taking the latter just previous to the dis- the Atlantic Ocean, after having traverssolution, and including among the Re-ed unknown regions. The Niger falls formers eight members who did not vote on the last division, is shown in the following table: This result leaves no doubt of a change of Ministry upon the assembling of the new Parliament. The number of counties, cities, boroughs, and universities, which have returned conservative members is 184, in which the number of registered electors is 529.899. The number of places which have returned Reformers is 158, in which the number of registered electors is 273,178; majority of the constituency represented by conservatives, 256.721. The persons qualified to vote in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, are not returned under the general registration law, and are not included in the above enumeration. There are also 55 counties and boroughs, in which one member is returned by each party, and which are, therefore, not included in the above statement. CESSION OF FERNANDO PO TO GREAT BRITAIN. A French paper, the National, makes the following coinment upon the reported cession of the Island of Fernando Po to Great Britain, for a pecuniary compensation agreed to be paid for it. "When the progress of British dominion," remarks the National, "from the 16th century is carefully examined, it will be found, that the possession of the important maritime positions which she holds throughout the world has been acquired either through the weakness or carelessness of other nations, and the acquisition of Fernando Po and Annabono is only another step in her course of universal encroachment "It is well known, that during all periods central Africa has defied the efforts of European merchants and travellers. The route thereto was finally discovered by the English brothers Lander, who, having arrived at the banks of a broad and rapid river, the Niger, embarked on it, and, allowing themselves to be carried along by the stream, found themselves in into the Bay of Biafra, in the Gulf of Guinea. This bay contains several islands; the most considerable is Fernando Po, between which and the Portuguese islands of the Prince and St. Thomas, is placed the island of Annabono. The island of Fernando Po, notwithstanding its extent and fertility, never attracted the attention of the Spanish Government, and even Great Britain was so profoundly forgetful of it that she did not seek to have it assigned to her in 1815, at the division of the ter ritory which was made at Vienna. This island, situated at the mouth of the Niger, will, in the hands of an active and enterprising nation, monopolize the trade of of central Africa. The British merchants are yearly encroaching on the French estabishments and markets in Senegambia, and it will be impossible for them to maintain themselves there when once Great Britain becomes mistress of the course of the Niger. The position of the island of Fernando Po, at the mouth of the Niger, does not constitute its sole importance. Its length is about 20 leagues, and its average breadth about 6 leagues. It abounds in rich and varied productions. Its soil is elevated, and the entire island is well wooded and watered. Its population, of Portuguese origin, is of a mild disposition, and the married men, with a strange singularity, are invariably attired in a straw hat, ornamented with two goats' horns. The island of Annabono is of considerably less extent, and the population does not exceed 1,000 souls.' On the 23d of August, the Spanish Ministry announced to the Cortes that they had abandoned the plan of the cession of the islands. Aug. 1. AFFAIRS OF TURKEY. The following documents, containing the new arrangements entered into between the great European powers for preserving the independence of Turkey, are published by the Augsburgh Gazette: Protocol of the Conferences at London, between the ambassadors of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, sign ed July 10, 1841. "As the difficulties in which his Highness the Sultan was involved, and which induced him to accept the aid and support of the four Powers, are terminated; and as Mehemet has fulfilled the act of submission to the Sultan, which the con vention of July aimed at, so have the representatives of the powers signers of that treaty, thought fit to recognise and consecrate the old usages of the Ottoman Porte for preventing armed ships of war to enter the straits of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus. To give a common and permanent sanction to this, and, at the same time, to give a mark of the harmony and unity which guides the intentions of the powers, it is agreed to guarantee this, and to get the Sultan to invite France to join therein. As this agreement is intended to give Europe a pledge of the unity of the four Powers, the British foreign secretary has undertaken, in concert with the other plenipotentiaries, to communicate them to the French government, and to take part in the arrangements, by which the Sultan declares his determination to uphold the said rule, the five Powers on their side making known their resolution to respect it. (Signed) "ESTERHAZY, "NEUMANN, 66 "PALMERSTON, "BRUNNOW." Articles of the new treaty of London, concluded by the Plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey: "Art. 1. His Highness the Sultan declares, on his part, that he is firmly resolved to maintain, for the future, the principle followed from time to time as an immutable rule of his empire, in virtue of which the ships of war of all foreign nations are forbidden to enter the straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, andhich imports that His Highness shall not suffer any foreign ships of war to enter the said straits so long as the Ottoman Porte shall be in the enjoyment of peace. And their Majesties the Emperor of Austria, the King of the French, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia, on their side, engage to respect this resolution of the Sultan, and to act in conformity with the principle which is above expressed. "Art. 2. It is well understood, that the inviolability of the ancient rule of the Ottoman empire being established by the preceding article, the Sultan reserves to himself, as in times past, the right of granting firmans of passage to light ships carrying flags of war, which, according to usage, are employed in the service of ambassadors of friendly powers. "Art. 3. The Sultan reserves to himself the right of communicating this present treaty to all the powers with whom the Sublime Porte holds relations of amity, and of inviting them to accede to it. "Art. 4. This present treaty shall be ratified at London, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at the expiration of two months, or sooner, if possible." UNITED STATES CONGRESS. The bill to incorporate the subscribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States was received in the House of Representatives from the Senate, July 28, and was referred to a committee of the whole ou the state of the Union. It was debated in several successive days, and a large num ber of amendments were proposed. All amendments, however, were rejected, and on the 6th of August it was reported to the House, and passed the same day, yeas 128, nays 97. Those who voted in the affirmative were all of the whig party, and of those who voted in the negative 90 were of the opposition; whigs voted against it from their opposition to the compromise section, and 3 from their opposition to a National Bank. It was ascertained that if the House had been full, there would have been 134 yeas, and 102 nays. The bill was returned to the Senate, and on the following day it was laid before the President. It was known that the early opinions of the President were against the constitutionality of a National Bank, but from his accepting the nomination of the whig party, and more confidently from the language of his inaugural address, it had been inferred that those opinions had yielded to the practical exposition which had been given to the constitution, by repeated acts of every branch of the government, and by the deliberate decision of the Supreme Court. Before the bill passed, however, it was confidently rumored that these impressions were erroneous, and that the President would not sign the bill. His decision upon it, therefore, was awaited with much anxiety, as upon it depended not only the fate of the bill, but in the opinion of many the future harmony of the whig party. On the 16th the President returned the bill to the Senate with his objections, which were founded on the opinion long entertained by him, that Congress does not possess the power to create a national bank, to operate per se over the Union. In specifying the grounds of this opinion, he remarks that in looking to the powers of the National Government, to collect, safely keep, and disburse the public revenue, and incidentally to regulate commerce and exchange, he has not been able to satisfy himself that the establishment of a bank of discount in the ordinary acceptation of that term, was a necessary means, or one demanded by propriety to execute those powers, and he asks, what can the local discounts of a bank have to do with the collecting, safe keeping, and disbursing of the revenue? The bill and veto were suffered to lie on the table of the Senate until the 19th, when they were taken up, and after a short debate the question was taken on passing the bill, notwithstanding the objections of the President, and it was lost, yeas 25, nays 24, two-thirds being neces sary. debate of two or three days was passed by the House on the 23d of August, by a vote of 125 to 94, and was sent to the Senate, where it was referred to a special committee. On the 9th, the bill, which had previously passed the Senate, to repeal the subtreasury bill of the last session, was passed in concurrence by the House, by a vote of 134 to 87, with two amendments. The Bankrupt bill, [see Mon. Chron. p. 334.] was debated in the House in committee of the whole, from the 10th until the 17th, when the bill was reported, with an amendment adopted by a majority of 3 votes, providing that nothing in the act should be construed to alter or repeal any state law for the relief of insolvent debtors. A motion was then made, that the bill and amend.nents should be laid on the table, which motion prevailed, by a vote of 110 to 97. This vote was taken on the day after the veto of the bank bill, when there were strong symptoms of discord among the members of the whig party. On the following day, however, both these votes were reconsidered, the bill was amended in such manner as to postpone the date of its taking effect to the 1st of February next, and passed by a vote of 111 to 106. The Senate having concurred in this amendment, the President signed the bill on the 19th. The grounds of objection specified by the President in his veto message were such as to lead to the general adoption of the opinion, that he regarded the want of constitutionality as applying only or chiefly to that feature of the bill which authorized the discount of local paper, a duty to which local banks are fully competent, and which he conceived not to be necessarily connected with the duties of collecting and disbursing the revenue. On this hint, a pill was reported in the House of Representatives for the establishment of an institution competent to The debate on the bill for a distribution become the fiscal agent of the United of the proceeds of sales of the public lands, States, with its central office in the Dis- [see Mon. Chron. p. 333] having been contrict of Columbia, and with offices or tinued from day to day in the Senate, on its agencies in the principal cities of the general principle as well as on a great variUnion; with power also, besides collect- ety of proposed amendments, on the 23d an ing, keeping, and disbursing the revenues amendment was offered by Mr. Berrien, of the government, of performing the providing that if, during the continuance ordinary functions of banking institu- of the act, there shall be an imposition of tions, with the exception of the discount- duties on imports beyond the rate fixed by ing of local paper and securities, which the act of March 2, 1833, [20 per cent ad are to be forbidden, but the authority to valorem,] then the distribution provided negotiate foreign exchange, and exchange in this act to be suspended, and to condrawn by residents in one state, upon tinue suspended, until the cause of its residents in another, to be expressly suspension shall be removed. This granted. The institution was to be call- amendment was adopted by a vote of 24 ed the Fiscal Corporation of the United to 18. The bill was finally passed by a States, and to be subjected to various re- vote of yeas 28, nays 23, it being a party strictions and limitations of its powers, division, with the exception of the vote similar to those which were prescribed of Mr. Preston, which was given in the to the institution in the bill now re-negative. The House of Representajected The capital was to be limited to 21,000,000 of dollars, of which a third part was to be subscribed on the part of the United States, payable in specie or in 5 per cent. stocks, at the option of the Secretary of the Treasury. This bill, after a tives, on the 30th, concurred in the above amendment, by a vote of 108 to 94, but non-concurred in one or two others made in the Senate. The Senate receded from these, and the bill was signed by the President on the 3d Sept. THE MONTHLY CHRONICLE. SEPTEMBER, 1841. ARTICLE XIII. RUSSIA UNDER NICHOLAS THE FIRST. A SMALL work has been lately published in England, under the title of "Russia under Nicholas the First," translated from the "Conversations Lexicon der Gegenwart," which presents an interesting view of the progress of population, wealth, and improvement in that country. From this work, and a few other scattered sources, are derived the facts contained in the following article. According to the geographical review in the first number of our present volume, [p. 4,] the extent of the Russian empire, in Europe, Asia, and America, is computed at 7,724,947 English square miles, containing a population of 60,973,260. The registered births of a single year number 2,254,449, and the deaths 1,595,168, giving an annual increase of 659,281. The work above referred to states the population somewhat higher. The largest city of the empire is St. Petersburgh. The population of this city in 1803 numbered 235,000; in 1839, 476,386. The number of houses at the latter date was 8,665, which gives 55 inhabitants to each house. Of this population, it is very remarkable that 338,512 were males, and only 137,874 females. This disparity is partly accounted for by the number of soldiers, which was 70,927, and the number of servants maintained by the great proprietors. Moscow, the second city, had in 1839 a population of 349,068, of whom 140,906 were females. This number exceeds, by 84,000, its population before its destruction in 1812. Warsaw had in 1839 a population of 139,671, of whom 36,390 were Jews. Riga, the second trading town in the empire, increased in 28 years from 30,000 in 1810, to 63,590, in 1838 Odessa has grown still more rapidly, having been founded in 1796, and having in 1837 grown to a population of 69,023, with 4,500 houses. Kasan has a nearly stationary population of 50,000. Kiew, Cronstadt, Astrachan, Tula, and Kaluga, are towns of 30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants each. There are some large villages, which are the property of the principal lords, and are inhabited exclusively by their serfs. One of these is Iwanovo, in the government of Moscow, which is the property of the family of Scheremetjew, and has a population of 48,000. The vast and scattered population of Russia consists of a number of races; but one, the Sclavonic, greatly preponderates. The people of the Sclavonic race number 50,000,000, and constitute more than four-fifths of the inhabitants of the empire. Of these, however, those who inhabit the kingdom of Poland and Little Prussia, numbering 15,000,000, have from time immemorial cherished a bitter hostility towards the people of Great Russia, who are of the same race. The latter form more than half the population of the empire, and have the predominating weight. The other principal races are, the Lithuanians, who number about 2,000,000, and are in some measure mingled with the Sclavonians of Poland; the Finns, who number 3,000,000, and are divided into twelve tribes; the Mongolians; the Samoyedes; and the Tartarian and Caucasian nations. There are also in Russia about 500,000 Germans, who have had an important share in promoting civilization, and progress in all the industrious arts. Of these, about 160,000 are in the Baltic provinces, including St. Petersburgh. Many of them are employed in public offices, and in the duties of instruction. Of Jews, there are about 1,500,000. They are subjected to severe disabilities, and are permitted to reside only in certain portions of the empire, chiefly in the 17 southern and western provinces, and in Poland. The population is divided into the following classes, viz.; 1. Nobles, of whom there were in European Russia, in 1836, 538,160, hereditary, and 153,195 personal nobles, making a seventieth part of the population; and in Poland, in 1837, 283,420 nobles, making a fourteenth part of the population of that kingdom. 2. Burghers, numbering 4,175,869 persons, the number of merchants being 36,617, and of the guilds of handicraft and tradesmen, 2,773,416. 3. Military settlers and their families, 1,932,165; and 4. Peasants, 44,826,288; of which number 21,493,993 are the property of the crown, and 23,362,595 belong to different landed proprietors. Great exertions have been made by the present emperor to extend the means of education, but the progress is slow for want of the proper instructers. In 1839, there were in Russia, exclusive of |