The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-23 00:00:00

MEXICAN HIGHWAYMEN.

Robbers in Mexico are what pedlars used to be in
England; they keep up the life in the villages, plunder
wherever they can, cheat where they cannot nlunder, ride
stout horses, and lead, on the whole, a varied, and some-
times, a very gay life. One of the American travellers
saw, at Old of the villages where the stage changed
horses, a dashing and picturesque figure, gaudily dressed,
who rode by on a handsome horse ricjily capriSoned. On
inquiring if the coachman knew him, the answer was thert
he knew him perfectly well, and that he was the captain
of a hand of robbers who had plundered the stage several
times since the whip and reins hyi been in his hands.
On the American urging the question why he had not
brought the robber to punishment, the answer was,
a that he would be sure to he shop' by some of the band
the next time he passed the road,;" the honour of
Mexican thieves being peculiarly nice upon this point.
It appeared that the daShing horseman had gone through
the village on a reconnoissance, but probably not liking
the obvious preparations of the travellers, had postponed
the capture.
The mode of managing things in this samnclent country
is remarkable for its tranquillity. The American who
narrates the circumstance had taken with him from Vera
Cruz four dragoons, but on accidentally inquiring on
the road into the state of their arms, he found that but
one carabine had a lock in fighting order, and even that
one was not loaded; on which ho dismissed the guard,
and trusted to his companions, who were all well
armed. The Mexican travellers, taking the matter in
another way, never carry arms, but prepare a small
purse "to be robbed of," of which they are robbed
accordingly. A few miles from Perote the road winds
round a high hill, and the passengers generally get
out and walk. The Americans on this occasion had
left their arms in the carriage, but their more prudent
chief immedietely ordered them to carry them in
their hands, and in the course of the ascent they
pounced upon a group of ruffians whom the driver pro-
nounced to be robbers; and who, but for their arms,
would probably have attacked them. In less than a
month after this, five or six Americans having left their
arms in the stage at this spot, wereattaeked, and stripped
of every cent. belonging to the
It must be owned that tl daintier-bits—fine advan-
tages for the gentlemen of the road. The highway be-
tween Vera Cruz and Mexico is the great conduit of
life in this country. Nearly all the commerce goes by
that way, and ninety out of every hundred travellers
pass by the same route. The chief portion of the road
'is through an absolute desert. It frequently winds up
the sides of mountains, and then is bordered by
forests of evergreens, forming a capital shelter for the
land pirate, the whole being a combination of Hounslow-
heath and Shooter's-hill on a grand scale, and making
highway robbery not merely a showy but a safe specu-
lation, the gaming table being the chief recruiting office
of the whole battalion of Mercury.
The statistics of gaming might borrow a chapter from
Mexico. The passion for play is public, universal, and
unbounded. It is probably even superior to the passion
for pulque. Every one plays, and plays for all that he
is worth in the world, and often for more. But he has
his resource—the road. A man who has lost his last
dollar, but who is determined to play on till he dies, lays
himself under strong temptations of coveting his neigh-
bour's goods. The hour when the stages pass is known
to every one ; the points of the road where they must
go slowly up the hill, are familiar to all highway recol-
lections. Associates are expeditiously found among the
loiterers, who, after their own ruin, sit round the room
watching the luck of others. The band is formed in a
moment ; they take the road without delay, post them-
selves in the evergreens, enjoy the finest imaginable
prospect, and breathe the most refreshing air, until the
creaking of the coach wheels puts them on the alert.
They then exhibit their weapons, the passengers produce
their little purses, the stage is robbed of everything
portable or convertible into cash, the band return to the
gaming table, fling out their coin, and play till they are
either rich or ruined once more.
Some time after an adventure, such as we have de-
scribed, the stage was robbed near Puebla by a gang, all
of whom had the appearance of gentlemen. When the
operation of rifling everybody and everything was com-
pleted, one of the robbers observed, " that they must
not be looked on as professional thieves, for they were
gentlemen; but having been unfortunate gt play, they
were forced to put the company to this inconvenience,
for which they requested their particular pardon."
An incident of this order eccurring in the instance of
a public personage some years before, long excited
remarkable interest. The Swiss consul had been assas-
sinated at noonday. A carriage had driven up to his
door, out of which three men came, one in the dress of
a priest. On the doors being opened they seized and
gagged the porter, rushed into the apartment where the
consul was sitting, murdered and robbed him, and then
retreated. None knew whence they came or whither
they went; but the murdered man in his dying struggle
had torn a button off the coat of one of the robbers,
which they fonnd still clenched in his band. A soldier
was shortly after .seen with more money than he could
account for. Suspicion naturally fell upon him; his
quarters were searched, and one of his coats was found
with the button torn off. He was convicted, but relied
on a pardon through the Colonel Yanez, chief aide-de-
camp of the President Santa Anna, who was his accom-
plice in the transaction. On being brought out for exe-
cution, and placed on the fatal bench where criminals
are strangl,d, he cried out, "Stop, I will acknowledge
cmoy omplonaceel.sleicaersec
waand simhemepdrioantoeulyncd the m
made
ein
tnhaeheouosfetlie
of
Yanez, and a letter in cipher svas found connecting
him with this and other robberies. This letter was left
in the hands of one of the judges. He was offered a
large sum to destroy it, and refused. In a few days
after he was found dead, as was supposed, by poison.
The paper was then transferred to another judge, who
was offered the same bribe, and who promised to destroy
it; but on conferring with his priest, though he took the
money, he shrank from the actual destruction of the
document, and kept it in silence. Yanez was brought to
trial, and, believing that the paper was no longer in ex-
istence, treated the charge with contempt. The paper
was produced, and the aide-de-camp was condemned and
executed.—Blackwood.

FREE TRADE.
(From the Journal des D6ats.)

The question of free trade is now fairly placed before
all the states of Europe, by virtue of the example very
recently given by a great nation, where, however, the
protective system had the support, generally all powerful,
of the aristocracy. An association whose importance
none can dissimulate, is taking steps to reproduce
amongst us, as well as it can, the efforts of the English
League. What is the course necessary to adopt? Is
the principle which triumphed in England equally true
on this side the straits. Do reason, propriety, and the
decided determination on the part of the Government not
to give a shock to the country (by innovations) permit
us to hope for the immediate application cif this princi-
ple to a certain extent in France? Thisis a question
which it is desirable to examine with calmness, and we
purpose to do so at some length. Free trade presents
itself, it is admitted even by its adversaries, under a bril-
liant aspect. It would have the inappreciable advantage
of assuring the peace of the world, which is the greatest
blessing of civilisation, the surest guarantee that can
be given for liberty ; it would furnish every one
with the means of exercising his industrial faculties,
entirely according to his will and to their full extent of
procuring every object at the lowest possible rate, and
of selling the fruits of his labour in the market which
offers the best price for them. From liberality and hu-
manity one is disposed to love free-trade. On the other
side, however, the protective system counts its partisans
at the present day, not only amongst those whose for-
tunes we believe are made by it, but amongst men who
are evidently quite disinterested in the discussion. Cer-
tain great interests declare that the qnestion of the main-
tenace or the destruction of the protective system is
with them a question of life and death. It is even
impossible to conceal from ourselves that certain
industries, whose great value nom, can contest, have
flourished by means of this system, and, thanks to it,
have arrived at a great degree of prosperity. We do
not hesitate to say that our choice is made. We are
advocates for free trade, in the sense that we consider it
an object which ought to be attained gradually, and by
constantly approaching towards it as far as circumstances
will permit. The protective system, interpreted by
prohibition, for it is always in that sense that the term
is used, may be very favourable to a particular branch
of industry, specially protected while in its infancy,
but once that a country has taken great strides in
a manufacturing career, the system, it will be seen, be-
comes injurious ; it arrests the progress of the arts
which it pretends to protect, and which often believe
themselves efficaciously protected ; it opposes the natural
order of things, in causing prohibition by way of repri-
sals against foreign countries, and in impeding by re-
strictions and augmentations in the price of the raw ma-
terial at home, those branches of manufactures in which
the country succeeds the best. It gives a bad direction
to national capital, and maintains an artificial and bur-
densome state of things by creating factitious industries
which live as in a hot-house, and do not produce results
equivalent to the labour they absorb. It institutes and
tends to perpetuate inequalities when the law has wished
to give to every citizen equal facilities. The great majo-
rity of those who support it
, are led astray by prejudices
and by false calculations. 'hey have not correctly esti-
mated and placed in parallel what it costs and what it
produces, not only to the state and to the country, but
to themselves. They only see the apparent profits, and
deceive themselves as to the charges. The present
moment offers, for the organisation of international
exchanges on a more liberal footing, conditions ex-
tremely favourable, and which may perhaps never be
again found, it not now taken advantage of.

---,
EXTRAORDINARY PRODUCE or HoNny.—Last
week the gardener of James Wintle, Esq., Grey Friars;
in this city, took from.one stock of bees in that gentle-
man's garden, a comb weighing no less than 851b5.; the
net weight of the honey which it yielded was near 601bs
—Gloucester Chronicle.
We regret to state that Lady Wetherell and her
aged mother, the lion. Mrs. ,Warneford, on Saturday
sustained another domestic bereavement, by the demise
of Mrs. Long, sister to the former, and daughter to the
latter, who expired at her residence, near the New-road,
after a protracted illness. Lady 'Wetherell, it may be
added, is sole heiress to her mother, who is widow to
the late Colonel Warneford.—Bristol Journal.