The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-16 00:00:00

have adhered punctually to the late arrangement
made for the reception of the coupons of the foreign
bondholders at the Custom-houses of Vera Cruz and
Tampico as cash, in payment of duties, and Mr. Wyllie
does not omit to dweA upon the circumstance with ex-
pres-ions of well-merited approbation. Mexico has had
difficulties to contend with from which the rest of the
Spanish American colonies have been exempt, yet has
she been the first—the only one—to come forward and
make reparation to those foreign friends who assisted
the whole of the number with their purses in the ac-
complishment of the great political changes which they
had deemed so essential to their welfare. In contrast
to the laudable course taken by the Mexican Govern-
ment, Mr. Wyllie enters upon a short review of the con-
i duct of the Governments of Chili, Peru, Buenos Ayres,
Equator, New Granada,Venezuela, and Guatemala, that
of Chili, as the most shameless of the whole, being the
first considered. He has discovered that the discussions
respecting the rights of the bondholders are carefully
excluded from the public in these States, and has, there-
fore, been at the pains of publishing his opinions con-
cerning them in Spanish as well as English for distri•
bution abroad. The political economists of the new
world are challenged in their own idiom, in the name of
the English bondholders, to justify, if they are able, the
beggarly offers of composition that have been made by
their respective Governments, upon the precedent of any
nation similarly situated in past history—upon any ana-
logy in the laws of bankruptcy, as between man and man
—or upon any principle of good policy, public morality,
justice, er religious obligation. It is added, that " in pri-
vate life, any one possessed relatively of such assets, and
these so progressively improving as even the poorest of
the young republics named, and attempting to com-
pound with his creditors, even upon the most favourable
terms offered by any of them, would not only fail in his
object, but remain ever afterwards a marked man, ex-
cluded from the society of honourable citizens, and sus-
pected in his dealings as a cheat." This is of Course
said by way of illustration only, as, in point of insol-
vency, no parallel can exist between individuals and na-
tions, for the latter ought never to become bankrupts,
and least of all when their revenues are but in pro-
rpress of development, and their population and pins-
crity visibly on the increase. Mr. Wyllie concludes
his letter with some observations which, being as just as
\they are severe, arc highly calculated to rouse the de-
faulters to a sense of the disgraceful attitude in which
they have placed themselves before the world.
The South American Governmsnts have been basely
attempting to trick or frighten their English creditors
into a surrender of their claims. This it is clearly the
purpose of Mr. Wyllie, aided by the Committee, to pre.
vent. Let them (the creditors) look carefully into the
details he has prepared for their consideration. They
present every encouragement for firmness, and, although
the bond for which they may have given 801. or 901.
fifteen years back will now, in consequence of the scan-
dalous breaches of faith committed to their prejudice,
fetch no more, with the heavy arrear of interest ac-
crued upon it, than from 15/. to 201., the day of reckon-
ing must eventually come. If we have spoken of the
mass of debts as almost beyond the reach of recovery,
we have done so in a condi,ional sense only. If such
be the determination of the country, an honest settle-
ment of their claims is not only not a matter of doubt
and difficulty, but it is scared) one of time even.—
Pas t.