The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-15 00:00:00

IT toning ilt,AtIA".

LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1847.

Advices from America to the 25th ultimo have
been received by the French line of packet steam-
ship Missouri. 'he previously received accounts of
the capture of Mex:ico by the American troops have
been fully corrobovated. The loss to the victorious
army, in killed, wo tended, and missing, amounted to
no. less than I , 623 men. 238 were killed
and 47 missing, the, greater number of whom, it is to
be feared, have been cut off, the great exasperation
of the Mexicans, ax ed their determination to carry on
a guerilla warfare, and the measures said to have
been taken for the r asassinatien of the hostile soldiers,
leaving little hope t hat mercy would be extended to
any of the enemy who fell into their hands. General
WORTH'S brigade suffered much more severely than
any of the others, nearly three-fifths of the total
loss having been sustained by htat division.
General QUITMAN, of Mississippi, had been
appointed the Ar ne•rican Governor of the city,
and had in that capacity occupied the palace of the
late President. He had also levied a contribution of
150,000 dollars on the inhabitants.

We regret to say that the intelligence of the execu-
tion of the deserters from the American army has also
been confirmed. D lore than fifty were butchered in
cold blood, after tie battle of Churubusco, ten, it
appears, had their sentences commuted to receiving
"fifty lashes with a r aw hide whip well laid on the
bare brick of each ;" each of them was also to be
" branded on a cheek: with the letter D, to be kept a
close 'prisoner as long as the army should remain in
Mexico, and then to be drummed out of the service?'
In these instances this mercy was extended because the
parties had left the Ainerican service before the war had
'commenced, indeed, while the United States were at
peace with the entire world. Other circumstances of
mitigation existed in the other cases, the particulars
of which have not been stated, with the exception of
one whose life was spared because he had a son in
the same company who had remained faithful to his
colours. The whole proceedings of America with
r ospect to Mexico have not created very favourable
Impressions amongst other nations. These feelings
will not b e improved by the legalized murder of fifty
prisoners, veritizens. A. gy
reinatanyli of whom were not American
period Nvb wholesalae_ngm has taken place since the
teassacres could be justified
under any• 'pretexts.
prevails to the saml:ela
extent
spirit no longer
the Amer icans may be certain tthasat the ruthless andan and barbarous severity of which they have beenilty
will exciter a general
feeling of disgust anion st al
civilized tations. g gul
It rem. sin s yet to be seen whether the possession
of the enemy 's capital will obtain for the conquerors
the desired • concessions. They may seize by brute
e
force the dc ainions of the sister republic, they may
occupy thei .r chief towns, and establish garrisons in
strongholds , 'throughout the country, but their own
expenses a; id losses have been enormous, and a heavy
taxation w ill teach those who have hitherto escaped
comparatively scatheless from the demands of the tax
collectors, f that wars and victories, however much they
may pamp' r the national vanity, are at best expensive
luxuries, a xzd that unprovoked aggressions on other
nations, I iowever successful, generally bring many
evils along; -with them—that with nations as with in-
dividuals ":Honesty is the best policy." The Mexi-
cans are nos exasperated to the highest pitch, means
the •
most sanguinary and atrocious are stated, by
Generral Se. OTT to have been resorted to. The
Ameri can Co nimander-in-Chief, in a general order,
says "- that a a extensive conspiracy is on foot to sur-
prise, by meg ns of an insurrection, our guards and

quarters, and to murder our officers and soldiers,"
and again, "until ready for the• insurrection the dis-
guised villains hope to do us much harm in detail.
Their plan is to assassinate stragglers, particularly
drunken men ; to entice individuals or small par-
ties into shops to drink, and to stab ...them.
when in their cups, to entice our gallant Roman
Catholic soldiers, who have done so much honour t.. 2
our colours, to desert, under a promise of land in
California, which our arms have already conquered
and which for ever will remain part of the United
States." Is this a state of affairs from which either
honour or profit can be derived, and which is to be
protracted to an indefinite period to gratify the feel-
ings of avarice or of territorial aggrandisement?
Will it be received with approbation by high-minded
and honourable citizens ? It will be perceived that
the flimsy disguise of negotiation is cast aside. Califor-
nia is no longer to be acquired by treaty or pur-
chase. According to General SCOTT, it has already
been conquered and will for ever remain part of the
United States. The pretexts that have been hereto-
fore made are now cast aside, and the real object of the
war, " the acquisition of California by conquest" is
plainly avowed.. Indeed it is asserted, that still
more extensive schemes are now projected—that
some of the Cabinet are for the retension of the
whole of the Mexican territories, while the more
moderate are as yet contented with a large portion
thereof.

The commercial intelligence is of considerable im-
portance, and affords an additional illustration of the
impolicy and inexpediency of our monetary laws, which
attempt to bring back a portion of useless gold, that
it may lie idle and unproductive in the Bank
cellars at the cost of a general depreciation of every
description of property, and the ruin of hundreds of
our most eminent Mercantile firms. We have long
foreseen that the effect of the Act of 1844 may be wholly
different from that which was contemplated. On the
21st ultimo, a few days before the present accounts
were received from New York, we used the following
language :—" The object of this Act was to enforce
the retention of gold in the country, or to bring it
back if it should by any means be exported ; but
this may likewise operate in a manner wholly
"different from the intention of its originators. The
widespread alarm that it has occasioned has cast dis-
credit on the. British, name ; the honour and the
solvency of British merehants cannot now be relied
on as in former days. _The value of bills on England
are consequently depreciated, from the fear that they
may be returned dishonoured, and payments in other
lands- can therefore be more profitably made in specie
than by bills, and, ao a natural result, the bullion
will still leave the country,- no matter how anxiously
our rulers may endeavour to retain it. Either that I
must be the case, or there must be a total cessation
of our commercial pursuits, and all classes must
be exposed to the greatest misery and pri-
vations." Unfortunately these predictions have
turned out to be but too well founded.
The natural consequences of the depreciation of our
credit are taking place. We are told, "We do not
anticipate that much specie will be sent to you. Such
as goes now is transmitted chiefly by parties who are
afraid of all bills, and who do not mind losing the
difference. We understand that some of the principal
London houses urge their agents to send gold ;" and
again, in speaking of the probable supply of bread stuff,
the following language is used :—" If many breadstuffs
are wanted on your side this winter, we think, under the'
present shattered state of credit, gold must be sent out
to buy them. There is a desire to ship flour and grain
if advances could be got ; but houses feel the necessity
of being very guarded." The probable consequences
of a continuance in our unwise policy is pointed out
in the transference of our manufactures to other lands.
They say, " We have heretofore found the best mar-
kets for our most important staple productions in Great
Britain, and whatever tends to cramp or cripple that
demand is, of course, for the time, a great evil. Our
cotton has been the most important raw material one
country ever furnished another. The industry cf
England has depended upon it, and. her wealth has
been increased enormously by.-tha, addition of that
industry to the first cost. It has given employment
and subsistence to millions of her people, and
afforded an important item of transportation to
the commercial marine of that country. England
has been such an important_ customer for this staple
that all others have been made subservient, and we have
been, in a measure,'controlled in prices by:the will ofher
manufacturers. It therefore appears plain that what- •
ever affects the demand for this staple in England
affects prices in this country; and if the manufac-
turers of England curtail their operations we must
reduce the supply of the raw material. It does not,
however, follow that the consumption of cotton
is reduced in proportion to the reduction
in the demands from the manufacturers of
Great Britain. A demand for the raw material
springs up in other sections, and the markets
of the world are supplied from other sources. If the
manufacturers of Great Britain work short time, and
consume one third less cotton than usual, the supply
of manufactured goods from that source becomes
reduced, and the consumption must be supplied from
other sources, or reduced to a corresponding extent.
Notwithstanding the deficiency in the harvests of Eu-
rope generally, the masses have been in a very prospe-
rous condition, and have been in a position to consume
these fabrics as largely as usual, and the demand in the
aggregate has doubtless been as large as usual. It is,
therefore, a very important question with those coun-
tries which have hitherto imported so largely of British
cotton manufactures, what increase there has been in
their domestic supply, and what progress they have
made in the establishment of manufactories within
their own limits ? The United States have progressed
wonderfully in this element, and anything tending to
depress the manufacturing industry 'of England gives
a great impetus to it in this country. We have no
return showing the actual increase in this branch, but
we have no doubt it has been a very large per cent
A few years will suffice, at the rate we have advanced
within the past few years, to place us independent of
Great Britain, not only for supplies of manufactured
goods, but for markets for the raw material."
How long will our legislators be blind to the signs
of the times, and, in the face of such events, persevere
in the maintenance of an abstract theory, the adoption
of which has exposed their country to the greatest
calamities, and threatens eventually to occasion her
total ruin ?

On Saturday evening we referred, in a particular
manner, to the measures adopted for the conservation
of our colonial interests in the West Indian Archi-
pelago; this evening we would epitomize the en-
deavours recently made for the tranquillisation of
affairs in New Zealand. It were but a one-sided
and short-sighted policy which would tend to the
depreciation of the difficulties existing in our colonies
merely to enhance the appreciation of our internal
embarrassments. Were the Government of the
country to concentrate its energies upon a single
point of administration—no matter how vital its
exigency, no matter if it implied the maintenance of
national credit or the prevention of foreign invasion
—the affairs of Great Britain would very speedily
fall into such involvements as would evince the in-
capacity of its statesmen, and demonstrate the neces-
sity for a more prudential course of legislation. It is
this which justifies the complication of the adminis-
trative authority ; it is this which not merely
justifies its complication, but proclaims the corn-
summate wisdom of those councils in which
that complication originated. Without arrogating
to itself the characteristics of omnipotence or omni-
science, the law requires for its proper enforcement
such a variety of channels, in the persons of its offi-
cial representatives, as would be incompatible with
any less simple arrangement than that which is pe-
culiar to the constitution of ther United Kingdom.
.
enabled to penetrate to all partos of
Hence it is that the vigilance the
our Leueogrimslaotuusrdeo!
vastb than those of imperial
Inßionmioenas—nditnnt neinennsritnchnerde ztbcaommercial enterprise
republicanof the Macedonian,
snt
ore to.hra nfor
thansuffi-
cient thosefor
th ofn
ambition
philosophic investigation of the
so remote
the
philosophic Had
ALEXANDER been doubly successful as
he could never have rktuired territories
and gigantic as those which own the sovereignty of
VICTORIA—stretching to the antarctic circle from
the forests of Canada, and to the torrid zone from
the shores of Hindostan. Had ARISTOTLE brought
to the science of legislation all the craft of

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