NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE "Silas Richards" has arrived with its annual freight of political intelligence from the United States. The Message of President JACKSON was delivered to Congress on the 7th Decem
ber. There have been periods in the history of Europe when such documents were expected with more impatience and perused with greater interest than the present, but the speech of the head of the great republic of the New World is at no time devoid of important matter.. It is not made up of generalisrns, like our Royal speeches, from which any or no meaning, as suits the purposes of their interpreters, may be drawn ; it is not a composition to which
IF each of twelve or twenty individuals contributes his sentence, and whose parts are bound together by no unity of principle or i
purpose. The speech of the American President s an honest exposé of the foreign and domestic relations of the American coinanonwealth, and an impartial index of the feelings and sentiments of the American people. The present Message opens in the grave and decorous style which our Transatlantic friends are not yet witty enough to despise.
"Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives—The pleasure I have in congratulating you on your return to your constitutional duties, is much heightened by the satisfaction which the condition of our beloved country at this period justly inspires. The beneficent Author of all good has granted to us, during the present year, health, peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the wonderful success which attends the progress of our free institutions."
The following expression of the sympathy of the United States with the recent changes in France is in fine contrast with the cold formality of our own announcement of the same fact.
"From a people exercising, in the most unlimited degree of self-government, and enjoying, as derived from this proud characteristic, under the favour of Heaven, much of the happiness with which they are blessed; a people who can point in triumph to their free institutions, and challenge comparison with the fruits they bear, as well as with the moderation, intelligence, and energy with which they are administered ; from such a people the deepest sympathy was to be expected in a struggle for the sacred principles of liberty, conducted in a spirit every way worthy of the cause, and crowned by an heroic moderation which has disarmed revolution of its terrors."
The settlement of the dispute between the United States and Great Britain, respecting the commerce of the former with our West India colonies, is next noticed. What may be the conditions of .the future bill which will regulate the commerce to be carried on in consequence of the treaty, we know not ; but had those proposed by the late Ministers been carried into effect, we rather think that the concession of the privilege, accompanied as it was by a denial of the power of using it, in the prohibitory duties of Mr. HERRIES'S Bill, would not have been dwelt on by the President with so much seeming satisfaction. Fortunately the Colonial Intercourse Bill, strangled in its birth, had not arrived at Washington when the message was framed. Of the treaty General JACKsort says
" This arrangement secures to the United States every advantage asked by them, and which the state of the negotiation allowed us to insist upon. The trade will be placed upon a footing decidedly more favourable to this country than any on which it ever stood; and our commerce and navigation will enjoy in tht colonial ports of Great Britain every privilege allowed to other nations."
The speeeh goes on to allude to the proposed grants from the revenue for the encouragement of public works in the several States ; -which the President disapproves of as leading to local jobbing—he recommends to set apart a portion of the surplus revenue of the republic to the erection of public works in the different districts, in the proportion of the number of members which they send to Congress, which is in the direct ratio of their respective populations. The next proposal is of the nature of a self-denying ordinance,
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and indicates the sensitive jealousy which all American citizens entertain in behalf of their.political liberties. It is recommended to Congress that no man should fill the office of President twice.
General JAciLsoN has perhaps as • reasonable grounds to expect that highest honour as any man who ever was called to the Presidentship ; yet he is content to sacrifice all such expectations, rather than, even by a remote possibility, the republic should receive any harm. The President then turns from the White, in order to advert to the Red men. The r assage is rather philosophic than sentimental, which. announces their final relegation to the right side of the Mississippi; yet when we look to the progress of the imported and to the ' stationary character, or rather the deterioration of the aboriginal inhabitants during the last three hundred years, we can hardly " regret that a few wandering savages, whom no education or example has succeeded in reclaiming, should be removed from the vicinity of those who are enlightened by both, and thus prevented from checking the civilization which, from stupidity or incapacity,. they could not emulate.
On the subject of the Tariff, the President speaks moderately and sensibly. He is not yet so far advanced in his political primer as to perceive that encouraging a manufacture, as it is called, by duties on importation, is merely to burden the ninety-nine in order that the hundredth man may prosecute an unprofitable trade—that a nation gains in such cases in the same way as old Daniel Dancer did when he stole into his cellar in the dark to rob one bag for the sake of filling another: the General has not got this length yet, but he is progressing towards it, we guess. He contends, that in every case of prohibition, each trade or manufacture should stand on its own merits. Where there is no great interest to interfere between the public and their rights—no East India Company, no City Corporation, no Rotten Boroughs—. there is small danger, where its merits are separately canvassed, that any one traffic will be inconsiderably supported. The danger in these matters lies in the sweeping nature of the enactment. Had Sir HENRY PARNELL, when he broached the Corn Bill, proposed a measure for protecting the agriculturists of Norfolk, nei. ther he nor his successor in the same measure, Lord Gonameir, would have deceived even the House of Commons into an acquiescence with his plans.
The Message concludes as it opens, by a flattering picture of the general prosperity of the United States. After inviting the attention of Congress to the maintenance of the naval defences of the States—to the completion of the fortifications on the maritime frontier, and the increase of the fleet—to the regulation of the post-office—and lastly, to the establishment of a States bank, as a check on the possible extravagant issues of the private bankers —the speech closes in the following words : "These suggestions are made, not so much as a recommendation, as with a view of calling the attention of Congress to the possible modifications of a system which cannot continue to exist in its present form, without occasional collision with the local authorities, and perpetual apprehensions and discontent on the part of the States and the people. In conclusion, fellow-citizens, allow me to invoke, in behalf of your deliberations, the spirit of conciliation and disinterestedness, which is the gift of patriotism. Under an overruling and merciful Providence, the agency of this spirit has thus far been signalized in the prosperity and glory of our beloved country. May its influence be eternal l"
