The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-20 00:00:00

CITY OF MEXICO.

The city is situated at the bottom of a valley,
2,277 metres above the level of the sea. Ancient
histories state that the valley contained before the
Spanish conquest a number of flourishing towns,
surrounded with groves of trees and richly cultivated
land, forming a delightful garden, Those towns are
now only poor villages, and the cultivation is half
abandoned. The city of Mexico is the finest in the
country; the streets are perfectly straight, and run
north and south or east and west; they are well
paved and lined with foot pavements and hand-
some houses, generally two storeys high. These
houses are mostly painted in vivid coloure. The
parapet which surmounts the terraced roof is
generally crenelated and festooned, and the win-
dows of the ground floor are ornamented with
handsome ironwork. An immense number of
cupolas of churches and convents rise above the
terraces, and spread over the town their blue,
red, or yellow domes. The Moorish architecture of
those buildings would almost cause them to be
taken for so many mosques, and the cathedral
towers rising like two minarets complete the en-
tirely Oriental aspect of the place. It would be too
long to describe the 60 churches and 30 convents of
the city, and its civil and military establishments.
The Great Square (Plaza Mayor; is a vast quadri-
lateral space, at the north side of which rises the
cathedral with its towers, while on the eastern side,
for a distance of 200 metres, extends the National
Palace, or seat of Government, with the Ministerial
offices, the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, the
Supreme Court of Justice, the War-office, the Trea-
sury, the Mint, the Post-office, the Botanical Garden,
and three barracks. On the western and southern
sides the square is completed by buildings
with covered galleries, and by the Town-hall.
The University, which is near the residence of the
former Viceroys, contains an interesting museum of
Mexican antiquities; but the finest edifice of the
town is unquestionably the School of Mines. This
handsome city is peopled by 200,000 inhabitants ; '
its streets present a very animated aspect—soldiers,
priests, monks, beggars, women of all conditions,
horsemen, carriages, carts and pack-horses passing
without cessation. In consequence of the six lakes
which surround Mexico, and the numerous marshes
which border them, it appears that the climate will
not be so salubrious as might be desired, until some
drainage works shall have been executed. The in-
habitants, however, suffer little from the unhealthi-
ness of the city, owing to the width of the streets
and the wind, which is continually changing the air.

THE SOUTHERN STATES,

" Nashville, Tennessee, March 16, 1863.

"My dear —, . . . Tennessee has suffered
desperately—all now are on a level—men that were
in affluent circumstances reduced to a state of beg-
gary—houses burnt and demolished—men taken
from their wives at midnight and imprisoned in
the common gaol, and kept there with horse
thieves and murderers—women and children turned
out of their houses, after first burning. their house
at the dead hour of night in the snow and
rain. I was round Nashville to-day in the
suburbs, and such a scene of devastation I never
before witnessed all the fences round the
houses destroyed, some houses torn down, some
burnt, a large portion of prominent business houses
taken for hospitals, and some of the private houses.
Wherever ' Lincoln's' forces think proper to quar-
ter, there they will remain, and compel the owners
at the point of the bayonet, to abandon their homes;
or, if they have no other place to go to, they are
obliged to put up with all the insults of a degraded
soldiery.
" All persons are obliged to get passes here
now, even to the other side of the river. I
have had no occasion to get one as yet.
Never did I see such times as these in any
country. The tyranny for the last two years has
surpassed anything. It nearly equals the Spanish
Inquisition or the French Revolution, the only ex-
ception is the guillotine,, the stake, and the screws.
So far I have weathered the storm, but know not
a day nor an hour that I may not be imprisoned in
one of their loathsome prisons. Persons are taken
up and imprisoned for weeks and months without
a trial. No trial here. At the last criminal court
here the witnesses could not come from adjoining
counties for want of a pass, and they were not per-
mitted to have one.

" There is at this time no certainty of this war
ending; it may end in two years after this Adminis-
tration goes out of power, and may not end for 50
years.
" Liberty here is at an end, the Republic is at
an end, even the liberty of speech is denied, and a
secret detective police established. A man meeting
a friend in the street has to look about and see that
there is no one listening, as a man is liable to be
imprisoned not only for speech, but for his thoughts.
" I remain yours affietionately.

SHIPPING—This Day.

LONDON, June 20.—Wind this day at noon—North-
Easterly; moderate breeze, and fine weather, but rather
cloudy.