of our attentive friends in that land of gold, for copies of the “Pacific News ” “Alla California ” and “ Journal of Commerce ,” all dailies published in San Francisco, and the “Placer Time r,” a tri weekly at Sacramento city. These pa pers will compare favorably in their external appear ance and editorial ability with the journals of Boston, New York and New Orleans. We were curious enough to make an estimate of the profits of one of the San Francisco dailies. It is published at $25 per. annum. We do not know any thing of the circulation. The advertising patronage is worth from $130,000 to i $150,000, per. annum, and Job Wort, we presume j in proportion. Among the advertisements in the Sacramento paper, we notice a proclamation by the Mayor of that city, calling on the inhabitants to de termine by ballot, whether the council should bo au thorized to levy a tax to raise a revenue of $250,000 per. annum, the charter prohibiting the council to raise more than SIOO,OOO per. annum without the j authority of the people. . The Great Pacificator and the Missouri Bear, i —Mr. Clay and Col. Benton have had a personal al tercation in the Senate, which in the way of ridiculous child’s play, lays in the shade any of the redieulous scenes which have been enacted at Washington this session. The former read a letter written by a Mr. I Reed of Independence, Mo. to Mr. Foote, in which it j was stated that Col. Benton had expressed himself to j the writer, during last Summer, in opposition to the j admission of California, denouncing the executive ■ policy looking to that end as a cowardly evasion &c. . Col. Benton in reply, denounced the writer, Mr. Reed, ! and the publisher, Mr. Clay, as infamous calumnia- j tors. Mr. Clay called Mr. Benton a calumniator— j back again, and Mr. Benton retorted, I called you so j first! The idea of two potent, grave and reverend sen- i ators playing at the game of tag is supremely ludi- I erous. S. C. Senator. —Hon. Robert W. Barnwell ‘ has accepted the seat in the U. S. Senate, vacated by j i the death of Mr. Elmore. The Rochester Kuocking’s. These “spiritual visitations,” which were at ; first only noticed, to be ridiculed as anew fang led ism are after all, it seems, assuming a reali ty, and are beginning to excite the attention of the learned and scientific, not less than the ig norant and credulous. Mrs. Fox and her three daughters, who were the pioneers in the new Yankceistn, removed from Rochester, and are at present sojourning in New York city. The last number of the Home Journal contains a long account, dver the name of N. P. Willis , one of its Editors, of a visit which he recently made to the ghost — seers , in company with J. Feni more Cooper, Win. Cullen Bryant and other distinguished men of New York. \Ye have not room for the extended account of the visit, but will extract few of the most interesting particu lars. It is proper to mention that the party met ai a house which the ladies had never before en- 1 *crcd. ‘ the walls and floors of which “says Mr- Willis, they had no opportunity of cramming with accomplices and hammers.” For some thirty minutes after the arrival of the company, nothing was heard, but at the expiration of that time,they began to hear faint knockings which ap peared to prodceed from the floors, and walls and different parts of the room. The Spirits were then asked by the ladies if they would commune % ith either of the gentlemen present. They sig nified by three knocks, their willingness to do so. Mr. Henry F. Tuckerman, one of the gentle men present, was invited to question them and having fixed in his mind the name of an individ. ual, asked ‘Did he live in New-York V No an swer. ‘lnßaltimore? In Cambridge? In Bos ton V —three distinct raps, which is the sign of !an affirmative answer. A negative reply is in dicated by silence. Mr. T. continued. ‘Was he a lawyer ?—A merchant ? A Physician ? A clergyman?’ Knocks. ‘Was he an Episco palian? A Presbyterian? A Unitarian?—go ing over the names of the principal sects. No answer. At the suggestion of a gentleman, Mr. T. asked, Was he a Christian ?’ Knocks. Mr. T. then asked the age of the person hi a series of tens. ‘Was he twenty years old at the time of his death? Was he thirty? Fifty? Sixty?’ Knocks. ‘Has he left a family?’ Knocks.— ‘Children?’ Knocks. ‘Five? Three? Two?’ In Albany ? In Bennington ? Knocks ‘Did he die of Consumption? Os fever? Os Chol era? Os old age? Knocks. “The person in Mr. Tuckerman’s mind was ■ the late Rev. Dr. Channing of Boston, who died !in Bennington, Vt., while on a journey. The 1 degree ofcorretness in the answers may be judg- Jed by the reader. It may be stated, however, that for the last year of his life Dr. C. disclaimed j the use of all his sectarian names, preferring to ! be called only Christian, and that, though under j seventy, his physical powers had long sulfered ! from premature exhaustion. “Mr. J. Fenimore Cooper was then requested j to enter into the supra-nnmdane sphere, and proceeded to interrogate the spirits, with the I most imperturbable self-possession and delibera tion. After several desultory questions, from i which no satisfactory answers were obtained, i Mr. C. commenced anew series of inquiries. Is the person I inquire about a relative? Yes, was at once indicated by the knoks. A near rel ative ? Yes. A man ? No answer. A wo man? Yes. A daughter? A mother? A wife? No answer. A sister? Yes. Mr. C. then asked the number of years since her death. To this the answer was given in rapid and indis tinct raps, some counting forty-nine, fifty-four, &c. After considerable parleying, as to the man ner in which the question should be answered, the consent of the invisible inlocutor was given to knock the years so slowly that they might be distinctly counted. This was done. Knock knock-knock—for what seemed over a minute, | till the number amounted to fifty, and was unanimously announced by the company. Mr. C. now asked, Did she die of consumption ?—nam ing several diseases, to which no answer was given. Did she die by accident? Yes. Was she killed by lightning? Was she shot? Was she lost at sea ? Did she fall from a carriage ? Was she thrown from a horse ? Yes. “Mr. Cooper did not pursue liis inquiries any further, and stated to the company that the an swers were correct, the person alluded to by him being a sister, who, just fifty years ago the pre sent month, was killed by being thrown from a horse. The evening was far advanced, and it was not thought desirable to continue the colloquies any further. At the suggestion of several gentle men, the ladies removed from the sofa, where they had sat during the evening, and remained standing in another part of the room. The knock ings were now heard on the door, at both ends of the room, producing a vibration on the pan nels, which was felt by every one who touched them. Different gentlemen stood on the outside and the inside of the door at the same time when loud knockings were heard on the side opposite to that where they stood. The ladies were at such a distance from the door in both cases, as to lend no countenance to the idea that the sounds were produced by any direct com munication with them. They now went into a parlor, under the room in which the party was held, accompanied by several gentlemen and the sounds were then produced with great distinct ness, causing sensible vibrations in the sofa, and apparently coming from a thick heart-rug be fore the fireplace, as well as from other quarters of the room.” [YANKEE CORRESPONDENCE.] Boston, June 10, 1850. The Boston Mummy—The Egyptian Priestess a Man, after all—The Travelling Spirits-—The Spirits of a Pint of Water — Mr. Paine, the Conjurer—Wonderful Times Coming. ’Within the last few days, the summer, the real) downright summer has come upon us suddenly, and round a corner, as it were—thermometer up to 90. On Saturday evening we had a thunder storm that cleared and freshened the atmosphere greatly. Our horticultural exhibitions of fruits and flowers have been as plentiful and magnificent as ever they were, and have shown what industry and science are capa ble of doing for even such a cold stony soil as this of Massachusetts. Since my last letter to the Sentinel, I have curi ously witnessed the unrolling of Mr. Gliddon’s mum my, which, as you will remember, he received from Mr. Harris, the English, resident at Thebes. Great was the gathering of the erudite on the occasion, and greater the gathering of the inquisitive sex, in the large room of the Tremont Temple. Professor Agas siz, Drs. Jackson, Warren, Hayward, Winslow,Lew is, Jenks and others, formed a sort of committee to superintend the process of unwinding and note the peculiarities of it. Mr. Gliddon had removed the outer coffin, and the inner one containing the mum my was laid upon a frame, in view of the audience, ready to be opened by an assistant, with a saw. From the exterior of both the coffins, Mr. Gliddon announced that he gathered enough to tell him that the mummy was that of a woman, a Priestess of the Egyptian mythology, and that she lived about 3,500 years ago. While the work of sawing the inner cof fin proceeded, the lecturer exhibited several speci mens of animals, bird and reptile mummies, those of a jackal, a eat, an owl, an Ibis, a crocodile, &c. In the meantime, Professor Agassiz and a few of the savans had got the mummy of an ibis to unrol; and they did it, with a good humored industry, removing rags and strings, till they came to the centre where they were rewarded with one indubitable wing, hold ing palpable feathers and enveloped in a yellowish quantity of dust and crumbling hay. By this time the sawyer had separated the upper part of the cof fin from the lower, and the mummy, swathed in an ancient and dusty looking shroud, was lifted out of her centenary resting place, and placed upon a mov ing pedestal. ‘The curiosity and interest of the au dience were intensely excited, and no wonder. Here was a woman, a priestess, it was said, who lived in the time of Moses, who might have talked with him, in fact, and in the way of her profession, have made him learced in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. In deed he might have borrowed the chief portion of her j'ewels and trinkets from her, when he and the Go shenites had artanged everything for a departure ; from the .country. But still it was hoped she had some left, and, as it was customary to fold such things in the swathing of Egyptian mummies of rank, it was concluded that tlie opening of the tight grave dress would reveal them on this occasion. The mummy came out of the coffin in perfect order, save that a portion of the outer covering was torn by the saw. j The lecturer read the hieroglyphics which were in- i scribed upon this covering, and corroborated from it j his previous assertion that the being inside was A rich- ; ph, an Egyptian priestess, beloved of Osiris, &c. 1 This inscription (except the name,) was a portion of j a regular “service of the dead,” which was written upon the shrouds and exterior coffins of all mum mies. The first lecture left the lady in her close costume, ! and the audience in the pleasant agonies of suspense ! for two days. But you shall have no further sus- 1 ; pensc, and I’ll give you the result of the two next lec tures, without hiatuses. The mummy was unrolled t by Professor Agassiz, assisted by two or three other I learned pundits; and the dust of centuries flew up I and got into the people's noses, and set them sneez . ing—and also into their eyes, which was not consider ed ominous, at the moment. The bandag: s taken off appeared to be from four to six inches wide, of a dull safiVon color, and from six to twelve feet long, and more. These bandages were found to be linen, of different degrees of fineness or coarseness. One of them, over twelve feet long, had fringes at each end, and looked like a modern scarf. But as they procee ded, no trinkets or jewelry were found. A roll of pa pyrus inscribed with some verses from the “Book of the Dead,” was found, and also a scarabaeus, or wing ed beetle, held in as much mystic reverence among the Egyptians, as the butterfly—the symbol of Psyche, or the soul, was among tlie Greeks. At last they came to tlie body—the face was black ! Another bandage or two oft’, and they saw that the body was entirely black. This was an unexpected thing, for this reason. There were two ways- of mummifying among tlie Egyptians—the more aristocratic and ex j pensive way was by embalming—the way in which a 1 priestess and member of the aristocracy would, of ■ course, be preserved. The other way was, by means jof bitumen. The bodies of the poorer sort were put ; into a cheap and bituminous bath, and thus sent down | to posterity with a pitch-plaster, as their security against decay. It was now concluded that the lady was no priestess after all, for the priestesses would be sure to get the best funerals in Egypt. But the worst I was to come in this ease. Having removed all the j bandages and exposed the body, burnt and charred by the fierce heat of the antiseptic bath, the physicians i present said the osteology of it could not have belong ed to a woman! And so it proved, Anch-ph, the Priestess, was nothing but a big, burnt, bituminous monster of a male ! This announcement was not made by Mr. Gliddon till the middle of the last lecture, (though the body had been exposed to tlie audience since the preceding.) Then, how the ladies smiled and whispered! and how the gentlemen grinned, as at a devilish good : joke I Suro enough, there he lay, in his glass-ease, j on the platform, and they all had their secret doubts, from the very first moment they had seen his ghastly j teeth and liis burnt up eyes, etc., that is was or would j not be a woman, though they did not mention it, and so i forth. t j It was a mistake, no doubt of it; but Mr. Gliddon j said it was not his. He still asserted that the signs and hieroglyphics on the coffins and on the outer cov ering of tlie body, indicated that the mummy was that of a female. And Ido not really see any reason to doubt him. lie threw the blame wholly on the old Egyptian undertaker, who wronged the mummy, and \ perhaps they deserved it. At the time in, which, pro- | babty, the body was mummified, the city of Thebes had a population of half a million of people, and the business of the undertakers was necessarily heavy, in the funeral establishments which were under the con trol of the sacerdotal order. It is highly probable that the body of an inferior male was taken up, by i mistake, and put into the coffin prepared, and in- j scribed fora lady of high rank. This was Mr. Glid- j don’s explanation, aud we all felt that we could no I more contradict it, than we could believe it. in fact. ! The unrolling of the mummy was interesting enough, very interesting; but Mr. Gliddon showed himself less the man of science than the lecturer, in having i announced, with such a flourish, the sex, and the j name of the mummy. This has done him more inju j ry than service, in tlie estimation of the public. Mum mification is not at all so well understood that any man, even the most skilled in the archaisms of Egypt could speak with certainty of a mummy from what he finds or thinks he finds on the coffin. Apropos of coffins—what do you say to ghosts? Let us talk of ghosts ? You have doubtless heard of | those ladies of Rochester, in the State of New York, who have kept up a sort of knocking acquaintance with invisible spirits. The spirits make noises, as of tapping or knocking ; anrl, being questioned, silently and mentally, by any body, are said to convey their replies through the Rochester ladies. These sur prising things have been a good deal bruited abroad by the newspapers, aud credulity is opening its eyes as round as saucers. Die ladies have conic to New- York, and are now at Barmirri’a Hotel. The editor of the New York Evening Post went to see them, and try to test the mystery. Entering the room, ho found the three ladies seated on a sofa, and was de sired to seat himself with his friends at a table, cover ed with an ordinary cloth. At the request of one of the gentlemen, one of the three asked a spirit if it would answer some civil questions; but it did not re ply. Then cnc of the ladies told the spirits the visi tors wished to talk to them, on which there were re peated knocks. Tlie man of the Post then wrote down “short hand” questions, some of which receiv ed correct, and others incorrect answers.” What a pity ! The price of admission is only a dollar ’ Wil lis, of the home Journal, went to see the ladies also, and on coming away expressed himself satisfied ! I should think so. The levees of the three ladies are crowded every morning. The best definition yet giv en of man, is the “credulous animal”—Plato’s “un fledged biped” is nothing to it. “Surely, the pleasure is as great, Os being cheated, as to cheat!” I, myself, look you, will give a dollar to be cheated, when these ladies shall come here—l will. But I’ll tty them closely. I’ll examine them; they shall stand up, and I’ll look everywhere—darned if I don’t! Talking of spirits, I can’t turn to anything lower or less ethereal than gases. Superstition has her spir its ; let us talk of those which science can raise, just | by way of variety. There is a man in Worcester, in i this State, who draws two astonishing and subtle spir- j its out of a glass of water ! This is a fact. Listen ; and perpend. Fire and light are the two spirits. Mr. Henry M. Paine, of Worcester, has invented an apparatus by which he decomposes water, and converts it into inflammable gas. He does this with an electric apparatus, for which he is now looking for a patent. This is no new discovery. It has been known for 65 years that water could be resolved in to inflammable gas. Mr. Paine merely puts tlie the ory into effective practice by an electric means never thought of, till this electric age. He does not write a book about his discovery ; but he has got a stove, and by its means, he warms his room, and could cook his meals with a little decomposed water ! The entire labor required to make a day’s supply of gas for a house does not occupy two minutes, in turning a crank in his cheap apparatus! A couple of seien tifio gentlemen from this city have just been to see Mr. Paine, and they are surprised and delighted. The flame is so pure that the faintest tints of blue and green can be distinguished by it. An excellent da guerreotype has been taken by it. Llisha Burnt, our learned blacksmith, went and saw the machinery and pipes, and he says he has no words to express his astonishment and pleasure at what he investigated, j He says two jets r ?ere lighting in his house, which : would be sufficient to light a moderate sized hall, ev erv night, at an expense of the interest on the cost of the machine, (about $G per annum,) with only tire trouble of occasionally tilling the water cistern. Just fancy what a revolution this thing may make. If light and heat can be produced to serve a house , why not to serve a steamer ? Then fancy the ship's ■ coal coming up over the side in buckets 1 One buck- j et full goes, dutifully, into the boiler, and the other goes underneath, in a suicidal and fiery manner, to i turn the first into steam. This sounds incredible, but there are truth and sei ; ence to justify the fancy. Fancy the happiness of j getting our household coal and timber out of the tea- j ter-pipes, for a cent a day! Yes, you may laugh, ! j for it is really a pleasurable fancy to you and me. But, remember, it is a fact at Worcester! Just fancy a man toasting his toes, of a cold winter day, at a pint of pump-water ! Fancy a man saying, ‘fit is j i rather cold, I think—let Betty bring in another gal | lon of water!” Sir, my imagination is running awr y with me. Just think of the cheapness of steam conveyance. You can go to Europe for a few dol lars ; timber will not be wanted for fire ; ships will, of course, be all the more cheaply built, I remember i hearing it often asked what should the inhabitants of | the world do, when the forests were cut down, and the coal mines exhausted. Alas! there are millions \ of unknown resources lying hid in the elements of | this world, and waiting to be developed by science, i If we had neither timber nor coa! to-morrow, man ; would find substitutes for them in a year. He has i these substitutes almost within his grasp already ! Even should Mr. Paine not be able to make an appa j ratus sufficiently effective for generating steam in | ships, the fact that it may be done exists, and the sci ! ence of the next decade will undoubtedly be able to ; lay hold of it and change the social history of the world, with it. Take a glass of water, Mr. Editor, and then swear as I do, j ust now, that there’s a great deal of light and heat in you ! Good gracious, the real ‘‘fire-water” after all, comes out of the pump! YANKEE DOODLE. [correspondence of the southern sentinel.] Eaton ton, June 10th, 1850. My DearC: A man by the name of Powel has re cently put out a book, called the “Living Authors of America.” Amongst a great deal of chaff - you find the following precious grains of wheat: “The Americans arc a shrewd and far-seeing pco j pie, but they are somewhat too material; they must I not believe that a nation can long exist without men jof thought, as well as men of action. The salvation of i America lies in the possession of a republican Litera ture. The literature of England is slowly sapping the foundation of her institutions. England does all her thinking, and if this system continues, the action of this great nation will be in accordance with the will of the old country. Like the Gulf Stream of Florida, the current of aristocrat ical genius is slowly drifting the ark of America to a point they little dream of, and’ j never intend. The very bulk of this country renders j the oporation unseen; but, though imperceptible to i the eye, it is palpable to the mind, and certain in its j results.” j In the last number of the Southern Quarterly Re ! view, in an article on Kennedy’s Life of W irt, the | writer, speaking of the want of a Southern literature, thus discourses: “we are paying the penalty of our indifference.— Our histories are slurred over by Yankee historians, the most important truths suppressed ; our heroes re ceive but cold applauses, and our relative claims to rank with sister States is constantly disparaged by false glosses and misrepresentations, the natural fruit of a custom which leaves to jealous rivals or secret ■ enemies to write our books. Much of the insolence i of northern aggression, at this moment, is derived | from the conviction which they owe to their false his tories that the South is indebted to them for rescue and protection in past time, and cannot possibly sus tain itself without them now.” Thus I have given you my texts. Now you shall J have my sermon. I promise you however, the latter i shall not be proportionally as long as the former. The extract I have given you from Mr. Powel’s book ! shows you tiie effect which a literature, whether indi | genous or exotic, has upon the institutions of a coun ; try. The extract from the Southern Quarterly shows I the effect which Northern literature has upon our in stitutions. The anti-slavery literature of the Northern States is as slowly but surely winding its folds about our slave institution to orush it, as the anaconda twines I its deadly coil about its victim that it may meet death in its slimy embrace. Let me submit a few facts. In the first place the education of the youths of the Southern States has been for some time, and still is, to a great degree, en trusted to the hands of those wandering Yankees who come upon us in the shape of pedagogues as thick as the loeusts which were sent upon Egypt to devour the substance of the land. Like tho wandering Bedoin upon the sands of Sahara, finding no rest for the sole of their foot upon the arid and moneyless soil of New England, they seek an oasis in the Southren States in the shape of a log-cabin school house. Here, for a year or two, they insinuate their notions against sla vers into the minds of our children, and, after they have got money enough to buy a shirt or two, put out again to the North, armed and equipped according to law, w ith material for writing a yellow-covered pamph let, abusing and belying our institutions ; not so much because they themselves condemn them, but becanse they know vilification and detraction will find them a publisher and readers. Now, what is the remedy here ? Why, we must get our own citizens to take charge of the education of our youth. How shall we j do this ? Why, we must quit being so niggardly and j .mean as we are. We must build better school hous- j es, supply them with better books and apparatus, and j raise the profession of teaching from that pitch of | degradation to which it has been sunk among us by ! vagabond yankee pedlars. Then, and then only, can ! wc expect our high spirited and honorable young men | to engage in teaching the youth of our land, and in j stilling correct notions in their plastic minds. But again. The books which we use in our schools j are all manufactured at the North, and contain aboli tion sentiments. V)ur children read in their histories, j their geographies, and their reading books, that slave- 1 ry is an evil. Their parents lie supinely upon their ; couches of ease, carelessness and do-nothingness, while the poison is being instilled in the minds of their babies at school. By and by, when they hear John or Sam express sentiments in reference to slavery, which are utterly abhorrent to Southern orthodoxy, i they wake up from their slumbers, rub their eyes and | wonder how their sons obtained such notions, for they ! certainly never taught them. Os the many books us -1 ed in our schools containing anti-slavery sentiments, I would mention particularly Porter's Rhetorical Read er, and many of Parley’s works—particularly his j “First book of history.” It is a notorious fact, that not only are our children j dependent upon the North for their school-books, but j our grown up men and women send to Yankecdom for their books, newspapers and magazines. I am ready to admit that we have very few or no books i published at the South. But why is this ? It is be- \ cause our reading community have so fur stultified j themselves as to spurn any thing coining from a Southern press, to hug to their bosoms the cheap j publications of Northern fanaticism, which have sprung from deranged and crazy brains like mush- ( rooms from a dung-hill. Our people subscribe for Such papers, trashy, wishy- j washy and nambv-pambyish as they arc—such pa pers as the Saturday Evening Post, the Home Jour nal, McMakin’s American Courier, Ac., &e., when they treat with contempt any paper of a literary east ; that springs up at the South. While we have pub- I lished in Charleston a literary paper as good as any in the Union, and better than nine-tenths of them, true as steel to the iutercst of the South, our people seein to be unconscious of its existence, w’hile they open their coffers and pour their treasure into the laps of Northern publishers, and for what? “Why, to pay j them for sending us sheets filled with abolitionism, free-soilism, inormonism, fourierism, foolism, and a j host of accursed Yankeeisms besides, too tedious to j mention. And when, my dear C., hare the editors of Geor gia so far disgraced themselves as to notice and en courage the Southern Literary Gazette ? It is true that I am glad to have it in my power to exhonerate you and the Augusta Republic from the charge of criminal negligence which lies at the door of the Georgia Press. But, you two excepted, when lias any Georgia editor condescended to notice and en courage any effort to establish literary journals at the j South ? and why iit they have failed to do so. It is i too frequently because our editors are not of us. They have not been born, raised, or educated among us. They are with us too frequently as the Yankee pedagogue is, because they can’t make a living by their trade at home. Witness one Dr. Lee, former ly editor of the ..Chronicle & Sentinel—that political hack, smart, and shrewd, it is true, who came as an i emissary of abolition among us, and whoso pen was j constantly dipped in venom and gall to strike at the vitals of our home policy and domestic institutions. ‘Plie Chronicle, while under his charge, was devoted to writing down every one who dared raise his voice or pen for the South. Mr. Calhoun, because he was the champion of Southern rights, was made the sub ject of attack, marked by such rancor and virulence as would have disgraced the back room of a doggery. The New York Evening Post, the leading free soil paper at the North, pronounced the Chronicle, under Dr. Lee's administration, the leader ot an anti-slavery movement at the South. Yet this same Dr. I-ee, who, for his treason to the State he had adopted, de served to be hung on a gallows as high as I laman’s, was suffered to go on for a length of time unaecount | able, without being honored even with one single par ticle of tar, or the tenth part of an aecompanyiug feather. Let me not be misunderstood, my dear C. Ido not mean to say that there is any Southern editor now equal in the heinousness of his offence, to Dr. Lee. But this Ido say, that the Southern press has been too much under foreign influence. The Yan kees have had too much to do with it. lam aware that in speaking thus plainly, I may be in danger of drawing down upon my head a shower of unmitiga ted curses. But I must speak the truth, be the con sequences what they may. I must say a word in reference to the penchant which our people have for Northern magazines. The Democratic Review, American Whig Review, Go dey, Graham and Sartain, are supported at the ex pense of the Southern Literary Messenger, the Southern Quarterly and De Bow’s Commercial Re view. You may search the wide world over, and you can’t find better journals than the three which I have mentioned, published at the South. But they ; are suffered to linger out a languishing existence, j while their Northern rivals, inferior in every respect, ■ fatten upon the contents of Southern coffers. There i is a little magazine for children published in Charles ton, called the School Fellow, wlucli is unsurpassed by any similar publication in the world. But who knows or cares any thing about it ? At the same time, though, that this is suffered to pine away through the negligence of Southern readers, Mer ry’s Museum, a Northern Magazine for children, ed ited by Peter Parley, alias S. G. Goodrich, who, in his numerous works never suffers an opportunity to pass to strike at slavery, is liberally patronized by slave owners, and placed in the hands of their cliil l dren to model their youthful feelings and sentiments. I will tell you what I believe, my dear C. I be | lieve that a few energetic men in every Southern town | and village, ought to band themselves 1 ogetl e” y r.: order | to> produce a revolution in the course of our people, in reference to what they read. You may find in every village a few men who keep themselves acquainted with the literature of the times. They ought to set their heads to work to have our Southern newspa pers, magazines, and reviews patronized. They ! should take it upon themselves to find out who sub i scribes for a Northern Journal, and then inform the j subscriber where he win get a good Southern Journal j for the same price. They should urge upon every ! newspaper reader .the necessity and importance of his taking a journal which defends our institutions in stead of abusing and viliifying them. My word for it, this subject only need he brought properly before the minds of our people in order to get them, to pursue the right course in reference to it, I fear I have made this eon nn uni cation too long, j my dear C., and yet I don't sec how I could have | made it shorter. I hope your readers will see the importance of what I have brought before them. I have written currents colamo , and there is probably not as much elegance, order and condensation about my communication os there might be. However, I j care but little about these things, if I can rouse atten ! tion on the subjects I discuss. If I should live long, I | am far from being done, at th:3, with what I have written about. BANQUO. For the “Southern Sentinel.” Libraries. ! We promised a few weeks ago to give sdme infor j mation respecting the Libraries of Europe, for which | we shall be indebted to the learning and industry of a | ripe and accurate scholar, John R. Bartlett Esq. of | Rhode Island. Early in 1849 the British House of | Commons appointed a committee, on the best means of I extending the establishment of Libraries,■freely open jto the public. The result of their labors was a valua- I ble mass of information respecting the Libraries of England and the continent, embodied in their report on the main topic. From this report wc gather the following facts, as they were digested by Mr. Bartlett. | In the British Isles and in Holland, there are fewer | books in the public libraries in proportion to the pop | illation, than in any other countries of Europe. The | public libraries of England, including those connected ! with the universities, are less accessible to the public, than the libraries on the continent. The tax on books is greater, thus making cost greater. The duty on foreign books is greater ; And that there is less pro vision towards enabling tho humbler class to read and improve their minds, than in any other country in Europe which ranks among civilized and enlighten ed nations. Tho smaller states of Germany take the lead, as far as concerns the number of books in proportion to the population. They have in their libraries 450 vols. to every 100, of the population. Denmark has 412 ; | France 120 and the British Isles but 68 to every 100. France contains 10T public libraries; Belgium 14 : The Prussian States 44 ; Austria with Lombardy and and Venice 48, Bavaria 17 ; Saxon 6. and so on. To all these libraries admission is free, to poor as well as rich, to foreigner as well as native. The principal Libraries of the capital cities of Eu rope, rank as follows. Paris national Library 824000 volumes ; Munich, Royal Library; 600,000; Peters burgh, Imperial Library 416,000 ; London, British Museum Library 435,000 ; Copenhagen, Royal Libra ry 412,000 ; Berlin do. 410,000 ; Vienna Imperial do. 313,000 ; Dresden Royal do. 300,000 ; Madrid national do. 200,000 ; and many others down to the Ducal Library at Parma containing 100,000 vol ; umes. The chief university Libraries are Gottingen 360,- 000 vols. Breslau 250,000 ; Oxford 220,000 ; Munich 200,000; Heidelburg 200,000 ; Cambridge 166,000; Bologna 150,000; Prague 130,000 ; Vienna 115,000; Leipsie 112.000; Copenhagen 110,000; Turin 110,000; Dublin: 104,000; Upsal 100,000; Erlaugen 100,000; Edin burgh 00354. The following list shows the public Libraries in England, when they were founded, and the number of volumes they contain. Founded Volumes. The British Museum London 1753 435,000 Sion College Library do. 1631 35,500 Dr. William’s Library do. 1716 17,000 ArchbishopTenison’s dodo. 1684 30,000 Bodleiau do Oxford 1597 220,000 All souls College do do. 50.000 Christ’s Church do do. 30,000 Four others do. 73,000 Public Library Cambridge 1481 166,724 | Queens College do do. H4B a-, non Trinitv College do do. an non Two others do. lUlu! Chitham Library Manchester iq’ooo Warrington Libraries 4 stK> The public libraries of Great Britain are not strict ly free; access can be had only on eertaip conditions such as being introduced or recommended by persons known to the Librarian. From the university Libra ries of Oxford and Cambridge not only the public but the undegraduates of the University,* are generally restricted. The Bodleian Library is only accessible to masters of arts and those of higher degrees. The British museum was founded in 1753 and from that time to 1848 the Government appropriated about $585,000 for printed books and $226,500- for manuscripts. Parochial Libraries once prevailed to a considers i ble extent throughout England, Wales and Scotland, j Some are yet in flourishing condition, but the greater part have been neglected. Os these 165 exist in England and Wales, and 16 in Scotland. In Hamp shire is one of these libraries which contains many valuable books ; and in which is a notice stuck up, dating 125 years back, stating that all persons who take away books must deposit their value, showing that it was once a public and lending library. These libra ries originated with Deßray founder of the society for the Propagation ot the Gospel in foreign parts who founded sixty of them in 1704 and the following years; ; and his associates after him founded seventy eight j more between 1757 and 1801. There were from 200 to 1500 volumes in each, consisting perhaps mostly of i Theology and Ecclesiastical history. The Religious Tract Society has contributed large ! ly to the founding of small libraries in Great Britain and Ireland. Its custom is to contribute the same a j mount in books as may be raised by the friends of these | libraries. In this way, since 1832 it has made grants to 5410 libraries averaging about one hundred volumes to each. This, with the amounts raised by the friends of the libraries makes an aggregate of 110,000 vols. in libraries of this kind. Besides books ofa moral and re ligious cliaracter, the Tract Society publishes a voriety of historical works, popular works on science <Ae The Society is conducted by an equal number of die | scoters and members of the Church of England, hence j none of its books are of a sectarian character. Me ’ chanics Institutes prevail to a considerable extent in ! Bermingham, Manchester and other large towns. Al j though professedly formed for working people, but few ol this class are able to join them, in consequence of the expense, small as it is. They are supported chiefly by the middle classes and higher order of skill ed artisans. Attached to the Institutions arc libra j rics. Bomc also have lectures, debating el'ubs and j improvement classes. In Yorkshire they are all as ; sociatcd into a body called tlie “Yorkshire Union.” j This embraces 79 institutions and 12 more have asked | tor admission. The total number of members is about j 16,000. The average number of books in each libra ry is about 900. The Mechanic’s Institute at Liver pool has 3123 members; tho two at Manchester a bout 4000. It is believed that these societies and’ scientific associations, large and small, in England and Wales number four hundred. There are numerous libraries in Manchester and Bermingham, belonging to artisans, and working men’s clubs. The books in these are not of much val ue ; the libraries are kept in public houses where peo ple resort; they pay a small subscription, take a glass of ale, and read. There is among this class of people a great desire for books on historical and political sub jects, and if books in these and the higher departments of literature were furnished them they would be read with avidity. | In some instances, a few working men will club to i gether and spend their spare money in buying politi -5 cal works, not the writings of any particular school but of various ones; and spend their evenings in reading them. It has been observed that the increase of reading decreases the turbulent spirit arising from ignorance. Some of the most intelligent and best read men in Brimingham are working men. This class of people write a great deal of poetry (such as it is) and contrib ute much solid matter to the newspapers. Three prize essays on the observrnce of the sabbath were lately, gained by working men in Bermingham. The system of lectures has had a beneficial effect on the people. An instauce was shown in the effect pro duced upon the reading of the town of Manchester, by a series of lectures on Cromwell; every book on the subject in the libraries of the town was out at the same time. In this way lectures increase the taste for ; read ing a spirit of liberality in opinion and action is diffused among the people ; and numberless incidental benefits accrue. Would that our fine city with its liberal mind ed hospitable and intelligent comunity could reap some of the benefits of public lectures. When such means of public amusement and improvement have been pro posed and discussed among us, tho invariable quietus lists been ; “we are so far oft’ the line of travel and communication that it is impossible to procure br i pay leeturees to come to us with their treasures and wo i have no other resources.” “What there is of force in j this argument will, we hope, be soon obviated by tho I finishing of the railroad which will “put. us in cominu : nieation” witji “all the world and the rest of man- I kind” ; but to us there is no force in it; have we not | among us many who can, if they would, contribute I bountifully to the amusement and instruction of an | audience 2 have we none whose taste in study, has led them in paths to hiden treasures, which they could j lay open for the use of others ? j The extent to which I>ooks are read’ in the libraries i of the workingmen’s clubs may be known by the fact, i that the recorded issues of books are three times that j of the whole number in the library, and when it is eon j sidered that nearly half the books in the libraries | possess no interest,, and are scarcely ever looked at or i taken out, it will appear that the books which arc read, , arc read over six times during the year. PAPYRUS. [To be Continued.] [communicated.] To the Editor of the Southern Sentinel : Allow me through the medium of your valuable journal to call the attention of Land holders to ‘.he necessity of “Processioning” their lands, and as this term I find many are entirely ignorant of as well as i the law in relation thereto, I herewith annex such ex tracts from the Digest as I think will show the neces sity of having some attention paid to it. An Act for preventing controversies concerning the hounds of Land and for processioning the same. 106. Sec. 1. Once in every ten years the bounds of every persons land shall be processioned or gone round and the land marks renewed in manner following, that is to say; it shall be the duty of every captain or eommading officer in each military company district throughout this state at their respective company musters, after the first day of June next, to hold an election for three persons, who shall be appointed pre cessioners of land for each distriot. And all and eve ry person in this State are hereby required to proof s-- sion or go round their respective tracts of land ifcc. [Page 554, Price's Digest.] I shall make no further comment on this subject, as every’body can read for themselves, and if they will ■ look over the Digest of the law’s for Georgia they will ; see the heavy penalties which are attached to this law\ and can judge for themselves whether it is best to pay any attention to a law’ which has been now’ neg-. : lected since the original surveys of 1826 and 1827 now 23 years. C. C. E. Mr. Calhoun’s Religious Views. We have often had a strong desire, and we trust a not improper or unprofitable curiosity to obtain an insight into the religious opinions, and views of the illustrious Statesman and plilo sopher, whose death our whole country mourns as a national alfliction. His intellectual strength, his wonderful powers of reasoning and analysis, his almost intuitive preeeption of recondite truth, his moral elevation and purity of character, all combine to give an interest to his thoughts and convictions, as to the things which belong not to ime, but to eternity, which attaches perhaps to