The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-08 00:00:00

eltpuing

LONDON, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 8, 1847.

The system of military vengeance which has been
from time immemorial the favourite course fullowe3
by the Mexicans in the event of an invasion, is, as we
long ago anticipated, being carried into effect upon
the American forces with the most murderous pre-
cision. Those forces are being cut to pieces by
guerillas, among the central mountains of the repub-
lic, while the garrisons, left behind for the protection
of the strongholds captured on the shores of the At-
lantic, are being decimated by the ravages of epidemic
diseases. Yellow fever and ambuscades are the
means perpetually afforded to the inhabitants of''
Mexico for wreaking vengeance upon their unprin-
cipled assailants, and for overwhelming the superior
discipline and more formidable artillery of the
American soldiery. Even supposing that the
capital were actually in the possession of that
most redoubtable warrior WINFIELD SCOTT,
the safety of the country would be very
far from being jeopardised. The miserable
remnant of the United States' army—debilitated by
indifferent provisions, jaded with toilsome marches,
dispirited by the uncertainty of its position, clothed
in rags and harassed by incessant alarms—would
still remain liable to destruction. They might be as
readily surrounded at Churubusco or Tacubaya as
they have recently been in the neighbourhood of
Ceralvo, the different detachments of the forces under
the supreme direction of the Commander-in-Chief
may be rendered the victims of a well-arranged am-
buscade as certainly as was the scouting party of
1"" ' dispatched, under the command of Captain
33
AYL°R, to scour the country in the vicinity of
Monterey. According to information received from
Matamoras, it would-- seem that that unfortunate
officer, together with the body dy of men committed to
his charge, were surrounded by some three hundred
and,
Mexican guerillas,with the exception of three
soldiers, who escaped almost miraculous] by
crawling into the chapparatrt
wereliterally hewn
w
down and trampled under foot. hen last seen,
with
wounded, and
Captain BAYLoß—though dangerousl
assailants,
remaineds
dand
their
unhorsed—was fighting valiantly
While, of all his followers, but three l
saddles. But three—and himself wounded
horsed in the midst of three hundred infuriated
gue-
rillas One glimpse of the numberless horrors
con-
sequent upon the atrocious incursions of the United
States into the heart of unoffending Mexico ! One
glimpse—but it is a glimpse suggestive of a hundred
others as horrible—a glimpse as startling and ferocious
as any limned by the brush of WOUVERMANS.

While this little scouting party were being doomed
to destruction on the outskirts of Ceralvo, General
TAYLOR remained snugly ensconced behind the
battlements of Monterey. From that city it
would now actually appear that rough and tough
old ZACLIARY is determined on no account whatever
to budge even to the distance of a single furlong.
The flesh-pots of Monterey are more agreeable in his
estimation than the possible scantiness, in the way of
w
the commissariat supplies, which would in all likeli-
hood result from a precipitous advance towards San
Luis Potosi. Within the battlements of Monterey,
therefore, that division of the invading army is per-
manently established, or, at least, until such time as a
movement shall be rendered necessary by the course

taken by events elsewhere, Whether that move-
ment will be progressive or retrogressive is a
question as problematical to Mr. TRIST, the pleni-
potentiary, as it must be to General PAREDES,
the invisible double of the Mexican President.
Whether General TAYLOR will have to rival the feats
recounted in the Anabasis, or transform the valley of
the Rio Grande into a second black forest, and him-
self into a second MOREAU (one of which would be as
impossible as the other), or whether he will have to
gird up his loins for a more momentous tussle with
the Dictator SANTA. ANNA, and press onwards to the
succour of his puissant colleague WiNrumn, is as
impossible to conjecture at this moment as it was at
the very commencement of the invasion, and must be
a problem as difficult of solution to honest ZACHARY
himself as it would be to General VALENCIA.

Meanwhile the sluggishness of General TAYLOR
within the walls of Monterey is being emulated in a
remarkable manner by General SCOTT outside the
walls of the metropolitan city of Mexico. Al-
though, according to the extravagant declaration
of the Sun of Anahuac, thirty-two thousand men
were driven to the gates of Mexico by seven thou-
sand men, at the point of the bayonet, General SCOTT
remained at a distance of three miles from that capi-
tal, in compliance with the first whispered proposi-
tions for the renewal of pacific negotiations. What
consummate magnanimity ! Granting an armistice of
forty-eight hours, forsooth, to a race which had
proved itself incapable of withstanding his assaults,
although numericallyof nearly five times his strength !
Is this narration, we ask, within the limits
of feasibility ? Is it rational to imagine that a
general who could rout 32,000 with 7,000, and drive
them ignominiously to the gates of a capital at the
point of the bayonet, would allow such golden oppor-
tunities to slip from him unemployed, and acquiesce
in the first doubtful proposal for a renewal of the
scheme of pacification ? Would he not, considering the
peril of his position, with an infirm and exhausted
force in the heart of a country populated by an un-
certain and revengeful people, eagerly pluck the
flower safety from the nettle danger ? To think other-
wise would be Ito proclaim ourselves as gullible as
1 the most vainglorious among the Yankees. From a can-
did consideration, therefore, of the recent occurrences in
the several provinces of the Mexican republic, it would
appear that the successes of General SCOTT have been
grossly exaggerated, and that instead of having the
Mexican nationality, as it were, at his individual dis-
posal, his army is becoming every day more and more
at the mercy of the Mexicans.
A guerilla onslaught of a sanguinary character
may be anticipated with considerable certainty, and
the paeans of victory which have been prematurely
chanted in the printing-offices of Vera Crux and New
York will (unless some unexpected catastrophe
should intervene) be changed into the la-
mentations of defeat. When NAPOLEON ad-
vanced at the head of the combined nations of
Europe into the centre of the Russian empire, he es-
t tblished his head-quarters in Moscow ; he had
dramas performed in the palace chambers of the
Kremlin, by the actors and actresses of Paris ; and
from the gate of the Kremlin to the grand entrance
cf the Tuileries post-houses were established with so
much security and regularity, that until the me-
morable retreat had been some time commenced, not
a single courier was molested along that enormous
line of communication, and the news circulated with
the utmost regularity between the Imperial head-
quarters, and the seat of the Imperial Government.
How do these matters stand with the American
captains ? Will SCOTT locate himself in the metro-
polis of Mexico ? Will the heroic voice of the
comedian MARBLEO resound in the halls of the
Montezumas ? Has ZACHARY TAYLOR a perpetual
intercourse with the Locofocos of Washington ?
How many messengers have been stopped between
the outposts of Monterey and the door-scraper of the
American President? And have not those messen-
gers who have Leen stopped been compelled to pay
the postage with their lives ? Yet we should con-
jecture that a cloud of Cossacks is as terrible
as a gang of guerillas ! The truth is—the Americans
can violate the laws of nations—they can butcher
women and children, as they did at the storming of
Vera Cruz—they can brag in german type and
bluster in bourgeois—but they cannot conduct with
success an expedition which requires both military
genius and diplomatic skill.

The Earl of CLARENDON, since his assumption of
the Vice-Royalty of Ireland, has spared no labour to
discharge efficiently the duties of his exalted station.
The answers which he has from time to time returned
to the numerous addresses presented to him, the deep
interest he has evinced in everything by which the
prosperity of the country in which he is the repre-
sentative of the SOVEREIGN can in any manner be
promoted, have gained him golden opinion& from per-
sons of every class and of every shade and variety of
political feeling. To every complaint and remon-
strance he has lent a ready and attentive ear. He has
listened patiently, and replied courteously, so that
whatever might be the result of the application, whe-
ther the response was favourable or otherwise, all par-
ties have at least been impressed with the conviction
that there is an anxious desire on the part of the
Government to make every just and reasonable con-
cession, to afford every assistance within their power
to those proving themselves worthy thereof, and to
co-operate with the landed proprietors in all parts
of the country (whose undoubted duty it is to take
the initiative) in their exertions for the due develop-
ment of the national resources, and the providing of
useful employment for the immense quantity of la-
bour that is now suffered to remain idle and unpro-
ductive. His Excellency has never failed to point out
in kind and gentlemanly language the existing evils
that require amendment, to show by whom the
improvements should be originated, and how far
Government assistance may be hoped for. He has
clearly explained the means within the power of
all, and urged, in the most impressive manner, the
necessity of their being taken advantage of in
sufficient time, and the futility of neglecting those
means in the vain expectation of something more
being done than has already been announced. Such
exhortations proceeding from so high and influential
a quarter cannot be despised or neglected. There is
no mystification or concealment of any kind. The
Irish landowners are shown that they must set their
own shoulders to the wheel, and that they cannot
suppose that English industry is to be permanently,
or even a second time taxed, for the purpose of
maintaining them in positions which they are unable
to perform the duties of. What has already been
done should satisfy the most virulent railer against
the Saxon and the stranger of the true spirit with
which Englishmen regard their Irish brethren. The
simple fact that more than 700,0001. sterling was
collected by voluntary contributions, and distributed
for the relief of the distress in that country—in
addition to the enormous sum of ten million& of
pounds sterling, which was advanced from the
national Exchequer, partly as a free gift, and the
residue as loan, to be repaid at a period of greater
prosperity, and that at a time when we, ourselves,
were suffering under the effects of an insufficient
harvest; ; and a general scarcity—should have more
effect than the unfounded and unreasonable complaints
of interested parties, who, for their own purposes,
desire to excite the animosity of the people against
those who have proved themselves to be their best
friends, because they could not effect impossibilities.
The explanation of the real causes that have hitherto
prevented the introduction of capital into Ireland (its
chief want), and also as to the duties and powers of a
Government, should be maturely considered. His
Excellency says
a right to claimsuthaht they should
" It is the duty of the
laws, and adopt Government,
me to warn you that thaelon
the social improvement e i n
tarnodd
uycoeu havesuch
measures, as may conduce to
introduction of capital
the country. But allow
depends upon Irishmen
is completely powerless in Bfillndeh matters;. and so
The Government
the Prospect
ln qf
ikceountry
long as capital does not
adequate protection, and consequently
profitable investment, all future attemptB
past experiments here, to introduce capital, mustanY
fail —so long as ignorance and prejudice renders its
introduction dangerous in Ireland—and " long
will it be diverted from your shores, and
seek investment in foreign schemes." And again,
" Insecurity alone has prevented the investment in
Ireland of the millions that have been squandered in
foreign loans and mining speculations ; but if Eng- ,

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