The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-09 00:00:00

, ARRIVAL OF THE WEST INDIA
AND MEXICAN MAILS.
SOUTHAMPTON, JAN. 9.—The Clyde, Royal
Mail Company's steamer, Captain Symons,
arrived this morning, at 'eight o'clock, .bringing
the following mails,:—Columbian, Mexican, and
West Indian.
The news from Mexico. is somewhat im-
portant and interesting, inasmuch as it appears
that Santa Anna, is re-elected President for
a term of five -years. On the 14th of
November, when the Clyde arrived at Vera Cruz,
it was learnt that Santa Anna had visited that
place the day previous, and that he had had the
troops drawn up in the square, and harangued
them. Ile stated that he had arrived for the
purpose of inspecting the fortifications, and that
war with England was inevitable; that he was
determined to support the honour of his country
to the fullest extent, and would defend the
Castle of St. Juan de • Ulloa in person, and
would resign it only with his life. About four
o'clock in the afternoon, however, shortly after
this bombastic exhibition had taken place, a
special messenger arrived with the information
that he had been re-elected President for a
further term of five years. The news was re-
ceived
by the military with great rejoicing and
enthusiasm, but no particular manifestation was
made by the civilians on this. announcement,.
The moment the information had been communi-
cated, Santa Anna immediately mounted his
horse and returned to his house in great haste,
without inspecting one of the fortifications or
taking further notice of •the troops in any shape
whatever. It is the opinion of the inhabitants
of Vera Cruz, that he 'merely made the demon-
stration for the purpose of securing his election,
and that his-denunciations against England were
sheer bravado, and nothing else. •
The Clyde, on the following day, sailed for
Tampico; but on her return, on the 22d Novem-
ber, it was learnt that advances had been made
by the Mexican Government to the British
Minister at Mexico, for the purpose of settling
the:differezices with England. The British Minis-
ter, however, declined to enter into any corres-
pondence or treaty whatever with the Mexican
Government, until he had received instructions
from our Government: he did not, in fact, open
the letters of the Mexican Government.
The Mexicans had been 'engaged for some time
in putting all their fortifications into a state of
repair, in the expectation that the British Admi-
ral, Sir Charles Adam, would arrive, and give
them a dressing. Their preparations •for de-
fence were most warlike and it was evident they
expected a conflict.

Sir Charles Adam, when the Clyde arrived at
Bermuda, had gone on for BarbadoeF. Every-
thing was quiet in all the'West Tndia Islands.
Fever had quite disappcared at Bermuda, and
health was completely restored.
It was gathered as a tact that General O'Don-

hell, Captain-General of Cuba, was openly en-
couraging the revival of the slave-trade at Cuba.
Three large cargoes of these poor miserable
wretches had been recently lauded there.
The Inconstant frigate, attached to Jacmel,
sailed for Jamaica on the 6th of November.

Her Majesty's ship of war Albatross, was at
Vera Cruz, as also three French corvette:, and a
Spanish frigate. At Havannah, were a French
corvette and an -American ditto. There were
none at Bermuda, and at Nassau it was so rough,
that the Clyde held no communication further
than taking-in a pilot.

The Company's steamer, Dee, sailed from Ha-
vannah for Belize on the 9th of ➢ecember; the
Avon ditto,. on the 10th, for Mexico; the Dee
arrived from St, Thomas's on the 22d at Bermuda,
bringing the_ mail to the Clyde.
The Clyde brings home 226,490 dollars, 32,300
of which are from Tampico, and 40,000 from Vera
Cruz to pay the Mexican dividend. The rest are
for merchants' accounts. She also brings 4,661
ounces of gold dust, 3,024 ounces of silver, arid
152 of platina ; 1,4631. in British coin, 106 serous
of cochineal, &c. &c.

The Clyde experienced heavy gales from ate
N.W. and S.W., all the passage from Ber-
muda, which accounts for her being four days
over-due.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM 'HIE -EVENING, PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—It is certainly the most extra-
ordinary fallacy that ever was .sought to be
palmed on the British public, that colonial trade
is our all-sufficient, nay, even our sole profitable
export trade; and that conveyance en masse of
labourers " to -a wilderness, as valueless as the
wave which broke on • its shore," is the true
and infallible recipe for disposal and em-
ployment of . our people. Why should the
word colony thus exclusively fascinate our
views of commerce? What is a colony ? IS
it a place whose inhabitants are only permitted
to trade with us ? This was what we tried to
make our American colonies in the last
.century.
We prohibited them from exporting wool, or
woollen manufactures, on the penalty of the loss
of the ship employed, the goods found, and five
hundred pounds in money besides. An Act was
passed in 1732, forbidding the sending to foreign
countries by land or water carriage of any hats
made in the colonies, and fixing the numbers.of
apprentices that master-hatters might employ.
An Act was passed in - 1750, declaring colonial
iron-mills and forges to be " nuisances," and as
such, to be " abated." The North American
Review observes, that " it may be, that this ex-
treme care of the six furnaces and nineteen
forges, then possessed by New England, was
necessary ; but as Old England was un-
able to furnish for export, as far down as
the year 1767, more than eleven thousand
tons of iron annually, Americans of the pre-
sent day can imagine some little excuse for the
very grave offence of making at home what could
hardly be procured abroad." The North Ame-
rican Review points out what is worth remark-
ing, that the rupture between England and her
colonies appears to have, in reality, arisen from
a question of commerce, quite as much as of
taxation. " There -is very fair reason to
believe that threepence in the pound was
resisted as much from the apprehended
loss of the colonial tea trade with •• the
Dutch—carried on in contravention'-'of the
laws of navigation and trade—as from any "Other
cause. The value of the tea consumed in all the
colonies was set at three hundred thousand
pounds sterling annually. The English East
India Company, backed by the Ministry, grasped
at a monopoly of the supply; anclthe change ..of
policy which reduced the duty froth ls. to 3d.
would have enabled them to obtain it; - inasmuch
as their tea could then be afforded at as low a
price as the smuggled, and was considered better."
It grieves us much to reduce " A glorious Revolu-
tion" to a sort of Peel-Tariff squabble; 'a
-squab-
We resulting from something very similar to the
late partial lowering of the coffee duties. Such
however is the American Reviewer's account of
its origin ;• and strange surely is the passion of
restriction, wherewith we have infected our
oldest colonists, when we find very
American Reviewer almost • recommending
the revival of the old Navigation-laws syStem
against us, by enforcing which we lost our colo-
nies. So infectious—so vivacious—is the selfish
spirit which prompts an ti-commercial policy. The
North .American Review has gut.a notion .that
England rather than Arnerica, has profited by
abandoning the Navigation Laws. "In the
opinion of men of no mean sagacity, its operation
[that of the Treaty of the 3d July, 1815,] has
proved more beneficial to the shipping,of
' land than to our own; but had it included the
same stipulations for our fres aad permanent trade
with the British possessions in the Western He-
misphere that it does for intercourse with the ter-
ritories of the Crown iiEurope and Asia, we might
be satisfied with it." Much good indignation is
wasted by the American Reviewer at the re-
maining restrictions on trade with our colonies;
and not till lie has exhaled it all, does he s ouch-
safe to admit that " the new tariff of Sir R. Peel
shows that this inequality is no looger to exist;
but its termination makes no compensation fur
the past (l !), nor have we any pledge that.
the former system will not be renewed. ?"
Cool that from an organ of a people who have
just bece barring out a moiety of our exports.
Our present colonial policy appears to be reversed
ft om that of the last century. Instead of atteinpt-.
jug to compel our colonists to submit to have
everything scarce and dear wherewith we did not
happen to be able to supply thum cheaply and
plentifully, we are taking precisely that same
asinine burthen on ourselves for their benefit.
And so tar from enforcing Cu them reciprocal
treatmentolour products, we allow them to import
foreign manufactures at lower duties than Canada
levies on ours. We allow Jamaica to Live A a crican