The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-09 00:00:00

ehlt, -dna k.-eslntre

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1851

An American residing in Paris has addressed to
the Editor of Galignani s Messenger a letter, i❑
which he impugns certain statements made by us in
the article on Cuban affairs, which appeared in The
Sun of Monday, September 1, and which was subse-
quently copied into some of the Paris journals. In
that article we stated that the piratical expedition
under LOPEZ had sailed with the full knowledge and
connivance of the Executive of the United States, and
we added " That the Executive of the United States
is giving actual encouragement to this impious sys-
tem of brigandage, by declaring that the time is not
far distant when Cuba must be annexed to the United
States, and on that declaration basing a proposal for
the purchase of the island from Spain." These
statements are met by the American correspondent
of Galignani's Messenger with a fiat denial " I
take," says an American, " the positive and material
statements as to the Executive of the United States,
and answer them by a simple denial. They are, in
fact, wholly untrue ; and are supported by no colour-
able evidence whatever. The Government of the
United States has connived at no piratical expedition,
nor has it directly nor indirectly made any such de-
claration as is here imputed to it." We will take the
last part of the denial, that, namely, relating to the
proposal for the purchase of Cuba, first. Of course we
never pretended to make this statement as to the pro-
posed purchase of Cuba on the authority of any mem-
ber of the Executive ; we do not pretend to be in the
secrets of the United States Cabinet, or to know
more of their intentions than we can gather from what
appears in the American newspapers, and in those papers
we find various articles recommending the purchase
of Cuba by the United States, and more than hinting
to Spain that she had better sell Cuba whilst she has
it to sell, as its ultimate annexation to America
is inevitable. These articles, we consider, are put
forward as feelers, and in one of them it is
distinctly stated that the United States Exe-
cutive did, some time since, make over-
tures to Spain for the purchase of Cuba, which over-
tures were indignantly rejected. Therefore it

was, on the authority of the American
journals, that we made the statement alluded to,
and our belief in its truth is not shaken by the mere de-
nial of the author of the letter signed "An Ameri-
can," which appears in Galignanis Messenger of

Friday. This, however, is a matter of minor import-
ance when compared with the distinct and explicit
denial of our statement that the piratical expedition
under LOPEZ sailed with the full knowledge and con-
nivance of the Executive of the United States. And,
first, as to the denial of the knowledge on the part
of the Executive of the United States that the LOPEZ
expedition was about to sail to Cuba. If the
members of the Executive of the United States were

ignorant of the organization of the expedition under
LOPEZ, were ignorant cf the objects for which it
was fitted out, were ignorant of its destination, were
ignorant of the time at which it was intended that
the expedition should depart from the shores of the
United States, we will engage to say that they were the
only individu9.l3, from Maine to Luusiana, who were in
such a blissful state of ignorance. Be it remembered
that Colonel CRITTENDEN, the nephew of the Attor-
ney-General of the United States, had a high com-
mand in this expedition, and was one of the staff. Of
course the Attorney-General (uncle) bad no idea
of the nature of the expedition in which the Colonel
(nephew) was about to embark ; had he had the least

inkling of the nature of the project in which the
nephew was engaged he would, as in duty bound,
lave adopted measures not only to prevent the depar-
ture of the expedition, but to bring to justice
those who had violated the laws of the United
States by attempting to organize it. Now,
do our readers, does the American correspondent
of Galignani himself imagine that every Member of
the Executive of the United States was not perfectly
aware of all that was going on in New Orleans, Mobile,
and the other towns in the south, which furnished each
their quota to the crew and passengers of the Pam-
pero? It is absurd to suppose that they were not per-
fectly acquainted with all that was going on, or that
the expedition sailed without their knowledge ;
and if it sailed with their knowledge
then the fact that the expedition reached
Cuba proves that it sailed with their connivance also.
We admit that in their own territory the Executive
of the United States is as completely impotent to
enforce obedience to the laws as the most lawless
marauder could desire; we admit that the Government
of the Southern States, from which this expedition
was fitted out, is that which M. PROUDHON eulogizes
as the best of all possible Governments, an organized
anarchy; we admit for the sake of argument (and
for the sake of argument only, for we do not believe
such to have been the fact) that the Executive of the
United States could not, had they been so minded,
have prevented the departure of the Pamper() from the
shores of that continent; but these admissions by no
means acquit the Executive of the United States of
the charge of connivance. How weak soever they
may be in their own territory, out of that terri-
tory they are as powerful as the Executive of
any other nation. They possess the absolute
Command of the, whole naval power of the
United States, and can order a fl,-?et or a frigate on
any service that they think fit. Why did they not
order a steal:o;4A
gate or steam-frigates to cruiza in the
Gulf or the Cuban waters with orders to watch and in-
tercept the Pampero and prevent LOPEZ from landing
in Cubs ? That they had a frigate at their disposal is

evident, for no sooner did the intelligence reach them
of the execution of Colon::l CRITrE'NDEN and his com-

pinions at the Havannah than a steam-frigate is
ordered there to demand explanations ; had that steam-
frigate been just one week before ordered to cruize in
the Cuban waters, for the purpose of preventing the
invasion of the territory of a friendly power by
American citizens, the necessity for demanding ex-
planations would never have arisen, and Colonel
CRITTENDEN and his unfortunate companions would
have been still alive ; therefore we contend that if the
LOPEZ expedition sailed with the knowledge it must
also, of necessity, have been with the connivance of the
Executive of the United States. "An American,"
not content with denying the validity of the charges
we have brought against the Executive of the United
States, thinks it necessary to offer a quasi justifica-
tion of the motives of LOPEZ and his companions, and
endeavours to prove that the agitation in the United
States is essentially Cuban. He says—
" It is well known that the territory of the United
States, beginning at the south-eastern corner of the
state of Georgia, end following the coast-line
along to the Gulf of Mexico, and nearly to the
mouth of the Mississippi—a distance of 1,500 miles—
was Spanish territory a little more than thirty years
ago. Many of the present inhabitants are wholly or
partially of Spanish blood—kindred of the Cubans, and
alli!d to them by the intercourse and traditions of cen-
turies. And let it be remembered that it was in this
Spanish territory and the immediate vicinity that the
Cuban sympathy in the United States had its first de-
velopment, and that it still has its most open manifes-
tations.

" Let us next state that Lopez, the leader in this
business, is a Spaniard—an ex-Cuban—who has derived
his chief pecuniary means from Cuba, and that he de-
clares himself to be seeking to fulfil the desire of thou-
sands of his compatriots, who only wait for the time and
the opportunity when they may rise against the Spanish
Government with hope of success. With these facts in
♦iew, it is easy to see that the Cuban agitation in the
United States, in its origin and power, is essentially
Cuban, and foreign to our country."
It so happens that since the publication of this letter
circumstances have furnished us with data which
enable us to test the truth of this statement. The
names and nations of the officers in command of the
expedition have been published, and the only Spanish
name to be found among them is that of NATICISO
LOPEZ. He is the only man among them who bas
Spanish or Cuban blood in his veins. Again, we may
clearly take the fifty prisoners who were shot at the
Havannah as a fair sample of the composition
of the expedition; among them there were two
Cubans, and two Cubans only ; no Spaniards, and
forty Americans, every one of whom bore a name
that was unmistakably Anglo-Saxon. So much for
the assertion that the Cuban agitation in the United
States is essentially Cuban, and foreign to that
country.

An Irish Contemporary (the Leinster Express)
states that an English gentleman who had lodged
62,0001. with his agent, for the purpose of pur-
chasing property, under the Encumbered Estates
Commission, has altered his intentions, and with-
drawn his money, in consequence of the atrocious
murder of Mr. EDWARD WRITE, of Abbeyleix.
Our Contemporary apparently speaks on good infor-
mation, and there is a verisimilitude about the state-
ment that induces us to accord it a ready cre-
dence. Capitalists are a sensitive and sus-
picious race, ready to grasp at the slightest doubt
or impediment to withdraw from speculations of the
soundness of which they had previously assured them-
selves. There is no greater degree of jealousy than
that of the moneyocracy over their gold. The most
excitable husband will not grasp at trifles more
eagerly than the anxious millionnaire or snug pro.
prietor of "a plum," before concluding a bargain.
Sometimes the difficulty will stop the entire transac-
tion, at others it will only be resorted to for the
purpose of diminishing the price and obtaining the
object at a cheaper rate. It could not be supposed
that such an event as the barbarous murder of a re-
spectable and amiable gentleman could occur without
exciting a painful sensation, more particularly of one
celebrated for his extensive benevolence and unosten-
tatious charity—who had but recently come into pos-
session of property purchased under the Commis-
sioners, and whose sanguinary death was most probably
occasioned by the unhappy disputes and litigation
that arose respecting the rights belonging to his
newly acquired estate. It was apparently a glaring
and marked illustration of those agrarian outrages that
formerly disgraced the country, but which, for some
time past, had become, if not altogether unknown, at
least comparatively rare.
The startling incident, however, was sufficient
to revive almost dormant feelings, and to renew the
distrust and caution respecting everything Irish that
was gradually subsiding. The mischief was con-
siderably enhanced by the glowing descriptions and
highly-coloured pictures that were drawn of the
melancholy occurrence. We were told that "the
fearful deed was the result of a wide-spread con-
spiracy to take Mr. WRITE'S life, and that many
persons present at the inquest could, if they would,
point out :the assassin-hands, scarcely yet dry with
the blood of their victim ;" that "numbers of the
country people looked on coldly," and that " the
murder was committed within the sight of hundreds
of people reaping in the surrounding fields,
but not the slightest attempt was made to render
assistance, or to apprehend the assassin." If there
were any real foundation for these assertions, a very
melancholy state of things would indeed be brought
to light. There would be " a wide-spread con-
spiracy to murder," and " hundreds of country people
Lokiog on" at the bloodshed without affording any
assistance or exhibiting any mark of sympathy with
the victim. Such conduct, implicating a great por-
tion of the population of the locality as participators
in the crime, or at least as accessaries after the fact,
might well deter even the bravest from selecting such
a district for his future residence and the employment
of his capital.

Without, however, in any degree seeking to
diminish the natural horror that must be felt at such
a fearful atrocity, we may be permitted to say that
the matter has been carried rather too far, and that,
on a more accurate knowledge of the true state of

facts, we shall find that there is nothing to prevent
' the influx of English capital into Ireland
or to prevent Englishmen from availing themselves
of the unquestionable advantages tendered fur their
acceptance in the sister kingdom. In the first place,
, although that can serve as no adequate excuse for
those who planned or executed the homicide, is is
certain that Mr. WHITE was involved in litigation
with a large number of his neighbours, seekirg to
restrain them from exercising rights of turbuT, of
which they had been in the undisturbed enjoyment
for many years. He had summoned many of them to
the Abbeyleix Session's, and it is but justice to say that
the decision of the magistrates was adversa to his
claim and in favour of the defendants. De unfor-
tunate gentleman threatened to carry the case further,
and to resort to the superior courts, but the
decision of the magistrates proved that his opponents
had at least a plausible defence, and that it was not
a frivolous or vexatious interference with unquestion-
able rights. The parties themselves had claimed the
protection of the law, having by written notice called
upon Mr. WHITE " to avoid a forcible collision, and
to vindicate his rights, if any he had, in a court of
j ustice, and by peaceable means." We should be
sorry, save on unexceptionable evidence, to suppose
that persons, who had exhibited such laudable respect
for the laws of the land, who had checked without
violence the inclination of Mr. Worn to resort to
more summary and less justifiable means of enforcing
his supposed powers, and who had succeeded in the
proceedings, so far as they had been carried, would
coldly and deliberately plot the murder of their
neighbour, and subject themselves to the highest
penalty known to the law, more especially when
they must be well aware that every right would
survive to his successor, who would, most probably.
be just as anxious to enforce them as his predecessor
could have been. It is far more likely that the out-
rage was the act of some miscreant, who bad some
private fancied wrongs to avenge, and who was
totally unsupported by any of the litigating parties,
who were calumniated without any sufficient cause.
Again we find, that so far from " hundreds of
country people" being in sight and remaining apa-
thetic, that "there were only two persons within
sound of the shot reaping in the neighbourhood, the

one upon an undulating ground not near enough to

discern that more than a shot had been fired, the other
in a field at some distance, but who could not have

seen the shot, as a hill intervened to interrupt the
view, and, truly, he could not see its object." Now

this rests on no annonyrauus or apocbryphal