The Express.
London, England, 1848-05-23 00:00:00

WEST INDIA MAIL.

A summary of the following intelligence appeared
in part of our last evening's impression.
By the arrival of the steamer Avon, Capt. (last,
Lieut. J. Ray, R.N., Admiralty Agent, at South-
ampton, yesterday morning, we have accounts from
Mexico and the West Indies to the folbwing dates:
Ilonduras, 10th; Tampico, 13th; Vera Cruz and St.
Jago de Cuba, 16th; Demerara, 19th; Trinidad
and Jamaica, 21st ; Grenada, 23rd ; Havana, 27th ;
Barbadoes, 29th; and Martinique, 30th of April;
St. Thomas, 2nd, and Bermuda, 7th May. The
Avon brings on freight 312,272 dollars from Mexico
on merchants' account, 209 'oz. gold dust, 21,511 oz.
silver, 7,7671. British coin, and 427 serous of cochineal.
The intelligence from Mexico is not of a deci-
sive character. Mr. Clifford, the American commis-
sioner, had reached the capital ; and Mr. Servicr, the
Iprospictive Minister Plenipotentiary, was on the road
from Vera Cruz, and hourly expected to join Mr.
Clifford, and ez.:hange the ratification of the treaty.
By the last accounts received by the courier of the
British legation at Vera Cruz, they had not yet been
able to complete a quorum at Queretaro, but it was
believed that this would be effected by the 25th of
April, and that notwithstanding the dissatis-
faction felt by the Mexican government
at the modifications made by the American
senate to the treaty its ratification will be
authorised by the Mexican Congress. In the mean
time vast importations of European and American
merchandise were taking place at Vera Cruz, in anti-
cipation of the peace, and with the ohject of taking
advantage of the American, over the very probable
reestablishment of the Mexican tariff.

There is evidently, on the part of the American
army and residents, a etiong disinclination to ri lin-
quiah the grasp they have on the country, and it will
require no little effort on the part of the American
Government to reconcile them to it.

There is most disastrous intelligence from the
peninsula of Yucatan. The native Indians of that
province, by the last accounts, were still destroying,
with unrelenting ferocity, thc whole white population,
man, woman, and child. The authorities had applied
to the British, American, and Spanish authorities
ati Cuba ; but cs what they chiefly wanted was a
military force, and that force could not be promptly
given, it is much to be feared that by this time the
Indian population will have regained all that the
Spaniards had taken from them three centuries ago.

JAMAICA.—The inhabitants continue to enter-
tain the most depressing apprehensions. be Cordon's
mercantile circular of the 21st of Aprii remarks

We have nothing new to report of the condition of our market
since the date of our text issue. The same inactivny and caution,
the vame want of confidence and tightnra in m. metary affairs which
then characterised the business of the community, continue now to
operate against it, to all appearances to a more alarming extent.
The columns of the island papers devoted to news are
filled with accounts of meetings, and their advertising
columns with resolutions on the state of its affairs. A
deputation from the Kingston Chamber of Commerce
waited on the governor on the 15th of April, with a petition
from that body. Sir C. Grey's answer is of consequence, as
showing the -direction he is trying to give to the general
excitement. It is couched in these terms :

I fully admit, whilst I sincerely deplore, the reality of the distress
which has fallen on the planters in the British Went Indira, and on
the merchants who depend on the planting interest ; and I believe
the most immediate came of it to be, that British capital in largely
withdrawn from our own coloMes, and that capital, whether British
or not, is now more lucratively employed in the foreign colonies, and
other countries where slavery still exists in full force and unmitigated
atrocity. That it can he more profitably employed in such places
no doubt depends very much uorm the admission of produce, obtained
by the moat reckless steam, into the British market at a rate of duties
approaching to the level of those which are raised upon produce from
our eon colonies, where the cultivation is subjected to those social
restraints which we suppose to be required for the main-
tenance of good order, for the security of persons and of pro-
perty, for the promotion of morality and religion, and for ensuringto
every one the liberty which we believe to be the right of man. If the
train of circumstances which bas tended in Jamaica to this ultimate
depression of the planter's, gains should undergo no material altera-
tion before the present tendon of the imperial parllument Owes, I
Mir it must bring upon that clam of our society still more afflicting
cossequences; and I participate in your feeling, that it will be the
paramount duty of the legisiature to give its whole thought to the
teak of affording them all the help that is compatible with justice to
the rest of the community End with the lasting welfare of the island.
I um sanguine in hope and confident in belief that much might be done
if we were to begin by a revisal of the primiplee of yoor taxation, and
more espechilly of those tenth on assessments which are levied for pa-
rochial purposes. A more Audio. and careful method also of preparing
in each session the annual cetimates of unsettled rot enditure and of
ways and means, and a greater firmness In acting upo,i and in adher-
ing to such estimates after they have been approted of by the assem-
bly for the romirg year, are also each required. A foundation might
thus be laid which would sustain a system of inure actively remedial
mauves; and for such objects and purposes, if the niseedty should
still continue, and the wishes of the inhabitants and of the members
of the legislature should recommend an early mission, you may rely
that, as torso it may deoend on me, there shall he no obstacle op-
posed to the timely me sing of the General Ateenibly, within such a
period as shall afford full leisure for taking into consideration the
state of the Wand, with all the deliberate care which so momentous
an investigation would require.

LAND SLlPS.—There in a hill or precipice at Coth-
enteric, called " The Hag," 9.5 feet high, at the junction of
the Tees and the Ba'd. r, a picturesque °Neil much admired
by tourists. Aloe the heavy rams 01 April, there was en
accumulation of water M a field behind the eminence, which
passed by a natural filter into the river. The " nag," which
had long been sapped and und. Trained in this manner, Ims
since slipped to the extent of 70 yarhi, by 15 in breadth.
The rocks in front were bored with a tremendous crash into
the Tees below. One stone thrown down is setimati ci to
weigh upward. of nine tone. The footpath round the hill,
and the road to a water-mill, have disappeared—stopped,
aithout the ceremony of an order from the justices. no
noise of the fall was heard two miles off—Another land-
slip has recently been reported. It occurred near Porlock, ;
Somersetshire, where about eight acres of Culbone
Wood, hss oer n forced tAwards the sea. The land mused
about 10') y.irds, taking the tries with it down to the water's
edge, and etetieg away the lower road to the romantic little
church. The trees are now standing and looking prosperous
on the beach, though some of them must have sunk gm ra/
hundred fee*. The spot is now said to have a very pin-
turs,que aplearance The caverns beneath this wood were,
nosy years 'Snag, the resort of ogaamPoro.