soon after the misfortune which had befallen which confimed all that I had conjectured ourselves and the Dallases, as I understood, of the circumstances of that fatal day. He in consequence of a wish to that effect ex- said that he knew our sparation was inevitapressed by Arthur, who had remained in ble, whether James lived or died; but he France a sufficient period of time to enable solemnly declared that he had never had him to see his sister and Algernon in their any intention of harming him, and that the early-wedded days, and had then sailed for pistol had been discharged accidentally India. Mr. Dallas had not returned to and I implicitly believed him. To the world Woodlee, but had sold the place to General this circumstance told against him, as James's Strickland, from whom I many years after-second a young gentleman who had been wards bought it. My father and James of the dinner-party-accused Arthur of were alone at the Larches, and even the re- having fired too soon; and in fact he had acsource of Carters Court was cut off from cidentally done so. His letter expressed them. The name of Algernon's bride was a barrier between the houses.

A MARKET FOR HIGH ART. MR. PUNCH,

ON the memory of a certain wooden painter, who should have been WEST-a certain joker of jokes joked the following joke, to wit:

:

undying attachment and constancy to me, and said something of possible hope in the far future. He was going to India very soon, and so took leave of me in a few lines of passionate grief and valediction."

the History of England for the last eight hundred years. Suppose the new Richmond Hotel Duck, the Goat and Compasses, the White were named the Cat and Fiddle, the Dog and Hart, the Blue Boar, or the Red Lion, its sign might exibit a masterpiece of animal painting, executed by a LANDSEER or an ANSDELL.

"He died and made no sign." Sign-painting, Sir, has hitherto been regarded A great advantage of sign-painting, practised as an inferior exercise of the pencil, and no-tiful variety of subject which it would afford as a branch of genuine art, would be the plenbody but a shallow jester would say that the elevation at which signboards are generally suspended entitles them to be considered works of High Art. But circumstances have arisen under which any British Artist who has only genius enough might be enabled to paint signboards which would rival the finest pictures of

MICHAEL ANGELO.

would thus find scope for their specialty in the the artist. Fruit and flower painters, even, production of such signs as the Rose and Thistle, or the Bunch of Grapes.

necessaries.

and remunerative market for British Artists.

there is nobody to pay for them, all the money Altar-pieces are no longer painted, because that is given for pious use going in church exLet me, Sir, direct your attention to those tension, clergy-multiplication, and other means large public-houses, the vast joint-stock hotels. of supplying spiritual destitution with spiritual They are inns whose landlords are lords and Sign-boards for splendid hotels dukes and other members of the landed aris- would supply their places in the world of art, tocracy. They are kept by the nobility and and, generally adopted, would create an ample gentry. In the fine English of these days they If every great joint-stock hotel displayed a sign are called "palatial edifices." Let these pala- that was a first rate painting, it would do no tial public houses be embellished with signs. more than its proprietary could very well afford. As a palace is to an ordinary tavern, so might Rising hotels would encourage rising talent, the sign of the palatial public-house be to that and redeem this country from the reproach of of a common one; larger and more beautiful. The sign of the huge hotel should of course being a nation of shareholders engrossed in be executed in fresco, to stand the weather. trying to get money, and with eating and drinkThe grandest hotels might be adorned with

ing.

notion of High Art signboards to practice, by offering to the competition of British Artists a considerable sum of money as a prize for the take mine ease in mine inn, Mr. Punch, albeit best sign of the Marquis of Granby. I love to

signs of corresponding grandeur. What if I offer you the foregoing suggestion, Mr. the Langham Place Hotel were to be called Punch, in the hope that you will communicate it the Queen's Head? Why, then, any requisite to the School of Design, and cause the Directalteration having been made in the architec-ors of that institution to begin reducing the ture of the building, its principal entrance might be surmounted, by way of sign, with the best portrait of HER MAJESTY that could be painted by a distinguished R. A. Or, the sign of the Queen's Head might be a painting commemorative of postage reform. In like manner the Alexandra Hotel might have for its sign a grand historical picture of Her Royal Highness the PRINCESS OF WALES landing in England. For that of the Westminster Palace Hotel no end of subjects might be taken from

I am,

HABITANS IN SICCO.

N. B. A good dry skittle ground. Punch.*
Mr. Woodside, in Philadelphia, painted some

signs which might really cultivate a taste for Art.
Dr. Bethune in one of his orations gave deserved
We recollect the White Bear on a Field of Ice.
praise to this modest artist. [Ed. Living Age.

TEERING.

PROPOSED CONGRESS AGAINST PRIVA- | with Mrs. Hannah More, at Barley Wood, near Wrington, Somersetshire, England, in which he says he " was agreeably surprised at the vigor of her intellect and the penetrating brightness of her eye." But this has nothing to do with the subject of this note. Yours respectfully,

D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD,

MR. WILBERFORCE TO MR. BETHUNE.
NEAR LONDON, 12 July, 1820.

DIVIE BETHUNE, ESQ.

To the Editor of the Living Age. Although believing with you that no "Maritime Congress of Nations," for the prevention of privateering, as suggested by "The Saturday Review in the article on p. 620 of No. 1126 of "The Living Age," is likely to be held until after the settle- DETROIT, February, 1866. ment of your "Alabama" claims by England, I have thought that the accompanying letter of the late Honorable Wm. Wilberforce touching this subject, and written 46 years ago, might not be without interest to the general reader, both at home and abroad. The letter, in the handwriting apparently of the author, and bearing his own signature and frank, was addressed to my grandfather, the late Divie Bethune, Esq., then an extensive merchant and ship-owner of New York City, while the latter was on a visit to England in 1820. About a year since, I found it among Mr. Bethune's papers, bearing in his handwriting the following endorsement: "The enclosed is in reply to a letter wishing a time of general peace to be improved for a general Compact of Nations to prohibit Privateering in future Wars." The following extract from Mr. Bethune's journal dated at Birmingham, July 9th, 1820, discloses the origin of this letter. The entry reads as follows: "In dining with Joseph Reynolds, son of Richd. Reynolds, I suggested to him that now would be a good time for the different Governments of the World to form a reciprocal agreement to prohibit Privateering, this being a time of general Peace. He caught at the idea, and on our talking it over said he would write to Lord Teignmouth on the subject. I think I shall venture to write Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Macaulay on the same subject, and I feel persuaded that the horrors committed lately by the Patriot Privateers' of S. America will prepare the minds of a majority of the people of the United States to reccommend a similar prohibition to our Government. Oh! may my God grant me grace and wisdom to write judiciously on this important business, and may He incline the hearts of all Rulers to the prohibition of this accursed practise." This entry is succeeded by an interesting account of Mr. Bethune's interview

My dear Sir, I assure you with truth, that any suggestion from you would be received by me with a preposession in its favor. But I can also assure you that the subject of your letter, with which I have been recently favoured, is one in which I have long had an opinion, perfectly consonant with your own; and, as you are already convinced, it is unnecessary for me to state the reasons for my own opinion. Parliament, however, is now within a few days of its adjournment, and it is therefore impossible to bring forward such a subject with the slightest hope of success, or even with any probability of its obtaining serious consideration. In another session the question would well deserve attention, and while I assure you, I should feel myself honored in being the introducer of it into the House of Commons, I must say that I should probably recommend for it a younger and less incumbered advocate. Were I not much occupied, I should be tempted to fill my sheet at least, but circumstanced as I am I will only add that I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again, on your return southward, and that I am, with cordial esteem and regard, my dear sir,

Yours very sincerely,

W. WILBERforce.

[Mr. Divie Bethune was the father of the late Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D., of blessed memory.] -Living Age.

NEW SPANISH GRASS.-THE London Engineer says:-Esparto, the newly imported Spanish grass, is likely to be largely used, with cotton, hemp, and wool, as one of the staples of manufacturing industry, in addition to the

valuable resource which it seems likely to prove to our paper manufacturers. About 160,000 tons have already been imported, at an estimated price of eighty-two shillings per ton,

From the Examiner. CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

to agitate for a reciprocal free trade between Canada and the United States in agricultural products. He was prompted to this mainly by observing that at certain seasons the prices of provisions were higher in the American sea-board States than they were in England, and that for a large class of agricultural produce Canada had no other market than that of the great continental cities. For some time the Canadian Government of the day, then under the direction, of Mr. Hincks, now Premier of Demerara, appeared dispo

ever, they took it up, and having obtained the assistance of the British Minister at Washington, Lord Elgin, succeeded in negotiating with the American Government that Convention, which is now on the point of expiring. Respecting that negotiation we may mention two pieces of history which we believe to be authentic- they at any rate come to us from persons who were actors in the business. While the American Government was being solicited for its assent to the proposals, the Southern members of the Senate - the body whose action on treaties were final was greatly indisposed to give what was asked; thinking that the advocates of the plan in the Northern States, while imposing heavy duties in favour of Northern manufacturers, at the same time were attempting to get up a little bit of free trade on their own frontier for their own benefit. They had, therefore, in

CANADA is at this moment expecting the end, but hoping for the renewal in some acceptable shape, of the Reciprocity of Trade Treaty between the United States and the British Provinces. As important consequences may arise from either issue of this affair, we give some account of the nature of the treaty, and will look next week at the political questions arising out of it. For a good many years after their sepa-sed to slight this project. Eventually, howration from the mother country, the United States were almost entirely isolated from the British Provinces, and though the vigour of the fiscal restraints upon intercourse had been gradually though slightly relaxed, even as lately as twenty years ago there was the very smallest trade between them which can be thought possible between two countries lying in such close proximity. There were duties on each side upon almost every article coming from the other, and in Canada there was a differential duty discriminating against the trade of the United States upon every article whatever which came to it from thence. The first important step in the way of more free intercourse was the passage by the Americans of the Bonding and Transit Law, by which they permitted goods coming from sea to the United States but destined for Canada, to pass through their territory in bond. This concession was made spontaneously, for their own purposes," caucus," to use the technical word, deterand, no doubt, at the suggestion of their rail- mined to vote against it, and if they had, it way companies, who saw that with such an would have miscarried. Just then, however, arrangement they would command the Ca- one of them received a letter from a resinadian trade during the months of closed na- dent in Canada, exhorting him to vote vigation. Canada soon after, upon the com- against the treaty, because that would drive pletion of its canals, and with an object simi- the Canadians to ask for annexation in deslar to that of the Americans, passed a Bond- pair of getting by any other means into the ing Bill of its own, with a view of enabling American markets. The letter had an effect its forwarders and shippers to export the the reverse of that which was intended. Western American cereals. It moreover the Southerners did not want the annexaabsolutely removed the duty on wheat; but tion of one or two new free States; and they retained that on flour. Then came our at once made up their minds to change their abolition of the Corn Laws, and Canada's intended course. We are told that the ulloss of favour in home markets, with the timate success of the treaty was owing to consequent abolition of the differential duty that accident. In the meantime it had met against foreigners, which had previously with a good many obstacles. One was rebeen maintained for the purpose of giving a moved in this way. Mr. Hincks, finding preference to British exporters. that the thing did not go so fast as he desired at Washington, thought he could put a Under these new forms of fiscal legisla-pressure on the U. S. Government, and with tion the trade between the two countries that view made it a part of his policy to began slowly to augment. About 1849, how-close Canadian canals against American vesever, the late Mr. W. H. Merritt, to whom Canada is indebted for the project of the Welland Canal, and more recently for that of the suspension bridge at Niagara, began

sels, and otherwise to legislate against American trade. This policy, however, he very suddenly abandoned, as it was thought at the time, because it had succeeded in driving

from office one of his colleagues, the Hon. John Young, who regarded it as suicidal. It is now, however, stated that the British Minister at Washington received a hint that all chance of success would be destroyed unless these menaces were promptly discontinued, and that it was at his instance they were hastily abandoned. It may be added that very considerable sums of money were spent, or alleged to have been spent, by the "officious" Canadian negotiators, some portions of which were not repaid by their Government, though the outlay was plainly authorized, till a few months ago. The destination of this money is still involved in mystery whether used to influence congressional consciences or not.

The treaty may be shortly described:It admitted all kinds of raw produce, agricultural and mineral, except hay, salt, and sugar, into each of the two countries from the other free of duty, provided for the free navigation of the St. Lawrence and Lake Michigan to the citizens of both countries, and permitted American fishermen to fish on the British North American coasts as freely as the provincials, but admitted the provincial exports of fish free of duty into the American markets.

Canada's shipping trade rather than stimulated their production, whereas the free admission of its own produce opened to Canada in the United States a market which it had not before; though of course while the United States were shipping cereals to England, their importations of Canadian cereals were truly as much a transit trade as Canada's importations of the same kind of goods from them.

We may add here that while almost all Canada's exports to the United States were relieved from duty, as it sent them little but raw produce, only about fifty per cent. of its imports from them were affected by the treaty; the official figures for the halfyear ending 30th June, 1864, taking that period as an example, showing that the free goods from the States were the whole trade from thence in the proportion of 48 to 104. It is also worthy of notice, that if the operations of commerce could ever be estimated in anything but money, the importance of the free trade of Canada with the States might be said to consist even more in its convenience than in its profit. Since 1854 Canadian farmers, instead of having to send, with much trouble, small parcels of produce to a distant market at great loss of time and with expense in the payment of commissions to merchants, often, moreover, receiving the return in what is called "store pay," have had the American buyers going all through the country buying whatever they had to sell at their Ex. to Canada. Impts. from Can. own doors, and paying in cash. No doubt Dollars. 1850, 5,390,821, 4,285,470 some of these advantages are due to other 1851, 7,929,140, 4,956,471 causes than the treaty, especially to the ex1853, 7,829,090, 5,278,116 tension of the railway system, which had its 1855, 20,882,241, 17,448,197 great development about the time that con1856, 16,574,895, 18,291,834 vention was made. But much of Canada's 1861, 14,361,858, 18,645,457 recent prosperity is certainly due to the re1862, 12,842.504, 15,253,152 moval of ancient fiscal restrictions between 1863, 19,898,718, 18,816,999 its rural population and the great consum1865, 18,306,497, 30,547,267 ing cities of the Atlantic coast.

The following table is sufficient to show, in the shortest and most comprehensive manner, the results which followed the achievement of this wise convention:

Before Treaty.

Since Treaty.

Dollars.

1864, 16,658,429, 30,974,118

These are the American figures, and there is some discrepancy between them and the Canadian; but none that affects the present purpose of showing the effect of the treaty on the trade of the two countries. To understand their full significance, it must be borne in mind that under the treaty Canadian imports from the United States were almost all required for shipment to England, comparatively little being taken into consumption, whereas in some years all, and on an average of years the major part of the exports to the States went into consumption there. Thus the free admission of American produce nourished

From the Examiner, 24 Feb.

IRISH HATRED OF ENGLAND. THE reason why Dr. Fell was hated could not be fathomed, but hated Dr. Fell was, not a jot the less thoroughly and bitterly. And Dr. Fell's case is the case of England in the feelings of the lower and not a few of the upper Irish. Now a hatred without reason is a hatred the most stubborn and lasting, for nothing that can be done can operate