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

oz Vint= 21111'4

LONDON, SATURDAY, -
bl7j......4a.uenointed OCTOBER 23, 1847.
Very startling
contradictory intelligence has
just arrived from the States. The latest, con-
veyed hither by the Sarah San.ds, is comprised in
New York journals of the
6th inst., and recounts
several extraordinary movements at the seat of war
in Mexico. From the perverse and dissentient de-
scriptions of the different narrators
and Mexican, it is scarcely possible,bot however,
American
arrive at anything like an accurate estimate evreLtot
occurrences. According to one account, theo
forces
of the United States have received a terrible and dis-
astrous reception at the capital, and have been com-
pelled to retreat in confusion upon Tacubaya, with a
very considerable loss in killed and wounded, in-
cluding several of their most distinguished officers.
According to another, the invading arm,/ has
by its predominant prowess and irresistible au-
dacity forced an entrance into the metropolis,
and is already " revelling" in the balls of the
Montezumas. From the intolerable discrepancies
and irrelevancies of the numerous informants we are
left entangled in a maze of conjectures ; but at the
same time a recollection of the vain-glorious charac-
ter of the citizens of the Model Republic affords us a
clue to those facts which may be regarded as indis-
putable. Even the biographer of WALLENSTEIN
wouldin of not have the effrontery to assert that the bulle-
NAPOLEON were more remarkable for evidenc-
ing brilliancy of imagination than the accounts of any
military movement under the American banners, as
published in the newspapers of the United

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 do 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 paeans 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 Grande,
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. Mier 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 Wowrn
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 Mate, 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
HUERLA, Colonel GELEATT, 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 sentmce 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 !
Further intelligence received from Orizaba declares
that the United States army, under General SCOTT,
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 dee
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 mutt, 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 Guadeloupe ; 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.

It has long been the fashion with those who seem
to consider that the paramount duty of the nation
should be to " maintain the security of the standard,"
and that every other consideration—the welfare and
prosperity of the people, their happiness and comfort
—are all of secondary importance, when compared
with the advantage of keeping gold at a fixed and
invariable price of 3/. 17s. 10Id. per ounce, when
every other commodity must be subjected to the
greatest fluctuations in value—to sneer at the "Bir-
mingham school of currency." It appears to be con-
sidered a sufficient answer to any argument opposed
to the views of the bullionists to call it an emanation
from the Birmingham school, as if its being in accord-
ance with the opinions of the great majority of the
inhabitants of that great town, the capital of
a highly important branch of our national manufac-
tures, should in itself be considered an adequate
reason for its rejection. The people of Birmingham
have, however, already rendered good service to
the nation. To their energy and decision, to
the enthusiasm with which they advocated a full and
fair representation of the people, we are chiefly in-
debted for the early success of the Reform Bill and
the abolition of the rotten boroughs, by which the
constitutional principle, that a people could only
be lawfully taxed by and with the consent of
their representatives, was practically set aside. The
inhabitants of the town are not only hard-working
and industrious, but also shrewd and intelligent.
They enjoy greater comforts than persons of the same
classes in other localities, because they labour harder,
and there is a greater degree of enlightenment
amongst them. As their excellent representative,
Mr. 2.llus.Tz states, in an admirable letter
which will be found in ancther part of The
Sun, " Birmingham is more highly favoured
than most of our other manufacturing towns,
by having its population employed in a great variety
of
tootertaides, so that it rarely happens all are depressed
ideas, and ter. erhehreefovariety
ho fm
etradesi c
phreol dp
helps duce ct eo ve anrl egthyt
eonf
his neighbour." It is by no means surprising, there-
tore, that such parties should direct acloser attention
to, and be enabled to arrive at sounder conclusions,
on questions of general policy, more particularly
those which are calculated to affect m the
welfare of the industrious classes, than
othateerially
independence and comfort, the rewards of i rs rndeushtTlCie3ir
mainly depend on our trade and commerce. It
WOU
then, indeed, Le strange if they did not take a deep in
terest in anything by which that trade and commerce
may be reduced from a healthy and flourishing
condition to a state of weakness and decrepi-
tude, by which diArust and panic is sub-
stituted for that general credit and confidence
so essential to the prosperity of a commercial country,

and by which the entire kingdom is subjected to pe-
riodical depressions—to constant alternations by which
thousands are, at every time of pressure, reduced from
independence and comfort to poverty and privation.
They have seen that such are the effects of the mo-
netary laws now in force. Having satisfied themselves
by the exercise of their reason that these banking
enactments would, under certain circumstances, be
likely to produce such results, and finding that the
prophecies of the opponents of the system have been
too fatally verified, it is by no means wonderful that
they should demand a revision of these laws with a
view to their total abolition, and the substitution of a
currency on a sound basis, one that would afford
ample security to every noteholder, and at the same
tit ne provide a sufficient circulation for the wants and
exigencies of the country.
There is another reason why the people of Bir-
r3ingham are well qualified to form a correct opinion
o n the question. They are not exclusively interested
in'. any particular branch of trade. It is not for any
particular market that the products of their
industry are required. They export largely,
but they also manufacture a great deal for
home consumption ; they are as deeply interested that
the internal demand should be brisk and active, as
that the foreign trade should be greatly extended,
azid they are too painfully aware that by the present
sy stem the home market is too frequently unduly
depreciated, by the attempt to regulate the foreign,
and to alter the character of the exchanges, when
they are unfavourable. If there is a balance of trade
against us, and gold is leaving the country in order
to pay for the excess of our imports over our exports,
the screw is put en, the facilities usually afforded to
manufacturers is withheld, and those who are wholly
occupied in producing for our own internal con-
sumption are involved in ruin, because there may
possibly be overtrading with some foreign country.
This is neither just or reasonable ; it is making
the innocent suffer for the guilty, and there is no
sufficient reason why it should be continued. What is
wanting for general circulation is a currency that
will be universally acceptable, that cannot by a pos-
sibility become valueless, no matter of what material
it may be made. If it was the most worthless rag,
provided it is receivable in discharge of the taxation
to which every subject must contribute, and if it is
guaranteed and secured on all the resources of the
country, like the national debt, it will always be
'willingly received, and its value maintained. It is
not the inherent value of a coin that induces a trades-
man to take it in exchange for his wares, but the
confidence he entertains that he will be
enabled in like manner to pass it to another
when it suits him to do so. The amount
of the issue should of course be watched
with peculiar care, and regulated by com-
missioners appointed by and responsible to Parlia-
ment, as suggested by Mr. MUNTZ in his letter. It
could never be seriously, if at all depreciated, if issued
in proportion to the sum annually payable in the
shape of taxation. Those who had not the paper
should pay their taxes in gold or silver, if they
had not the national note with which to satisfy the
demand. Every person, therefore, who had a larger
supply of these notes than he required could readily
get gold for them, at a very small premium indeed,
if any. By this means, and having them made for
sums sufficiently small, say 11., 21., and 3/.
notes, in addition to the denominations at pre-
sent in use, the 50,000,000/. sterling of gold
coin, now in common daily use as the circulating
medium of the country, would be made applicable to
our foreign trade, while the great majority of our
internal transactions would take place in the national
currency. This would immediately give a fund of
such magnitude as would be more than sufficient for
all purposes Whenever there was over-trading and a
great demand for gold to send out of the country,
it would be as fully checked by an increased price
of gold, an additional premium thereon, as it now
is by depreciating the entire produce and the entire
property of the country, and involving all classes
in a general ruin, "that the integrity of
the standard may be preserved." England
is the only country in the world where
it is attempted to keep bullion at a fixed
and invariable price ; and why should we
continue a singularity that has led to such calami-
tous results ? If that convertibility which the framers
of the law desired, but which, as Mr. MUNTZ has
shown, is merely nominal, were really obtained,
it would not be worth the tenth part of
the sacrifices which we are compelled to make for that
which is only practicable when there is a general con-
fidence, and few desire to exchange their notes for
specie. If a general demand for conversion should
take place, its impracticability would speedily be made
manifest, but not before the whole nation was involved
in wretchedness, misery, and ruin. We heartily
commend Mr. MUNTZ'S letter to the attentive consi-
deration of our readers: _

- .
It is with feelings of- shame and of regret that we
read the advertisement which appears in this day's
Sun, announcing the fact of the forced retirement of
Lieutenant WAGHORN, from the overland carrying
business to India. Shame, shame !on the ungrateful
country which thus rewards twenty years of per-
severing toil with ruin. Had Lieutenant WAGRoBsi
built a house, or manufactured a yard of cloth, he
would have had an absolute property in the fruits of
his labour. Had he discovered a new method of
buttoning shirts, or tying shoes, he might have
protected himself by patent against those who
would fain reap where they have not sown;
but, as he merely discovered (for to all intents and
purposes it was a discovery) the overland route to
India, and was at all the expense, and all the toil, and
all the anxiety of demonstrating its practicability, he
is to be rewarded with mere empty praise, while
those who had neither the genius to discover the ex-
istence of the route, nor the perseverance to overcome
the difficulties of practically demonstrating its feasa-
bility, are to be permitted to derive all the profit and
to drive from the ground the man but for whose
labours they themselves would have had, as a com-
pany, no existence. Never again let us dare to re-
proach Spain with her treatment of COLUMBUS, lest
she retort upon England her treatment of WAGHORN.
Deeply do we sympathise with Lieutenant Wa.ouoßN,
and sure we are that he possesses the heartfelt sym-
pathy and the best wishes of the great ma-
jority of his countrymen. Sympathy, however,is but a
poor compensation for twenty years of unre-
mitted toil. The nation has profited largely by his
services, and the nation should reward him. Even
in a pecuniary point of view the nation and the East
India Company are largely his debtors. Let us con-
sider what would have been the enormous expense
to which we should have been subjected to repair our
disasters in Affghanistan if we had been dependent
solely upon the old route by the Cape of Good Hope.
Nay, could those disasters have been repaired at all had
not the overland route afforded us speedy means of
becoming acquainted with their extent, and of com-
municating with the Indian authorities ? Is it not
probable that on that occasion but for the existence of
the overland route we might have lost India? Again, on
the recent invasion of our territory by the Seikhs, of
what vital consequence was it to us to possess the means
of that speedy communication with India which was
afforded to us by the overland route. Under the old
system, immediately on the receipt of the news of
the Seikh invasion, it would have been necessary to
have dispatched immense reinforcements, viii the Cape
of Good Hope, as a necessary measure of precaution.
Thanks to Lieutenant WAGHORN, we received intel-

ligence of the victory of Sobraon within one month
of the day on which it was gained, and thus the
nation was spared the expense of dispatching useless
reinforcements. Let the Proprietors of the East
India Company recollect these things, and call upon
the directors to make a handsome grant to the man to
whose genius they are so deeply indebteo ; and let
every merchant in the kingdom, whose dealings have
been facilitated by the opening of this quick com-
munication with India, let every individual in Eng-
land and in India who has enjoyed, thanks to Lieut.
IVAGnoax, the solace of more frequent and more
rapid communications ‘vith dear friends and relation!,
Lieutenantnoen rnilndia, and
manner
.1 o
oi inoN
‘nt:hyl,.etbh3w;
memorialise the Government to mark its sense of the
debt of gratitude which is due from the nation to
rewardingi
m
o or world.
a. great
If
.L nation—the
au
tat
Lieut.
ni
\g—vn
Aat
Ghl
ouaßnn
paralleled services which he has conferred on England,
be suffered now to sink ; shame, disgrace, and dis-
honour will be our portion as a people, and England

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