The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-30 00:00:00

"My Grave." It is not figurative, or coloured ; but a
strictly true echo of his •sentiments:—
MY GRAVE.
BY THOMAS DAVIS.
Shall they bury me in the deep,
Where wind-forgetting waters sleep ?
Shall they dig a grave for me,
Under the green-wood tree?
Or on the wild heath,
Where the wilder breath
Of the storm doth blow
Oh, no oh, no !
Shall they bury me in the Palace Tombs,
Or under the shade of Cathedral domes?
Sweet 'twere to lie on Italy's shore ;
Yet not there—nor in Greece, though I love it more.
In the wolf or the vulture my grave shall I find!
Shall my ashes career on the world-seeing wind?
Shall they fling my corpse in the battle mound,
Where coffinless thousands lie under the ground?
Just as they fall they are buried so—
Oh, no ! oh, no!
No ! on an Irish green hill-side,
On an opening lawn—but not too wide :
For I love the dip of the wetted trees—
I love not the gales, but a gentle breeze,
To freshen the turf—put no tombstone there,
But green sods deck'd with daisies fair,
Nor sods too deep ; but so that the dew,
The matted grass-roots may trickle through.
Be my epitaph writ on my country's mind.
" He serv'd his country, and lov'd his kind."
Oh ! 'twere sweet unto the grave to go,
If one were sure to be buried so.

MEXICO and the UNITED STATES.
• (From the Journal des Debats.)
The United. States deserve applause for the prosperity
they have gained, and good wishes for its prolongation. They
form a great nation which cultivates most admirably the soil
on which it is planted by Providence, and has opened vast
fields to civilisation, but the domain allotted to them is quite
sufficient to satisfy any ambitious and enterprising people. It
is ten times the extent of our France, which nevertheless is a
very fine empire. All the acquisitions required to consoli-
date them, and make them masters of their own possessions
they have alreeady won by force or negotiation. They have
the Valley of the Mississippi and Floridas, and all that origi-
nally belonged to the Indians. What more have they needof ?
Have not their twenty millions of people sufficient room in
th'bir vast territories ? If the United States knew their own
interest, they would be contended with what they have. The
civilised world cannot view with indifference their aggran-
disement on the Mexican side, for every inch of ground they
gain in that direction is so much given up to the infamous
institution of slavery. For the political balance of the world
the conquest of Mexico by the United States may create
eventual dangers, which, though distant, it will not be super-
fluous to guard against. Europe, therefore, watches with
care a great empire which oceupies in the east and in the
north an immense surface covered with a population of
sixty-two millions, double that of France and that of Austria,
and quadruple that of Prussia, and cannot help being filled
with the contemplation of another colossus which may
occupy the whole space of the isthmus of Panama from the
mouths of the St. Lawrence to the Columbia River in the
Oregon, thus acquiring the disposal of the most productive
cultivable lands and the richest mines of the earth, and ex-
tremely redoubtable at sea. Between the autocracy of Russia
on the east, and the democracy of America thus aggrandised
on the west, Europe may find herself more compressed than
she may one day think consistent with her, independence and
dignity. It is not for the interest of Europe that the
entirety of America should be in one hand, nor do we think
America herself wishes ,it. Well, then ! The conquest of
Mexico would be a wide step towards the enslavement of
the world by the United States, and that a levy of bucklers
by the Mexicans at this moment would lead the way to this
subjection. There is, therefore, good reason why the public
mind should be turned with attention towards what is now
passing on the other side of the Atlantic.

THE BOARD OF ORDNANCE AND
_ THE PARISH OF WOOLWICH.

For the last two or three years a dispute has existed
between the authorities of the Ordnance and the Com-
missioners of the town of Woolwich acting as guardians
of the town under the Local Act, relative to the right of
way across the Barrack-field, by a footpath leading from
Mulgrave-place to the " White-gate" on Woolwich-
common. The claim of the parish is founded on an Act
of Parliament passed about fifty years since, for autho-
rising the sale of part of Woolwich-common to the
Board of Ordnance, in which Act is an especial reserva-
tion as a footpath of the road in question. Between two
and three years since, after a lengthened correspond-
ence on the subject, Mr. Hignett, the then solicitor to
the Ordnance, addressed a letter to Mr. Nokes, the legal
adviser of the Board of Commissioners, admitting the
full right of the parish to the footpath in question. Not-
withstanding this admission, the authorities of the gar-
rison have from time to time interrupted the public in
passing through the " White-gate," thereby occasioning
great inconvenience to persons crossing the Barrack-
field. About two months since, on the ordinary annual
occasion of perambulating the Ordnance boundaries, the
sentry on duty at the gate refused to allow the public
to pass, and on that occasion, in consequence of a remon-
strance from Mr. Nokes, Major Sandilands, the Deputy-
Assistant Quartermaster-General, addressed a letter to
that gentleman, stating that the sentry, in opposing
the passing of foot-passengers, acted under a mistake,
and that care would be taken that the mistake should
not occur again. On Sunday morning last Mr. Cann,
an undertaker, prcceeded with the funeral of the body of
a boy named Leonard, who perished by the explosion in
the Royal Arsenal, and whose parents resided. in Bar-
rack-court, to the White-gate, where the mourners were
refused admission by the sentry. After some remon-
strance he was allowed to pass, and the funeral ceremony
having been concluded, the mourners were returning
through the White-gate, when they were again stopped
by another sentinel, who peremptorily refused to allow
them to pass. Mr. Cann remonstrated with the sentry,
and told him that it was a public way ; but the re-
ply was, that the sentry who had allowed them to
pass before had been placed in!confinement for allowing
them to do so, and that they could not be allowed to pass.
Mr. Cann then asked whether, if the mourners took off
it cloaks and hoods, they would bo allowed to pass as
ot: er passengers ; and no direct denial being given, he
roceeded to remove the scarfs and hoods of the females,
a... 1 sent over to their house, only a few yards off, for
c. loured bonnets. In the meantime a non-commissioned
c Ircer came running up from the barracks, and said; in
r' ply to the remonstrances of Mr. Cann, " I don't care
wilat you say, I want none of your law, you shan't pass •
re.'l. The consequence was, that the afflicted mourners
1, L 1 to return by a road at least half a mile in length,
e hen they were within a few yards of their own re-
si 'ence. All these facts were brought under the notice
of the Commiasioners at their usual meeting, on Tiles-
d -.y evening, when, after a strong expression of feeling
fiom all the gentlemen present, it was unanimously re-
s,4ved to appoint a Committee with full powers, to lay
the whole of the circumstances and the correspondence
before the Master-General, and in the event of his
d cision being unsatisfactory, to demand from Lord
Lloomfield, the Commandant of the Garrison, the names
all the parties eonnected with the outrage, in order
t'.at legal proceedings may be instituted against them.
The affair has caused an extraordinary sensation amongst
the inhabitants of the town.