The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-17 00:00:00

THE CUBAN AFFAIR.

The DSO. has a long article on the affair of
Cuba, from which we extract the following :
It is not permitted to doubt that the most southern
states have firmly resolved to annex the island of Cuba to
the Union, mill to renew indefinitely coups do maim in that
magnificent colony, until they shall have wrested it front
Spain. The federal government, we know, remains a Com-
plete stranger to these criminal attacks on the domains of a
friendly nation; it disavows and reproves them. But evi-
dently the means of action which it possesses are absolutely
iusufricient, are null, for it has nut interrupted the military
preparations which are making at N"w Orleans its the lace
of the sun. In itself, the project is calculated to obtain
the degree of attention attached to an act of unexam-
pled piracy. Citizens of the United States, who throw
themselves in arms on a Spanish possession, whilst the
Union is at toll pc cc with Spain, call down on them-
selves, un the part of European opinion, the reproba
lion which pirates must always excite amongst civilised
nations. they have not even the pretext of an in-
ternal insurrection to attract them. The island of Cuba is
prosperous under the Spanish flag; it know; that, and is
grateful for it. Movements like that of l'orto del l'rincipo
prove nothing, if it be not that there exist in all countries
at present men who confound inailiordination and revolt
with liberty. Nothing, then, renders interesting the
authors and gettcrs-up of these repeated invasions. But,
in another point of view, the enterprise is of a nature to bo
looked upon with anxiety. It is not purely and simply an
net of brigandage on a grand scale ; it is also an important
episode in the drama of the destinies of slavery in the New
World, where that detestable institution has sought its last
asylum. If the attack were to succeed, it would precisely
on that account be an event which would cause great sense-
tion,and have great importance. Slavery existed until recently
in half of the states of the Union ; in one of the two chambers
of the Congress, the Senate, the balance was equal between
the slave and the free states. Two years ago the illu•trions Mr.
Clay proposed a series of measures, which, though at first
rejected, were afterwards adopted, un being brought for-
ward by another person; and which have virtually at least
changed the respective positions from top to bottom. Tho
numerical majority will henceforth belong in the two cham-
bers to the states which do nut permit slavery ; and it will
increase more and more, because nothing prevents it from
following the superior power which the free states possess
of creating new states. Moreover, it is to be expected that
several states which are at present ranged under the banner
of slavery will change sides, and for some of them the con-
version may be very early. Such is the little state of
Delaware, such Kentucky, such Virginia itself, and Ten-
nessee. Slavery will disappear in those states ; it is
at present the interest of the proprietors of the soil
that it should do so ; cultivation would be better,
and would give larger profits with free labourers than
with slaves., At a later period, and for the same reason,
the southern states near to them, must, if they regard their
own interest, even the most material, also get rid of slavery
and their slaves sold by their masters, before the enfran-
chisement will go and increase the black population of the
states nearest the tropic. This perspective has not escaped
the statesmen of the south, amongst whom are some emi-
nent for their intelligence, and whose local patriotism is
ardent. hence their designs have been conceived and been
partially put in practice during the last twenty years. The
soil escapes from them to the north, and they endeavour to
extend it to the south. It was this which gave birth to
Texas. The calculation, however, was vain. The conquerors
of Texas outstripped the object, and their striking 'llea=
will turn against slavery. Yielding to a disorderly ambition,
they carried much too far the bounds of the conquest. This ter-
ritory must he divided into three or four distinct states, and by
that dismemberment there will be formed, by the will of

the citizens themselves, more free states than 'slave states.
In Cuba, on the contrary, the chances are better for slavery.
The island of Cuba is not, like Texas, a country in which
slavery has to be established. It is u slave country, and is
sufficiently rich and populous to cut up immediately with
Porto Rico, which would follow it, into three states at least,
which would marvellously complete in Congress the pha-
lanx of the south. The island of Cuba thus becomes the
field of battle between liberty and the slavery of the blacks.
If the adventurers of the United States make themselves
masters of it, the slavery party will have fur a time repaired
its lost~. It will take courage in the United States en tho
north, and in Brazil in the south, where it is in some dan
ger from the nature of the proceedings of the British
Cabinet. If, on the contrary, the tondultieri fail defini-
tively at Cuba, it will be the signal through all the extent
of the new continent far new efforts in favour of the liberty
of the blacks."

CEYLON.—Papera relating to the court martial
held on Captain Watson have been officially published. It
will be remembered that in February of last year Captain
Watson was examined before a committee of the House of
Commons on the affairs of Ceylon, and denied that certain
documents sent to persons in Ceylon, stating that they would
be killed and their property confiscated unless they gave up
some property belonging to other parties therein mentioned,
were to his hand-writing. Captain Watson declared that
the signatures to four documents were forgeries. It WAS
subsequently alleged that they were in his hand-writing,
and a court-rusrtisl was held at Colombo, on the Bth
of April last, when he was, according to the letter of
Lord Fitzroy Somerset, "most fully and most honour-
ably acquitted of the charge preferred against him and the
four instances contained in it," &c. The judge-advocate-
general, in transmitting to the lior.e-Guards the result of
the court-martial, declared that the signatures to the docu-
ments in question were forgeries, and that the statement
made by Captain Watson before the House of Commons
with regard to the said signatures were true sort not false.
The finding of the court was confirmed bye ajor-General
s--st •••••nraandi.,-