The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-14 00:00:00

THE NEW MEXICAN EMPIRE,

The statement that the Mexican Empire. when
reconstituted, is to arrange to pay to France within
six years the cost of the war, and also the sums
owing to private creditors, is probably merely the
expression of a natural surmise. If it shall prove
that France has succeeded in bringing the country
to a state of order that will admit of its magnificent
resources being developed, she will certainly be en-
titled to expect that the cost of that work—in which
the commerce of the world is interested—should be
repaid within a reasonable period, and six years must
be regarded as a liberal construction of what is
reasonable in such a case. With regard to the sums
due to private French creditors, curiosity will be
felt as to their nature and amount, in the face of the
reports current as to the character of the Jecker
claims ; while it is impossible also that some of the
brigands who have each hitherto under the title of
" General" ravaged the country in the cause of
the ecclesiastical party, and who have lately co-
operated with the French, may attempt to obtain
heavy amounts by putting forward Frenchmen in
their name. But all these matters will doubtless be
brought by the French Government within the most
moderate limits compatible with the peculiar bar-
gains in which they may have had their origin. The
point to be kept in view in relation to the pecu-
niary claims in which Englishmen are interested is
that there can, in justice, be no priority of payment
to the creditors of any nationality. Every one
must share, pro rata, and if the revenue of the
country is unequal to the annual claims upon it
either a loan must be raised to make up what is
wanted, or a percentage of the deficiency must be
submitted to by all. With reference to the bond-
holders, indeed, this construction of the equity of
the case concedes too much. Their lien upon the
Customs is of course indefensible, but it has been
too frequently the habit to speak of their claims as
if they ought to be satisfied with the rigid payment
of those dues, whether the amount might be suffi-
cient or otherwise to meet the interest accruing.
Instead of this being the case, they hold a primary
mortgage upon all the territory of the State, and
are also, from the default of the Mexican Govern-
ment, by the non-fulfilment punctually of the last
conversion, entitled to revert to the original rate of
5 per cent. at which the debt was contracted. Apart
from a satisfactory settlement of the arrears of divi-
dend, they have also the right to exact immediate
restitution of the £lOO,OOO cash stolen in 1861 from
the British Legation, and which it may be supposed
will necessarily be a preliminary of any recognition
by England of the new order of affairs. As to the
right of the French Government to reduce the
Customs tariff, which is asserted in some quarters
to be a natural consequence of their stepping into the
functions of the Mexican Government, the question
is one that cannot be touched to the disadvantage
of the bondholders. When the lien on the customs
was given to the bondholders as security it was cal-
culated to yield a certain annual sum, and although
the bondholders would have had no title to com-
plain if that sum should, through decay of trade or
other casual circumstance, fail to be realised, they
can insist that, if an alteration be made by the Go-
vernment to lessen the security thus hypothecated
to them, the Government, unless the consent of
the bondholders shall have been previously ob-
tained, are bound to provide some new security
to make up a value equal to the
,difference they
have thus cccasioned. Under
any other view,
it is obvious that an hypothecation of customs
dues or any other sources of revenue would
be worthless, since a State might hand them over
to credulous creditors one day and repeal them en-
tirely on the next. On all these points, however,
the course of the French Government is likely to be
perfectly consistent with generally understood prin-
ciples. On public pecuniary matters there has
never yet been any ground to question the liberality
or good faith of the Emperor Napoleon, and the
Mexican bondholders, who consist not merely of
of all nations, will pro-
Englishmen but of people
bably be willing to facilitate the task of reconstruc-
tion now in hand, by manifesting confidence and a
desire to prevent embarrassment by meeting as far
possible all suggestions that may contribute to the
common object—limes' City Article.

MR. ALEXANDER SMITH, in his new volume of
poetical prose, called " Dreamthorp," has the fol-
lowing charming reverie on visiting the old castle and chapel
alluded to as being, perhaps, to a stranger, the points of
attraction in Dreanithorp. Back from the houses is the
lake, on the green sloping banks of which, with broken
windows and tombs, the ruins stand. As it is noon, and
the weather is warm, lei us go and sit on a turret. Here,
once,
day these very steps, es old ballads tell, a queen sat
day after day, looking southward for the light of returning
Spears. I bethink me that yesterday, no further gone, I
went to visit a consumptive shoemaker ; seated here I can
single out his very house, nay, the very windowof the room
in which he is lying. On that straw roof might the raven alight
and flap his sable wings. There, at this moment, is the su-
preme tragedy being enacted. A woman is weeping there,
and little children are looking on with a sore bewilderment.
Before nightfall the noor peaked face of the bowed artisan
will have gathered its ineffable peace, and the widow will
be led away from the bedside by the tenderness of neigh-
bours, and the cries of the orphan brood will be stilled.
And yet this present indubitable suffering and loss does
not touch me like the sorrcw of the woman of the
ballad, the phantom probably
of a minstrel's brain.
The shoemaker will be forgotten—l shall be forgotten;
and long after visitors will sit here and look out on
the landscape and
murmur the simple lines. But
why do death and dying obtrude themselves at the present
moment? On the turret opposite, about the distance of a
gunshot, is as pretty a sight as eye could wish to see. Two
young people, strangers apparently' have come to visit the
ruin. Neither the ballad queen,
nor the shoemaker down
yonder, whose respirations are
getting shorter and shorter,
touches them in the least. They are merry and happy,
and the graybeard turret has not the heart to thrust a
foolish moral upon them,
They would not thank him
if he did, I daresay. Perhaps they could not under-
stand him. Time enough j Twenty years hence they
will be able to sit down at his feet, and count griefs
with him, and tell him tale for tale. Human hearts get
ruinous in so much less time than stone walls and towers.
See, the young man has thrown
himself down at the girl's
feet on a little space of grass.
-a her scarlet cloak she looks
like a blossom springing out of T
a crevice on the ruined
steps. He gives her a flower) and she bows her face down
over it almost to her knees. what did the flower say ? Is
it to hide a blush ? He looks delighted; and I almost
fancy I see a proud colour on
his brow. As I gaze, these
young people make me a perfect idyl. The generous, un-
grudging sun, the m3lancholy ruin,
decked
with the fl Avers and ivies of forgetfulness' like mad Lear,
and grief, and
between them, sweet and evanescent,
love I human truth and

THE CASE OF MRS. M'LAORr,AL—Official docu-
ments have been published me%eting the statements
of the convict Jessie M'Lachlan.
interview between the prisoner and terof them relates to an
agent on the 19th
of Julie, in the presence of the Governor of the General
Frieon at Perth, where M'Lachlan
is
confined. In the
course of that interview the prisoner p
conversation that she had previously sitively denied a
in which she spoke of laudanum. d
Wheno with her agent,
asked whether
Mr. Fleming was the guilty person, She
the act." On the following morning, saidthe that "he did
2 h, she ex
sed a wish to know why she had beenpres t
questioned
the day before, and then told the Governor on
that she had
spoken of laudanum to her agent. She had told him that
she knew no more of the murder than if had
placed a
glass of laudanum " foreanent" her. Another
document
is a note by Miss Ilielop, the scripture reader of the prison,
of a conversation held by her with the prisoner
Hislop says :—" I had visited the prisoner sevoral' ti Miss
my official capacity, but had never once alluded to megin
her
crime, but had spoken to her as I do to other prisoners,
being a lost sinner in the sight of God. On this occasionas
she referred to the crime with which she was charged,
said her case was a very sad one. I said to her, You and
will
have noticed that in all my dealings with you I have eare-
fully avoided speaking to you of your clime; but since
you have mentioned it yourself I shall let you know my
mind on the subject. I believe you to be the guilty
per son, and to me you seem to have acted as a guilty
person throughout. You have been guilty of a deed for
which you ought to have been hanged, as God has never
repealed that law he gave, that blood should answer for
blood, but by a very mysterious providence your life has
been spared, and I would beseech you to make early and
earnest application to Him whose blood cleanseth from all
sin. She looked at me and said, 'Well, Miss Hislop, 1
am obliged to you for your honesty.' She sat silent for a
Minute or so after thi., and then she said, I had as little
thought of it half an hour before I left my own house as
you have at this moment.' I said I believed it was not a
premeditated thing, but that one sin had led to another
till the
deed was committed. She said, 'I feel sometimes
as if I could
go through these prison walls. I often think
mj.. mind
wi:l give way.' She began to tell me about
going out for son •
le spirits that night at the request of
Plercin,
b. I sopped her, and 11. was no use going over
it, as nothing she s
it.' She
immediately
say would alter my opinion about
yadded, but Fleming is not a good
man.' I said ' don't say
he is a good man, but I believe
him to be innocent of
that crime.'