The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-15 00:00:00

LATE FROM MEXICO.

The barque Eugenia, Captain Biscoe, arrived this
morning from Vera Cruz, whence she sailed on the
12th inst. Mr. Cushing, late Commissioner to China,
was a passenger.
Captain Biscoe reports that most of the principal
towns throughout the Republic, and a very large pro-
portion of the people, have joined the insurrection
against Santa Anna, which has become a successful
and bloodless revolution, no serious resistance being
made in any quarter. Santa Anna was at Queretaro,
with a small force of yet faithful adherents; but most
of the troops had gone over to the party of Paredes.
The condition of the markets was very unpromis-
ing. The British frigates, Spartan and Inconstant,
and two French brigs of war, were lying at Sacri-
ficios.
Mr. Cushing sailed from Vera Cruz on the 12th
instant, and has had a fine passage of eighteen days.
Mr. C. has brought but few newspapers, having had
all his newspapers stolen while in Mexico, saving only
his official documents, which he happened to have
about his person.
We have been favoured by Mr. Cushing with the
subjoined notes, which he prepared while on his pas-
saga from Vera Cruz :
The revolution of Mexico was rapidly approaching
a decisive crisis, and the utmost confusion and dis-
order exist in all parts of the Republic.
The great object of the revolution is to decide
whether Santa Anna shall be precipitated from power,
or whether, on the other hand, he shall be the perma-
nent Dictator and arbitrary master of the Government.
In order to understand well the actual state of
things, it is necessary, in the first place, to give a brief
explanation of the previous state of things.
At the head of the Government in 1811 was Gene-
ral Anastasio Bustamente, under the constitution
which then regulated the Mexican Republic. In
August, 1841, General Paredes and the Department
of Jalisco pronounced against the Government of
Bustam en te.

A civil war of brief duration ensued, which was
terminated on the 28th of September, 1841, by an
arrangement, in virtue of which the pre-existing
constitution was abolished, and General Santa Anna
was invested with the powers of Dictator, for the
Purpose of re-organising the constitution and the
Ciroxernment.
This temporary arrangement is known by the
name of the 13asis of Tacubaya and the Agreements
of La Estanzuela.

Under the auspices of Santa Anna, a Congress
assembled in' June, 1842, and proceeded to deliberate
on a new constitution. Santa Anna himself retired
to Manga de Clavo, leaving General Bravo as Presi-
dent ad interim; and the proceedings of Congress not
being agreeable to Santa Anna, it was dissolved by
General Bravo in December, 1842, and a National
Junta, or Assembly of Notables, was convened in its
place. . _ _

On the 12th of June, 1843, a new constitution was
completed and made public, by which (among other
things) the supreme power was lodged in the hands
of a President, to be elected for five years; of an
elective body called the Council of Government, and
of a CongreFs composed of a Senate and Chamber of
Deputies ; and Santa Anna himself was immediately
elected President under the new constitution.

During this period the Republic had been dis-
tracted, not only by the civil war which displaced
Bustamente and elevated Santa Anna to power, but
also by the insurrection of Yucatan and the long civil
war which ensued in that quarter—by an extensive
rising of the Indians in the extreme South—by in-
cursions of the Indians in the North—by controver-
sies with foreign Powers—by the question of Texas
—and, above all, by incompetency and corruption in
all members of the Government. By the sixth of the
Basis of Tucubaya it was provided that " the pro-
visional Executive shall answer for his acts betbre
the first constitutional Congress ;" and this was
confirmed by the agreement of La Estanzuela.
Nevertheless, by a decree of Santa Anna, issued on
the 3d of October, 1843 (before assuming the office of
constitutional President), it was declared that, as the
power exercised by him under the Basis of Tacubaya
was, by its very tenor, without limitition, the respon-
sibility referred to in the sixth of the said Basis was
merely a responsibility of opinion ; that all the acts
of his Dictatorship were of the same permanent force
as if performed by a constitutional Government, and
must be observed as such by the first constitutional
Congress. The new Government was completed and
installed in January, 1844, when the first Congress
under the new Constitution assembled. Its early acts
seem to have been in accordance with the views of
Santa Anna, for it voted an extraordinary contribu-
tion of four millions with which to prosecute the war
against Texas. But, on his requiring authority
for a loan of ten millions, the Congress hesi-
tated to give its assent; though it was notorious
that but a small portion of the extraordi•
nary contribution had been realised, and that
the Treasury, so far from being competent to supply
the means for carrying on a war against Texas, was
in fact incompetent for the ordinary daily neces-
sities of the Government. Meanwhile, as affairs
proceeded, a heavy opposition to Santa Anna began
to manifest itself in Congress and throughout the
Republic. lie had been raised to power, though
apparently with great unanimity, yet, as the event
has shown, by a military revolution, rather than by
the spontaneous general choice of the people ;
for, on his expressing a wish to retire a short
time to Manga de Clavo for the care of
his private affairs (as he had done in the
year 1842), in which case the new con-
stitution required that the Senate should make choice
of a President ad interim, to officiate during bis ab-
sence from the seat of Government, the Ministerial
candidate, General Valentin Canalizo, prevailed by
one vote only over his opponent, General Rincon.
Such,' then, was the position of things in October,
1844 ; Santa Anna being President proprietario ; Ca-
nalizo President interino, and the Congress assembled
in special session, occupied with the foreign relations
and the financial embarrassments of the Republic,
when the revolution broke out in the large and power-
ful department of Jalisco. On the Ist of November,
1844, the Departmental Assembly of Jalisco adopted
and published what is called an Initiative, being an
Act provided for by the constitution, in virtue of
which the Assembly submitted the proposition fol-
lowing :-
1. The National Congress will make effective the re-
sponsibility of the provisional Government, to which it
was subjected by the 6th of the Basis of Tacubaya, which
it swore to and caused to be swore to by the nation.
2. The law of Aug. 21, 1844, imposing extraordinary
contributions, is repealed.
3. The Congress will occupy itself by preference in
reforming the articles of the constitution, which expe-
rience has demonstrated to be contrary to the prosperity
of the departments.
This act was adopted by all the authorities of the
department, civil and military, and made known by
public documents issued under the signatures of the
civil governor Eseovado, and of the commandant-ge-
neral Galindo, with his principal officers; and thus
far it was in Mexico a constitutional and not a revo-
lutionary act—for in Mexico the military rarticipate
equally with the civil authorities in all political proceed-
ings. But though nominally a constitutional act it was
in reality a revolutionary one, skilfully arranged and
combined for the overthrow of Santa Anna. To this
intent, General Mariano Paredes, who had com-
menced the revolution of 1841 in the same depart-
ment of Jalisco, and who had since that time acted
with Santa Anna, was pitched upon to be the agent
of his overthrow. The secret movers of the new
revolution obtained for General Paredes the command
of the department of Sonora, to reach which it is
necessary to march through that of Jalisco. On the
way to his government, Paredes stooped at Guadala-
jara, the capital of Jalisco, with the troops under his
command, and there pronounced openly and directly
against Santa Anna, and assumed the functions of
military chief of the revolution. The four depart-
ments of Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Sinalva, and
Sonora, concurred at once in the pronunciamento
of Jalisco ; and thus the five north-western
departments were in arms at once against Santa
Anna. Between these and Mexico, there in-
tervene the two departments of Quanajuato and Que-
retaro. Paredes advanced to Lagos, on the frontier
of Jalisco, and there established his head-quarters,
with an army of 1,400 men, to await the progress of
events. In the contiguons department of Guanajuato
was General Cortazar with 2,000 men, on whom
Paredes depended for support ; but the rapid move-
ments of Santa Anna himself prevented Cortazar from
joining Paredes (if he had the intention) and com-
pelled him (for the present at least) to declare for
Santa Anna. For, instantly on hearing what had
taken place in Guadalajara, Santa Anna, who was
then at•Alfuiga da Clavo, in the department of Vera
of troops,
Cruz,,and in whose neighbourhood was a large body
professedly collected for an expedition against