CORRESPONDENCE IN RELATION TO THE SLAVE TRAde. 467

coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave trade, so far as their respective laws and treaties will permit."

Signed and exchanged at Sierra Leone, this 11th day of March, 1840.
JOHN S. PAINE,

Commanding United States schooner Grampus.
WILLIAM TUCKER,

Commanding Her B. M. sloop Wolverine.

The objects of this agreement were mainly

1st. To meet the very common case with slavers, that of having on board two sets of papers.

2d. To let it be known that there subsisted between the British and American force a good understanding, and a disposition to cooperate for the purpose indicated, as far as possible, without violating existing treaties. A copy was forwarded by me to the Navy Department, to which I received the following reply:

NAVY DEPARTMENT, June 4, 1840.

SIR: Your letter of 23d March last, with its enclosures, has been received.

The instructions given you, for your government, when you left the United States, while they indicated a friendly coöperation with the commanders of the British cruisers in the suppression of the slave trade on the coast of Africa, as likely to aid in detecting the frauds resorted to by those engaged in it for the purpose of avoiding discovery and escaping punishments, were not intended to authorize any such arrangement as that which it appears you have made with the commander of Her British Majesty's sloop Wolverine, and by which you delegated to that officer the right to seize vessels under American colors, and under certain circumstances, to detain them, with the view of turning them over to the Grampus, or other United States cruisers.

Such a delegation of power is not only unauthorized by your instructions, but contrary to the established and well known principles and policy of your government, and is therefore not sanctioned by the department.

You will make known the views of the Department on this subject to the commander of the Wolverine, and inform him that the arrangement made with him, having been disapproved by your Government, cannot on your part be complied with; the great object of the coöperation being to obviate the difficulties of capture, growing out of assuming Portuguese, English, Spanish, or Brazilian colors, when overhauled by an American, or American colors, when overhauled by a British cruiser.

For this purpose, you are authorized to cruise in company and in cooperation with any British vessel of war employed on the slave coast, in the pursuit of objects similar to your own.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. K. PAULDING.

Lieutenant John S. Paine, commanding U. S. schooner Grampus,
Sierra Leone, Coast of Africa.

[Notice of the disapproval of the above agreement by the Secretary of the Navy was communicated by Lieutenant Commander Paine to the senior officer of the British Navy commanding on the western coast of Africa, in a note dated June 17, 1841, Capt. Tucker not having been fallen in with after the receipt of the Secretary's letter.]

MISCELLANY.

VISIT TO THE COAL PITS.

On one of the days while the British Association was in session at Manchester, a large number of members of the Association, pursuant to an invitation from Lord Francis Egerton, visited the Worsley Tunnel and collieries belonging to the trustees of the late Duke of Bridgewater. At 8 o'clock in the morning special boats were employed on the Duke's canal to convey the visiters, amounting in number to about 300, including a fair sprinkling of ladies.

About 11 o'clock the parties entered the extraordinary tunnels, having been previously furnished with suitable dresses, and the appearance of many of them was ludicrous in the extreme. The tunnels are eight miles in length, nearly extending to the town of Bolton; and, taken together, there is a distance of no less than 37 miles cut out of coal and rock, which is now made subservient to the conveyance of coals in flat-bottomed boats, by being converted into a subterranean canal.

The entrances to the coal-pits are from the sides of the canal, (the latter being about 80 yards below the surface,) and in these awful-looking places no less than about 2,000 human beings are employed, the produce of their labors when in full work being the cutting, gathering, and shipping of about 3,000 tons of coals per week. The excursion was any thing but pleasant, as the parties were kept in the bowels of the earth for nearly seven hours in a close atmosphere, having nothing to observe but arched brick-work and rugged rock, the conductors reminding them every now and then of the necessity of keeping their candles down for "fear of the brimstone," with which sulphurous material they stated some parts of the mines abound. There were altogether a dozen boats, about six feet in width, heavily laden with male and female visiters, and the tunnels not being more than two feet wider than the boats, they could not pass each other, and the consequence was that the company were detained most disagreeably at the will of those very curious geologists, determined upon ascertaining, if possible, the strata of the mines, and every thing else of little consequence connected with

them. Clothes baskets full of bread and cheese and barrels of ale were in plentiful supply from the sides of the pits, and eagerly devoured by the occupants of the boats, many of whom went without breakfast in the anticipation that their coal-pit exploration would not occupy their time longer than half an hour. Four of the boats had not returned at seven o'clock this evening to Worsley. An immense number of young persons appeared to be employed in these collieries, many of them females, (girls from 12 to 15 years of age.) The females wore trousers, and there was considerable difficulty in distinguishing them from the boys. The compartments in which many of them work are so small that they cannot stand upright in them.

Lord F. Egerton and his lady have established schools in the neighborhood for their instruction. Mr. F. Smith, Mr. Denby, and Mr. R. Leigh, jun., the agents of the Bridgewater estate, were very kind in furnishing the members of the association with every information.

HAND LOCOMOTIVE CARRIAGE.

A MOST interesting and satisfactory trial was made a few days since of a novel self-moving carriage, very neatly fitted up and propelled by two persons upon a good line of road, in the neighborhood of Holywell, to the delight and amusement of a number of respectable individuals, who had assembled to witness the experiment as announced by the inventor, a medical gentleman of that town. It ascended a hill, of no inconsiderable elevation, at the rate of about six miles an hour, evidently without fatigue to those who worked the machine, and persons on foot could not keep up with it. On the level it attained a speed of about eight or nine miles an hour; and, in returning upon the declivity, it shot forth, like a small steam engine, at the rate of about fifteen miles per hour, and was in a few moments out of sight. Hitherto, these machines have been incapable of ascending hills, or the slightest acclivities, from the great labor required in their propulsion, and, always being on three wheels, are extremely liable to upset, and consequently dangerous; but it would require more than an ordinary accident to upset the one alluded to. It is therefore perfectly safe, and its motion remarkably easy, being fitted up on a number of light elliptic springs. Its velocity down hill is instantly checked by a very simple and efficacious plan: thus the carriage is perfectly under the control of the worker or engineer. Its progress is materially aided by the wind acting on a swivelling sail, by which its propulsion is much assisted, and the labor rendered most trivial. It appears to be admirably calculated for the recreation and health of young ladies and gentlemen as a salutary source of exercise, for which purpose it appears to be intended by the inventor, especially for schools and families with extensive parks. and grounds. London Times.

VOL. III.

40

1,849,710 1,791,646 1,721,281 iture over Income 1,381,938 1,750,543 2,149,885 4,827,019 4,650,017 5,307,675

£53,440,287 53,444,053 54,465,318

EXPENDITURE.

213,078 257,577 262,614 Years ended Jan. 5. 1940.

ment

the Revenue of
Crown Lands,

122,410 122,717 for Improvements
and various Pub-
lic Services
Post-Office: Charg-
es of Collection &
other Payments

411,783 518,940 498,551

367,033)

349,397 319,299 1,546 2,743 4,022

1,634,683 1,721,577 1,666,854|

525,501 534,945

Police and Crimi

510,201 577,363
403,274 285,295

JUSTICE.

Courts of Justice

186,934 188,765

Quarantine

and

Warehousing Establishments Miscellaneous Services not classed under the foregoing heads

746,879 848,368 931,372

118,594 119,477 121,326

1,767,010 1,410,840 1,802,378

53,440,287 53,444,053 54,465,318

ROME, August 25. IRON STEAMERS 533,761 ON THE TIBER. The three steamers built in England for the Papal Govern571,805 497,060 ment have, at last, reached this capital. They have already given proofs of the 1,438,976 1,397,603 1,602,626 solidity of their construction, having, in the space of a few hours, towed three vessels, heavily laden, from the mouth of 185,770 the Tiber to Rome. The banks of the river were lined with an immense crowd of people, curious to witness a spectacle 128,890 so novel to them. Cardinal Fosti, the 36,671 Pope's treasurer, and several other prelates, were present at the arrival of the steamers. Notwithstanding the shallowness of the water, the windings of the river, and the sand-banks which frequently obstruct its bed, the steamers ascended, in four hours, a distance which generally required nearly as many days.

115,929 124,782
48,100 51,998
350,963 365,545 351,331

Effective; Charge 3,952,881 4,400,595 3,971,425
Non-Effective;
Charge
2,589,781 2,489,672 2,446,996

LONDON, September 1. THE LATE 3,993,225 4,152,666 5,103,358 FIRE AT HAMBURG. The committee 1,496,979 1,444,845 1,385,716 appointed to receive subscriptions for the relief of sufferers from the fire at Ham

5,490,204 5,597,511 6,489,074 burg, have just published their report, by Effective; Charge 1,790,464 1,474,577 1,655,393 which it appears that the whole sum Non-Effective;

Charge
160,746 157,063
Total Ordnance 1,951,210 1,631,640 1,815,132||
Total Forces 13,984,076 14,119,418 14,722,627

which has passed through their hands is 159,739 £27,568, besides contributions made in different parts of the country, amounting to about £13,000, exclusive of clothing and other articles; and that the total amount received by the committee at Hamburg from all countries, up to the 5th of July, is £268,590. Great as these contributions are, the committee remark, while expressing their gratitude, that but little assistance has as yet been afforded in comparison with the damage done.

No part of this income is at present paid for the use of King Leopold. The Trustees, after discharging certain Annuities and Pensions to the Servants and Establishment of the late Princess Charlotte, repay the Balance of the Annuity to the Exchequer. The sum so repaid in the last year

was £35,000.

G. CLARK. Whitehall Treasury Chambers, 6th June, 1842.

LONDON, Sept. 5. BRITISH BANK