The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-03-23

diseased parts in which the late reyulsion de.
stroyed all vitality, and yet which cling teua-
ciously to the sound surroundings. In other
once and forever, of the unsettled debts which
are now bringing the country merchants to the
city in search IF renewals; to set free say five
thousand Of the ten thousand merchants who
are said to have failed last year, and to put
their creditors out Of their pain. II is likewise
sions Of the same character as that Of last year.
Had the banks of this city been liable to be
wound up by the action Of courts which were
not State courts and not liable to be controlled
by powers in the State, they would never have
expanded as unwisely as they did last summer,
and they would not, as necessary consequence,
have required to suspend in the fall. Had the
merchants throughout the country had the vision
of a Bankrupt law before them they would have
bought more moderately and would have been
able to pay when their notes came due; and, In
the same way, private citizens would have lived
and spent their time in q more modest and
suitable manner. The want Of a Bankrupt
Law precipitated the crisis Its enactment now
would largely help to heal existing sores, and
to prevent the likelihood of revulsions hereafter.
Republic.
We publish to-day most clear and concise
view of the Mexican republic and its history,
which 10 the present state of affairs In that
country presents many points of interest to our
readers.
Mexico is rapidly fulfilling her destiny. Her
people, wearied and worn out with the multitu-
dinous civil conflicts and struggles for power
that have characterized her. leaders, are ready
to throw themselves into the arms of q native
despotism or q liberal foreign rule. The or
ganized band of clergy that has 80 long battcn-
ed upon the life blood Of the republic is now
engaged in a life struggle with the liberals Of
Mexico, in behalf of their vicious temporal or
ganization. A numerous and penniless corps of
army officers, without other means of subsis-
tence, are ready to sell their mercenary services
to whichever party can give them gold in re-
turn. Corrupt administrations have for years
temporized with every party and plundered all,
cheating alike their own treasury and foreign
claimants and keeping faith with none. Com
merce has been nearly annihilated, the springs
Of industry dried up, and the iaborer every
where torn from his wealth producing toll to
fight the battles of mercenary leaders, who, each
in turn, uses him with like scorn. Such Is a
true picture of the native elements at work
now in the bosom OF the Mexican republic.
While this is going on within her territories,
a corresponding series of events is taking place
beyond her frontiers On one side We see the
untaned savage, driven from his old haunts by
the westward march of a more energetic civil
cation, bearing down upon the strife-worn COM
munities Of the Northern States and turning
their already haifabandoned fields into wild
hunting grounds. Elsewhere we sec the long
outthrown filaments of American industry
fastening upon the favored spots of Mexican
territory. Tehuantepcc is in the possession of
an American company American lines Of
steamers run, OF are about TO run, along her
Pacific and Gulf shores American engineers
are surveying her roads and laying down new
lines for her domestic travel; American specu-
lators are plotting her public lands and Sc
curing titles thereto; American traders are
percolating through her. Northern States and
Territories with wares that have paid no reve-
nue. to the republic American spectators are
planning Pacific Railroad through her terri
tory; and everywhere American intellect is
quickened, aud American enterprise Is watch
ing, to catch held Of any and everything that
H. Il, af
now, but in the coming future, when the des-
tiny of Mexico shall have been fulfilled.
Behind all these elements Of coming change
new forces are terminating within our own
Union that viii soon give u great impulse 10
their devclopcmcnt. The law Of migration is
one of the involuntary and immutable princi'
pies Of our existence ~ people. Under Its
mandates we have gone on building up State
after State, and empire after empire, until the
West and the Northwest present no more availa-
BILE fields. and the Pacific slope Of the Rocky
Mountains is occupied The great American
desert which, beginning at about the hundredth
parallel Of longitude west from Greenwich
extends TO the eastern SUBMITS of the mountains
offers no inducements to the American settler
The valleys around Salt Lake, isolated as they
are by savage mountains aud vast tracts Of un.
inhabitable plains from the rest of the world
could be populated only by set of fanatics like
the followers of Joe Smith and Brigham Young
The narrow gorges and high snowy peaks Of
New Mexico have no elements Of empire in them
Yet the impulsive march of our population still
must 90 On, still must find new homes for en-
pre- and sites for new States, counties, capitals
and towns, with all their attendant land specu
laticns ard rapidly made fortunes.
Where shall the scene Of this new develope
ment be- The question is already answered
Arizona ia clamorins for Territorial govern
ment, and will soon be demanding admission u
the Union as sovereign State. At FL Paso
on its southern verge, the narrow valley which