The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 185

The intelligence received from New York by the
American mail steam-ship Pacific, which arrived in
Liverpool yesterday, is not of a nature to diminish the
anxiety which we expressed some fortnight since
on the subject of the piratical expedition
which it was suspected was about to be dispatched
by the slave-owners of the southern states against the
island of Cuba ; that suspicion has now become cer-
tainty. A letter dated New Orleans, July 20, which
appears in the columns of a morning contem-
porary, states that the office of the writer
(a young Englishman, who emigrated some years
since,) had been converted into the head-quarters of a
military company, of which he had been commissioned
first lieutenant ; that he had been acting as recruiting
officer for three days, and had almost filled up his
company with recruits ; that he was hourly expect-
ing to receive orders to embark with his detachment
for the island of Cuba, where, adds the writer, " we
will assist the patriots and drive the Spaniards out of
the place, or else get killed ourselves." He adds, "the
American Government will make no effectual exertions
to prevent us reaching the scene of action, and General
LOPEZ, with his staff, is actively pushing matters
ahead in this city without let or hindrance." On the
subject of pay he says, "As to the pay, the terms
are good enough if we win, and, if we lose, it won't
matter what they are; 90 dollars per month, and a
bounty of 10,000 dollars to be paid at the end of the
war, is what I shall receive, if we are ever paid—a
fact which I deem somewhat problematical." _ .

The writer of such a letter as this would not, it is
evident, be very particular in his inquiries as to
whether or not there were really any patriots to assist ;
if the expedition found none, the conductors
of it would manufacture a few for the nonce, rather
than be deprived of the chance of " driving the
Spaniards out of the place," and afterwards plunder-
ing their property. When we last drew the at-
tention of our readers to this subject, we ex-
pressed our belief that the United States' Executive
would do all in its power to prevent the sailing of
this piratical expedition ; but we, at the same time,
expressed our fear that it would find itself utterly
impotent for the accomplishment of such an object,
and that it might be forced to make way for those who,
having made " political capital" of this Cuban expe-
dition, would find themselves, as the condition of
holding office, compelled to support by all the moral,
perhaps also by all the material force of the United
States, General LOPEZ and his band of marauders.
The intelligence brought by the Pacific fully confirms
the gloomy view which we then took of the state
of affairs. The most talented, the most honest, the
most high-minded, and the most far-seeing of the
statesmen of America, DANIEL WEBSTER, is, it is ru-
moured and believed, about to retire from the United
States Cabinet, in which he sits as Foreign Minister ;
the reasons for this contemplated retirement are not
stated, but we can well imagine that one, and that,
perchance, not the least weighty of these reasons is,
that he finds himself utterly unable to redeem the
pledges which he gave to the Ministers of foreign
Powers last year, on the subject of the interference
of the Executive to prevent the fitting out
from the United States of any marauding
expedition against Cuba. We do Mr. WEBSTEx but
justice whets we state our implicit belief that when he
gave those pledges he fully intended to redeem them,
and we give him credit for having exerted himself to
the utmost to do so, failing in which he now resigns.
The latest intelligence from Spain informs us that
the Spanish Government had received intelligence of
the complete suppression of the Cuban in-
surrection, a statement, however, on which we
are not inclined to place implicit reliance ;
but another statement, on which we do place
reliance the most implicit, is, that General AuricK,
the French Ambassador to the Court of Spain, has
given the most positive assurances to the Marquis of
MIRAFLORES, the Spanish Minister for Foreign Af-
fairs, that France will afford to Spain material assis-
tance to enable her to retain possession of the Island
of Cuba. Should the French Government redeem
the pledge thus given, a collision between the
allied French and Spaniards and the Americans
appears imminent. When we recollect the
great number of British subjects domiciled in the
Island of Cuba, and the very considerable property
which they possess, and the extensive and intimate
commercial connexions subsisting between the porta
of Great Britain and the Ilavannah, we trust that our
Ministers will take care to maintain such a naval
force in the West Indian Seas as shall secure the
safety of British subjects and British property, and
enforce from all parties respect for the British flag.

In this great city, containing between two and
three millions of inhabitants, no sound sanitary sys-
tem can be efficiently established and carried out,
unless aided by those sources of health and recrea-
tion, public Parks.

The western portions of our metropolis are, no
doubt, well supplied in this particular. Battersea
and Victoria Parks will produce beneficial effects in
their respective localities. But it is to be lamented

,hat in the immediate neighbourhood of some of

our most populous districts there is a sad want of
those free and healthful breathing-places. This is a
subject which our brother journalists would do well

—during the recess—to press upon the attention of
the Government, and we have no doubt if the people
will exercise a little pressure from without, in con-
junction with the newspapers, and aided by several

influenti2l noblemen and gentlemen deeply interested
in the health of the metropolis—such as Lord Ro•
BERT GaosvErmu, Mr. WAKLEY, and others—much
good will be effected on this point during the next
session of Parliament.
We have learned with some satisfaction that a step

in the right direction has been already taken by some
respectable and influential persons in the neighbour-
hood of Finsbury. They will no doubt receive the
active co-operation of their able representatives, and we
hope to see the proposal for a new park in that popu-
lous locality speedily carried out. There is, we be-
lieve, a large tract of land in that immediate neigh-
bourhood as yet unprofaned by the brick
and mortar mania ; but the builder is
already encroaching with rapid strides on
the site contemplated for the new park. It
will be, therefore, necessary for the Government to
bestir themselves, and with all possible speed secure
for the public the land still unoccupied.
The inhabitants of the West-end should give all
loi persons
the aid and cooperation in their power to a project
which will, to some extent, stem the human tide per-
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casually visiting London, are deeply interested in the
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