The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-17 00:00:00

AMERICAN NEWS.

LIVERPOOL, SIINDAY.—The fine steam-ship Europa,
after the quickest passage ever made across the
Atlantic, arrived in the Mersey this morning at nine
o'clock, having been telegraphed off Voel Naut at half-
past six, A.M. The Europa left New York on the sth
inst., and called at Halifax on the Bth to land and re-
ceive the mails and passengers to and from the British
American provinces. The entire time occupied between
her departure from New York and arrival here (in-
cluding detention at Halifax) was only 10 days and 20
hourp.

The Europa brings the large number of 150 passen-
gers.. She reports the arrival at Halifax on the 3d of
June of the steam-ship America, which left this port
on the 25th ult. The Europa on the 13th inst. met the
steam-ship Cambria, which left this on the Bth inst. for
New York.

The files brought by the Europa extend to the sth
inst., but the news is brought down to the 7th inst. via
telegraph to Halifax.
We subjoin some of the more interesting items of
importance.
'That portion of the intelligence regarding the Cuban
invasion is confirmatory of former accounts, though the
details are somewhat contradictory.
One report states that a portion of the invaders bad
landed on the south side of Cuba, and had taken posses-
sion of Cienfuegos and Trinidad. Great excitement
had taken place at Havannah on the receipt of this news,
and a large number of troops had left for the supposed
scene of action. In fact, scarcely a soldier remained in
Havannah. The brig Zenobia, lately arrival at Savan-
nah from Cuba, reports that all the troops had again left
for Cardenas. On the other hand it is stated that intel••

ligence had reached the Spanish legation in Washing-
ton that no less than 1,500 prisoners had been taken

- - _
in two large vessels on the south coast of Cuba, most
of whom were Americans, who were allowed to re-
turn, those of other countries being tried by court-
martial.
Dispatches had been received at Washington from
the American consul at Havannab, stating that he had
demanded the 105 persons taken by a Spanish ship-of-
war on the Island of Contoy, that being a neutral terri-
tory. The men who had been taken on that island had
not engaged in open hostilities, and were engaged con-
sidering the propriety of abandoning the island and re-
turning home when they were seized upon. The Go-
vernor of Cuba not having replied to the consul's
demand, that functionary had sent for additional power
to enforce it. Accordingly, dispatches had been for-
warded from Washington to such portions of the
squadron as could be immediately collected at Uavannah
to assist the consul in pressing the demand. Should
the Spanish Government refuse the consul is to report
to Washington, when orders will be at once given to
obstruct communication of all vessels with the port of
Havannab. _ _

A Washington letter states that a council of the
United States Cabinet had been held in that city, when
it was determined upon to bold the authorities of the
island of Cuba rigidly accountable fer their treatment of
all American subjects; and to carry out that determina-
tion a special agent was to be at once dispatched with
the necessary instructions to Havannah.
A correspondence is said to have passed between Mr.
Clayton and the Spanish Minister relative to the impri-
sonment of certain Americans at Havannah, upon un-
founded suspicions of connivance with the invaders, and
also with respect to the forced enlistment of Americans
into the Cuban " volunteer" band'. The Spanish Mi-

nister assured Mr. Clayton that the course Which would
be pursued by the authorities at Cuba would be such as
could give no cause of complaint to the Cabinet of the
United States, and that no American citizen should be
imprisoned or put to death unless on ample proof being
given of the violation of the laws of Spain, Cuba, and
also of the United States. _ _ _

A letter from Washington, dated June 3, says, that
official information had just reached of the execution of
four Americans, and the imprisonment of nearly 200
others. The four who had been shot bad been amongst
those left behind at Cardenas. The Spanish authorities

had refused the commander of the United States squad-
ron permission to see the prisoners, or permit them to
be sent home for trial.

The United States frigate Congress had sailed for
Cuba, to intercept a Spanish vessel, containing a number
of Americans, taken prisoners in an island near Yucatan.
The Congress was followed also by a Spanish man-of-
war. Captain Randolph, of the Congress, is deter-
mined to rescue the American prisoners at all hazards.
Dispatches have been forwarded from the United
States Government to the Cuban authorities, that the
arrest of Americans on any other island, save Cuba,
will rot be permitted.
The Spanish Minister at Washington had remonstrated
against the refusal of the American authorities at Key
West to deliver up the money which the invaders had
taken. The Spanish commander had demanded the
surrender of the Creole and the money. The reply
made him was " We have no force, and the invaders will
not give up the money." • The Spanish commander then
offers d to put himself and his entire force under the
command of the civil authorities at Key West, for the
purpose of taking the Creole and the money. This was
declined, a promise being made that the money would be
returned by order of the United States Government to
the Cuban authorities. It is generally believed that the
invaders have in their pay many members of the Ame-
rican pi ess.
Two vessels, with reinforcements for General Lopez,
and which were commissioned to land at different points
of the island, were still at sea, their fate and destination
unknown. In the event of these vessels being captured
by the Spaniards, the United States squadron bad been
instructed to demand them of the Spanish commander,
and in the event of refusal to seize them by force.
The steam-ship Southerner had arrived at New York
with several of the returned " patriots."
The British steam-ship Thames. arrived at Mobile on
the 3d June with late dates from Havannah. Mr.
Campbell, the American Consul, stated that the
Spaniards at Havannah were much embittered at the
American authorities, and refused all information as to
the number, names, and probable fate of the prisoners,
who were very closely confined.
Lopez was in New Orleans on the 4th instant.
The grand jury at New York, charged with investiga-
tions relative to the connexion of persons with the Cuban
invasion, bad reported that no evidence had been pre-
sented to them sufficient for the indictment of any per-
son in that city.
Advices from New Orleans report the arrival there of
the steam-ship Alabama from Sau Francisco with dates
to the
dust.le t o
hMay,esteBaship Panama bad reached Pa-
nama
gold
on the 21st ult. with over 1,000,000 dollars in gold
dust from San Francisco. Business was prosperous
when she left. Great activity prevailed at San Francisco,
and prices of produce and merchandise were advancing.
The emigration to the mines was said to be very greatly
en the increase.
The Indians (Pawnees) were still attacking the Cali-
fornian emigrants. The latter had found a desirable
ally in a great Pottowatamier chief, named Wanasab,
who had, in a skirmish, killed a Pawnee chief on whose
person were found 4 white and 9 Indian scalps lately
taken. 800 Mormons had left St. Louis for California.
Caravans of emigrants extended between 200 and 300
miles. Grass and water were abundant, but small-pox
and cholera were reported as very prevalent.
Fires had occurred at Baltimore on the 4th, and Cin-
cinnati on the same day. Violent storms had been ex-
perienced in Georgia and Florida,
The Nashville Convention met at Nashville (Tenes-
see) on the 4th inst., Judge Sharkey presiding. No-
thing important has been transacted. Nashville was
greatly crowded. •
The prospects of the new southern pro-slaverp organ
has appeared in the Washington journals, signed
by senators Butler and Morton, and Messrs. hompson
and Toombs. It will be published weekly and
atri-
weekly.
ats present in peaker of
notedCon-
greTshs.eanßdishotohperofJainaia character,' Mr.
Cobb,
Bal-
timore.
The proceedings of the American Congress possess
c
br
no new feature of interest. The slavery discussion still
occupied the attention of the Senate. The committee
of thirteen had presented a report restricting the terri-
torial governments of Utah and New Mexico from pass-
ing any law respecting slavery. The report has vir-
tually no meaning.
Mr. Soule bad offered his counter project for the di-
vision of California by the parallel of 36.30, the coun-
try north being admitted as a state; a territory south
of that line to be established and called South Califor-
nia, to be admitted at a suitable time as a state, with or
without slavery, as the people may decide when they
form a State government. A long discussion had taken
place in the Senate on a motion by a Mr. Bradbury,
censuring the President for removing parties from office
merely because they were not partisans.
Later news from Mexico state that the election for
a president was approaching, and causing great excite-
ment. Senor de la Roa, Mexican Minister at Washing-
ton, was a candidate. No day for an extra congress had
been named by the Government. The cholera was still
prevalent, and approaching the capital.
We have additional intelligence from Canada. Colonel
Prince had been arrested for accepting a challenge from
the Solicitor-General. In the Canadian Parliament, the
Inspector-General intimated that the Government did
not intend to permit American vessels to navigate the
St. Lawrence, until commercial reciprocity bad been
sanctioned by the American Congress. The Inspector-
General had laid on the table the public accounts, and
announced the intention of Government to take the duty
off salt. Bills to abolish the usury laws, to regulate
general assessment, to alter the rate of silver as a legal
tender, and to facilitate free trade with the Britsh Ame-
rican possessions, are to be introduced. The Queen's
birthday has been celebrated at Toronto with much en-
thusiasm. All the shops were closed. Lord Elgin and
his daughter mingled freely with the crowd in the Col-
lege-avenue.

The intelligence the steamship
:InceEßtaeleAn
America
had the effect of considerably checking transactions.
The banks win.° abundantly supplied with specie, and
accommodation was liberally afforded. The transactions
in exchanges fur the present steamer were not very ex-
tensive. In the .business on the day receding her de-
ljo
uitNbrry
Picture nohow I 0 landOU °POW • little inch isles

being made at 9} to q, but closed firmer, say 9} to 10
per cent.; Paris, short sight, sf. 232 c.; for 60 days' bills,
sf. 264 c. to sf. 27ie. ; Amsterdam, 40k to 404; Ham-
burgh, 35k, little doing ; and Bremen, 79 to 791.
Is freights the business done is small and unworthy
of notice. No change in rates to Havre, Glasgow, Liver-
pool, or London. A number of vessels had been taken
up to load deals, &c., at St. John, N. 8., for English
ports, from 31. to 41. 55., according to the eligibility of
the ports.
Holders of Cotton, after the departure of the steamer
Pacific, continued to offer stocks freely, prices at the close
of the week receding 4- to } of a cent., chiefly on mid-
dling and lower grades. 'The market still continued
dull at a further decline. The receipts of cotton at all
the shippieg ports are 1,922,709 bales against 2,590,186
to same dates last year, the decrease being 667,477 bales.
The total foreign exports this year are 774,121 bales
less than last, of which the decrease to Great Britain
alone was 590,702 bales. The shipments from southern
to northern ports are 23,179 bales less this season than
last; there is an increase in stock of 96,812 bales. The
latest quotations at New York were, low to good ordi.
nary, 111 c. to 114 c.; low to good middling, 1 lie. to
124-c. ; middling fair to fair, 121 c. to 13c.; fully fair to
good fair 134 c. to 13ic. The report of the New Orleans
market at last advices states that cotton was then active
under the Asia's news. On the 3d instant 4,000 bales
had been sold-of middling 11}c. to 114 c. ; fair, 13c.
sales per week 19,000 bales. Receipts at that port and
Mobile, 473,000 bales behind last year. Weather warm
but healthy.
Provisions were firmer, and prices had advanced
slightly, but receded again. Ohio pork, 8 dole., 684 c. to
8 duls. 75c. for prime, 10 dole. 68,1 c. to 10 dole. 874 c.
for mess. Beef in good demand, at well supported
prices, say, 8 dols. 87ic. to 9 dols. for country mess;
prime mess, 17 dols. Lard is without demand for ex-
port. Butter and cheese steady.
The Molasses and Tobacco markets are firm, with ad-
vancing prices.
The market fur Ashes has remained steady and
uniform. Pots bring 5 dols. 62c. to 5 dols. 681 c.
A large speculative demand has arisen for Flour, in a
great measure the result of anticipated short supplies of
Flour and Wheat at the great receiving points of the
west. The receipts at Buffalo from the Upper Lakei to
the Ist of June had fallen short of last year 161,716
bbls. Flour, and 886,960- bushels Wheat. Estimated
present stock in New York is 250,000 to 400,000 bbls.
of all kinds, and 50,000 bushels of Wheat. Quotations
are, Mixed Ohio and Indiana, 5 dol. 62ic. to 5 dol. 75c.;
pure Gennessee, 6 dol. 121 r. to 6 dul. 184 e.; extra
Gennessee, 6 dol. 56c. to 57c. Corn meal continues in
fair request, and higher, owing to advance in corn.
The Drug and Dye markets were much depressed.

CUBAN GRIEVANCES.
Although we received by express last night later in-
telligence from the United States, we can only conjecture
the results of an expedition, whose performance has
hitherto been so inadequate in its promise as to leave in
the minds even of those most sanguine as to its failure
an unpleasant doubt whether they have yet heard the
last of the affair. The fate of Mr. Cobden deters us
from indulging in political prophecy. We shall not un-
dertake to say whether the conduct of General Lopes
has been that of a skilful leader or a consummate coward.
Whatever may be our private suspicions, we shall not
charge the American Cabinet with an open participation
in an an act of piracy until their vindication shall have
appeared, if, indeed, after the humiliating compliance of
Lord Palmerston in the case of the imprisoned negro at
Charleston, they should think it worth while to offer
any to a Government whose policy has exemplified the
exact converse of the Roman rule—who spare the
strong to trample on the weak. But we believe that
at a crisis like the present, when even Spanish ob-
stinacy has been so far conquered as to lead
the Court of Madrid to acknowledge the justice
of the colonial complaints, by sending out Count Mirasol
on a mission analogous to that of Lord Durham in Ca-
nada twelve years ago, it may not be uninteresting to
our readers to know something both of the nature of the
Cuban grievances, and c f the general state of opinion
among the planters and proprietors of the island. First,
as to the rate of taxation imposed by the mother-coun-
try. On examining the Cuban tariff, we find 2,860
articles enumerated as imports. Of these just 25 are
allowed to enter free of duty. On 13 more the ad valo-
rem charges range from 2 per cent. to per cent. These
38, therefore, may be considered as comparatively un-
taxed. Of the remaining 2,822, more than two-thirds,
or 1,908 articles, are rated at 27} per cent.; while the
remaining 824 pay 33A- per cent., or one-third of their
actual market value. Among the latter, or most
highly-taxed class, we find a large proportion of those
articles most necessary for the wants or comforts
of the colonists. Horses, flour, soap, salt provisions
(of which enormous quantities are introduced as
food for negroes working on estates), nearly all
articles of clothing, the machinery used for the
sugar-mills, carts, and other requisites for agricul-
tural improvement, are all subjected to this enor-
mous impost. Not to trouble our readers with details,
we may say, generally, that out of a population of about
1,200,000 inhabitants, of whom one-half, being held in
a state of bondage, cannot be considered as consumers
ou their own account, 3,000,000 of dollars are annually
screwed, in the shape of import duties alone, while even
here, as every resident in Cuba soon learns to his cost,
the total loss of the planter is very inadequately repre-
sented by the total gain of the exchequer ; for, in the
first place, it is only as a special favour—or, in other
words, by means of a bribe—that the imported goods are
allowed to be passed and brought into the market at
once; the appraiser, moreover, is a Government officer, and
being very badly paid, or sometimes not paid at all,
takes care to make good the deficiency by a few private
negotiations of his own ; then the tonnage duties have
to he added ; and lastly, there is a tax on all articles
sold by retail, of uncertain and variable amount, but
which serves to enrich the local tax-gatherers, every one
of whom is sent out, as Englishmen received East India
appointments in the last century, to accumulate his for-
tune as soon as he can, and then make room for a
successor. But these form a small fraction only of the
financial grievances of the colony. Who in any
country except Cuba ever heard of a tax directly dis-
couraging cultivation, because levied on the amount and
value of the crops raised at home by the farmer? The
Creole planter cannot cut an acre of cane on his own
land without previously paying 2} per cent. on the al-
leged value of the produce. It' he raises Indian corn,
or any other grain crop, he pays 10 per cent. The
monopolies in the hands of the Captain-General furnish
an equally fertile source of plunder. To take a single
instance, an arroba of meat, weighing 251bs. English,
costs the purchaser five dollars and a half. Upon this
the Government charge is three dollars, or more than
one•half of the whole value. We have not time, nor
would our readers have patience, to go through a long
list of similar enormities, from which the only difficulty
is to select. A tax of 6 per cent. on the transfer of real
estate—a similar charge (independent of the price of a
licence) on all goods sold in shops—an impost on law
expenses, on deaths, on registry of births, on free gifts of
whatever kind, no matter how small the amount, on 'he
wearing of a uniform, on the erection of any public build-
ing—these, and a hundred more, deserve aardly to be
mentioned in themselves, because only forming part of
the regular system of the country. But there
are other impositions, which, though illegal, can hardly
be called unavowed, and being enforced by the supreme
authority, armed with absolute power, are just as regu-
larly submitted to as though they had originated with
the Government of Spain. To begin—all offices are
b. ought from the Captain-General, who, as may well be
imagined from the preceding details, knows their value
too well to part with them cheaply. Again, a nominal
law against gambling-houses serves as a means of ex-
torting from particular individuals privileged to keep
them a round sum for their secret licence. The fact of
the Captain-General's receiving so much per head on
every slave imported, and of his consequent unwilling-
ness to discourage the slave-trade, is too notorious to re-
quire farther mention. We are afraid of being supposed
to allude to certain transactions, well known to the in-
habitants of the great commercial towns of England, in
reference to the Exposition of next year, if a e add that
in Cuba one of the heaviest extortions complained of by
the residents comes in the shape of voluntary subscrip-
tions for the repair and maintenance of public buildings,
and for other such purposes, which the delicacy
of the authorities will not suffer them to
put down to the account of the island treasury,
And lastly, from every court of justice throughout the
colony there is an appeal, immediate and irreversible, to
the Captain-General in person; who, of course, only to
prevent his time being unduly taken up with trifles, con-
descends to receive, by way of acknowledgment of his
services as a judge, a sum which, to save trouble, he
fixes in each case himself. In conclusion, we will only
add that the total amount, avowed and unavowed, which
the Government and the officials between them contrive
to squeeze out of the pockets of the Creoles, is gene-
rally estimated at not much less than 5,000,0001. ster-
ling per annum. From this brief and imperfect out-
line of the financial administration of Cuba—combining
all four of the qualities which Adam Smith has noted
as most likely to produce discontent in the mind of
the people—namely, great expense in collecting, in-
equality as regards different classes, fluctuation from
time to time, and encouragement to the smuggleri
we shall turn to the police of the island and persona
liberty of the subject. During eighteen consecutive
months of the government of General Tacon, 200 per-
sons, many of high rank and respectability, wereten trans-
to
ported to penal settlements, and above 700
perpetual banishment. When 0 Donnelt had en
sheld office
t at
or five
revolt
a little more than a year (in 1844)
took place on the part of the negraonesatoef four
estates. The actual mischief done was not much
greater
than in the case of Smith O'Brien's memorable attempt
in Ireland, but it was quite enough for the authorities to
act upon. Martial law could not, indeed, be proclaimed,
artial law is the habi-
for the best possible reason, td a
I, tri,
been so ever since
tual government of Cuba, an
1825; but a military tribunal was"forth forthwith established,
before which, by the express orders of Ithe Captain-Gre:
neral, suspected parties might be examined by torture or
'otherwise. Into a detail of the proceedings of this lay
inquisition we have not space to enter; but some idea
may be ice med of the kind of Justice. administered
when it is stated that of Cubans,
.unconvicted, untried,
but put to the question by flogging and half-hanging,
ninety-six were returned as leaving died under the hands
of a single agent of police, seventy-two were butchered
by another, and seventy by a third. Many of these
victims were free coloured men, holding property to a
large amount, and in some instances their guilt was well
known to have consisted solely in their wealth. The
exact number of officials employed in this laudable work
we are unable to gite, but
.believe it.to have exceeded
twenty-five. The reader will draw his own conclusion
as to the total amount of bloodshed, and we may add
that it was never satisfactorily ascertained that any
general or wide-spread conspiracy existed, the outbreaks
which gave rise to the suspicions of the governor having
been purely local, and a very
.general belief existing
throughout the island that their simultaneous occurrence