The Express.
London, England, 1859-10-10 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(moat ova OWN

NEW YOKE, Barr. 27,
The San Juan affair still continues to excite a fair
share of attention, but a letter from Governor
Douglas to General Harney which appears in this
morning's papers has brought the wordy portion of
the warfare to a ridiculous, and so far as the United
States are 000cerned, a somewhat humiliating, con-
clusion. In answer to the governor's protest against
the occupation of the island, the general replied that
he had been thus peremptory in his action, in order
to protect American citizens resident in San Juan
from British outrages, one of which was an attempt
to drag some of their number to Victoria to be tried
for alleged offences under British law, and also to
guarantee them against the incursions of the Indians.
Governor Douglas, in his reply, makes lamentable
havoc of the general's charges in so far as they affect
the British, and, as most people here now confess'
leaves the gallant officer in a somewhat awkward
predicament.
After this, the remark of the New York Times
correspondent at Victoria that, if it prove true that
" General Harney occupied the wised without feel-
ing sure that there was imminent necessity for his
doing so, he will have added another to the many
evidences already current that he is too impetuous to
be entrusted with a separate command on • distant
frontier," is eminently trne. The cabinet is
fully alive to the absurdity of the predi-
cament into which he has now plunged them,
and have evinced their sense of their situation
by sending off General Scott precipitately to the
scene of action. They would, lam satisfied, at once
withdraw the troop*, but that the democratic party
has always plumed itself upon showing a bold front,
whether in the right or in the wrong, to the Briteh.
There prevails amongst a large class of the commu-
nity, I regret to say, • strong dread lest any con-
cession to England should be construed rather as a
sign of weakness than a mark of respect for abstract
rights and justice.
We have had a deputation from the north of Ire.
land, composed of three Presbyterian clergymen, '
Game over to seek the sympathy, of the
United States in aid of the revival now going'
on in Ulster. Their appearance, however, has
not on the whole elicited much demonstration ever
in the denomination to which they belong, though
their ailoresses have been attentively listened to by
large audiences. But the fact is, that although
the accounts we receive of the Irish move-
ment have excited a good deal of attention, we
are so much more familiar than you are with the
usual revival phenomena, that it is rather the scene of
the Irish awakening, rather the fact that such •
thing should take place in Ireland, than the awaken-
ing itself which creates surprise, for revivals here
come and go almost pari passe with our com-
mercial panics. The depression of spirits,
which in a community so entirely mercan-
tile as this is slimy' follows a financial
" crisis," with its attendant ruin of proud houses,
breaking up of happy homes, distress and tribulation
of all sorts, naturally directs people's attention to the
! things of a better life, and renders their minds more
! than usually susceptible to religious impressions. We
had two winters ago a revival of this sort, and we
have had may each. It was more widely spread by
far than the trishaw, and, minus the physical mat-
' (*stations, was, I think, for the time being, quite as
intense. I regret to say that I do not think it has
left the public in general at all favourably impressed
as to the vales of such periods of exaltation. Oars
has passed away with our commercial depression.
The prayer meetings are over ; the misrule have
ceased to come in ; and the world jogs on pretty
much as it did. Crimea have not diminished ; commer-
cial honesty is not a bit higher than ever; no more
love sod brotherly kindness is displayed in
the market than ever. Ido not say that these are
fair testa of the value of a religious movement.
These may remain, after the flood is over, fertilising
deposits—which we do not perceive, and which
cause thousands of lives to bear rich fruit in the
discharge of obscure snd everyday duties. But it is
by tests like these, be they bad, or be they good,
that public opinion does judge such movements. It
asks for visible palpable effects, and refuses to take
count of unseen influences. The visible palpable
effects, as I have said, are unhappily few in num-
ber,
and though the excitement of the moment
carries everything before it when a revival is in pro-
gives, here amongst ourselves phenomena of a
similar sort so far off as Ireland excite but a little
passing surprise sod curiosity.
The accounts from the other side about the Great
Eastern excite the moot intense interest, and I think
her welcome hers will equal, if not surpass, in en-
thusiasm, the greeting she is every'rhere receiving
in England. Every port along the Atlantic coast is
rampant fora visit (comber, and promises unheard of
profits to the owners if they will only come and ex-'I
hibit her.

Political news there is none, except that the
quarter's revenue returns exhibit a surplus in favour
of the Treasury over and above all debt., dues, and
liabilities. This is a heavy blow to the protectionists,
who were raising their hands in exultalion over the
prospect of an irremediable dtficiency wider the
existing tariff.

Lola Monte. embatkad at Southampton on Tuft-
doh OS board the Hammett eteemer, ha New 'York.