MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS. CONGE YONGRESS adjourned on the 30th of Sep- President, Mr. Granger, leaving the chair, and tember, in accordance with the resolution organized anew elsewhere. One of the Vice noticed in the last number of the Magazine. Presidents took the chair thus vacated, and the Very little business of general interest was Convention, after completing its business, and aptransacted in addition to that of which a record pointing a State Whig Central Committee, adhas already been made. The appropriation journed. The seceders appointed a committee to bills were passed, and in one of them was in-issue an address, and adjourned. The Address serted a prohibition of flogging in the navy and aboard merchant vessels of the United States, which received the sanction of both houses and became a law. A provision was also inserted, granting land bounties to soldiers in the war of 1812, and in any of the previous wars of the United States. The passage of the bill involving, directly or indirectly, the slavery issue, of which we have already given a full account, restored a greater degree of harmony and of calmness to both branches of Congress than had hitherto prevailed, and the same influence has had an important effect, though to a less extent, upon the country at large. soon after appeared, and after reciting the history of the Syracuse Convention, aiming to show that its approval of the course of Senator Seward deprived its doings of all binding force, concluded by calling a convention of delegates, representing those Whigs who disapproved of the action at Syracuse, to be held at Utica, on the 17th of October. Delegates were accordingly elected in nearly all the counties of the state, and the Convention met on the day appointed. Hon. Francis Granger was elected President. Resolutions, setting forth the position and principles of those represented, were passed, and the candidates nominated at Syracuse were adopted. The Convention appointed another State Central Committee, and then adjourned. It will be observed that the only point in which the two conventions came into collision, so far as future political movements are concerned, is in the appointment of those two committees. Each will, undoubtedly, endeavor to exercise the ordinary functions of such committees, in calling The political incidents of the month have not been without interest. A State Convention, representing the Whigs of New York, assembled at Syracuse, on the 27th of September, for the nomination of State officers. Hon. Francis Granger was chosen President, and a committee was appointed to report resolutions expressing the sentiments of the Convention,-Hon. William Duer, member of Congress from the Oswe-state conventions, &c., and thus will arise a go district, being Chairman. The resolutions direct conflict of claims which may lead to a were at once reported. They expressed confi- permanent division of the party. Hon. dence in the national administration, approved WASHINGTON HUNT has wr tten a letter in the measures recently adopted by Congress con- reply to inquiries from Mr. GRANGER, in nected with slavery, and declared the respect of which he declines to express any opinion as the Convention for the motives which had ani- to the differences which arose at Syracuse. mated the Whig Senator from New York, and So far as that difference relates to the merits the majority of the New York Congressional of individuals, he considers it unworthy the delegation in the course they had taken upon attention of a great party, each individual of them. By a vote of the majority, the Conven- which must be left entirely at liberty to ention proceeded to the nomination of State offi- tertain his own opinion and preferences. He cers-the minority refusing to participate in the considers the Whigs of the North pledged to current business until the resolutions should oppose the extension of slavery into free terrihave been acted on. Hon. Washington Hunt tory, and refers to their previous declarations was nominated for Governor, George J. Cornell, upon the subject, to show that the South must of New York City, for Lieutenant Governor, not ask or expect them to abandon that position Ebenezer Blakely, for Canal Commissioner, He says that the terms on which the Texas Abner Baker, for State Prison Inspector, and boundary dispute was settled, were not altoWessel S. Smith, for Clerk of the Court of Ap-gether satisfactory to him, but he nevertheless peals. After the nominations had been made, the resolutions were taken up. A substitute for part of them was offered by Hon. George W. Cornwell of Cayuga County, expressing confidence in the ability, patriotism, and statesmanship of President Fillmore, and approving of the course pursued by Mr. Seward in the Senate of the United States. The latter resolution passed by a vote of 76 to 40; and the minority immediately withdrew from the Convention, the cheerfully acquiesces in them since they have nominations of the two political parties. Hon. | creased by a new colony of about 300 members, who are now on their way from Sweden, and are expected soon to arrive with a considerable amount of capital, the fruits of the sale of their own property, and the property of their brethren already here.- A good deal of excitement prevails in some of the Northern States in regard to the execution of the new law for the Washington Hunt was adopted as their candidate for Governor, and Ebenezer Blakely for Canal Commissioner-both being the Whig nominees for the same offices: the others were taken from the Democratic ticket.- -Considerable excitement prevails in some of the Southern States in consequence of the admission of California at the late session of Congress. Gov-recovery of fugitive slaves. The first instance ernor Quitman of Mississippi has called an extra session of the Legislature, to commence on the 23d of November, to consider what measures of resistance and redress are proper. In South Carolina a similar sentiment prevails, though the Governor has decided, for prudential reasons, not to convene the Legislature in extra session. In Georgia a state convention, provided for in certain contingencies at the late session of the Legislature, is soon to meet, and a very active popular canvass is going on for the election of delegates-the character of the measures to be adopted forming the dividing line. Some are for open resistance and practical secession from the Union, while others oppose such a course as unwarranted by any thing experienced thus far, and as certain to entail ruin upon the Southern States. Hon. C. J. JENKINS, who declined a seat in the Cabinet, tendered to him by President FILLMORE, has taken very high ground against the disunionists, saying that no action hostile to the South has been had by Congress, but that all her demands have been conceded. In every Southern State a party exists warmly in favor of preserving the Union, and in most of them it will probably be successful. The Legislature of Vermont commenced its annual session on the 13th ult. Hon. SOLOMON FOOTE has been elected U. S. Senator to succeed Hon. S. S. PHELPS whose term expires in March next.- -GEORGE N. BRIGGS has been nominated by the Whigs for re-election as Governor of Massachusetts.The Arctic, the third of the American line of mail steamers, between New York and Liverpool, is completed, and will very soon take her place; the Baltic will soon be ready.The assessed value of real and personal property in the City of New York, according to a late report of the Board of Supervisors, is set at 286 millions; the tax on which is $339,697. This property is all taxed to about 6,000 persons. The increase for the year is thirty millions, nearly 10 per cent. The value of the real and personal estate of the State of New York, according to the last report of the Comptroller, was $536,161,901. The State tax of 1849 amounted to $278,843 10; of which $130,000, or nearly one half, was paid by the city.Some years since a colony of Swedes settled in the northwestern part of Illinois, in Henry county, near the Mississippi. They are represented as an industrious and thriving people, supporting themselves chiefly by the manufacture of table-cloths, napkins, sheets, and other linens. Last year they suffered much from the cholera ; but their numbers will soon be in in which it was carried into effect occurred in New York city, where a fugitive named James Hamlet, who had lived in Williamsburgh for some two years with his family, was apprehended, taken to Baltimore, and restored to his owner. The process was so summary that no resistance was offered or excitement created: but after the whole was over a great deal of feeling was elicited, and money enough was speedily raised by subscription to purchase the slave, who was returned to his family amidst great public demonstrations of rejoicing among the colored population. In Detroit an attempt to arrest a fugitive excited a popular resistance to suppress which it was found necessary to call out troops of the United States; the negro was seized, but purchased by voluntary subscriptions, Large public meetings have been held in various cities and towns, to protest against the law, and to devise measures for defeating its operation. One of the largest was held at Boston on the 4th ult., at which Hon. Josiah Quincy presided. The tone of the address and resolutions was less inflammatory than in many other places, as obedience to the law while it stands upon the statute book was enjoined; but its spirit was warmly reprobated, and the necessity of agitating for its immediate repeal was strongly urged. Fugitives from service at the South are very numerous in portions of the Northern States. Many of them, since the passage of the law, have taken refuge in Canada, while others depend on the sympathy of the community in which they live for immunity from the operation of the law. The law undoubtedly requires modification in some of its details, but the main object it is designed to secure is so clearly with in the provisions of the Federal Constitution that its enforcement is universally felt to be a publie duty.-JENNY LIND, whose arrival and publie reception in New York were mentioned in our last number, has been giving concerts in that city, Boston, Providence, and Philadelphia. In each place there has been a strong competition in the purchase of the first ticket for the first concert. In New York it was sold for $250; in Boston for $625; in Providence $650; and in Philadelphia $625. The evident object of the purchaser in each case was notoriety. Her concerts have been densely crowded, and the public excitement in regard to her continues unabated.- -Intelligence has been received from Rome, that the Pope, at the request of the late council assembled in Baltimore, has erected the See of New York into an Arch-episcopal See, with the Sees of Boston, Hartford, Albany, and Buffalo, as Suffragan Sees. The Right -The General Convention of the Episcopal Church has been in session at Cincinnati. The House of Bishops, to which the subject had been referred by the Diocese of New York, has decided against the restoration of Bishop Onderdonk, by a vote of two to one, and the General Convention has provided for the election of an Assistant Bishop in such cases.Conventions in Virginia and Indiana are in session for the revision of the Constitutions of those States.The U. S. Consul at Valparaiso has written a Rev. Bishop HUGHES is, of course, elevated to the dignity of Archbishop. The brief of the Pope is signed by Cardinal Lambruschini, and is dated on the 19th of July last.- -Public sentiment in Texas seems to be decidedly in favor of accepting the terms offered in the Boundary Bill. No official action has yet been had upon the subject, but it is believed that the Legislature will either accept the proposition at once or submit it to a popular vote. Mr. KAUFMAN, one of the Members of Congress from that State, has addressed a circular to his con-letter concerning the establishment of a line of stituents, refuting many of the objections that monthly steamers between that port and Panahave been urged against the bill. The area of ma. Since the discovery of the gold mines in Texas, with the boundary now established, is California, he says, the travel and trade upon 237,321 miles, which is more than five times that coast has increased fivefold. For the last that of New-York. An interesting official ten years there has been in successful operation correspondence between our Government and a line of English steamers plying between Pan that of Central America, has recently been pub- ama, in New Grenada, and Valparaiso, in Chili, lished, mainly relating to the subject of canals with a grant from the British Government of and railroads across the Isthmus. Mr. CLAY- one hundred thousand dollars per annum, for the TON's plan appears to have been to encourage, purpose of carrying the English mail; which, by every constitutional means, every railroad together with the immense amount of travel, in company, as well as every canal company, that the last four years, renders it a most lucrative sought to shorten the transit between the Amer- monopoly. The charter, originally granted to ican States on both oceans. For this purpose the company for ten years, has lately expired, he endeavored to extend the protection of this and the liberal Republics of Chili, Peru, EcuaGovernment to the railroads at Panama and dor, and Bolivia have peremptorily refused to Tehuantepec. It was not his purpose to ex- renew the monopoly, and have generously clude other nations from the right of passage, opened their ports to the competition of Amerbut to admit them all on the same terms; that ican steamers. Between Valparaiso and Panama is, provided they would all agree equally to there are twenty-one different ports at which these protect the routes-a principle adopted origin- steamers stop, in performing their monthly trips ally by President JACKSON, in pursuance of a to and fro, for freight and passengers, leaving resolution of the Senate, of which Mr. CLAYTON Panama on the 27th and Valparaiso on the 30th was the author, while a member of that body, of each month. The voyage is punctually peron the 3d of March, 1835. The principles of formed in twenty-four days. The feasibility of this resolution were fully sustained by General establishing an American line of steamers upon JACKSON, who sent Mr. BIDDLE to Central that coast is strongly urged. The wealth of America and New Grenada for the purpose, the silver mines of Copiapo is so great that and were afterward fully adopted by President every English steamer at Panama transmits POLK, as appears by his message transmitting hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth to Ento the Senate the treaty for the Panama rail- gland in solid bars. road. General TAYLOR followed in the same train with his predecessors, as appears by his message of December last, thus fully sustaining the views of the Senate resolution of the 3d of March, 1835, the principles of which may now be considered as illustrating the policy of the American Government on this subject.In accordance with the provisions of the treaty recently concluded with the United States, the British Government has withdrawn all its demands for port and other dues from the harbor of San Juan de Nicaragua, and the navigation of that noble river and the lakes connected with it are fully open to American enterprise.—A shock of an earthquake was felt at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 1st of October. The shock lasted about two seconds, and was so violent as to produce a jarring and rattling of windows and furniture, and was accompanied by a rumbling sound, like distant thunder, which lasted three or four seconds. On the same night a very brilliant meteor was observed in the Eastern States, and a very remarkable aurora at sea. From CALIFORNIA we have intelligence to the 15th of September. The disturbances at Sacramento City, growing out of resistance to the land claims, have entirely subsided, the squatters having been dispersed. Three or four persons were killed upon cach side in the riots of which we have already given an account. A gentleman had arrived in California deputed by Mr. LETCHER, U. S. Minister in Mexico, to attend to the settlement of land titles. He had expressed the belief that most of the grants mado by the Governors before the acquisition of California by the United States will be confirmed by our Government, on the evidence Mr. Letcher is prepared to furnish from the official records in the city of Mexico, as to the invariable practice of the Mexican Government in this particular. His assurances upon the subject had given general satisfaction.-Early in September there was a complete panic in the money market at San Francisco, and several of the most prominent houses had failed. Confi the treatment he received at the hands of the English populace, but endeavors to vindicate him from the crimes laid to his charge, and assails the Hungarian officers and soldiers in turn with great bitterness. In its anxiety to apolo gize for Haynau, it asserts that English officers, and among them the Duke of Wellington and General Sir Lacy Evans, committed acts during their campaigns quite as severe as those with which he is charged. This line of defense, however, avails but little with the English people. The public sentiment is unanimous in branding Haynau as one of the most ruthless monsters of modern times, and the verdict is abundantly sustained by the incidents and deeds of his late campaigns. After his expulsion from England he returned to Austria, being received with execrations and indignities at several cities on his route.- -Further advices have been received from the Arctic Expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin, but they contain no satisfactory intelligence. A report, derived from an Esquimaux Indian whom Sir John Ross met near the northern extremity of Baffin's Bay, states that in the winter of 1846 two ships were broken by the ice a good way off from that place, and destroyed by the natives, and that the officers and crews, being without ammunition, were killed by the Indians. The story is very loosely stated, and is generally discredited in England. The vessel, Prince Albert, attached to the Expedition, has arrived at Aberdeen, and announced the discovery, at Cape Reilley and Beechy Island, at the entrance of the Wellington Channel, of traces of five places where tents had been fixed, of great quantities of beef, pork, and birds' bones, and of a piece of rope with the Woolwich mark upon it. These were consid dence, however, had been fully restored at the date of our latest advices. The losses by the three great fires which had visited the city were supposed to have occasioned the monetary difficulties. - Fears were entertained that the overland emigrants would suffer greatly during the present season. It was believed that ten thousand were on the way who had not crossed the Great Desert, one half of whom would be destitute of subsistence and teams on reaching Carson river. They had been deceived into taking a longer and more difficult route, and had lost most of their animals, and not unfrequently men, women, and children had sunk under the hardships of the road, and perished of hunger or thirst.—Indian difficulties still continued in different parts of California, the troops and citizens were making some progress in breaking up the bands which caused them the most difficulty. The accounts from the mines continue to be highly encouraging. It is unnecessary to give in detail the reports from the various localities; they were all yielding abundant returns. It was believed that much larger quantities of gold will be taken from the mines this season than ever before.- -From the 1st of August to Sept. 13th, there arrived at San Francisco by sea 5940 persons, and 4672 had left.—The tax upon foreign miners does not succeed as a revenue measure. The expedition which sailed in July last to the Klamath and Umpqua rivers, has returned to San Francisco. It has been ascertained that the Klamath and Trinity unite, and form the river which discharges its waters into the sea, in latitude 41° 34' north, and that there is no river answering to the description of the Klamath, in 42° 26', as laid down in the charts of Frémont and Wilkes. From this river, the ex-ered, with slight grounds, however, undoubted pedition visited the Umpqua, which they found to have an opening into the sea, of nearly one mile in width, with some three or four fathoms of water on the bar, and navigable about thirty miles up, when it opens into a rich agricultural district. From OREGON our advices are to Sept. 2. There is no news of general interest. The country seems to be steadily prosperous. New towns are springing up at every accessible point, and a commercial interest being awakened that is highly commendable. The frequency of communication by steam between California and Oregon strongly identifies their interests. traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition. The exploring vessels were pushing boldly up Wellington Channel. The preparations for the great Industrial Exhibition of 1851, are going on rapidly and satisfactorily. In nearly every country of Europe, extensive arrangements are in progress for taking part in it, while in London the erection of the necessary buildings is steadily going forward.A curious and interesting correspondence with respect to the cultivation of cotton in Liberia has taken place between President Roberts, of Liberia, Lord Palmerston, the Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester, tending to show that cotton may be made a most important article of cultivation in the African republic Lord Clarendon has been making the tour of Ireland, and has been received in a very friendly manner by the people of every part of the island. He took every opportunity of en From ENGLAND there is no intelligence of much interest. The reception of Baron Haynau by the brewers of London has engaged the attention, and excited the discussion of all the organs of opinion in Europe. Most of the En-couraging the people to rely upon their own glish journals condemn in the most earnest language the conduct of the mob, as disgraceful to the country, while only a few of them express any special sympathy with the victim of it. The London Times is more zealous in his defense than any other paper. It not only denounces industry and character for prosperity, and pledged the cordial co-operation of the country in all measures that seemed likely to afford them substantial aid or relief.The statutes constituting the Queen's University in Ireland have received the sanction of the Queen, and gone into effect.A Captain Mogg has been tried | warrantable assault of the Review upon the and fined for endangering lives by setting the character of this distinguished author. It is wheels of his steamboat in operation while a stated that Mr. James intends to become an number of skiffs and other light boats were in American citizen, and that he has already taken his immediate vicinity.The ship Indian, a the preliminary legal steps. The principal fine East Indiaman, was wrecked on the 4th of publishers are engaged in preparing gift-books April, near the Mauritius. She struck upon a for the coming holidays. The APPLETONS have reef and almost immediately went to pieces. issued a very elegant and attractive work, enThe utmost consternation prevailed among the titled "Our Saviour with Prophets and Apostles," officers and crew. The captain seized and containing eighteen highly finished steel engravlowered the boat, and with eight seamen left ings, with descriptions by leading American the ship: they were never heard of again. divines. It is edited by Rev. Dr. WAINWRIGHT, Those who remained succeeded in constructing and forms one of the most splendid volumes ever a rude raft, on which they lived fourteen days, issued in this country. They have also issued suffering greatly from hunger and thirst, and a very interesting volume of Tales by Miss were finally rescued by a passing ship.- MARIA J. MCINTOSH, entitled "Evenings at Two steamers, the Superb and Polka, were lost, Donaldson Manor," which will be popular bethe former on the 16th, and the latter on the yond the circle for which it is immediately de24th, between the island of Jersey and St. Malo. | signed.-Other works have been issued of No lives were lost by the Superb, but ten persons perished in the wreck of the Polka.-The Queen has been visiting Scotland. Some of the Irish papers have been telling astounding stories of apparitions of the Great Sea Serpent. A Mr. T. Buckley, writing from Kinsale on the 11th instant, informs the Cork Reporter that he was induced by some friends to go to sea, in the hope of falling in with the interesting stranger, and that he was not long kept in suspense, for “a little to the west of the Old Head the monster appeared." Its size, he truly avers, is beyond all description, and the head, he adds, very like a (bottle-nose) whale. One of the party fired the usual number of shots, but, of course, without effect. Of LITERARY INTELLIGENCE there is but little in any quarter. A good deal of interest has been excited by a discreditable attack made by the Whig Review upon the distinguished author Mr. G. P. R. JAMES. The Review discovered in an old number of the Dublin University Magazine some verses written by Mr. JAMES for a friend who without his knowledge sent them for publication. They were upon the clamor that was then afloat about war between England and the United States: Mr. James, alluding to the threats from America against England, had said that "bankrupt states were blustering high;" and had also spoken of Slavery in the United States as a "living lie," which British hands in the event of a war, would wipe out and let their bondmen free. The Review denounces Mr. James, in very coarse and abusive terms for the poem, and seeks to excite against him the hostility of the American people. The matter was commented upon in several of the journals, and Mr. James wrote a manly letter to his legal adviser Mr. M. B. FIELD, which is published in the Courier and Enquirer, in which he avows himself the author of the verses in question, explains the circumstances under which they were written, and urges the injustice of making them the ground of censure or complaint. His letter has been received with favor by the press generally, which condemns the unjust and un which notices will more appropriately be found A |