The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-15 00:00:00

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teal, may be composed. The charges of irresolution
andincapacity made against the Mexican President
are too lamentably founded on fact. Still a large
allowance must be made for him, on account not only
of defective discip:ine, but the physical weakness of
the men who ordinarily make up the mass of the
Mexican armies. It would be no easy matter for the
ablest general in Europe to make anything of an army
and an ordnance so undisciplined and defective as the
Mexican is said to be. Those who turn up their
noses at Santa Anna ought to read the description
which Mr. Thompson, formerly Ambassador of the
United States at Mexico, has given of the military
system that prevails there :
" The soldiers of the Mexican army," says Mr. Thomp-
son, "are generally collected by sending out recruiting
detachments into the mountains, where they hunt the
Indians in their dens and caverns, and bring them in
chains to Mexico. There is scarcely a-day that drores
of these miserable and more than half-naked wretches
are not seen thus chained together and marching through
the streets to the barracks, where they are scoured and
then dressed in an uniform made of linen cloth, or of
serge, and are occasionally drilled, which drilling
mainly consists in teaching them to march in column
through the streets. As to the wheelings of well-trained
troops, or the prompt and exact execution of other evo-
lutions, they know nothing about them. There s not one
in
ten cf these soldiers who has ever seen a gun, nor
one in a hundred who has ever fired one, before he was
brought into the barracks! Their arms, too, are gene-
rally worthless English muskets, which have been con-
demned and thrown aside, and are purchased for almost
nothing, and sold to the Mexican Government. Their
powder, too, is equally bad; in the last battle between
Santa Anna and Bustarnente, which lasted the whole
day, not one cannon-ball in a thousand reached the
enemy—they generally fell about half-way between the
opposing armies."
Truly, if this description by the United States' Am-
bassador be accurate, and we have no doubt that it
is, the renown of Generals Taylor and Scott has been
cheaply earned. Of course, if the materiel of Santa
Anna's present force be not of a totally different
class, we would have no hopes of his success. But
we think it likely that he has endeavoured, to the
best of his ability, to replace these imbecile Indians
by mea of Spanish blood. The urgency of their own
peril may have animated many of the latter to join
the ranks. Community and extremity of danger may
impart for a brief while unity to the councils and
energy to the resolutions and the acts of the Mexican
generals. And in that case the invaders may encounter
an opposition which nothing in their past experience
will have prepared them to expect. Even if they
could succeed in entering Mexico, they might find
themselves hemmed in, and their supplies cut off, in
a way which would make their victory cost them
dear. Nor must it be forgotten that Mexico de-
pends for sustenance, to an extent that perhaps no
other city in the world does, on supplies brought
from a great distance. Almost everything that it
consumes in the way of food or luxury is brought on
the backs of mules or asses, or half-naked Indians
(never in carts or waggons), from a distance of forty
miles and upwards. Benign as the climate of the
capital is, it is obvious that Moscow itself, and the
horrors of a Russian winter, did not offer a greater
facility of isolating a hostile army, and leaving it to
famine to annihilate it. The Mexicans may not,
indeed, have the resolution to burn their beautiful
city. But even without resorting to that extremity,
it would require but a moderate exertion of foresight
on the part of their rulers, and self-devotion on their
own, to make the United States rue the day that
ever they allowed the ambition of their once-idolised
President to involve them in so unjustifiable and so
profitless a war. With all his faults, Santa Anna is
a man of great capacity, and of a fiery spirit when
put upon his mettle. If it be true that all negotia-
tions for peace are at an end, we should think it quite
within the limits of probability that the Mexican Pre-
sident may yet redeem both his own and his country's
character. The return of Paredes has naturally created a
great sensation in the States. The most probable
result of his reappearance on the scene of war will
be to put it entirely out of Santa Anna's power to
realise any of those pacific intentions which of late
he has been reported to entertain. And should
Paredes, as appears not impossible, reach Mexico
before the fate of that city is decided, the chances
of its successful resistance will be considerably im-
proved. He and Santa Anna may perhaps agree
to waive their quarrels for a time, and uniting their
energies and their influence they might obtain a
success which neither of them singly could hope for.
The Washington Union attacks the captain of the
British steamer from which Paredes landed, as
luving violated the neutrality of this country by
introducing "so decided an enemy into their
ports, and without acquainting them with his
character." But it really does not appear that the
captain knew, or any one on board knew, who
Paredes was. He talked very freely of Mexican
affairs, as any one else might have done. The
hearty abuse of Santa Anna, in which he is said to
have indulged, might have rather led the captain
to look upon him as a friend, and not an enemy, to
the United States. As to the imputations in which
some of the American papers have indulged against
the English:Government, because Paredes was per-
" • ••
bl

y preposterous. England is a free coun y, and
has no system of passports with which to fetter the
motions of any man of any country who chooses to
visit her shores or to leave them. As for Paredes, if
he carries with him the germs of any European in-
trigues, it is in the Tuileries, or the Rue de Courcelles,
that they were concocted. Christina had some time
ago, and perhaps has still, the notion that it would be
possible to establish the Munoz dynasty on the throne
of Mexico. The expedition to the Equador, which
England nipped in the bud, was intended merely as a
stepping-stone to a more extensive dominion in the
western hemisphere. How powerfully this dynastic
mania rages in the bosoms of even the most degenerate
branches of the house of Bourbon !

RESTORATION OF WESTMINSTER AIIBEY.—It has
often been a matter of surprise to me, that while nearly
all our fine old cathedrals have undergone, or are under-
going, a process of restoration, Westminster Abbey
should still remain in such a deplorable state. However,
I trust that under the auspices of the present eminent
Dean, we may hope for better things, and more par-
ticularly as such extensive improvements are in con-
templation in the neighbourhood of the Abbey.—A
suitable building in the neighbourhood of or adjoining
the Abbey should be erected for the reception of the
greater portion of the monuments. The stone columns,
which are in a wretched crumbling state, should be
replaced, and at the same time the iron bars at the
springings of the arches might be removed. I would
remodel the two existing towers, and complete the third,
which was commenced by Sir Christopher ; and the
whole pile of building should undergo a process of
restoration in the most substantial manner. If the
matter is taken up vigorously and energetically, there is
not the slightest doubt but that the requisite funds
would be forthcoming. The Government of course
ought to bear a portion of the expense, and if all our
*architectural, antiquarian, and archmological associations,
metropolitan and provincial, will come forward n
with their share of the expenses, not only as societies,
but individually, and if the Dean and Chapter will open
their purse-strings, there will soon be enough and to
spare of the " wherewith." As a worthy consummation
to the restoration, I would admit the public free of
charge.—Correspondent of The Builder.
APPLICATION Or THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TO
LOCOMOTIVES.—A line of electric telegraph is in active
preparation along the railway from Vienna to Prague.
As soon as it is completed, every locomotive engine is to
be furnished with a small electric apparatus, by aid of
which and by that of a wire, which can, at pleasure,
thebe
put into communication with that of the railway,
eventstrai n can
it e), announcehave to
learnt every t
hs tea
road.tion, far. or near, the
b nal of Cor-
rectional MAZA A WlTNEss.—The
with persons curious to see •
he was summoned a; a
evidence, in a case in which
rectional Police was completelyBo
Ic3roiTewzdrele,dueonnd Shaeteurrdhai)s-
feroemnsttahet
which was • d
prepare by
the government of the natives, .
report on
theOn organizationthe 2O th o f Joufn eAlraasbt 0 the manuscript
smiann
Algeriauscrip t ofen
and
saloon of the apartment in the Alba d Antin, occupied
Captainattendance
uponha r Richard, ,
the
ee
Aoffireche r
chief,appo appointed
missingt, e
. in
by 800 Maza and Captain Richards, and their attendants.
Suspicion MI upon a mulatto lady, named Desroches, as
intimate friend of the mistress of the hotel, and who had.
free access to the apartment. The law officers of the
Crown conceived that they had found sufficient
i'satlrht stretched afvofiirrntsfige
Presumptive ev i
was
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s, no cr enßtieonubt
hr
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e
and said--" I swear to
,ispeak the truth,
without augmentation or diminution.
wedhis
bd,e
In answer to
the usual interrogatories, through the
tell his
sye
interpreter, he declared his
names,
but smaiedanhse ocfoualdn
not
l ated
at 2
age,
aervse. As to his condition , he relied with, a
n approximately as ne, registers were
kept in his country, but that among the French it was cal-
haughty smile, that he was a refugee among the French. In.
p
answer to the questions put to him about the robbery, lae
said that he knew nothing of it, except from the, state-
ment of Captain Richards, and it was imposeih'ie for him
to impute it to the prisoner. He was followed by the
Princess de Belgiojoso, who fives in the srape house, and
who gave her evidence to the same effect, adding that it
was extremely easy for any one, even a stranger in the
house, to get into the saloon; in her opinion there were
no grounds for suspecting the prisoner. Captain
Richards was next examined, but he could say no more
than that his manuscript had (Use' ppeared in his absence.
Other witnesses were called, but.• as no particle of their
evidence affected the prisoner, the King's Advocate-
General abandoned the pros( ,cation, and Madame
Desroches was discharged. Bo 311 Maza then retired,
after having made his salaam tc. the Court, but befor e
leaving the Palais de Justice / gent into the Court of
Assizes, and there remained about half an hour._
Galignani's Messenger.
DONCASTER MEETING.—ReIrs Life in London,
of Sunday next, will give the. Race for the St. Leger,
and all the exciting and irnpor ta.nt, events of the week,
graphically and faithfully dest.tri.bed; with a Portrait of
the Winner of the St. Leger.. Features of interest in
every department of British spor ts. Sale of Bell's Life,
27,000. A sixpence enclosed to Mr. Clement, jun., 170,
Strand, will ensure a copy of Belts Life, by return of
post, to any part of the United4tiingdom.