We have received five num...
We haxe xectired five numrbers of the Mattritius Gaxette, from the 28th of August to the q5th of September inclu- sive. They contain scarcely a sing,le word of news, but are curious as being strongly tiarked with the features of colonial newspapers. In each publication there are two or three half sheets filled with advertisements for the sale of estates cultivated by slaves-for the sale of slaves-and for the letting atit dr hiring ot slates, with minute descriptions of their personal appearanwe,.ages, professions, and talents. In each number we cimil, under the title of " General Po- crlic,1 tlienames of betweentiiirty and forty slaves who have deserted their masters in the coutse of the week, and who, having been apprehended, are lodged in prison. If the numnber of forced and judiciary transfers- of property may be talen as a test of pecaniary difficulties or com- mercial distress, we shoultd at present have no Tery high idea of the prosperity of this colony. From the account of some of the legal proceedings of the Mau- ritits, there Wvould appear to be a strange junmble of the provisions of the Code Napoleon with ancient laws and judicial forms. For instance, the announcement of every forced sale is headed with a "De par le roi, la toi, etjuistice, in the old style; while we see in the same paper the exectution of some enactment made in the year 8, or the year 10, of the Republic. Nay, in a proclamation signed by a British Governor, we find an order to the inhabitants of Port St. Louis, to perform tlhe Cor,ves, in repairing the streets and roads-in and about that colonial capital. The old word is on this occasion employed both in the English and French copy of the proclamation, to signify the old feudal service.