The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-03 00:00:00

AMERICA.

(raom ova snow. coaassroinurr.)

NEW YORK, JOLT 20.
The President's late message suggesting that if
Congress persists in carrying out the Reconstruc-
tion Act, the Federal government may have to
assume the debt of the Southern States, as it stood
before the war—one of his most foolish, if not the
most foolish, of his performances—has caused a
little revival of the animosity to him, and led to
the passage of a fierce resolution of condemnation
by an overwhelming majority. This is another
proof that he has not a shred of the political sense,
or the smallest comprehension of the nature of the
crisis through which the country is passing. This
is the second or third time that he has endeavoured
to rouse a feeling unfavourable to the public credit,
either by casting slurs on the public creditors, and
representing them as " a bondholding aristocracy,"
or by raising doubts as to the probability of the
debt being vaid. There are only two ways of
accounting for this, and neither of them
is complimentary to him one is by sup-
posing him silly enough to imagine that any
alarm he can create in this way with his present
reputation will rally anybody to the support of his
policy ; the other is by supposing him animated by
• spirit of pure mischief, and desirous, if he can-
not damage his opponents, of at least annoying
them.

The desperate efforts made by Mr. Chandler and
the wilder set in Congress to extract from that body
an expression of approval of Maximilian's execu-
tion has led to the introduction of a joint resolu-
tion by Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, commend-
ing the Mexicans for the valour of their resistance,
and congratulating them on their deliverance from
the presence of foreign invaders, and expressing
the hope that they may now get on well. This
will probably be passed, as a kind of compromise.
Very few people would like to see Maximilian's
execution formally approved of, but just as few
feel much sympathy for him. As 1 told you in
a former letter, hardly anybody here is satisfied
that he does not owe a good deal of
the lamentation which his fate is exciting
in Europe to his royal blood. Murders
far more foul have been committed by rope
houses by the hundred on victims whose folly or
imprudence had in it none of the taint of personal
ambition which we have seen in Maximilian with-
out exciting moral reprobation. Mexican repub-
licans have learnt from European royalists their
detestable mode of getting rid of political
enemies, and when a prince falls a victim to it, it
hardly becomes princes to cry out about it too
violently. It may be that Americans, as well as
Mexicans, ought to feel differently about Maxi-
milian, and about the various political adven-
turers, Italian and Hungarian, who, with motives
just as pure, and twice as good an excuse, have
exposed themselves to the Austrian rope and rifle ;
but then they do not, and there is no way Of
making them. Nothing but early training wil
enable people to look on the sins of a prince as
different from those of other people, and this train-
ing Americans and Mexicans do nut get.
Preparations are already being made in this city
to fit out filibustering expeditions against the
Juarez government. The ostensible object is the
gratification of a pious desire to avenge him, but
the real one is, of course, plunder, fighting, and a
little dose of power. Ever since the wi.r of inde-
pendence in Texas Americans feel no doubt of their
ability to " whip " three or four times their num-
ber of Mexicans ; sad any chief like Walker,
therefore, who can get together one or two thou-
sand men, feels confident, if he cannot cut his way
to the city of Mexico, of at least having a " nice
time generally " in some of the outlying provinces.
Recruiting offices have accordingly been opened in
this city, and the work of recruiting has been
going on for two or three weeks, with indifferent
success, however, I imagine. The proportion of
adventurers is smaller in this part of the world
than one would imagine, considering that the war
has so recently closed. Somehow the spirit of the
professional soldier, the feeling that a man who
has once followed the military calling cannot with-
out degradation follow any other, does not seem to
have made its way across the Atlantic, and the late
wer, so far from having left behind any love of
fighting, has left, as far as I can see, a great repug-
nance for it, a strong sense of its evils, and a
strong desire not to again engage in it. Therefore
the number of men available for filibustering at
the North is small, and at the South I imagine it is
not large. At all events, New York is a poor place
to open a filibustering office in, as it is too far from
the scene of action. Enterprises of this sort, too,
have nut nearly as good a chance of escaping the
meshes of the law now as they had before the war,
inasmuch as the Federal government has much
longer and stronger arms than it had then, and
shows much less hesitation in using them. In
Mobile and New Orleans, which are really the
proper filibustering bases for operations against
Mexico and Central America, there is little chance
of fitting out an expedition, as both these places
are under military rule, and the smallest sign of
recruiting would bring down the provost-marshal.
Whatever is done by way of invading Mexico, there-
fore, will be done at the Californian side, or from the
territories, but for the present I do not believe
anything will be done. Still, the movement has
attracted enough attention here to have called for
remark in Congress, and • resolution has been
passed calling on the President to issue his pro-
clamation against it.
I observe that Mr. Lowe announced in the
recent debate in the House of Commons on
minority representation—" That everybody knew
that members who were innocent were expelled
from the Legislature (Congress) in order to
obtain the necessary majority "—(the two thirds).
If anybody "knows' anything of this kind,
I have yet to meet with him or hear of him.
I have watched the proceedings of the Republican
majority pretty closely for the last few years, and
I can think of no foundation for this extraordinary
statement except the unseating of Mr. Stockton,
who had been sent to the Senate by Now Jersey
two years ago. He WY unseated for illegality in I
his election, after • regular hearing and examine-
tion of witnesses before an ordinary committee. i
I have never seen the regularity of this pro-
ceeding (petitioned except by the New York World
and two or three other democratic papers ; and
the thought of accepting their partizan tirades as
proof of facts or statements of law, I suppose, has
never entered into the head even of any intelligent
or educated democrat here. Moreover his expul-
sion was not neoMsary, or nearly necessary, to