The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-30 00:00:00

TO CORRZSPON DINTS,

a .ecced Teit!oa ;r" TitToiipres,"coM-aWai Tito mat moan's
" (Amu.," b 141111'18d every Tawlay sad TrMay *lett ia Yax
kr pat.
&bet tartest, tabnotod tar "Teo taproot," Lomita Veen pew,
oast ea at Ow OS. la. Bouvartiaaarast, Two o'W.I on tat
lag of pablimatioa.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tar Dav—lllerMai. Wu 15m... Aftirusaa. 31. ha.
Eaasoaaos—llarcasig. sh.

LONDON, SATTIRD.I7; OCTOBER 30.

le ever there was a plain, palpable—nay, almost •
tangible—instance of the gods refusing to assist those
who do not assist themselves, it is certainly to be
run in the Spanish rule of Cuba.
The maintenance of Spain as one of the foremost
of the second-rate powers is an object of European,
if not universal, interest ; and the possession of the
great island of Cuba in peace and prosperity
is as essential to the preservation of that
position as is the island of Java to Holland.
It yields the government of the mother coun-
try considerable tribute it enables it to keep a
large military three; it is the source of still great
wealth to a large propr.etary class at home; it sti-
mulates the commercial spirit of Spain ; it is the
means of preserving to that kingdom a mercantile
marine; it connects it with the various countries of
Europe and Ameriza; it affords civil and military
employment to a great number of Spaniards; it is
the last and most valuable relic of the past greatness
of its Indian possessions; it ought from its position
to become the entrepot of the Spanish main; and,
. ander a rational system of government, there are
really no present or apparent limits to its growth
and prosperity.
Yet gradually the feeling that Spain cannot long
preserve what is thus so necessary to her welfare is
becoming universal ; and though this feeling is partly
attributable to a belief in the buccaneering and ag-
gressive schemes of part of the population of the
United States, it is also in no slight degree owing
to the belief that the continued fidelity of Cuba
itself to Spain is incompatible with the ;man-
ner in which this great transatlantic possession
is governed. Whether this belief be well or ill
founded, certain it is that the best and cheapest mode
of preserving so valuable a colony is to rule it on a
wiser system than now prevails.
After so long arid active an intercourse as has
existed between Cuba sod the United States ;—when
it has become to the north-eastern parts of the
American Republic another Italy, where health,
pleasure, and enjoyment are sought by the wealthy
and the dissipated; after allowing hundreds of
its finest estates to be conducted and managed
by American overseen; and now that great com-
mercial interests hive grown up;--it is idle and
puerile in the Spanish authorities to attempt to
isolate Cohn from the United States. It cannot be
done, and the attempt to do so will precipitate the
very danger which it is designed to avert. Self-
preservation is, no doubt, the first law of nations as
well as of individuals. But in driving away steamers
accustomed for a stews of years freely to enter the
ports of Cuba, because they possibly have on board
an obnoxious steward, cook, or passenger, is
so' obviously to injure the innocent many, in
order to get at a guilty individual, as to be cer-
tain to create just fisilings of indignation on the
part of the American government; and thereby to
bring it into collision and hostility with the authori-
ties of the Ifavannah—a state of things sure to end
in mischief to Cuba.
During the events which preceded, attended, and
followed the piratical expedition of LOPEZ, the Ame-
rican government, it cannot be denied, fulfilled
its international duties to Cuba. It proclaimed
the preparations; it seized part of the ex-
pedition ; it sent a naval force to intercept the
rest ; it acknowledged the righter Cuba to deal -with
participttors in that crime as pirates; it interfered
at Madrid on behalf of the captured only on grounds
of humanity and of policy; and it gave the Spanish
government satisfaction for the outrages perpetrated
on its Consul at New Orleans. The authorities of
Cuba ought not, therefore, lightly to give the Cabinet
of Washington any excuse to depart from a line
of policy which it pursued on the former
emergency so much to their advantage ;
still less to associate the revived conspiracies
in the States against Cuba with just and reasonable
complaints on thepart of the American government
against needlessinterruptions and foolish obstruc-
tions to peaosable and useful commerce. And this
is really what those authorities appear to be doing
in the recent affairs of the Cornelia and the Crescent
City.
But all reason and all experience seem alike
thrown away upon the Court of Madrid. There it
is, in the nineteenth century, practising at
home a corrupt, stupid, unintelligent des-
potism long banished and expelled from all
other European countries; where, in these times,
despotism is at least comparatively pure and intelli-
gent, and active in national improvements. And
what Cuba first and foremost suffers from is Spanish
corruption, particularly the corruption of the Court.
In the moment of Cuba's danger, the people in pos-
session of power at Madrid sent thither General
CONCHA as Captain-General. But the danger a
little allayed, he was recalled. And the cuss
of his read was substantially the superiority
of his government of the island. He re-
pressed the Slave Trade with a strong and
vigorous hand; refUed himself "gratifications" for
clandestinely permitting the introduction of Africans
and forbade them to others. This interfered with the
greed and rapacity of • lady too well known in the
later annals of Spain. She, moreover, had a plan
for realising large sums by a building speculation at
the Havannah, which required the demolition
of some part of the renewed fortifica-
tions of that city. This Conan positively
refused to sanction. He was recalled • 8.4
in tho present Captain-General, a more subservient
ruler has been found. Coder his administration—
perhaps we might say umpicse—even the Slav* Trade
begins again to revive.
Though the loyalty of the Creole population of
Cuba to the Crown of Spain has been tested ; nay,
even though that loyalty too frequently shows itself
by insulting the citizens of the United States in the
streets of Havannab, it is " not shined upon." A bad
colonial system in Madrid has no faith in feelings or
sentiments of attachment; it has gradually diminished
the municipal franchises formerly existing in the
island; it denies the native proprietors all ricipa-
tion in positions of trust and authority; tit im-
poses on them a great army ; and it levies from a
population of not more, probably, than halls million
of tax payers the enormous revenue of faailaist
millions of dollars. The protection of Spain is
dearly bought at such a price ; and though, in spite of
it, material prosperity and wealth continue to inane'
in Cuba, the thought that and the pniftedges
of Anglo-American power the value of an diem
properties would soon be doubled most occasionally
pass through the minds of the Creole planters of
sugar and tobacco—and leave its effects behind.
Yet the Creoles do not desire annexation to the

American Republic. They. are Spaniards, and have
all the pride of their nation; they are Catholics,
and they fear Protestant domination • they are
men, at least, of generous impulses, and
they cannot applaud the selfish schemes of
American brigandism. With their present position,
they are, however, dissatisfied. It is their prosperity
only that indnees them to submit to a system that,
in debasing them, confirms the corruption of the
mother country ; that, in its cftbrts to maintain itself,
endangers the very existence of society in the island.
The prosperity and greatness of Cuba hang on
a thread. It was on the ruins of St. Domingo
Cuba first rose to importance ; and, rapid as
hoe been its growth, there is at present
no security for the permanence of its welfare. It is
surrounded by external dangers; it is replete with
materials of internal disorder, both predial and poli-
tical; it can derive but small hopes or assurances
from the wisdom of Madrid ; it leans on a reed when
it rests on Wince of European power or on the
promises of France. There is but one chance left—
and that is a poor one—a thorough reform of its
government. But, to reform the administration of
Cuba, the government of Spain itself must first be
reformed ; and how hopeless that is Europe knows
only too well. Look at it as We will, the prospect
is a sorry one.