lowing extract from a letter addressed by the writer to his family at
home:--"I am sure I shall be able to get on well in this country if the
Caffres are only prevented from doing mischief, but if they go on in the
present way, I shall not be able to keep a horse or an ox, both of which
are indispensable to a farmer. Now I can never assure myself that when I
let my horses go I shall see them again. It is a disgrace to our
Government that we are not protected. As it is, all our profits may be
swept away in one night by the marauders."

NEW ZEALAND.--We understand a box of specie was placed on board the
_Thomas Sparkes_, in charge of the captain, for Mr Chetham. On the owner
opening the box, he discovered to his great surprise that, by some
unaccountable process on the voyage, the money--gold, had been turned
into one of the baser metals--iron. It is stated that the steward left
at Plymouth, and the first and second mates whilst the vessel was
detained at the Cape, but whether they had any agency in the
transmogrification of gold into iron remains to be proved.--_New Zealand
Gazette_, Feb. 4, 1843.

POLITICAL.

THE ABORTIVE COMMERCIAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN.--Senor Sanchez Silva,
known for his speeches in the Cortes, as deputy for Cadiz, has
published, in an address to his constituents, an account of the
negotiations between the Spanish and British Governments relative to a
treaty of commerce. The effect of this publication will be to undeceive
the minds of Spaniards from the idea that the Regent's Government was
about to sacrifice the interests of Spain, or even of Catalonia, to
England. The terms proposed by the Spanish commissioner were, indeed,
those rather of hard bargainers than of men eager and anxious for a
commercial arrangement. Senor Silva says that England, in its first
proposals, demanded that its cottons should be admitted into Spain on
paying a duty of 20 per cent., England offering in return to diminish
its duties on Spanish wines, brandies, and dried fruits. But England,
which offered in 1838 to reduce by one-third its duty on French wines,
did not make such advantageous offers to Spain; and the Spanish
negotiators demanded that 20 per cent. _ad valorem_ should be the limit
of the import duty of Spanish wines and brandies into England, as it was
to be the limit of the duty on English cottons into Spain. This demand
nearly broke off the negotiation, when Spain made new proposals; these
were to