The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-03 00:00:00

LONDON,

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—Tne singular uncertainty of the reports
from Cuba, though forbidding any conclusions re-
specting the immediate destinies of that much-
coveted island, leaves the general aspect of its politics
substantially unaffected. The truth is that the peril
is constant, though the moment of convulsion may
be undeterminable. Whether the actual Government
of the colony may or may not be presently over-
thrown is a question of mere conjecture, but it is a
fact beyond disguise that it exists from year to year
under conditions of incessant exposure to the very
same dangers which are menacing it now. The
island of Cuba is a possession of vast territorial value
dependent on a Power of declining rank and feeble
resources ; it lies contiguous to one of the most vigo•
roils and aggressive States of the world, and the cir-
cumstances of its internal politics are such as to
create in fatal abundance the elements of revolutionary
explosion. It is thus perhaps hardly probable that its
Government can long remain unchanged, and yet the
greatest difficulties are discernible in every proposal
for commuting either its tenure or its constitu-
tion. The parties concerned in the solution of
the problem are four in number—the Govern-
ments of Spain and America, the free inhabitants of the
island, and its slave population. The Spanish Crown
clings to this relic of its colonial dominion with the
combined tenacity of avarice and pride, and its here-
ditary rights are guaranteed by Powers which would
be bound to their duties by private interests no less
than treaty obligations. The American Government
is not perhaps disposed to wrong, but is powerless
against the American people, and the American
people are wholly undisciplined in the duty of sub-
ordinating national passions to public law. The white
population, in number about 400,000, is discontented
with the Imperial yoke, and impatient for political
freedom, but apprehensive, at the same time, of slave
insurrection, against which it recognises the only per-
manent security in the arms of the Imperial garrison_
The slaves amount to about 325,000, but of this
number nearly two-thirds sue adult males, so that in
the event of a collision their force would incontest-
ably predominate. On further inquiry, however, it
seems quite impracticable to discover into what com-
binations these several elements of power are
to enter—with what aims, or with what pros-
pects of success. The Americans are for up-
setting the existing institutions, and trusting for
the ultimate result to those laws of gravitation
and attraction which are operative in political no less
than dynamical science. Their cry is republicanism
sud independence, and with independent Republicans
they profess themselves ready to fraternize against all
adversaries whatsoever. But this cry issues chiefly,
from the slave States of the Union, so that all the co-

loured populatio❑ of the island, whether slave or free,
would be enlisted from the strongest personal inte-
rests against these intolerant oppressors of the negro
race, and it is possible that for the time they might
even make common cause with the Spanish troops.
The party of Cuban independence, or, as they are
termed, the "patriots," could of course look to Ame-
rican sympathizers only for the aid which might be
found desirable against the forces of the Monarchy,
but their success, if obtained, could only be secured
by annexation, and to annexation there would on this
same score of slave institutions occur objectione almost
insurmountable. Meantime the Federal Government
is sorely disconcerted by the conflict between its
manifest duties and its probable necessities. It
shares, perhaps, the traditional sentiments of the
Union regarding the prospective acquisition, but
it also acknowledges the obligations of public right,
and it is sensible in a greater degree than democratic
orators of the accountability of all Powers, great or
small, to European opinion. It is manifestly impo-
tent, however, to check the practical aggressions of
its own subjects, and few persons can anticipate that
in event of "a conquest" by such agency it could re-
sist the popular demand for securing the prize. As
an escape from these intricate liabilities it has been
some time since suggested that the United States
should deal by Spain in respect of Cuba as they dealt
by France in respect of Louisiana—that is to say,
conclude a regular bargain of sale. If the resources
of Spain are inadequate to the preservation of the
colony, and if its honour revolts against a submission
to violence, what alternative more natural than to sell
for a lair consideration what is liable at any moment
to be lost without one ? Even the sum which might
reasonably constitute the purchase-money
100,000,000 dolls.—has been mentioned, and though
the amount seems large, yet as the annual revenues of
the colony are already computed at 20,000,000 dolls.,
and would undoubtedly admit of a large augmentation
under abler management, the bargain could certainly
not be disadvantageous to the purchasers. Against this
suggestion, however, it has to be observed, that there
is scarcely any party whose views would be met by
the transactions. The Spanish Government might
object to the compulsory tender, its allies would al-
most infallibly do so, the colonists might resist a
transfer in which they were treated as ascripti glebtr,
while as to the Americans we are now plainly told
that this intelligent people might very likely be indis•
posed to huy what they have so fair a prospect of ob-
taining gratis. Over and above these considerations
it has recently been argued with some acuteness,
though singular tardiness of perception, that the ac-
quisition of Cube would, after all, be prejudicial to the
interests of the Union, or to those, at any rate, of the
States which have hitherto been most influential in
kindling agitation on the subject. The reasoning
given is as follows :—As slavery is only maintained
in the States by domestic propagation, and as these
means of increase have proved insufficient to aug-
ment, or occasionally even to maintain, the number
of the slave population, any speculatio❑ creating a
new demand for slaves to be employed in fresh
localities must speedily denude the slave States of
their negroes and assimilate them to their rivals of the
north. If California, for example, had been recog-
nised as a slave state, these unfortunate creatures
would undoubtedly hove been drained off to the north-
west coast of the Pacific, where their labour would
have been far more remunerative than on the partially
exhausted plantations of.the south. Still more cer-
tainly would this occur in the event of the annexation
of Cuba. The novelty of the acquisition and the
allurements of sugar planting would for a time make
the people of the States " Cuba- mad," the value of
slaves would be enhanced 25 per cent., and the drain,
as an inevitable consequence, would tend to the island
from the American main. None of the frontier
states, indeed, could be expected to resist, and it is the
opinion of a journal "sincerely anxious to preserve
slave institutions in the American Union," that,
" should Cuba be annexed, slavery will cease within
five years thereafter to have more than a nominal
existence in Delaware, Virginia, Maryland Ken-
tucky, Missouri, and perhaps Tennessee." "We
should receive," adds the article in question,
"an insular increase of slavery, it is true,
of over 300,000 head, but would that com-
pensate us for the Congressional territorial
and numerical strength of which we shall indubitably
be deprived ?" These curious arguments are interest-
ing, as exemplifying the endless perplexities contin-
gent on institutions so unnatural as those of slavery,
and they may, perhaps, be not without weight in the
eyes of those to whom they are addressed. We can-
not, however, anticipate that any such considerations
will influence the desperadoes in whose hands peace or
war may prove to be lodged for the present. The
object of these marauders is plunder, and their pur-
pose piracy—scarcely disguised by pretexts of political
propagandism, and but poorly excused by that rest-
lessness of the national character which renders it
impossible for an American to remain contented at
home. The adver.turers actually departed on this
flagitious enterprise are not perhaps numerous, but a
little spark may kindle a conflagration in a commu-
nity so constituted as that of Cuba, and there is too
much reason to fear that means are at hand to improve
the first successes, as well as to shield the offenders
in case of failure from the due penalties of their crime.
ADVERTISER.—The feeling of gloom which
has for some time past prevailed in Paris has not yet
subsided. Nor is it likely it will, so long as the
Presidential question remains in its present state. We
stated a fortnight ago that the belief in the
hest informed circles in Paris then was, that the
Prince de Joinville had withdrawn his pretensions to
the Presidential chair, and that, consequently, one
great cause of uneasiness had been removed. The
Parisian public reasoned in the same way. In the
refusal of the Prince to allow himself to be put in
nomination fur the Presidency, they discerned a
marked improvement in the position of political
affairs, and the funds, as a natural consequence, im-
mediately improved. It appears, however, that both
ourselves and the people of Paris were mistaken in
supposing that he had declined to become a candidate
for the seat which Louis Napoleon now fills. He has
since then been playing fast and loose—seeking to
run with the hare and hold with the hounds. He
does not openly avow himself a candidate for the Pre-
sidency of the Republic ; but neither, on the
other hand, does he disavow the fact of his being
in the field. He is attempting to please two
of the leading sections into which France
is divided those who think he ought to
stand, and those of the friends of his family who
think he ought not. To the former he will not admit
that he is not in the field; to the others he will not
acknowledge that he is. Such conduct is disingenu-
ous and impolitic in the extreme. It displays a want
of candour and straightforwardness of conduct which
must very much lower the Prince in the estimation
of all those, in every part of Europe, who are capable
of appreciating honesty, ingenuousness, and manli-
ness of principle. No one can respect this scion of
the house of Orleans when they find him pursuing a
course so utterly unworthy of the position which he
fills, and so directly at variance with the universally
received notions of what constitutes high and honour-
able conduct. The very humblest peasant in France
would feel lowered in his own estimation were he, in