Briggs, after the model of Trajan's bridge, at Alcantara, and, with some modifications to suit the locality, has been con. structed, under Mr. Harrison, the engineer of the railway, by Messrs. Gibb, of Aberdeen, whose perseverance and skill in the execution of the structure, and in contending with the difficulties of it, are highly to be praised. The bridge consists of four nearly semicircular arches, of 160 ft., 144 ft.. and two of 100 ft. span, respectively; with three arches of twenty feet span each, at either end, forming abutments. The total length is 810 feet by 21 feet wide; and from the top of the parapet to the top of the foundation, at the point of the greatest depth, is 156 feet 6 inches. It is entirely constructed of freestone from the Pensher quarries adjoining; and as a plain, simple structure, containing boldness of design, with excellence of execution and economy, rivals any other work of the kind in Great Britain. The means employed by the contractors for executing the work, appear to have been very complete. The north arch of 100 feet span, containing about 980 tons of stone, was entirely turned in 28 hours, by two of the cranes employed in laying the stonesgiving an average weight of 174 tons of stone laid by each erane per hour. The bridge was commenced in 1836, and Anished in 1838, occupying 714 working days, and cost about £35,000. A paper was to be read on the 7th inst., by Mr. J. Storey, describing the cast and wrought-iron bridges on the Bishop Auckland Railway. This information we derive from he Mining Journal.

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE PITMEN OF THE TYNE AT SCAFFOLD-HILL.

ON Saturday, March 11, a public meeting of the pitmen of this

district, convened by handbill, was held at Scaffold Hill, near Longbenton, in a convenient natural amphitheatre, to take into consideration their depressed condition, and to petition Parliament for a repeal of the export duty on coal, imposed by Her Majesty's present Ministers. The Sheriff Hill band was in attendance, and played several airs in capital style. There were several hundreds of pitmen present-one of whom, Mr. BENJAMIN PYLE, was called to the chair. Printed papers were distributed in the meeting--one of them the rules of " The Coal Miners' Philanthrophical Society, established at Wakefield, Nov. 7, 1842"-the other, an address from the Yorkshire miners "to all consumers of coal." The latter paper, in the hope that "a kind ear would be lent to an account of the miners' distress," and that they would receive "the share of sympathy which they had a right to expect as Christians and fellow-countrymen," laid before the public "the evils of which they complained," viz. :—

1. Reductions have been made in our wages to a very great extent, so that we and our families are perishing for lack of food.

2. A great addition has been made to our day's work, without any corresponding advance per day to our wages. The reverse indeed is the case; for we have now as much coal to get in two days as formerly in three days, when steam was not so generally used; the corves, or waggous, which we fill with coal in the pits, having been enlarged from year to year, even from month to month, without the consent of the colliers. 3. Ten or twelve shillings a week, which is the pay for the majority of the colliers, is not sufficient to maintain ourselves and families, and pay those expenses consequent upon becoming householders.

4. We are obliged to work in water, or in such damp places, that we get rheumatism and all sorts of complaints.

5. On account of the narrowness of the places, we have to crawl to and fro in the tunnels like beasts of burden.

6. We are obliged to work naked, or nearly so.

7. The masters, though always selling to the public by weight, compel us to get the coal by measure, or so much per corf. By enlarging the corves they have considerably increased our day's labour. Formerly they did not enlarge the corves as they now do; for if they bad, the public would have got the benefit of it; but now that they sell coal by weight, they get all the advantage themselves.

8. The masters have turned out and left destitute some of those delegates we had chosen to represent our grievances, in order to intimidate, frighten, or terrify us froin further attempts at improving our condition, and that of our families.

9. On account of having so much work to do, we cannot attend to necessary precautions; and by this means thousands are killed, lamed, burnt, scorched alive, &c.

10. Our employers use defective machinery to draw us up and let us down into the pits, and do not ventilate and drain the mines as they should, for the preservation of health and life.

These are the grievances of which the Yorkshire miners complain; and the CHAIRMAN, in opening the business, entered into details to show that the pitmen of the Tyne and Wear had also many grievances to endure, and that their condition was

gradually deteriorating. He alluded to the export-duty as an aggravation of their sufferings, and admonished the shopkeepers that they too had an interest in this subject, and ought to join their customers, the pitmen, in attempts to ameliorate their condition. There must be a close and compact union of all parties interested-and that union must be based upon prin. ciples of peace, law, and order. This was no Chartist meeting, but simply a meeting of pitmen, assembled to consider the best means of bettering their condition. They were not met for political purposes-they were not gathered together for the destruction of life and property. (Cries of "Shameful! shameful!") They must be peaceable and united, or all their endeavours to improve their condition would be vain.

Mr. BENJAMIN EMBLETON moved the first resolution, which declared that nothing short of a general union of coalminers of Great Britain and Ireland, would suffice for the correction of the grievances of which they so justly complained. It was all well enough to condemn the restrictive coal-duty: it was an injurious tax, and ought to be repealed. But this would do com. paratively little good. A union was the thing that was wanted, a general union, to keep up their wages. The great cause of their grievances was their disunion: the coalowners could thus do with them what they liked. The coalowners were wiser than the pitmen; for they had a standing union, and regular meetings for combined action. At these meetings they ascer tained how many unbound men each of them had in his employ; and, five or six weeks before the binding, the unbound men were discharged. (Hear, hear.) Of course, they soon had empty pockets and hungry bellies. The consequence was-as the coalowners expected-that when the binding morning came, the unbound men were sure to be close "clagged" up against the office-door (cries of " Hear, hear," and laughter), and ready to accept whatever terms were offered. They didn't venture to go upon the colliery, among the men; for they felt ashamed of themselves, at the same time that they were forced to look about them for a living. It was thus out of the power of the pitmen to have a voice in the terms of the bond. The bond was concocted in the coal-trade office, and the coalowners took good care to have the binding all their own way. All folks had a voice in contracting with their employers, except the coalhewers. The hind that went to the hiring, could bargain with the farmer for his wages.-[But yet, friend Embleton, the hinds have been obliged to submit to a reduction of wages. Manufacturing and commercial distress has driven labour back into the agricultural districts, and has also injuriously affected the prosperity of the farmer. A reduction of wages has been the natural consequence.]-When the binding morning was come, and the viewer, peeping out of his office-window, saw the hungry unbound men coming up the road, and clustering round the office door, to compete with the men on the colliery, he saw at once that he was going to have it all his own way, and began his speech by saying, "We're not going to bind so many men this year as last." (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Then the poor hewers pressed still nearer to the door, and cared little what was in the bond, when they heard it read. How should they, when all objections would be of no use? If some hewer, more independent than the rest, dared to object to any regulation in the bond, the answer was, " O, very well! if you don't choose to sign it, we don't mind: you can go somewhere else." This was quite enough to keep all the rest quiet; for wherever they went the bond was the same, and they must either work under it, or be without employment. The only cure for the evil was in a general union. The cry was, that there were too many men. The same cry was raised in 1830. But why were there too many men? Simply because the corf was too big and the day's work too long. (Hear, hear.) Instead of 20 pecks, the corf was made to hold 25 or 26-sometimes 27 or 28; and a man did three days' work in two. How often did they hear the ery, that there were too many men! but there was never even a whisper that the corf was too big or the day too long. (Hear, hear.) In one colliery, there was once a corf so big that it held 41 pecks; and woe to the poor hewer who got this unconscionable corf, for it was sure to clean him out! (Great laughter.) At last, a sly pitman asked the viewer, as a favour, to make him a present of the corf, that he might use one end of it for a cow-byer, and the other for a piggery! (Roars of laughter.) The corf never showed its face in the pit again; and some time afterwards, the men finding it behind the pitheap, it was carried off to Newcastle, and exhibited as a curi

osity. (Laughter.) His friends would remember, that in 1831, when only the men of Durham and Northumberland went into union, they made all fly before them: they brought the corf down to 20 pecks in a twinkling, and got a fair day's wage for a fair day's work. What might they not, therefore, hope to accomplish, if the whole nation joined in a union! (Applause.) With so powerful a lever at their command, they would only have to throw themselves on the end of the long "pinch," whenever the coalowners began to bear down upon them, and they would "sway" them off in an instant. (Loud cheers.) Mr. Embleton concluded his speech with a poetical quotation, which was enthusiastically applauded.

Mr. BENJAMIN WATSON Seconded the resolution, and, in the course of a short speech, condemned the conduct of the Chairman in making political allusions, and accusing the Chartists of being destructives. The imputation was unjust: they had no desire to destroy either life or property, although their own property-their labour-had been so grievously impaired in value. The working classes had been driven by illgovernment to beg their bread; and it need excite no wonder, if hungry men had been found to utter violent language. This was not a meeting for political discussion, or he could readily show the principles of the Charter to be just and wise.

The CHAIRMAN explained that he had been misunderstood. He did not say that the Chartists were destructives. (Cries of "You did.") He had only warned them not to split upon politics, or they would never be firmly organized. They must use only moral force, and then they would be safe and powerful. (Cries of "We know all that, but you said Chartists were destructives.") The Chairman put the motion, and it was carried unanimously.

Mr. BROPHY, & lecturer, rose to move the second resolution. He begged to state, at the outset, that he was not a miner, but a weaver. He made this statement, that it might not be said, by the hireling scribes of a hireling press, that he passed himself off as a pitman. [The Newcastle Chronicle Reporter: You should explain what you mean by "a hireling press."] He referred to papers that did not advocate the cause of the people-such papers as that which Mr. O'Connor had christened the Calfshead Observer. (Laughter.) The resolution which he held in his hand was to the effect that a petition be presented to parliament for the repeal of the export-duty, that being the pretext of the coalowners for reducing the pitmen's wages. Mr. Brophy expressed his opinion that it was of no use petitioning parliament as at present constituted, and afterwards introduced the poor-law question, and asserted that there were many wives and daughters-he knew of instances in Newcastlewho submitted to prostitution, to keep those that were near and dear to them from the odious union-workhouse. He then supported Mr. Embleton's proposal of a general union of pitmen. This would enable them to meet their employers on equal grounds. The coalowners had a union, and could buy up a hireling press to depreciate the meetings of their men, and misrepresent their proceedings and their intentions. What, indeed, could they expect from the coalowners and their newspapers, when even such men as the Chairman-one of themselves-represented them as destructives! (Hear, hear.) They must beware of such men, who introduced political questions into their trade meetings, when such questions ought to be avoided. He knew not what would be the condition of the working man, if the present state of things went on, getting worse and worse day by day. Some persons preached resignation to them, because their sufferings were ordained by Providence. This was false. Providence was not the author of their distress, but Class Legislation. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Brophy discouraged strikes, and showed how much they had cost the working classes, and how utterly they had all failed of their object, but strongly advised a general union. Already, he said, more than 40 collieries on the Tyne and the Wear were in union, and great progress was making in Scotland. Wales would soon be with them, and the union would ultimately be national. (Applause.) In conclusion, Mr. B. brought sweeping charges against the pitmen's employers, describing them as all bad alike.

Mr. CLOUGHAN, a delegate from Scotland, seconded the motion. He hoped his English brethren would keep close to Hume's Combination Act: so long as they did so, no one could harm them-they need fear what no man or body of men could do to them. But if politics were allowed to creep into their

counsels, farewell to their meetings-farewell to union; for they would lay themselves open to charges of sedition-they would become divided among themselves-and they would be broken up, and scattered, and powerless. (Applause.) He repeated, let them keep to the Combination Act. It was a good Act-for it placed the master and the man on the same level. It allowed the masters-and it also allowed the men-to communicate, verbally or in writing, on wages and similar subjects. This was quite enough :-don't let them mix up politics with the questions that arose between them and their employers. It might be thought, from what preceding speakers had stated, that all the grievances in the world were concentrated in the coal-districts of the North of England; but be must say, while he admitted that they laboured under many evils, (their "bind. ing," for instance, was fixed at a dull season of the year,) they had also many comforts and advantages of which to boast, in comparison with the collieries of his native country. When he saw their clean houses and comely wives, and observed how well themselves were clad, he thought with a sigh on the contrast which Scotland presented, and almost envied them their lot. The colliers of Scotland, physically speaking, were 50 per cent, lower down in the scale than the pitmen of Durham and Northumberland. He attributed this great difference-and he would thank the reporters to mark his words-he attributed it to the deadly Truck System." To almost every coal-work, a store was attached; and the pitmen must deal with the store, or be discharged. The way was this:-The pitmen went to the pay-office at night. If 3s. were the sum due to him, he got a line for 2s. 6d. 6d. was kept back for house-rent, fines, &c. He then went to another office under the same roof, where he waited his turn, and, when it came, was called upon to state what goods he wanted. The list was made out on a piece of paper, and given to him, with his cash. His next visit was to the store, where he got the goods specified on his paper. With some modifications, this was the system that prevailed throughout Scotland: he knew only of two exceptions. Now, the employer had a perfect right to reduce the wages of his men-just as good a right as the men had to raise their wages, whenever they could. But the employer had no right, neither was it legal, to pay his men by the truck system-a system which placed them completely at his mercy. Just consider for a moment how it worked. The master gave his men notice of a reduction of wages. What were they to do? They had no credit-their employer had taken care of that; for what tradesman could be expected to give trust to an unemployed pitman, who, the moment he got work, would be paid by truck? Under so one-sided a system, the working man, if he made a stand against any proposal which he held to be unjust, was soon starved into compliance: the employer kept the key of his belly, and reduced him to quick submission. [Mr. Cloughan stated several grievances under which the colliers of Scotland laboured, and added]:-He would be glad if a clause were added to the resolution, praying parliament to preserve Lord Ashley's bill entire; or the females, he was sadly afraid, would be into the pits again, in spite of all that had been done to exclude them. And female degradation, he could assure his English friends, had done more to injure the welfare of the Scotch collier than any other thing, the truck system excepted. The Scottish coalowners had a committee sitting in London, to support Mr. Cumming Bruce in his endeavours to restore the females to the mines; and when the revolting yet truthful statements of the Commissioners were borne in mind, he trusted that every pitman would be prepared to resist the slightest tampering with Lord Ashley's bill. In conclusion, Mr. Cloughan depicted the condition of the Scotch colliers, and recom. mended the propriety of establishing a newspaper especially devoted to the interests of the miners, which would serve as an organ of communication among themselves, and a source of enlightenment to the public generally.

The resolution having been put and carried, Mr. HEBDEN moved a vote of thanks to Lord Ashley, for his emancipation of the women from coal-mines, and for his benevolent exertions, generally, in the cause of the working classes. (Cheers.)

Mr. DAVID SWALLOW, of Wakefield, had much pleasure in seconding the motion. He had recently received a letter from Lord Ashley, who stated his readiness to do all that he could for the benefit of the people, but said that they must give him their support that he was only an instrument, and possessed little power, unless the working classes stood at his back. His

lordship was right: the people ought not to expect assistance from others, if they were not prepared to stand true to them. selves. He agreed with his friend from Scotland that they ought to have a newspaper. The press misrepresented them: it was its interest to do so. But let them once have a journal of their own, and be represented in their true colours, and the public would rally round them. Statements would then appear which would make the reader's blood run cold; and as Englishmen hated oppression, they would take up the cause of the pit. man, and have his wrongs redressed. (Applause.) He had received from Lord Ashley a copy of the evidence taken by the Commissioners, which contained pictures and statements that were enough to harrow up the soul, and bring tears to the eyes of any man not utterly devoid of feeling. Men were crammed into holes which no gentleman would permit his dogs to enter. They were doomed to toil in ill-ventilated pits, which brought their lives to a premature close. Mr. Swallow concluded by setting forth the advantages of having a newspaper organ, and of forming a compact national union.

The motion was put and carried; and then the CHAIRMAN observed, that the Newcastle Chronicle stood by the pitmen in 1831, and ought, for old acquaintance' sake, to have a vote of thanks, although it was a Tory paper. (Laughter, and cries of "Order," "It's a Whig paper," &c.) Well! a Whig paper: it supported them in 1831 against the Newcastle Journal, [which was not in existence in 1831] He would move a vote of thanks to the Chronicle.

Two or three persons remarked that the Chairman was out of order: there were other resolutions prepared, and he ought not to break in upon the arrangements of the meeting.

Mr. CLOUGHAN hoped that he might be allowed to second the Chairman's motion. It was not right, nor was it good policy, to cast indiscriminate censure on the press. He could not say, as one of the Scotch colliers, that they had been generally misrepresented by the press. The Glasgow Saturday Post had manfully advocated their cause, and even suffered persecution on their behalf. If the Newcastle Chronicle had done good service to the pitmen of the Tyne and the Wear, let it be thankfully acknowledged. Gratitude demanded it; and for their own sakes, also, they should cultivate the friendship of the press.

The CHAIRMAN put the motion to the meeting, and several hands, but not a large number, were held up in its favour. (A cry of" It's a dumb show," and "Put the contrary.")

Mr. SEPTIMUS DAVIES moved a vote of thanks to the proprietor and editor of the Northern Star, for their advocacy of the rights of labour, and their ready insertion of whatever concerned the interests of the working classes.

Mr. TURNBULL seconded the motion, and it was carried by a general show of hands.

Thanks were given to the Sheriff Hill band of musicians, for their kind attendance on the present occasion, and at the meeting of the 4th inst. on Pittington Hill.

The proceedings of the public meeting then closed, and a meeting of delegates was subsequently held at Benton-square. [It would have been well for the pitmen, had all the speakers confined themselves, like the delegate from Scotland, simply, if we may so speak, to "pit politics." If their meetings are to be made subservient to the interests of the Northern Star, farewell to all chance of an amelioration in their condition, by means of a national union-which union, indeed, is a wild chimera. The sneer at the Gateshead Observer, we can endure with resignation, conscious that it is undeserved. The exportduty, which the meeting condemned, found in us one of its most industrious opponents; and if the pitmen had been equally zealous on the subject-if they had supported their own interests as warmly as they were upheld by the Observer-the duty would never have been imposed. Lord Ashley's Bill, too, found a strenuous supporter in the Observer. We devoted column upon column, week after week, to the Report of the Commissioners, and to the measure of the Right Honourable Member for Dorsetshire, and had, at last, the satisfaction of witnessing the (at least) partial success of the Noble Lord's exertions. The shafts, therefore, of the servitor of the Star, fall pointless upon the Observer. The coalowners of the North will laugh, indeed, at the idea of their having a hired advocate in the Gateshead newspaper. We are the hireling neither of the pitman nor of the coalowner. We pursue a course calculated, in our opinion, to promote the interests of both parties-happy

It appears from this table that there are about 16,000 pastors or preachers in the United States. Deducting from this number those who are not on active service, there will remain one pastor to every 1,200 inhabitants. The Episcopal Church of the United States consists of-Bishops, 19: Priests and Deacons, 1,044.The intelligent Philadelphia correspondent of the Morning Chronicle states, that there are 1,008,000 com. municants in the Methodist Church of the United States, 4,244 travelling preachers, and 7,921 local preachers, and that the numbers have increased 120,123 since 1841. In the Catholic church, 1,500,000 members, 574 churches, and 82 building: increase in the past year, 200,000.

RAMSGATE AND DOVER DUES.

LARGE sums of money are annually paid by the shipowners of the northern coal-ports, towards the maintenance of the harbours of Ramsgate and Dover; yet we seldom hear anything of the extent or the appropriation of the revenues of these trusts. We do not blame the harbour-trustees-for let it be known that they annually lay their accounts before Parliament; we do not blame the House of Commons-for they regularly print the said accounts, copies of which are obtainable at the cost of a penny or twopence each; but we do blame, and very much blame, the shipowners, for not looking more closely into the expenditure of monies which, especially under the present miserable circumstances of trade, they are so ill able to supply.

We now proceed to lay some useful information before our readers, in connection with the Ramsgate and Dover dues; and we leave them to form their own conclusions upon the subject.

The revenue of the Ramsgate harbour trust, from the 24th of June, 1840, to the 24th of June, 1841, was ..£20,651 17 5 The expenditure was only. 14,957 15 8 .£5,694 19

Leaving

to be added to a sum previously large, and making now a grand total of accumulated fund,.of . £31,791 9 0

Of the revenue above quoted, we find the following sums to have been paid during the last year, by the northern ports:—

Charges account

Office-rent, and incidental expenses Salaries in town department... Commission, &c., collecting rates Repayment of duties...

200 0 0 300 0 0 309 13 10

168 16 7

22 16 5 599 13 0 1,007 6 6 62 8

4

£14,957 15 8

So much for Ramsgate. The Dover account is not so explanatory as its Ramsgate companion; yet there is one thing it points out-and rather a comfortable thing, too, for the trust, if not for the treasurer-viz., that on the 10th of October, 1841, there was a balance due from that officer amounting to the snug little sum of £14,784 16s.; being an increase of about £700 on the balance which he had in hand on the 10th of October preceding.

The following are the receipts and disbursements of the Dover trust, for the year ending the 10th of October, 1841 :

£27,317 4 8

There are no details of the amounts paid at each port towards the Dover trust, but these must have been considerable, as the rates of duties levied, we understand, are as follows:-1 d. per Newcastle chaldron on coals, 1 d. per ton register on goods, and 14d. per chaldron on grindstones.

It thus appears that the three ports of Newcastle, Sunderland, and Stockton, furnish a seventh of the whole revenue of Ramsgate harbour; and they contribute, probably, in the same proportion, to that of Dover; yet no effort is ever made by these northern ports, towards investigating the subject, with a view to a reduction of the duties, in case the revenue collected should be found larger than is required for the due protection of the merchant-marine.

The Clarence Railway Bill, "for enabling the Clarence Railway Company to make an issue of new shares, and for otherwise altering and amending, enlarging and extending, some of the provisions of the Acts relating to the said railway," was read a second time on Monday, March 13.

NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF COLONIAL VESSELS, AND OF ARRIVALS AND SAILINGS AT COLONIAL PORTS.

BRITISH POSSESSIONS.

Registered, Dec. 31, 1841.

Arrived from Mother

Sailed for Mother Country, 1841,

Arrived from Foreign Ports, 1841.

Ports, 1841.

Sailed for Foreign

These

Country, 1841.

in each year IN English ports. NUMBER AND TONNAGE OF VESSELS BUILT AND REGISTERED COLONIAL-BUILT VESSELS REGISTERE IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

1 533.... Newcastle...... 26 6545]

43 12030

1840.

1841.

1831.

1841.

T. 1873

S.

T.

S. T. S.

T.

T.

S.

T.

8.

T.

35 1332 London.......

2 971 26

111 London........

144 37615 172 45278

5000

.7,531

Ralph Fenwick.....

....

NEWCASTLE TOWN COUNCIL.-At an adjourned meeting, held March 22nd, the Rev. Mr. Paige, of Hartlepool, was unanimously elected Chaplain of the Gaol, (in the room of Mr. Delamere, resigned,) on the motion of Mr. James Finlay; and the sum of £40 was voted to the reverend gentleman, to defray the charges of his removal.-[Has the worthy Dissenting Councillor read the Hartlepool "Tract for the Times," openly ascribed to Mr. Paige, and, so far as we know, never repudiated? A grosser Puseyite attack upon Dissenters and Dissent was never penned.]-The petition of Messrs. Smith for leave to erect a new quay at St. Peter's, the Engineer's Report thereupon, and also the Report subsequently presented by the River Commitee, were read by the Town Clerk, at the request of Alderman Ridley-who then presented a further Report, as follows:

"We, the River Committee, having again viewed the premises, and reconsidered the prayer of the petition, are of opinion that the line of quay recommended will have the effect, when the same shall have been executed, of improving the river to a greater extent than any other line which it is possible to obtain."

Alderman Ridley moved the adoption of this Report, and Mr. Lowrey seconded the motion. In the long discussion which followed, Mr. Crawhall and Alderman Dunn were the principal opponents of the motion, and Mr. Armstrong its leading sup. porter. Alderman Potter, by way of amendment, moved the postponement of the question, until it were ascertained that Friars Goose Point could be removed to the extent of 15 feet. The Council divided:-For the amendment, 18: against it, 29.

Against the Amendment.-The Mayor; Aldermen Ridley, Fife Losh, Bell, Carr, and Headlam; and Councillors Procter, A. Nichol, Weatherley, Harle, Mitchell, Dodds, J. Ridley, Turner, Richardson, Sanderson, Hawthorn, Ingledew, Plummer, Blackwell, Ormstou, Finlay, Johnson, Lowrey, Plues, Jobling, Armstrong, and Robinson.

For the Amendment.-Aldermen Hodgson, Dunn, and Potter; and Councillors Philipson, Crawhall, Archbold, Burrell, Hunter, Taylor, Sillick, Radford, Storey, Parker, J. Nichol, Preston, Gray, Charnley, and Stokoe.

The Council rext divided on the original motion-when those who had voted for the amendment voted against the motion, and vice versa; with these exceptions, viz., that Mr. Stokoe voted for the motion, and Alderman Potter and Mr. J. Nichol remained neutral.-Mr. Philipson gave notice of the following motion:-"That instead of the road for foot-passengers, as named in the Committee's Report, a carriage road, 12 feet in width, leading from the flight of steps to the carriage road behind the proposed quay, be formed by Messrs. Smith; and that a space be set aside adjoining the flight of steps and the before-mentioned carriage road, on which all persons shall be at liberty to land goods, on payment of such dues to Messrs. Smith as shall from time to time be fixed by the Council."The Treasurer's quarterly account of payments, amounting to £11,344, was passed.-Alderman Dunn intimated to the Council, with much regret, that the letting of the tolls, now in progress, was likely to result in a serious diminution of revenue. The larger lot, the only one yet let, had been taken for £2,200: last year the sum was £2,490.-The Council negatived the motion of Mr. Plues, "That the keel-dues in respect to coals presented by various collieries for the use of the poor be paid out of the Borough Fund."-Miscellaneous business was transacted, and the Council separated.

UNION CONTRACTS.-The Guardians of the Gateshead Union, on Tuesday, March 21, accepted the following con. tracts:-Mr. Thomas Sill, fine flour, 35s.; oatmeal, 29s. 6d. ; barley, 11s.; and peas, 5s. Mr. William Brewis, second bread, 5d.: maslin ditto, 44d.-Mr. George Bell, sugar, 60s.; tea, 3s. 10d. to 4s. 4d.; coffee, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d.; soap, 44s. to

48s. Mr. J. D. Clark, beef, 5s. 74d.; sloats, 3s. 5d.; mutton, 5s. 74d.-Mr. John Blakey, shoes, 7s., 6s. 4d.: women's, 4s. 6d. Messrs. J. & W. Robson, the draperies.

AN ENGLISHMAN IN CANADA.

AN emigrant from Gateshead, Mr. CHARLES CROSS, has addressed to us a second letter, which we have much pleasure in publishing. The intelligent writer promises also further We can assure him that they will be most communications. welcome.

SIR, I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of your paper of the 3d of December. I received it on the 7th inst., and was glad to see by it that trade was looking better than when I left, (although it is my opinion that it will not be of long duration, seeing that the Corn Laws and Tariff prove such a barrier to commerce).

In my last I promised to send you an account of how I found society in Canada. I am settled in Port Sarnia, a fine new settlement, situated a mile and a-half below Lake Huron, on the river St. Clair. There is good navigation from here to Tyne Bridge eastward; and how many thousand miles west I do not know.

The river St. Clair is a splendid stream, about a mile in breadth and 95 miles in length. It connects Lake Huron with Lake Erie. In summer there are about 20 steam-boats run on it, besides hundreds of sailing vessels of various sizes, making voyages to Buffalo, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, New York, &c., eastward; and to Goodrich, Michigan, Chicago, &c., westward.

It seems strange to one who has left the banks of some of the small rivers in the Old Country, such as the Tyne or the Wear, where sailing depends on the tide, to see our steamboats (some of them three times larger than the London Merchant) stemming the current of a river which never changes its course. In fact, I could scarcely believe that such a body of fresh water as perpetually flows down this river was in existence; and it puzzles me yet to know what sort of springs the folks in the west have, when they can send so many hundreds of thousands of gallons past us every minute.

The river is a mile in breadth and 120 feet deep, and has a current of 4 miles per hour. The land on the Canada side is flat.

There are very few hills in this province. When you get to the top of a hill, you can see 100 miles either way, over the tops of the trees, the country having the appearance of a continued forest; and excepting the smoke arising from the abodes of the settlers, no trace presents itself that human beings live on it. It is a lonesome country to travel in. Where the roads are cut out, you can see, in some places, 30 or 40 miles a-head, with the forest on both sides, except when you pass a settlement; and although this may be of 20 or 30 acres' clearance, yet it just looks like a small vacancy in the immensity of woods.

The soil is in general rich and very productive. It grows wheat, oats, peas, beans, Indian corn, melons, pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, turnips, cucumbers, onions, carrots, leeks, cabbages, apples, pears, peaches, &c., with very little cultivation. The only difficulty is in chopping and clearing the land. I believe if a man had about 40 acres of land, 20 of it cleared, and a good fence round it, 6 or 8 acres in crops, and the rest in pasture and grass for hay, he might keep four cows, a pair of horses, a yoke of oxen, and a dozen or two of pigs, and live like a little king, by expending four months' labour on it in the year.

I have seen no one in this country, so far as I have been, that seems to want food. This is a land worth living in, in my opinion. It only requires a man to be industrious and steady, to enjoy all the comforts, and, in a great measure, the luxuries of life. There is nobody gets along so badly as the "sprigs" of aristocracy: they don't suit in this country at all; for the meanest serf that ever "begged a brother of the earth for liberty to toil," in the Old Country, becomes quite independent, so soon as he crosses the Atlantic. Here, customs and manners are quite different to what they are in the Old Country. Here, master and servant, work, eat, live, and sleep together. The master is not greater than the servant, neither is the servant greater than his master.

In summer, all is motion here. If you are not busy at work, you are engaged in driving the flies and musquitoes from your