like the steam leviathan from the old world, might come to us, through even a sea of flame, and unite the two countries together! Mr. Winthrop said it was well known that James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, was a native of Great Britain; and that Robert Fulton, the individual who first applied this engine to vessels, was a native of Little Britain, in Pa.; and he would therefore propose as a senti

ment:

James Watt of Great Britain and Robert Fulton of Little Britain-May their memory ever form a bond of union between the people of two nations whom their genius and enterprise have done so much to unite.

The Mayor informed the company that His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth, whose name was on the list of invited guests, was absent from the city, and the Committee of Arrangements had not been able to invite him to attend the Festival, as they intended. Ex-Governor Everett, who had been invited, declined attending, for reasons which will appear in his letter to the Mayor:

His Honor the Mayor:

BOSTON, 5th June, 1840.

Sir, I have had the honor to receive the invitation of the City Council to unite with them in celebrating the opening of steam navigation between the kingdom of Great Britain and the city of Boston. I much regret that the state of my health makes it necessary for me to deny myself the pleasure of being present on this most interesting occasion. I can imagine no event of greater importance to this community, or more seasonable. At a moment when a most judicious and patriotic employment of the credit of the State is about giving to Massachusetts a direct communication with our own mighty regions in the West, the establishment of steam navigation with England placed us in immediate connexion with the Eastern hemisphere.

Allow me, sir, to employ the last opportunity I shall have, before leaving home, of directly addressing my fellow citizens, to tender them my ardent wishes for the prosperity of our beloved city, and particularly that the auspicious event, (which forms the last link in the chain that is to unite the head waters of the Missouri with the remotest marts of the ancient world,) may prove a new source of kind feeling between both Continents, and eventually to promote the welfare of Boston.

With great respect,

Your friend and fellow citizen, EDWARD EVERETT. I beg to subjoin a toast, to be offered, if an opportunity occurs, at the table:

The Hon. Samuel Cunard-The founder of direct Steam Navigation between Great Britain and the city of Boston a wise negotiator-while the Governments are arguing about the boundaries, he makes a successful incursion, with a peaceful force into the heart of the country.

Immediately after the sentiment forwarded by Gov. Everett was proposed from the chair and responded to by the company, Mr. Grattan rose to offer a volunteer toast, and made the following just and eloquent remarks:

Last Wednesday, Sir, was a day of great rejoicing to many thousands of the citizens of Boston, but the evening of that day was one of serious disappointment to very many among them, who had calculated on listening to a farewell development of feelings and opinions from him on whose eloquence we have all of us hung delighted, when these walls have resounded to the music of his voice, and every one of their crevices and crannies grown musical with the sound. These plaudits, gentlemen, tell me that you anticipate my toast, and they also assure me of your indulgence for my embarrassment in venturing, unprepared, to speak on such a topic.

Sir, the last steam ship sent from Europe to America, has just come among us, freighted with the wishes and the aspirations of thousands of the inhabitants of the Old World to their friends and connexions in the New. Let us not forget, Sir, on this day of joy, that the next sailing vessel which turns her prow from the harbor of New York for that of Havre, will carry with her an object dear to the re

collection of every one present here this day, and of all who can appreciate him who is a high ornament to literature and learning, who can give new graces to oratory, and is himself an illustration of the truths of philosophy and virtue. I know not, Sir, what quantity of merchandise, what number of passengers, or what amount of specie the Iowa may carry on board; but I know, Sir, that she is about to take away from us one of the finest and most sterling specimens of humanity that ever the New World sent as a sample of her indigenous productions to the Old.

Gentlemen, I see the impatience with which each hand seizes on its glass, and which sparkles in every eye. I will, then, without further addition to this feeble preface, propose to you, with all the honors which can be given to a toast, or to an individual in this way

The health of Edward Everett, his wife and children— May they have a safe voyage across the Atlantic, a pleasant sojourn in Europe, and a happy return to their home.

This sentiment was received with the most marked demonstrations of respect for our late worthy Chief Magistrate. The whole assembly rose simultaneously, and waving their handkerchiefs aloft, made the walls of the Old Cra dle of Liberty tremble with prolonged and heartfelt plaudits.

Letters were received from Hon. Thomas H. Perkins, and Peleg Sprague, Esq. expressing the strongest interest in the object of the festival, and regretting their inability to be pre sent.

Professor Longfellow, being called upon made a few remarks, which were not distinctly heard, and proposedSteam-Ships-The pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day, that guide the wanderer over the sea.

The Austrian Consul, being called up by the Mayor, addressed the company briefly, and with amusing naivete, upon the relations between Austria and the United States. He said our citizens and the citizens of his own country had very little to do with each other-but he hoped they would become more and more acquaint. He said his countrymen did not understand the condition of the United States-neither did we fully understand the condition of Austria. He gave

National Intercourse between Austria and AmericaMay it grow up more and more.

Mr. Rockwell of Conn., stated that the first steam ship that ever crossed the Atlantic, left the city of Savannah, Georgia, and was manned and commanded by New England men.

Dr. Wm. B. Stevens of Savannah, Georgia, made a few remarks on this hint, and proposed the following beautiful sentiment.

June 3d, 1840. The Bridal Day of Old England and New England: what steam hath joined together, let no political feuds put asunder.

Gen. H. A. S. Dearborn addressed the company in an interesting manner, and presented some important facts relative to the Western country-a subject upon which he is full of valuable information. He also proposed a sentiment, which we have not been able to obtain.

By N. Rice, Esq: Halifax-A member of the new con. federacy of cities formed by the magnificent enterprise which we have assembled to commemorate; may prosperity ever attend her.

This toast met with a response from a son of Gov. Campbell of Nova Scotia, which was not distinctly heard. Philip Maret, Esq., President of the Common Council, gave

The Triple Union this day consummated-May it be co-extensive with British, Colonial, and American enter prise.

The following volunteer-which, by the way, contains more of meaning than meets the eye-was received with a tremenduous broadside of applause:

Captain Sturgis's warm welcome to the Unicorn A generous sailor's grip-hearty, though it hurte a little! Capt. Sturgis rose-the applause was too great for a speech -and he gave the following retort.

Mr. Cunard's Steam Ships-May they cut their way, through friends and foes,

Gov. Seward's Reasons for not Pardoning Benj. Rathbun.

EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, 2 Albany, May 27, 1840. S

The application for the pardon of Benjamin Rathbun is supported by the petition of several thousand citizens of this state, who certify their personal acquaintance with the prisoner, and express a warm and generous sympathy in his favor. It would be quite unnecessary on such an occasion to acknowledge a respectful deference to the wishes of the petitioners, since an unjust and unreasonable denial would expose the Executive to the loss of a large portion of public'

confidence.

It is not contended that the conviction of the prisoner was unjust or erroneous. He exercised freely the right of challenge to his jurors. He was defended with zeal, ability and learning. Sympathies, such as no other offender has ever awakened in this country, held public opinion in suspense, until the result of his trial was known, and the same sympathies agitated the community with hopes of his deliverance while the proceedings on that trial were under review in the Supreme Court. The question now is, whether he is a proper subject for Executive clemency. Its decision necessarily requires a consideration of the circumstances under which his offence was committed. I am especially desirous to discharge that duty without misapprehension of facts, as I certainly shall without prejudice against the prisoner. He was for many years engaged in mercantile transactions, banking, building, common carrying, and in the purchase, improvement and sale of real estate. He had in his employ in 1836, two thousand laborers, besides ninety-seven agents, assistants, cashiers, superintendents, foremen, measurers, clerks and overseers. His daily disbursements exceeded ten thousand dollars. He had the control of several banks, and kept a financial agency in Buffalo and another in the city of New York.

In carrying on this extensive business, the practice of forgery was adopted at first in a very small way, to save the protest of some important paper. Afterwards, his cashier, Lyman Rathbun, emboldened by success, resorted to similar proceedings as often as he became straightened for funds, sometimes making false checks and sometimes false endorsements. Sometimes quite an amount of spurious paper accumulated in the brokers' offices, and at other periods all was taken up. The necessity for forged paper increased so much that Lyman Rathbun Howlet, and Rathbun Allen, the prisoner's nephews and clerks, were initiated, and all were busily employed in making, selling and negotiating forged paper. The extent of these forgeries is not known, but it is notorious that the names of thirty-five persons and firms were habitually used as drawers and endorsers, and that it was impossible for the prisoner himself to distinguish between his genuine and spurious paper, without referring to private marks in his books. It is now well understood that the amount of forged paper remaining unpaid when the prisoner was arrested, exceeded one and a half millions of dollars. Including what was issued for the various purposes of renewal, postponement and payment, the whole amount forged must have been twice that sum. It is believed that these forgeries surpassed in boldness and perseverance all similar offences in this and every other country. It was alleged in behalf of the prisoner, that he had necessarily devolved the exclusive management of his financial concerns upon his cashier, Lyman Rathbun, and that he was entirely ignorant of these forgeries, until about the time of his failure. Extraordinary as it would have been, if these transactions had been carried on so long for the prisoner's advantage and by his confidential agents, yet without his knowledge or participation, it is certain that these allegations were received with favor by the community, and that he enjoyed, so far as public opinion was concerned, the benefit of the humane principle, that the accused shall be presumed innocent until his guilt is established.

I have examined the record of the trial, and have discovered with much regret that it leaves no possibility of doubt of the prisoner's agency and participation in carrying

on the great system of forgery, which it describes. Three notes of five thousand dollars each, with the forged endorsement of eleven citizens of Buffalo, were enclosed in a letter written by himself, to the prosecutor. This letter contained a request that the notes might be laid away in a private desk, and assigned a false reason for asking that extraordinary favor. Admissions of the prisoner were proved entirely inconsistent with the ignorance he pretended. He admitted to a witness, that when he came to a knowledge of the forgeries, his business was so extended that it was necessary to continue them, that he could not control them, that he had been in the expectation of withdrawing the forged paper from the market, but that the thing grew worse instead of better, and it was too late to stop it. He spoke also of the distress of mind he had suffered while the practice was going on, from constant apprehension that the forgeries would be discovered. His nephew, Rathbun Allen, acknowledged to have been a confidential assistant of his cashier, and to have been one of the persons by whom the forged endorsements for the prisoner's benefit were made, testified that he forged the signature of the prosecutor, as the drawer of several notes, in the prisoner's presence and by his direction, and gave the paper thus signed to the prisoner himself.

It is true that this is the testimony of an accomplice is to be received with caution, but it bears the evidence of candor and truth, and is corroborated by circumstances, by the prisoner's admissions, and by his memoranda and letters.Papers were found in the prisoner's handwriting containing copies of spurious notes with remarks showing that he had put the originals in circulation. His letters show a familiar acquaintance with his financial concerns, and great energy in their management. In these letters he repeatedly gave his agents instructions as to the form of spurious paper required for use, and advised how to avoid detection, and urged them to greater exertion in carrying the perilous business to a successful termination. The allusions in his correspondence to the forgeries, are, as might be expected, obscure, yet admit of no other application. They show that he was for a long period, if not from the commencement, the master-spirit in the conduct of the forgeries, as well as the only party benefited by them. They leave no doubt that if he did not initiate his younger brother and nephews, he led them deeper into crime, and continued to avail himself of all their plans, skill, management, adroitness and deception, until the sudden exposure rendered these unavailing. I confess the prisoner's guilt seems to me much aggravated by the ruin in which he has involved those persons, who, from their youth, their relationship to himself, and their dependence upon him, it is so natural to suppose were merely the instruments employed by him in carrying out his desperate plans to maintain an impracticable credit, and retrieve ruined fortunes.

There are six indictments against the prisoner remaining untried. Whatever charity others may indulge, as an Executive officer I am bound to assume that these prosecutions rest upon sufficient grounds. The Constitution gives the Executive no power to pardon, or to suspend criminal proceedings, before conviction. If a pardon were granted in the present case, it would nevertheless be the duty of the public prosecutors to cause the prisoner to be brought to trial upon other indictments, and they have the right to invoke my aid if deemed necessary. It would certainly be an extraordinary spectacle if the civil authorities should be found acting in opposition to each other in the administration of justice, or if a prisoner should one day be pardoned from a conviction for forgery, and the next be brought to trial for other and similar offences upon indictments pending at the time such pardon issued.

Extraordinary as are the circumstances of Benjamin Rathbun's conviction, the sympathy of the petitioners in his behalf is by no means without cause. He has been for more than twenty years a citizen of Buffalo. While living there, he rose by industry and energy from a humble condition to wealth, respectability and extensive usefulness. The wharves, streets and institutions of that flourishing and beautiful city, furnish many evidences of his enterprise

Post Office Department.
POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

May 9, 1840.

The occasion does not require me to controvert the opinion expressed by the petitioners that the punishment the prisoner has already suffered by being arrested in mid-career, suddenly stripped of his dazzling honors, torn from his family, cast out of society, degraded to the companionship of vileness and crime, and finally stamped indelibly as a felon, is enough, without prolongation of his imprisonment, to reclaim him from his dangerous ways and effect his reformation. The criminal code has one purpose more important than the reformation of the offender.-That purpose is the prevention of crime by the example of punishment. The prisoner's offences exceed in magnitude and in injurious consequences those of probably all the convicts for similar crimes in the state prison. His education, intelligence, experience, condition in life, associations and relations, exempted him from the necessities and temptations which palliate, if they cannot excuse, the transgressions of more ignorant and humbler offenders.

Assuming, as it is suggested by the petitioners, that he acted under great excitement and without sordid motives, it is by no means certain that it would be safe to extend a pardon on that account. In the first place, such a refinement would hardly be comprehended by those who are to be affected by the example of punishment. In the second place, if the crime of forgery more rarely proceeds from ambitious than from sordid motives, the present case shows at least, that it is more bold and dangerous when it does thus occur. In instituting the comparison there is also much danger of judging uncharitably those to whom sordid motives are imputed. The first crime is almost always committed under the pressure, of some real or supposed necessity, and under the influence of a delusive hope of future ability to make restitution. If there is one department in the administration of government where impartiality ought to be maintained more rigidly than in any other, it is in the exercise of the pardoning power. The plea which prevails in favor of one whom the world has esteemed and respected, and in whose behalf thousands address the Executive, ought to be equally efficacious when offered by the most obscure prisoner in his solitary cell. It would be altogether inconsistent with the public welfare to grant pardons to all those for whom an excuse could be offered at least as plausible as that so prominently presented in this case. And yet if such considerations are suffered to prevail in behalf of Benjamin Rathbun, it would be cruel injustice to deny them force in any other instance. The very circumstances which have induced so much exertion in his behalf, have excited public attention to his case, which is well understood throughout the whole community, and has unfortunately become a part of the history of the State. For this reason I deem it certain that there is no offender whose pardon would so much impair the public confidence in the firmness, impartiality, and energy of the administration of justice. His conviction was necessary to maintain the sway of the laws, and rights of citizens, and to vindicate the dignity and honor of the State. I reluctantly add that it seems to be a case in which the effect of that conviction must not be impaired by the exercise of Executive clemency.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

Yankee Ingenuity & Industry.-We were much pleased this week with a beautiful Mat for parlors, brought and sold in Allegheny and Pittsburgh, by a very industrious and ingenious man by the name of James Seaton, who lives in Stark County, Ohio, and who manages to support a family consisting of a wife and 7 children, by manufacturing these articles by their labor and his own. These mate are made from a hickory tree, cut down and drawn into fine threads like the manilla hemp, wove into mats and then painted tastefully; and he retails them from 75 cts. to $1 each. Harris' Intel.

Sir:-I submit the following in answer to the inquiries

Office and Post Roads.

The debt of the department, in 1835, was not less than $600,000.

The number of new routes established in 1836, was 745, in 1838, 648.

The miles of road covered by service on the 1st July, 1835, were about 112,774, and on the first July, 1839, 133,999.

The annual transportation, in 1835, amounted to about 25,869,486 miles, and in 1839, to about 34,496,878 miles. The amount of surplus in hand in the year 1837, when the suspension of specie payments occurred, was about $800,000.

miles of road, and amounting to 1,462,759 miles of annual 479 of the new routes of July, 1838, covering 14,065 transportation, have been let to contract.

169 remain to be put in operation. They will, if let as advertised, add 8,006 miles to the length of routes, and about 742,300 miles to the annual transportation.

How many miles of the new are covered by old routes already in operation, cannot be stated with satisfactory precision, without taking longer time than you contemplate for the preparation of this answer.

Pains are taken to withhold such parts of the new routes from advertisement and letting; but the fact that both routes run over the same roads, does not generally appear until after the new service goes into operation, when a discontinuance of the one or the other, according to circumstances, is ordered.

On 44 of the above new routes, not let to contract, no bids have been received; and on 105, the lowest bids received are too high for acceptance.

mails.

There are numerous applications for improvements on old routes from all sections of the United States. A majority of them is for the substitution of stage and coach lines for horseVery respectfully, your obedient servant, AMOS KENDALL. Hon. J. J. MCKAY, Chairman Com. Post Office and Post Roads, House of Representatives.

The New Bridge.-The beautiful new bridge running across the river from Hand street in this city to Cedar street, Alleghenytown, is just finished, and yesterday morning we enjoyed a most refreshing walk on the top of it. It is 1027 feet 3 inches long, and 42 feet wide, with two side-walks for foot passengers, each six feet wide, and inside passages for wagons and carriages each 15 feet wide, besides a delightful walk 12 feet wide on the top, very safely protected by hand railings and lattice work on each side: it has two very permanent abutments and four piers. The toll-house is in Allegheny. This delightful and very permanent bridge was built by Sylvanus Lothrop, Esq., for $70,000. This, including the aqueduct, is the fourth bridge across the Allegheny within one mile.-Harris's Intel.

Squirrel Hunt.-On Monday last, a squirrel hunt came off in the south-west part of Delhi, Del. County, N. Y. with great success. The count was nearly 4000 and it is estimated that at least 3000 squirrels and birds were destroyed.

Presents to the President of the U.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

Tangier, September 3, 1839. }

cess.

A brief statement of the facts of the case will show whether I have acted up to the spirit of the verbal instructions which I had the honor to receive before I left the United States, and in deference to the feeling manifested on a former occasion by the United States Government, and which, I have every reason to suppose, will be the same in the present case.

It will be recollected that my instructions to Mr. John Mullowny were to state to the bashaw the utter impossibility of accepting any present; and in case one was offered, to give it an unqualified refusal. This order I have no doubt that he fully executed; and I was in hopes that I should hear nothing more of the subject. In a few days, however, it was rumored that a party were on their way from Fez, with some animals for the American consulate. I immediately communicated to the Governor, and Public Administrator, my determination to refuse whatever might be sent, and begged their influence in preventing such an offer.They replied, that it was perfectly out of their power to prevent it; that the present must be made; that they could not understand by what right or power I could undertake to interfere in such a case between the Emperor and my Government; that a Moorish agent who should thus refuse to convey a present to his master would very justly have his head cut off, and that the refusal of what might be offered would be a decided insult,

Finding I could get no assistance from any of the Emperor's officers, I resolved to write to the Emperor himself; but before a letter could be prepared, the sound of drums announced the arrival of the bashaw's nephew, at the head of a troop of soldiers, with an enormous, magnificent lion and livness. As my determination was well known, the commander of the troop had prepared himself with the most "conclusive answers" to all my objections. I told him that it was perfectly impossible to receive the animals-the laws of my country forbade it. He replied, that they were not for me; that they were for my Government. I told him that the President, the head of my Government, was in the same predicament as myself-that he had not the power to receive them. He said that the Sultan knew that; but that they were not for the President, but for my Congress. I replied, that Congress had resolved never to receive any more presents; and that the law prohibiting public officers to receive presents was part of the constitution, and superior to the power of Congress itself. He wanted to know who made the constitution. I replied, the people. Then, said he, if Congress will not receive them, the Emperor desires them to be presented to the people, as a mark of his respect and esteem for the "sultans" of America. At last I told him that I would not receive them-that my mind was fully made up. Then, said he, my determination is as strong as yours -I am ordered to deliver them to you-it will cost me my head if I disobey-I shall leave them in the street. The street upon which is the American consulate, is a narrow short cul-de-sac, with half a dozen Jew houses in it, beside my own. Preparations were made for placing the guard at the open end, and turning the lions loose in the street. Seeing further resistance hopeless, and that to persist in the refusal would be to destroy the good feeling with which this consulate is at present regarded, I was compelled to surrender to this novel form of attack, and to open one of my rooms for the reception of the animals, where they now are. I have not dared to take the responsibility to send them to the United States, or otherwise dispose of them.

Upon this head I shall most anxiously wait instructions, as they are to me a great expense and inconvenience. They are by far the finest animals of the kind I have ever seen, and

1

I hope I shall have the honor and pleasure of hearing upon this subject from the department as soon as possible. am, with sentiments of respect, your obedient servant, THOMAS N. CARR. Hon. JonN FORSYTH,

Secretary of State, U. S. of America.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, November 12, 1839. S

Sir: Your letter No. 7, of 3d September last, was received here on the 5th inst. It is to the President a matter of regret that your exertions to prevent the presentation to you, in the name of the Emperor, of the animals to which you refer, have proved unavailing. The peculiar character of the Gov. ernment, and of the circumstances under which the animals were forced into your possession, can alone justify such a departure from your instructions and the embarrassment which it involves. Those reasons, however, as stated by you, are properly appreciated by the President, who desires that you should be instructed to send the animals to the United States, either by a public ship, if any of those on the Mediterranean station shall touch at Tangier on their way home, or by some merchant vessel. The expense of their transportation, and of their keeping while in your hands, will be allowed in the settlement of your accounts,

With regard to the horses which you seem to apprehend may in like manner be forced on you, it is hoped that renewed exertions on your part will have induced the Emperor to desist from his intention of presenting them; but if you should have been compelled to receive them, you will take the same means of sending them to the United States.

Your despatches from 1 to 7, inclusive, have been received, also your letters (not numbered) one of the 15th and two of the 17th of June last.

I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. VAIL, Acting Secretary.
THOMAS N. CARR, Esq.,
United States Consul, Tangier,