The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-28 00:00:00

AMERICAN NEWS.

ARRIVAL OF THE ASHBURTON..

LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY.--The New York packet-
ship Ashburton, Captain Howland, arrived here about
eight o'clock this morning. She sailed from New York
on the 6th inst., and brings papers and other advices
from that city to that date. When the Ashburton sailed
all was quiet. The negotiations about Oregon were in
progress, and the acquisition cf California was in con-
templatior. The Americans had turned their attention
from emigration to Oregon to California. The ;soil of
the former place had not given satisfaction, so that many
who had emigrated there had gone to California, the
" land flowing with milk and honey." " That paradise,"
says the New York Herald," will soon be more inhabited
by Americans than any other section on the continent, out
of the twenty-six United States, and must, of course, be
shortly annexed. The impetuosity of the people of
the Great West for the acquisition of all the territory
to the Pacific is irresistible.
fornia may be the test question at the presidental elec-
tion of 1848, as Texas was in 1844." The news from
Mexico is considerably later than that brought by the
steam-ship Britannia. It does Rot appear, however, that
the Mexican authorities have made any decided or war-
like movement against the newly-annexed state, Texas,
except to send 20,000 men to the frontier of Texas, and
covering the house-tops in Vera Cruz with sand.
The following is from the New Orleans papers of the
24th ult.:—

(From the New Orleans Bulletin, July 24.)
MAZATLAN. APRIL 23.—0 n the 18th instant consider-
able excitement was caused in this place, occasioned by a
body of artillerymen marching through the principal
streets towards the custom-house. On their arrival
at that place, the officer in command received orders from
the collectors of Ow Aduena Teresrte, to accompany one
of the clerks of the said office, with Sestigos, and lay a
forced embargo, at tee point of the bayonet, on the property
of the only two American houses in the place, Parrott and
Co., and Mott, Tal'tot, and Co., to satisfy a demand for du-
ties caused by a law of the state of Siooloa, 1834, which law
was annulled in 1'37 by the tariff of that year, and from that
date up to a few days previous to the date of this the Custom-
house had never demanded from any house such duties. 'fhe
house of Parrott and Co., of course, was embargoed, on pro-
perty to the amount ef 45,000 dolls., to satisfy the claim, only
amounting to about 4,000 dolls. ; after which the troops were
marched to the house of Messrs. Mott, Talbot, and Co., with
the object of laling an embargo on their property, but Captain
Hope, of 11. B. M. frigate Thalia, interfered, and prevented
the embargoes I- eing laid, one of the partners of the said firm
being a British ..übject. Mr. Parrott, who for many years
had been our consul at Mazatlan, suffered with much pa-
tience the ir. ignity to his person, and as the di-
plomatic relati in between the United States and Mexico
are suspended, no has no resource in seeking re-
dress from t Mexican Government, and very pro-
perly called in toe 1-,Tench consul to witness the proceedings,
which are it agar and unjust from the commencement,
as no judge or eotepetent authority in the place had passed
sentence or ju igMent, in any shape or form, on the proceed-
ings. Mr. Par, ott has gone before the French consul and
made out his pt otcst, and will submit it to his Government, to
be settled with ti, a other difficulties pending with Mexico.
There are at Nladatlan nearly a doyen importing houses, and
notwithstanding not a single demand has been made by the col-
lector', against then, for duties, he having, as it appears, deter-
mined to take hie revenge out of the Americans. Many re-
spectable citizens, seeing these scandalous proceedings, have
used their inflames to conciliate matters.
APRIL 24.—The Prefecto of the Port has addressed a letter
to the Governor of the State, complaining in strong terms
against the vi&ent and unjust proceedings against the Ameri-
cans, and very pr operly pointed out that they were caprices of
the collector, and from the concourse of people who were pre-
sent, it was sufficient to disturb the peace of the port and bring
on the country a war.
APRIL 25.—The embargo on the property of the American
consul had not been raised, notwithstanding a meeting has
taken place to that effect. The consul is determined to resist
the payment and suffer his property to be sold. A military
fo.ce was again demanded for laying the embargo on Mott,
Talbot, and Co.'s property, but it was wisely refused. Over-
tures have been made to the consul, that if he would address
a letter to the Gafe Superior de Hacienda, his property would
be released, but he has refused, and is determined to -let the
matter take its course. Other outrages will follow.
General Rangel has been sentenced by a court-martial—for
his late revolutionary attempt in the city of Mexico, in which
he treated the President and his cabinet with such indignity—
to ten years' imprisonment, without the loss of his rank—a
truly Mexican punishment for treason. Another authority,
but usually not so well informed, says he is stripped of rank
and all employment, and banished for ten years. The ire of
the Mexicans was a good deal aroused, apparently, at seeing
him get off so easily.
The Ocean House, at Newport has been entirely de-
stroyed. and some lives have fallen a sacrifice to the fury
of the flames. We take the following particulars from
the .New York Tribune of August 3 :
" NEWPORT, R. 1., SUNDAY, 4 o'Ceoex P.M., AUGUST
3,—We arrived here on the Massachusetts this morning at four
o'clock, and were very greatly chagrined to find the Ocean
House full and overflowing with people—more than a hundred
being turned away. We tried with similar bad luck the Atlan-
tic and Bellevue House, and then spent four or five hours in
trying to gain admission to aprivate house. At length we were
lodged in tolerable comfort at Townsend's Hotel.
" Probably no watering place in the Union was ever so
crowded as Newport is the present season. There were over
three hundred and fifty strangers in the Ocean House alone, and

every place in the city-full.
" But it turned out that our regret at being excluded from
the Ocean House was foolish and wicked. At about one o'clock
today, while the fashionable throng were dressing for dinner,
the cook-house, a small building adjoining the eastern wing of
the hotel, caught in the ceiling, from a dish of lard which took
fire, and blazed from the floor where it fell to the roof.
"In an instant the cry of fire was given, and such a scene
of confusion and distress ensued as no man could wish to see
twice. The boarders were running from room to room,
screaming for their friends, brothers, husbands, wives, and
children, and all inquiring with white lips the cause of the
• alarm. There was a most pitiless lack of water, and the flames
seized with fury upon the extremely dry and combustible mate-
rial of which the cook-house, as well as the whole
building was composed. The bells rang the alarm—
the whole city hurried to the spot, and the opinion
already became general that not a timber of the whole of this
gr2ceful and airy, but light and unsubstantial edifice, could be
as •ed.

•"fhe work of carrying out baggage now began in great
earnest; and fair aristocratic hands, albeit unused to the
I,,irking mood, performed incredible tasks of porterage. The
ge and magnificent parlour of the hotel, occupying the whole
the north end, was now stripped of its costly furniture, and
field directly opposite and to the northward of the hotel
Leeenie speedily filled with trunks, boxes, furniture, &c., while
the street was lined with elegantly attired ladies, lamenting the
loss of their dinners or their dresses.
" Water, water, water !' was the unanswered cry of the fire-
men and the eitiaens who had rushed to the spat to render their
•tasistance, but none could be procured. The Sre department
ippeared to be efficient and well organised—ambitious and
Bring-but what good were their half-dozen fire-engines
wit .out water ? It was now clearly seen that the building
toniti not be saved, and in two hours the whole pile was a

smoking ruin.
" The Ocean House was built by the Ocean House Cora-
pan ,ne winter before last, and finished last winter. It was
V' .al at 36,000 dolls., and insured in Providence and Boston
i B,oeo dolls. It was rented by John G. Weaver, of New-
port, who paid 8 per cent. on the value. The building was in
the lorr. of an L, running north and east—the northern wing
- f. 226 feet long, and the eastern wing 125 by 30—four
- 'ries high. It contained 208 rooms, its situation was beau-
tiful and commanding, and its loss is a heavy blow to Newport,
as well as an indescribable inconvenience to the boarders, a
great many of whom were from New York.
" But the saddest portion of this calamity is the death of
Samuel Fowler Gardiner, Esq., one of the oldest, wealthiest,
and most estimable citizens of Newport. He owned a large
amount of property here, and was the agent and part proprie-
tor of the extensive Newport cotton mills, the Coddington,
Perry, and Newport Steam Mills, and another of which he was
exclusive owner. He leaves a wife and ten children.
" The body of Mr. Gardiner was found in the ruins, more
than half consumed—a key and a pencil lying on his chest. I
also feat. that-Thomas R. Hazzard, Esq., residing in the beau-
tiful country seat of Varcluse, has perished. You will re-
member him as the author of some political tracts, published
in 1844.
p. S. —lt is certain, I am told, he is dead.
"George Burrows and Robert Coxall were on the ladder
pith Alr. Gardiner when the eastern wing came down, and they
fell outward, while he fell inside the burning walls. The two
former were seriously injured, and it is doubtful whether Mr.
Coxall will survive."
" The furniture of the house was worth 25,000 dolls.—two-
thirds saved, 9,01+' dolls. insured. Mr. Weaver, the lessee of
the Ocean House, tuts already taken a house which will accom-
Modate fifty, And which he will open to-morrow. There's en-
terprise for you.
" It is said that there was a gentleman in the second story
of the east wing who was lost, but of this nothing is certainly
known. Humour also gives three or four other victims to the
flames.
" Some fresh riots have taken place at Philadelphia, arising
out of the stoppage of some allowances to fire companies,
which have again kept that once peaceable city in a turmoil
for some days. Philadelphia is becoming from its disorders a
bye-word in other cities."
The advices carried out by the steam-ship Cambria
had a favourable effect on the cotton and provision
markets.
Exchange on England was quoted at from 1091 to 110.

Captain Manby has presented to his Royal High-
ness Prince Albert a geranium, raised from a cutting off one
that was in Nelsen's cabin, on board the Elephant, at the battle
Copenhagen.— Cambridge Advertiser.
PARffil OF ST. LEONARD, SITOREDITCIT.—Yester-
day an adjourned Vestry meeting of the inhabitants and rate-
Payers of this parish was held in the vestry-room adjoining the
church, for the purpose of electing four trustees under the
local Act, 42d of George 111., cap. 13, called the Four Rates
Act. At the previous Vestry the Church party proposed
Messrs. Long, Hopkins, and Toplis as trustees for the Holy-
well district, and Mr. Warr for the Hoxton New-Town dis-
trict; upon which the Opposition and Anti-Church party, with
a view to test their strength, proposed a Mr. Lawson for the
Holy well, and Mr. Pickford for the Hoxton New-Town dis-
trict. A poll was then demanded, which closed at four o'clock
Yesterday. At the close of the poll Mr. Bewley, churchwar-
den (the chairman), declared the result of the poll to be in the
district—For Long, 173 ; Hopkins, 170; Tongs,
1?1; Lawson, 103; majority for Hopkins, 67—and declared
Messrs. Hopkins, Long, and Toplis duly elected trustees for
that district. For the district of Hoxton New-Town the num-
bers were—For Mr. Warr, 175 ; Pickford, 106 ; majority for
Mr. Warr, 69, who was also declared duly elected.
ErzcrioN OF A. JUDGE.—A meeting of the Corn-
rnisooners of the Westminster Court of Requests was held at
the Court on Monday, to nominate the candidate for the office
of Judge or Assessor to the Court, agreeably to the previsions
of the Small Debts Act. There was a full attendance of com-
missioners, when Mr. Green, of Soho-square, was elected
chairman ; and Mr. Cuff, the clerk, proceeded to read over the
applications from the various barristers and solicitors, candi-
dates for the appointment. Most of the candidates were backed
5y a long list of testimonials from judges and gentlemen of the
I,Val profession. Among them were Mr. Keane, barrister,
Mr. Moylan, Mr. Horry, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Campbell, all bar-
ristms. The solicitors are Mr. Le Breton, clerk to the parish
St. ; Mr. A'Beckett, of Golden-
square ; and Mr. Howorth, of High-street, Camden-town.
Monday next is the day for the election. The contest will be
aery close. The number of commissioners for the nine parishes
"4 Westminster is 288 ; but not more than half have qualified
to as to entitle them to vote.