Volume 25 — JAMES'S POWDER, AND HIS SQUIB.

SOME of the Virginian slaveholders, true to the kind of logic which one expects from Legrees, have made five attempts to burn down the house of the English consul, Mr. G. P. R. James, as a reply to some objections urged by that gentleman to negro slavery. It appears that years ago, before Mr. James attained that world-wide celebrity which has irrevocably placed him at the summit of English literature (we are sure he will be the last person to contradict us), he concocted a "squib" against the slave-owning system. The missile flew so silently and harmlessly through English air that nobody seems to have listened to it, but the case appears to have alighted on American ground, and to have been treasured up by the fortunate finder as evidence against the pyrotechnician and historiographer. Mr. James receives his appointment and goes to Virginia, the squib is produced, and excites the fierce rage of the man-stealers, who, as has been said, make five attempts to burn down the great novelist's house. Whether, being as cowardly as Mrs. Stowe has taught us to regard them, the conspirators made their efforts in the night, and being scared by the noise made by the distinguished author in snuffing his candle, the click being mistaken for the cocking of a rifle, or whether, in the frantic tipsiness which, the authoress of Uncle Tom tells us, accompanies their social orgies, they endeavoured to set fire to a stone wall, or to the Life and Times of Louis XIV., or any other impracticable mass, we are not informed—perhaps cowardice and clumsiness were united, as in every other effort in defence of slavery. Anyhow, Mr. James's property had, at the last advices, escaped the vengeance of those who, brutalised by slave-owning, can hardly think much of arson. Meantime, we have been anxious to see this celebrated squib, and having applied in vain to Mr. James's London publishers, we have been compelled to send over to America for it. The document arrived by the United States' Mail steamship Washington, which reached Cowes on Friday night, bringing mails to the 8th, and it was instantly forwarded to us by a special train on the South Western line. We hasten to give it.

THE SLAVE-OWNERS.

Epigram by G. P. R. James, Historiographer to the Queen, author of "Darnley," "De L'Orme," "The Gipsy," "The Life and Times of Louis the Fourteenth," "Tales of the Passions," &c. &c.

Plato, Gog, and Magog.

Mr. Jones told the Liverymen the other day, that if Plato were to revisit the earth to project a new Republic, he would take the theory of the Corporation of the City of London as his model. Perhaps so. He would have seen that the theory in question leads to a practical harmony exhibited in an affection of united minds, amounting to the very love of the turtle.

PECCADILLOS OF BEAKS.

The unpaid magistracy, so called, have been accused of licensing public-houses on an arbitrary principle, but it is tolerably certain that they do not grant any preference without a sufficient consideration. Unpaid, perhaps these gentlemen ought not to be denominated; for everybody knows that they pay themselves by the job.

Not a Doubt of It.—Of all the "tricks upon travellers" which are practised at our Hotels, by all accounts decidedly the most deceitful are the Bottle-tricks.

YACHT SIGNALS.

Mr. Punch has merely to acknowledge a very useful little book, prettily bound, with the Union Jack (white margin) on its cover, and entitled "Supplementary Code of Yacht Signals." It is not of much use to him in Fleet Street, but he intends to keep it until the yachting season begins again, when he will astonish Cowes, Ryde, and "the Island" generally, with the proficiency he displays in nautical, as in all other exercises. That the Yacht Club may appreciate the value of the book, Mr. Punch subjoins a page taken at random. Loungers on shore little know what is meant by the innocent-looking flags which are perpetually being run up from the Salmagundi, the Olla Podrida, the Amontadillo, and the other pretty vessels about which they talk so learnedly. Perhaps this extract may enlighten them:—

Number

Subject.to beMessage.

Shewn.

Girl.1827. This, with Mrs. St. Brown (black eyes) has £15,000. I'd make sail if I were you, old fellow.

——1828.(Same, with addition). Quick, for Algernon Jones is making enormous play, and telling awful falsehoods about his Irish estates.

Jew.1473The, has come down. Is at the Pier Hotel. See him, and do the best you can. I must have £300 in time for Doncaster.

——1474.(Same, with addition). No pictures, mind, but a little bad wine don't matter, as I've some country bores coming to stay with me.

Widow.1163.The, won't do. Fitzclumber knew her in Devonshire—estate incumbered, and a Chancery suit.

Bore.1928.Frank Bloke is a dreadful. Send out word to him that his governor wants him on shore, and we'll go on to Cowes.

Ice.1623.We're out of. Rough will do, if you can't get Wenham.

Wife.1525.Your, has got some clue to the Tuesday business. I am inventing all sorts of things for you, but you had better come off, and bring her a dog, or a bracelet, or something. I think Vane has sold you.

——1625.My. Is in such a bad temper. Send off some French novels.

Punch.1999.New number not come, the girls are wild, and we shall have a mutiny. Pray see about it, and telegraph to town if necessary.

Niece.2348.The parson's, is first-rate. So pretty. I have proposed, and she has taken till tiffin-time to consider.

——2349.(Same, with addition). Has been asking your Aunt about me, and has given me a flower.

——2350.(Same, with addition). Fly, old fellow, and find out for me what, in the language of flowers, is meant by double heart's ease.

——2351.(Same, with addition). All up. Your Aunt let out about Fanny Montgomery, and that's what double heart's ease meant. Order supper. I shan't stay on board.

Screwed.3284.Was I, last night? Signal if I did anything very absurd. Walter bets that I offered the bishop a cigar.

Church.3384.We are all coming to, in the morning, including Catherine, Verbum sap. No more signals to-night.

SHE WILL BE A MARTYR.

A letter from France says that Miss Cunninghame on receiving the order for her release from prison, positively refused to go, until she was literally turned out. The invitations of the officials to her to "come out of that," were altogether idle; and indeed it is quite evident that the lady felt how completely her pretensions to martyrdom had been cut short by her premature release. Miss Cunninghame in fact proved herself a perfect "Buffalo gal" in her indisposition to "come out," until a due amount of solicitation had been addressed to her.

For our own parts, had we been the British officials employed to negotiate for her release, and she had shown a stubborn disposition to cling to her prison bars, we should have allowed her to remain, and ride as rusty as the bars themselves. We never could see what right she had to scatter Italian Bunyans all over the boot of Italy, and put her own foot in it. We admit the severity of the punishment and the propriety of getting her out of her prison, though as a general rule it must be laid down, that those who enter a foreign country for the purpose of disturbing its harmony, must expect now and then to have to take a few bars rest.

A Nautical Queen.

The Queen of Spain has become decidedly nautical. In honour of her own birthday she has ordered three screw frigates to be built in Spanish dockyards; regretting that the screws must be constructed abroad. Surely this is unnecessary; remembering the effect of Spanish bonds, Spain has been especially eminent for her enormous screw power.

MARRIAGES AS WRITTEN IN THE POLICE COURT.

Considering the way in which your brute of a husband is in the habit of treating his wife, it would be as well, for the classicalities of low life, to alter the name of Hymen into Flora (Floor-her).

A WAKE IN THE MINING DISTRICTS.

J'moimer Ann. "Has thee fowghten, Bill?"

Bill. "Nooah!"

J'moimer Ann. "Then get thee Fowghten, and coom wum. Daddy got his'n done by fower o'clock!"