The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-23 00:00:00

1111. Z SUN,

States. In this instance the force of exaggera-
tion can no further go. Their constitutional
inventiveness is taxed to enhance the glory of
any achievement, however contemptible may be its
consequences. Their natural predilection for hyper-
boles is gratified by a profusion of those figures of
rhetoric. Viewed through the convex lens of their
national egotism, a skirmish expands into a pitched
battle, the projection of two or three dozen bombs
over the walls of a city inhabited by unarmed
civilians, women, and children, rises to the dignity of
an heroic bombardment. We dd not presume to
question for a moment the innate courage of the
American soldiery; their forefathers proved the
toughness of their thews, and the intensity of their
valour beyond all denial, upon more localities
than Bunker's Hill. What we persist in depre-
cating is that spirit of braggadocio which induces
the unwarlike citizens of the United States
—men who are more accustomed to the fumes of
tobacco than to the smell of gunpowder, and who
would immeasurably rather finger a grocer's ba-
lance than brandish a spontoon—to magnify some
comparatively trivial and merely partial success into
a deed not unworthy ofa legion of demi-gods. A bitter
lesson has just been afforded to these commentators
upon the invasion of Mexico by the information
received from the metropolis of the assailed republic,
and which information, if only true to the extent of
one-sixteenth, betrays how premature have been
those pecans of victory chaunted but the other day in
the printing-offices of Boston and Philadelphia.
It would appear that the negotiations conducted by
the American Plenipotentiary, Mr. TRIST, during the
continuance of the armistice before the capital, were
on the eve of reaching an amicable issue, when
another exorbitant and avaricious demand on the part
of the emissary from Washington suddenly termi-
nated the conference, and led to the renewal of hosti-
lities. Besides demanding, in the name of his Go-
vernment, the establishment of two American
factories in Upper California, and ultimately the
possession of that portion of the Mexican federation
for a sum averaging from 15,000,000 dolls. to
20,000,000 dolls., Mr TRIST required that
the Texan boundary line should henceforth be
regarded as running along the Rio Grand€,
" from the left side to the right side of the Rio Gila."
This last extortionate requirement was, of course,
met by a direct and positive refusal, the Mexicans
being resolved to yield, on no consideration whatever,
a single furlong of ground beyond the Nueces. The
consequence of this bold and decisive refusal was the
abrupt termination of the armistice, and the resump-
tion of arms, immediately after SANTA ANNA and WIN-
FIELD SCOTT hadrecriminated upon each other for what
they severally declared to be flagrant violations of the
armistice. On the Bth of September a hostile move-
ment was made by the Americans—General SCOTT
with his forces attacking the Mill Del Rey, in the
neighbourhood of Chapultepec. Here the disaster
occurred, which proves that the soldiers of the United
States are not as invincible as their vain-glorious
countrymen would lead us to imagine. After fight-
ing, according to the expression of their own apolo-
gists, "like devils," the Americans were repulsed by
the Mexicans, and compelled to fall back upon
Tacubaya, after losing, on a moderate calculation, be-
tween 400 and 500 in killed, and between 600 and
700 in wounded. During the retrograde movement
from Chapultepec a terrible explosion occurred, by
which a considerable portion of the American troops
are said to have been destroyed, and General Wolern
himself to have been blown into the air. A letter
dated from Jalapa, attributes this disaster to a bomb
discharged from Chapultepec falling among the re-
treating ammunition waggons. The organs of the
United States, on the contrary, speak of it
as the intentional destruction of the house
of Mata, though the circumstance of their leaving
several waggons behind them, some without wheels
and others without horses, would appear like a cor-
roboration of the preceding assurance. Among the
Mexican officers who had fallen in the engagement
were General LEON, Colonel BALDERAS, Colonel
'The LA, Colonel GELEATI, and Captain MATEAS—
heroes who fought to the death in the defence of their
fatherland. President SANTA ANNA himself, the
Dictator of Mexico and Commander-in-Chief of the
National Army, was seriously wounded in the arm
during the encounter. How far this patriotic captain
was prepared to serve his country is shown in this
simple and significant sentence published in one of
the journals inimical to his interests :—" The traitor
SANTA ANNA commanded in person the column which
forced the Americans to retreat." Eternal honour,
say we, to all such traitors 1

Further intelligence received from Orizaba declares
that the United States army, under General Scorr,
had entered the capital, and were established in the
gorgeous galleries of the Montezumas, while the Dic-
tator of Mexico, wounded but unconquered, had been
compelled to retire to Guadaloupe. How far this de-
claration is worthy of credit time will speedily
testify; but, in any event, we are convinced that
there is reason in the remark made in the Diario del
Gobierno, that the capital must, in any event,
prove the sepulchre of the Americans. With
the priesthood inciting the population to arms ;
with General HERRERA, the Governor of Mexico,
recommending the citizens to shower stones from the
roof-tops upon their enemies ; with President SANTA
ANNA at bay in Guadaloupe ; and with General
PAREDES at the head of a formidable body of gue-
rillas upon the road leading to Vera Cruz, the im-
poverished and exhausted army of the Americans
seems to be doomed to destruction. The Mexicans
may yet avenge themselves by the slow and desultory
warfare peculiar to their country. The splendour
which has lured the Americans to the halls of the
Montezumas may prove to be on their entrance only
the glittering brand of a Nemesis.