The Express.
London, England, 1858-06-22 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES,

moat ors SW*

NEW YORE, Jmo 9.

New Orleans has during the last week been the
merle of scents somewhat resembling those which
took place in Ban Francisco two years ago. A vigi-
lance committee organised itself on Tuesday and
Wednesday, took posseision of the arsenal, and seized
the arms, erected barricades of cotton bales in the
streets, ordered the municipal authorities to abdicate,
and issued a proclamation announcing that it had
taken possession of the government, and was deter-
mined to exterminate the " thugs," who for years
pest had Ailed the streets with violence and blood-
shed. The mayor made • feeble attempt at resist-
ance, read the Riot Act, made a requisition on the
militia general for the use of his forces, and !Wally
surrendered, and went over to the enemy's amp.
The greatest exeitsment prevailed ; business yes eve-
pended, and both thesconindttee and the contaidaremede
active preparations for deciding the matter by •
pitched battle, Parisian fashion. The telegraph has
ever since kept es in hourly expectation of receiving
news of • bloody combat, but this morning the an-
nouncement has arrived that the VigikoM have
abandoned the field, or rather their banicatles, and
order is restored.

When an affair of this sort occurred in Ware*
it was looked upon es the natural result of seek a
conglomeration of ruffianism as the gold
d
had collected from all parts of the wee! iltr rap
ease
state. A city organised and peopled as San !no-
elan wee could hardly be expected to ester spa •
weer of order and praeperlt withoet nob a
thorough purification as the ordinary operates of
the laws was unable to afford. And this argeolatkin
which temporarily superseded the municipal govern-
ment certainly did its work admirably, hanged inve-
nt ruffrui.e who had long defied the mete,
banished several oder% partied the elwatics4;tls
eat corrupt peelers, polies and polies r=
who had been notoriously is kegs. with criminals,
aid, its work dose, dieetved itself peaceably. In
shorti„etliand violent as the movement wee, it
was througheet the musty es strain
oit
proof the vital energy of the rem, of its ability to
evolve order sod security from the wont sold poli-
test chaos that seises days have ever witeemed.
Any allowasses that were made for San Francisco,
however, on the mere of its youth, and the realm
circumstances attendant on its birth, weld sot be
claimed for New Orleans, and an armed rebottle,
with barricades and ether revolutionary
Delis in coed the oldest cities of the Allende
has naturally waited great apprehemion, and given
pent eeandal. There eau be ao gentian that New
Orleans, like all our great cities, has been terribly
• Ammetnation and robberies In broad
day ht have ben perpetrated by the hundred, year
after year and the offenders, though well Inown,
have never tom brought to prisishment. The police
has been utterly powerless, except against the
weakest and petite* CUM of culprits. Juries meld
sot be got to convict, norjudges to sentence, for the
simple reason that they ere is most cases the pre',
meal or political friends of the rowdies and pegi-
lists. The explanation of all this le very
and, misseetis essitendis, I may offer it for the
and political evil of most of our large cities out of
New England se well. The " better eludes" will
sot attend the primary meetings at which
are elected for the conventions, which
sanilidates for public offices ; they will set
jto the poll and vote; they will sot sereea
uries, and they will not suffer the to be put
la nomination for any public situation whaiever.
There is • class, however, which will attend to them
matters, and which makes its livelihood out ethos',
and that elms is unhappily the very worst is die
community. Grogshope and gambling houses sup-
ply most of the municipal Alms of New York and
New Orleans, and they are voted into office and kept
there by prize-fighters, thieves, bullies, swindlers,
fraudulent contractors, receivers of stolen goods of
doe lessee crone. In this city the evil Wretched
teach a pitch under the late mayor, who was the head
of this gang, and had filled the rank' of the imitate
with his creatures, that at the Met elsokies tie /n-
-habitants roes as one man and for COCO ad their
duty. The merchants and shopkeepers premed to
the polls, sad elected an honest mayor, sad have
been reposing under the shade of their laurels ever
since. In New Orleans it is very probable them
evils have been just as flagrant as here, and whoa
the news reached us of the formation of a vigilance
eommittee, we were disposed to look on it es • re-
medy—violent and dangerous, perhaps, but still •
remedy—for a *ate of things which threatened the
disruption of society itself. Grave suspicions, how-
ever, very soon began to arts that it was after all
but a desperate move on the part of the pro-.lavery
democratic party to obtain pomeesion of the city
government at the approaching election, and drive
out the Americans or Know-Nothings who have
hitherto been in power. Subesquent events have
unhappily COGfiTIIIOII this irepreselon. The candi-
dates proposed for the mayoralty and other Aloes
by the vigilance committee were old heels of
the administration, and most of its leading members
prove to be energetic Buchananites. New Orleans
has long been the roisterous of the more desperate
elms of supporters of the present governmemt—fili-
heaters, slave traders, fre.—sad it is generally
believed that this Oat move is simply a bold attempt
on the part of these men to obtain the control of the
city. This is the view of the affair generally current
in New York for the lest few days, and it has re-
°rived strong confirmation from the result of the
municipal election, which took place on Monday.
The American candidate for mayor was elected, sad
the vigilante forthwith broke up and went home.
Severer have been arrested ea a charge of high taw
eon. During their short reign they did not emery
as of their threats against evil-doers into execution.
While furnishing you with this view of the tress-
setae, I must add that it is as yet but imperfectly
understood, and we me by so miens la poser
Mon of all the facts Il my meta alit be menet—
end I believe it is—it =yearn to give yea more idea
of the desperation of the slave power, sad of the
whom it employe he emisinining itself. Each year
brings to light Mom elsety its indifference to the
otestitutioe, to the tele% is social order itself, so
rthe Nistltatiee vas he saved sad extended.
tressed's. war mak is the legate last
week has exploded itssif is wag No ailitlead
sloops for the awry. There is a Beasial kapersiak
abroad that the British Government arlildhasasellse
sots of its came is the Gulf of Mod" =WI the
result is a Lemma esheidswee of the almeme fbr
hostilities. The Ilsolhers mistime have greera
re-
markably meek slaw lber hind &ward. Hale,
sad other Northam, ease out so rampantly
for war, thus rooming closely that the
nose bloodthirsty of the legislators were play-
ing a of brag. Each party was anxious
la aunts Its rivals in patriotic Buncombe, bee 11111
wee se the plants' found that if they went es, war
really might fellow, awful visions of three mete a
pound for cotton caused them to drop the trumpet
and blow the treble pipe of peace. The whole
bition, however, ?Ants little credit on the Amaral
tone of American stresmanship. Nobody Geese to
have sufficient force of character to reran to leader
to the popular taste for bluster. Erse Betakes, the
late Speaker of the Ileum of Representatives, NOW
Governor of Memeshesette, and one of the mast
rising and most prominent men in the ranks of
the Friona**. vigorously denounced the British
government in Boston yesterday, and threatened war
to the knife, without ever saying rose syllabi* in
condensate." of the shammies, sapiaawss ea the
part of the Americas aatheritiss with regard to the
gave trade. -

7Tiiloneet news from Via verb tae Morras
r palmately disposed. and se hirolng ?embed
Governer Cumming civilly. The opium is
gaining that the war wee got up,
and emit be kept up, nil* for the benefit et the
ermy seatreaters and linigere-on of the Treasury.
The incitement about Ohs somptir which is ris•
violin, itself ia every ompletimlni of the govern-
ment monism atiabatel. Amen, job bas boss
In I posed this week by a committee of Congress very
similar to that of Fort Snelling. which I mentim
in a meet letter. The imam. incidents of the
timid am the sarm—a esombeey oa the part of
goverment officiais to mil a patch of land to the
elate.military purposes,

.raimat arIICUUS 10 Mll i patch
Note. called Willett's Paid, tar mai