during the best part of the next year the article was actually selling under prime cost, and, consequently, the supply diminished till the market showed symptoms of revival. The necessity of the order offering a premium never existed; it was an error on the safe side, but it would hardly have emanated from any council, calculating the ordinary result of demand or supply. The demand had of course been foreseen here, and before the premium order had been heard of, 55,000 bags had been shipped from Calcutta. The merchants have the power to defeat the purpose of the order, as they have simply to direct vessels on to Bourbon or elsewhere before they come within the port and the operation of the local laws, so that the only effect would be that Government would lose its dues. It was plainly stated in the protest, that should the demand for rice at Bourbon be great, this course would be adopted. Our latest arrivals, which are to the 26th May, tell us that the Government has been compelled to suspend its order! The scarcity at Bourbon was very great, and they made an offer of a premium greater than the duty- —an application was at the same time made by the French Government for assistance, and it has been allowed to take 15,000 bags free of the duty if they be shipped within a month. Supposing the application had been refused, the grain would have been sent there direct, which would have been defeating the object of the enactment, at the same time that it would have raised the price both at Mauritius and Bourbon! We confess this is commercial legislation, the wisdom of which passeth our understanding.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

In our last number we gave an article on the Cape Colony, the Boers, &c. The collision threatened when that article was written has actually occurred. Her Majesty's troops have passed the frontier into the country occupied by the so-called Griquas, and in endeavouring to preserve the peace between them and the agricultural farmers, have fought with the latter.

The military operations appear to have been well planned and well executed. The Boers have a high respect for regular cavalry. They have among them many anecdotes of the dragoons who served on the eastern frontier under General Vandeleur, whose operations are described in Barrow's Travels, and subsequently they have much to say of the 21st Light Dragoons. Cavalry, well handled, could not fail of being successful against them.

That the Colonial Government was compelled to support the Griquas in this instance, no one will dispute. The real state of the case, however, does not appear to be known at the Colonial Office, else Mr. Hope would not have stated in the House of Commons that the Griquas were an 66 independent tribe," leaving those who heard him and the country to suppose that they were a people of that class commonly called aborigines, or a tribe of the independent coloured races.

WEST INDIES.

BARBADOS.-The dates from this island are to the 24th July. There had been seasonable weather.

The Legislature met on the 1st of July. Great interest has been excited in the island regarding a trial for libel, brought by John Mayers, Esq., Clerk of the House of Assembly, against the Honourable J.R. Best, President of the Council, to recover damages, laid at £5,000.

The action arose from some correspondence in the papers, respecting a contract for the supply of stone to repair the Mole-head, which had suffered during the late gale. After counsel had been heard on both sides, and the Chief Justice having summed up, the Jury returned a verdict for the defendant.

DEMERARA.-The Board of Ordnance are endeavouring to raise a loan of 60,000 dollars, redeemable in twenty years, at 6 per cent. interest, to be applied to the erection of bridges over Mahaica,Mahaicony, and Abary Creeks. The loan is proposed to be raised by the Receiver-General, by bonds issued

by him, and varying in amount from one hundred to a thousand dollars. The mode in which the money to redeem the principal and interest of the bonds is to be obtained, is by tolls payable by passengers crossing the several bridges; should the tolls prove insufficient, the lien will be made on the general resources of the Colony.

The Coolies have been behaving so unsteadily, that the local authorities have been obliged to exercise their influence, stopping short of physical coercion, but closely approaching to it, in order to remove them from the estates to which they had migrated, to those on which they had been located in the first instance. This is, undoubtedly, for the advantage of the people themselves, for rolling stones gather no moss. But is it politic, on the part of the Governor and his associates, to put an argument in the mouth of the President of the United States, prone to exclaim against slavery, covered with the cloak of apprenticeship?-Guiana Times.

HONDURAS.-We have received intelligence from Belize, viâ America, to the 28th June.

His Lordship, Aubrey Spencer, bishop of the diocese, arrived at Belize on the 17th, in Her Majesty's steamer Hermes.

The following paragraph is from the Observer of the 17th:

The Mahogany Trade.-There is no doubt the anticipations so generally formed of an extraordinary increased production of mahogany this year, will be disappointed, and the most sanguine in their calculations have brought down their expectations to somewhere about seven millions feet. We apprehend that there are greater doubts in the minds of intending shippers, as to their ability to complete cargoes for the shipping ordered, than that prices will be affected by an over-production.

JAMAICA.-We have papers from Kingston to the 24th of July, and from the North side to corresponding dates.

Alexander Heslop, Esq., Barrister, has been elected by the Board of Common Council to the office of Recorder. Benjamin Naar, Phillip Laurence, J. S. Browne, and Robert Kieselback, Esqrs., have been elected Aldermen; and Colin

Campbell, Esq., of the firm of Denniston, Campbell and Co., a Common Councilman. A petition was being got up for presentation to the House of Assembly, praying the disfranchisement of the Corporation.

His Lordship the Bishop, with his family, arrived at Kingston in the Hermes, from his tour to the dependencies attached to his Diocese, on the 28th June.

His Excellency the Governor has appointed Peter Lundie and Stephen W. Mais, Esqrs., Justices of the Peace, and Assistant-Judges of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas, for the Parish of St. Andrew.

We are happy to learn, notwithstanding adverse circumstances, that the effects of improvement have been most beneficiallydisplayed in this island, which has this year produced at least 12,000 hogsheads of sugar more than was produced in 1844, and even considerably above the crop of 1843, with the additional prospect in 1846 of a still further increase, provided no such untoward measures thwart the expectations as they did in 1840 and 1841.

ST. LUCIA. Our advices from this island are up to the 26th of July, from which we learn that at a Special Meeting of the Legislative Council, a mandate from the Lords of the Treasury, issued through Lord Stanley, was registered, imposing an additional sum of £245 10s. sterling on the Colony, for the support of the hitherto inefficient Customs Establishment. The charge is for boats, office-rents, &c.: the proportion of the latter fixed fixed for the accommodation of this office is equal to that paid for the Court-house, and all the offices attached to it, for the use of the Attorney-General, the Register of the Royal Court and Mortgage Office, the Provost Marshal, Police force, and Engine-houses. The Colony is already taxed to the extent of £2,000 sterling for the Customs Department.

CANADA.

We have received papers from Montreal and Quebec to the 13th of August. Canadian French.-It is said that

the progress of the Oregon dispute is watched with deep interest by the French portion of the Canadian population. The lapse of near a hundred years since the conquest of Canada, on the plains of Abram, has not yet reconciled them to the British rule, and they continue to cherish that hostility to an Englishman, which seems to be an instinct in a Frenchman's bosom. Hence it is, they are quite uneasy at the continuance of peace with the United States, and betray their fears lest there will be no war. Almost to a man, the Canadian French are strong for An

nexation: Every one of them is looking out eagerly for the breaking out of hostilities; and those that can read are poring over American newspapers, looking for some paragraph to encourage or to confirm their hopes.-New Orleans Bulletin.

The Corporation of Quebec have passed a bye-law prohibiting the erection in that city of houses or other buildings, composed of combustible materials, after September, 1847, at which date temporary structures are to be pulled down.

BIRTHS.

At St. Ann's, Barbados, on the 21st July, the lady of J. Brown, Esq., of a daughter.

At Calcutta, on the 24th June, the lady of Edward Corrie, Esq., of a son.

At Ghazeepore, on the 16th June, the lady of Robert M'Whinnie, Esq., of a son.

At Hourat, on the 24th June, the wife of Capt. Bennett, of a daughter.

MARRIAGES.

At Sydney, New South Wales. on the 2nd April, Lucy, eldest daughter of Lieut. Moriarty, R.N., Port-Officer, to Benjamin Berthon, Esq., of Woodlands, Van Dieman's Land.

Mr. Henry Thomas, of Grenada, R.N., to Miss Elizabeth Jackson, of St. Kitt's, youngest daughter of the late Capt. Jackson, of London.

At his residence, in Regent Street, Lacy Town, Demerara, on the 7th July, by the Rev. A A. Easton, George Wight, Esq., Acting Provost-Marshal-General, to Miss Elizabeth

Byble.

At St. George's Church, St. Catharine's, Canada, July 10, by the Rev. A. F. Atkinson, Rector, Theophilus Mack, Esq., M.D., eldest son of the Rev. Frederick Mack, Rector of Amherstburgh. to Catharine Jane, eldest daughter of Elias S. Adams, Esq., of the former place.

At St. Paul's Church, Halifax, N.S., on the 1st July, by the Rev. G. Austen, Chaplain of H. M. Ship Vindictive, Lieut. Walter F. Robinson, of the same ship, second son of Wm. Robinson, Esq. LL.D., of Tottenham, Middlesex, to Charlotte, third daughter of Captain Maynard, R.N., of Halifax, N.S.

At St. John, N.B., on 10th July, at St. Malachi's Church, by the Very Rev J. Dunphy, V. G., Mr. John P. Walsh, of Halifax, to Catharine Agnes, fourth daughter of the late Mr. Peter McNamara, merchant of that city.

At St. John, N.B., on the 25th June, by the Rev. Rector, W. H. Howe, Esq., of that city, barrister-at-law, to Catherine Louisa, third

daughter of James White, Esq., High Sheriff of the city and county of St. John.

At the Cathedral, Quebec, on the 8th July, by the Rev. C. F. Baillargeon, (Roman Catholic Rector of Quebec,) Lawrence A. Cannon, Esq., Advocate, to Mary Jane, eldest daughter of Thomas Carey, Esq., all of Montreal.

At Pictou, on the 16th July, by the Rev. Charles Elliot, John Hamilton Lane, Esq., of H. M. Customs at that port, to Amelia, daughter of the late William Mortimer, Esq.

At Quebec, on the 10th July, by the Lord Bishop of Montreal, the Rev. Henry Hotham, third son of the Hon, and Rev. Frederick Hotham, to Mary, second daughter of the late Hon. John Hale.

At Halifax, on the 29th June, by the Venerable Archdeacon Willis, Hector J. Macauly, Esq., Deputy-Assistant Commander-General, to Mary, eldest daughter of Capt. N. T. Hall, h. p., Royal Staff Corps.

DEATHS.

On the 7th July, at St. Eleanor's, Prince Edward Island, Fanny Maria Martha, the in. fant daughter of E. R. Humphreys, Esq., Head Master of the Central Academy.

July 3rd, at his residence in the Roebuck, Perry's, Barbados, James Innis, Esq., formerly of the firm of Inuis Brothers and Co. The deceased gentleman has left a widow and nine children.

At Jamaica, on the 17th July, Henry Lynch, Esq.

At Grenada, on the 24th July, Edmund Livingstone Darling, Esq., who filled, for seve ral Iyears, the situation of Special Magistrate of that island. The deceased was second son of the late Lieut. General Darling, Governor of the Island of Tobago.

At Guadaloupe, Rear-Admiral Gourbeyere, Governor of that island.

At Maradahn, Colombo, on the 80th June, the lady of W. Mackwood, Esq., after a short illness.

At Calcutta, Major Edward Horne, of the Madras Army.