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Th' unwieldy bisons driven along,
Heaved, pitched the grassy swells among,
Like huge, black creatures of the sea,
With bellowings of mad agony,
That rose above the roaring flame;
Right towards that rising ground they
came,

In heedless course and headlong!-Where
Shall Moray fly in this despair?

"Less merciful the savage foe, Than fire or furious buffalo. Aslant he fled, if so he might Escape the vast herds' frantic flight. Brief time he strove, he sprang, he flew, When lo! so near their breath he drew, With shaggy bulk, and tumbling leap, And foamy mouth, and bellowings deep, And eye that glowed, and tossing head, On-on they plunged their myriad tread, Trampling the earth with thunder! Still Moray fled, this peril past:The flames were near-he felt their breath

Fast

He stood their lurid ranks beneath-
He saw them tread the quivering reeds
In wrath, and rise, like warrior-steeds,
To whelm him down;-he looked-how

near

Ken-hát-ta-wa's brandished, fatal spear!
No more he turned his blinded gaze,
And rushed into the glaring blaze.
The spear sang past him through the fire,
And, yelling in his baffled ire,

The chief pursued with maddened mind,
While closed the dark-red walls behind.
Scorched by the flames through which he
broke,

With ashes smothered, wrapt in smoke,
And treading, every step he took,
With bleeding bare feet's blistering soles
O'er burning roots and glowing coals,
The weary captive staggered on,
Nor knew what way his course might run,
Till all the blackened air and ground
Spun like a mighty whirlpool round,
When suddenly he faltered-fell—
What passed beside he might not tell.

"He woke-what were they? Dungeon bars,

Through which looked down the silent

stars

And calmly smiled at him ?-In pain
Of throbbing eyes and dizzy brain,
And limbs that hardly might be raised,
He half arose and round him gazed.
It was a pit, deep, damp and round,
Beneath the prairie's level ground,
Wherein the greener grass that grew,
And reeds yet moist with rain or dew,
Were scathed not by the fiery scourge
That rolled above its rapid surge,
And, bending o'er his helpless trance,
Had veiled him from the savage glance.

He breathed a prayer, and climbing thence,
Strove to awake each deadened sense.
Some stars were on the cloudless sky,
The moon was riding pale and high,
And looked with that most tranquil mien
Upon how desolate a scene!
As when the orbed Earth is burned,
Some wandering spirit, back returned,
Beneath lone Luna's waning ray
May all the wasted world survey,
Throughout whose prospect still and wide
No living thing shall be descried,
Beast, bird, nor flower, nor waving tree,
But all of bare, bleak lava be,
Spread dark, or glittering ghastly-bright:
So Moray in that silent light
Beheld, where'er he turned his eyes,
No shrub nor plant nor leaf arise,
Nor reed that quivered in the air,
But all was cold and black and bare;
Save in the North a distant glare
Upon the heavens was redly cast,
Where the far-marching flames were
passed,

Blent with their blue in fearful hues sublime,

Like the last burnings of the sphere of Time!"

We regret that space is denied us even to hint at the tribes of Ioways, Konzas, Pawnees, Ottoes, Missouris, Delawares, and all the other tribes whom our traveller visited while in the vicinity of Fort Leavenworth; but we must now suppose him to have returned to St. Louis, and to have revisited the "States." We will call on him again at Fort Gibson, in Arkansas, about to take part in the unfortunate expedition of General Leavenworth, into the country of the Pawmenced with the highest hopes and nees and Camanches; a journey comexpectations, but which, from the lateness of the season and badness of the climate, cost the lives of so many gallant officers and men. This expedition was projected by the United States government, with the view of forming a treaty and establishing friendly relations with the southwestern Indians, whose territories had as yet been unvisited by Americans. The party consisted of the first regiment of dragoons, about four hundred strong, under the command of Col. Dodge, and was accompanied by General Leavenworth, the commandant of Fort Gibson, and his staff. A portion only of the command ever reached the Camanche country, as nearly one-half, including the veteran General, were attacked by

a fatal illness almost in the commencement of the march. The progress of the regiment through the prairies might almost have been traced by the sick camps they were compelled to leave behind them at the end of each day's journey; and, had the party been received in a hostile manner by the Indians, it is doubtful whether many of the soldiers would ever have returned. Our traveller himself was among the sufferers, but by great effort was enabled to accompany the troops on a great part of their journey. They were met at last by a war party of Camanches, who escorted them to their great village. Here they were most hospitably received, and were partially successful in the object of their mission. But the sickness which prevailed among the party forced the commanding officer to return much earlier than had been intended to their place of departure, after the loss by disease of nearly one-third of his force. The whole of this melancholy journey is recorded with great faithfulness by Mr. Catlin, and forms a most interesting portion of his work; for his indisposition did not prevent his collecting many valuable portraits for his gallery, and facts for his letters. His return to Fort Gibson was attended, however, by a renewal of his illness, which detained him there for a considerable time; when at length, determining, as he said, not to die in that detestable country, he boldly resolved to attempt, in his enfeebled state, a journey on horseback, alone, to Fort Leavenworth, five hundred miles to the north of Fort

Gibson. We cannot follow him on this expedition, nor in any of his subsequent wanderings; suffice it to say, that the second volume is in every way equal to the first, and that we have only noticed the incidents selected by us, as they happened to fall under observation.

Mr. Catlin afterwards visited the Indians of the North Mississippi and of Florida, and in fact appears to have sought out every tribe within the limits of his rambles; and he laments sincerely that he has as yet been unable to penetrate among the inhabitants of the Rocky Mountains, and the almost unknown regions between them and the Pacific Ocean.

We take leave of our author with regret, for in spite of ourselves he almost gives us his own liking for his Indians; and when we close the book we are almost for a moment involuntarily convinced that the savages are as humane and worthy of admiration as the whites are cruel and contemptible. It positively requires a little exertion of the organ of self-esteem to bring ourselves up to our former degree of respect for civilisation; and to compare our own people favorably with the wild nations of the west; and although the desired effect is at last produced, and our own race is restored in our minds to its elevated position, we are forced, nolens volens, to admit that in reference to the Indians as well as many other things the old maxim holds true, that—

"The devil is not so black as he is painted."

ON THE INFLUENCE OF PROTECTIVE DUTIES ON THE MANUFACTURING PROSPERITY OF A COUNTRY.

THERE is no greater fallacy than the notion that high protective duties are beneficial to a country. They never fail on the contrary to exercise in the end the most injurious influence on its industry. This has been already proved clearly enough in a great many instances; our present object is to derive a further and most conclusive illustra

tion of the truth from the present state of Belgium and France, two countries in which the protective system has certainly been tested to the fullest extent that could be desired by its most infatuated advocate.

It was an axiom of Jean Baptiste Say, which can never be successfully controverted, that "wherever you limit a

people in markets to purchase in, you never fail, to the same extent, to limit markets for them to sell in." And unless one single nation can produce everything in any way required for her consumption, which never has, nor ever can happen, no one nation can dispense with her markets to sell in, or cut off her foreign commerce without suffering the most serious evils. Although Say was a Frenchman, no nation has ever acted upon principles more diametrically opposite to his doctrines than the French. M. Say was at one time residing, in his youth, at the village of Hampstead, near London, in the time of Pitt's administration, when the celebrated window tax was imposed. The room occupied by him had two windows. The landlord, in order to save on his taxes, found it necessary to close one of these windows, which circumstance attracted Say's mind to the subject of taxation in general; which finally resulted in the publication of his great work on "Political Economy;" which, though it may contain some errors nevertheless full of irrefragable proofs of the advantages of free trade, of the ruinous effects of high duties, and the injustice and the impolicy of unnecessary taxes of all kinds.

There are no two branches of trade in which France has shown more jealousy toward England than in the iron and the cotton trade. There have been none which she has been more anxious to foster and promote under every form of government, from Bonaparte down; and falling into the common error of governments, she has always imagined this could be best done by exorbitant protective duties.

Now, no fact is clearer, than that high protective duties, (or protection or bounties at all,) except in the legitimate way of simple revenue, never fail ultimately in a measure to defeat the very object of their adoption.

The first result of high duties, it is true, is to put money temporarily in the pockets of one class, iron-masters and cotton-spinners, for instance,-taken from the purses of another class, or of the people at large, without the country in the aggregate becoming a shilling richer. The prosperity of this class, or these classes, has a tendency to divert a large share of capital from other channels, and cause it to be invested in the Government bounty fac

tories. An advance of wages, and in the value of raw material, and in provisions, follows. As a matter of course, this increases the cost of production, and an increase in the market price of the product, to meet the cost of manufacture. This enhancement in the cost of production cuts off competition, in the neutral markets, with the productions of nations more favorably situated for the production of similar goods. The consequence is, their markets for selling in are finally narrowed down to their own domestic consumption; and this once supplied, the demand falls off to such an extent as seriously to embarrass the whole protected or bounty trade. This has been fully realized in France and Belgium. Their iron and cotton trade, the two most highly protected, are at this time two of the most languishing and embarrassed trades in either country. Large sums of money have been embarked in them, which in many cases have been wholly sunk, or have only derived sufficient support from the domestic demand, to keep them in unprofitable operation. They cannot avail themselves of any export trade to neutral markets, as the cheaper and better English production shuts them out. And it is rather curious that articles which have been the least protected are at this time the most prosperous in these countries. An article which cannot be made to compete in neutral markets with the manufactures of other nations without high domestic duties, will be still less able to do so when such duties are levied. The tendency of all high duties, therefore, is to cramp and annihilate trade in neutral markets, and to glut those at home. And high duties not only ultimately result in the embarrassment of the trade at home as soon as the home market is gorged; but they almost entirely fail in yielding any revenue to the Government.

They give rise, also, to a system of smuggling, which injures both the revenue and the manufacturer. We have stated that the import of lace from England into France is prohibited, and what is more curious, they also prohibited the importation of fine Sea Ísland yarn, spun into high numbers at Manchester, which is the only suitable material for the manufacture of lace. The consequence was, after repeated

experiments and expensive efforts made to spin this fine cotton thread in France, it was measurably abandoned as a failure. The numbers spun in Manchester for the lace manufacturers at Nottingham, ran as high usually as 240, the production of which is favored by the climate of England, as well as by the better selections of the raw cotton made by the English manufacturers. The result of these prohibitory duties on the lace trade in France is, that 25,000,000 francs' worth of lace is smuggled annually into the country, at a premium to smugglers of 30 per cent. The government is cut off from revenue, while no trade in France is more depressed, embarrassed and languishing, than this same protected and fostered lace trade at the present time.

Belgium, acting on the example of France, which adjoins her whole southern border, thought to encourage manufactures, and especially the iron and cotton trades, by a similar policy of high protective duties. This course, as usual, gave an active temporary impulse to trade, and a few manufacturers made money at the outset.

Companies were soon formed in various parts of the kingdom, called "Sociétés Anonymes," in which the people freely subscribed for shares. Immense sums were drawn from other channels of trade, to be invested in manufactures, under the control of these companies, especially in the manufacture of iron, machinery, and of cotton; and it seemed that Belgium was as ardent and as anxious to close her ports to British goods of this kind as France. Belgium being a smaller country than France, the results of increased wages, living, and over-production at home, soon began to show themselves. What little export trade they enjoyed under their connection with Holland, if not sacrificed by their separation from that country, has been in a fair way of annihilation under the fatal influence of their subsequent high protective duties. For, while they are wholly unable to compete with England in foreign neutral markets, they have glutted their domestic and neighboring markets, especially in the leading branches of trade alluded to; and out of 50 blast furnaces, only about 18 are now in operation. Many mills are idle. Even

Cockerill's great works, at Seraing, after his death ceased to be worked to profit. The "Sociétés Anonymes" have proved losing concerns; the whole country has been injured and thrown back by the policy of high duties levied for protection, and the government itself forced to have recourse to direct taxation for support. Whereas, on the other hand, here, as in France, those branches of trade which have had the least protection are at this day by far the most flourishing; such as the manufacture of guns, pistols, zinc, lead, linen goods, carpets, and flax.

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No country that does not possess within itself the elements of manufacturing resources in such abundance as to cause their development in a sufficient degree to meet existing demands, and to compete with foreign nations in neutral markets, under the protection afforded by the revenue wants of the government, can made a permanent, healthy, and prosperous manufacturing country by the highest duties that can be imposed. It is as unnatural to legislate for the existence of manufactures in a country where nature has denied their existence, or, what is just as effectual a bar, where no foreign or domestic demand exists sufficient to call them into being and sustain them in prosperity when created, as for a legislature to will that the ocean be turned into dry land, or that stones shall be converted into loaves of bread, and serpents into fishes. In all cases of such demand in foreign and domestic markets, success would be the result if no protective duties existed. In the United States, we should still compete with the English in coarse cotton goods, if no duty on them existed; and so of hats, shoes, saddlery, and many other of the products of our active and intelligent industry. All the protective duties the South American States, Old Spain, and so many other countries which have vainly exhausted themselves in such experiments, can impose upon themselves, cannot create manufactures among them. They have often tried it, and have always failed. Their restrictions have always acted as a bounty on smuggling, and defeated the collection of revenue for government. The reason is plain. They do not possess in sufficient abundance those in

dispensable and requisite elements so necessary in such pursuits as to cause them to engage in the same. Otherwise they would spontaneously embark in the business of manufacturing. It requires no legislative act to make an acre of land in the valley of the Mississippi sufficiently rich to yield an abundant crop of corn; and without paying a man a bounty in order to secure its cultivation, it will be culti vated in due season as its produce is wanted.

And when our country becomes sufficiently populous, and our foreign trade sufficiently extensive and wellestablished, and our capital sufficiently abundant, and the demand at home and abroad sufficient to warrant it, our iron trade, coal trade, cotton trade, wool trade, and all the other branches of trade, will become sufficiently prosperous without the aid of restrictions on commerce in the way of high protective duties. The iron mountains in Missouri, and iron ore in the Allegany mountains, and coal mines in many sections of the Union, will find a plenty of workers. These great mineral reservoirs are rather to be held in store or reserve for our posterity, whose numbers and wants will so far exceed our own; and all attempts of the legislature to unlock them at present, by offering bounties for such a premature disturbance of them, must be attended with unjust and injurious consequences. A few individuals might gain at the moment, but the whole country would suffer in the end. We are too much prone to spend money for objects, and engage in enterprises, which are not required by the wants or exigencies of the country, and which it would be more wise to leave to be developed by the wants of succeeding generations. Thus, many canals have been cut, and railroads either made or attempted to be made, which might do well enough some hundred years hence, and at that time prove even profitable; but which at present serve no other purpose than to involve the states and people thereof in almost hopeless debt, and to embarrass to some extent the whole country. The same must for ever happen with all pursuits pushed beyond their legitimate bounds, as indicated by the free and natural action of the great laws of trade, and can never fail to happen

with manufactures bolstered up by bounties in the way of protective duties. In our own country, experience has tended to prove, as everywhere else, that manufacturing prosperity and high protective duties do not usually exist together, unless backed by natural and other advantages, and the free and open ability to compete in neutral markets; and then protection itself, beyond revenue, is wholly useless.

It is well known, that in the period from 1828 to 1832, when our protective tariff existed at its highest point, the manufacturers of the United States were never in a worse condition. Investment in them became so great, and the resulting over-production so enormous, without meeting an adequate demand at home or abroad, they one and all became more or less embarrassed, and many wholly failed, involving hundreds and thousands in irretrievable ruin.

Contrast this period of high protection with the present of reduced duties, say, during the past year, 1841, and none can fail to observe the great difference in favor of the present condition of our manufacturing interest. We venture to assert, that since the commencement of our government, the manufacturing prosperity of this coun try was never greater than it is at this time. And there is no portion of the United States so prosperous and thriving as Massachusetts, the head-quar ters of manufactures in the United States. To our certain knowledge, if we have not been wrongly informed by a party interested, the directors of a set of print-works in this state, which cost $1,500,000, have, during the last two or three years, been in the habit of declaring 14 per cent. semi-annual' dividends, or about 28 per cent. per annum. And what other interest yields such dividends? Another evidence of the present prosperous condition of manufactures in Massachusetts may be gathered from the fact, that all the stocks invested in their large factories sell on an average about at par, while many of them range considerably above it.

We cannot see how this thriving and prosperous state of things is to be augmented by increased protective duties. We reverence the people of New England for their general intelligence, their

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