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    SupTEMfciEk 25, 1852.] THE LEADER. 913

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    COMING ANNEXATION OF CUBA AND YUCATAN. A...

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    Continental Notes. The Following Speech,...

    to Toulouse , the queen of cities , to cover with flowers , with laurels , and with benedictions , the best and greatest Prince of our age . " The official explanation of the aggressive commercial measures against Belgium is given by the Moniteur : — " The negotiations commenced with the Cabinet of Brussels for renewing the commercial treaty concluded between the two countries on the 13 th of December , 1845 , not having produced . the satisfactory result which was expected , it became indispensable to adopt on the side of France measures calculated to restore equality in the consequences of the system of common law which henceforth will govern the commercial relations between France and Belgium . The decree was suggested to the Government of the Prince President by that consideration . "

    The Journal des JJebats gives an account of a recent interview between Cardinal Antonelli and Sir Henry Buhver , the substance of which is summed up as follows : " The amicable relations of the two governments were first brought forward , relations which have been somewhat disturbed on the one side by the introduction of a Roman episcopal hierarchy in England , and by the imprisonment of Murray ; on the other side by recent legislative m easures and by the Achilli trial . To preserve better relations in future , Sir H . Bulwer is reported to

    have hinted that it would be advisable to accredit to Rome an agent with a higher title than that of Consul , for instance a simple envoy . To this it was replied that it would be time to discuss such a question when a Papal nuncio was admitted to the Court of England , and that as far as Mr . Ereeborne , the English consul at Rome , was personally concerned , the Pontifical government had clearly given to understand that the maintenance or recall of that agent was totally indifferent to it , by its not having deprived him of its exequatur .

    " As regards the demand made by Sir Henry Bulwer for the documents relative to Murray ' s imprisonment , the reply of the Secretary of State is said to have been very unequivocal , declaring his inability to do so . He is even reported to have said : ' A judgment has just been given in England , which has astonished and afflicted U 3 ( the Achilli trial . ) But , notwithstanding our astonishment and affliction , we do not wish to question the sentence pronounced by the legal Courts of a regular government , master of its own penal legislation . We are also a regular government . We have a penal code which differs from yours , but a code sanctioned by the ruler , for a long time in force in the land , and regulated according to rules

    which we deny to any other government the right of questioning . Murray was sentenced by that code according to its prescribed legal forms . A demand for the documents of his trial would be equivalent to a suspicion of false dealing , a suspicion which , would be an insult to the justice of the Roman Courts , and to the State which entrusts to them the honour , property , and life of its subjects . We disclaim against such an insult without discussion , and will not establish a dangerous precedent by communicating the documents you demand . The sentence was legal , and there it must rest . ' " The conversation then turned on other subjects of a secondary nature—railways and the deplorable state of Ireland . "

    In Prussia , Austria , and Piedmont , grand reviows and manoeuvres of troops have been going on under the inspection , and in the case of Austria and Piedmont , under the command of the monarchs . Turin has been left to tho National G uard , tho entire garrison being absent on field duty . The Emperor of Russia , on tho occasion of tho rotircmont of General Tchernyschoff , his Minister of War , addressed to him . a most flattering letter , in which ho pointedly alluded to tho gonerul ' s services in 1811 , " at tho period of tho deliverance of Europe . " This refers to tho fuel / , that tho General was in Paris in 1811 , and there discovered tho secret of the movement of troops . Tho campaign of 1812 is not yet forgotten at St . Petersburg .

    Tho appearanco of tho cholera at Stettin has boon ( unofficially ) announced . Tho wife of tho Chief President of tho province of Posen , M . Von I ' uttkanmier , has died of Hit ! disease , after a few hours' illness . Tho lust return is to tho 10 th , when thoro were thirty new canes and eight deaths ; sixty-four were discharged cured . The 1 ' osen Gazette , states that all the upper schools were to be cloned on tho 18 th , many of the scholars and teachers being ill , and the attendance much diminished by fern- of the epidemic on I he part of the parents . In ¦ Ivoni jrsberg , from the Li . lth of August to the I 5 th of September , there havo been Ki'J eases , 1 X 5 fatal . Two members of the Provincial Government of the ¦ Duch y have died of the epidemic .

    home suspicious cases , though in a rather mild form , have occurred in Merlin . They havo been hushed up , or nilled " Uerlin cholera ; " but , ii , i . s believed that out , of fifty persons seized , a third have died . ' 'Ins session of tho States General of I lollund wits opened * m Mm 20 th inHtant , by tho King in person . A "Hygienic Congress , " consisting of gentlemen ot tillercnt countries , who take an interest in promoting tho Health of towns , and the welfare ) of the working classes , < <> minencod Hitting at JJnissels on Monday . About 5400 ( 7 "iiMomoii , liolgians and foreigners , attended ; they met »> i the Royal Academy of Medicine . Amongst , ( ho English wen , Viscount lObrin-rlonMr . WardDr . ArnottMr .

    , , , yharldH Coehrane , Mr . Holland , of Manchester ; and Mr . "oborts , architect of Prince Alhort ' s cottages . Mr . Ward " 'Horibeu" tho sanitary operations employed in ( owns mul v'lluges in lOngland . The members of the Congress afterwards retired' to their respective sections , to examine diflentnt questions . The sections arc four in number : one 1 H Purged to occupy itself with workmen ' s houses , baths , WashhoiiHos , and hospitals ; another , with sowers , Ac , the distribut ion of water , and ventilation ; the third , with the ! Ku » izal , i » ii of public health , the maintaining of children , loterinen ts , and cemeteries ; and tho fourth , with Ijhe adulomtum of fO 0 d tho labour of children in worlcwhopo , and Prostitution .

    Suptemfciek 25, 1852.] The Leader. 913

    SupTEMfciEk 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 913

    Coming Annexation Of Cuba And Yucatan. A...

    COMING ANNEXATION OF CUBA AND YUCATAN . An event which we have long heard mentioned as near at hand , seems now approaching . It is confidently stated , that the authorities of Yucatan have applied to the Government of the United States for protection and annexation . This is a brief but weighty piece of news . Cuba must be annexed . Such is the cry again rising in the United States . Active measures are being taken on one side to advance , on the other to frustrate , the enterprise . In the Times of Wednesday , there was a , remarkable letter from the New York correspondent of that journal , giving a fervid account of the state of the " Lone Star" party , which wo annex hereto . It is dated September the 7 th , and is as follows : —

    " The ' Lone Star movement is getting to be a formidable affair . A new and completely organized expedition against Cuba is preparing , and unless my sources of information are far less reliable than I suppose , some events of importance concerning the political fortunes of Cuba are likely to take place during the coming fall and winter . Let me first of all enumerate facts . " 1 . Focftish , wicked , and inopportune as the Lopez expedition may have been , his fate wa 3 lamented by a large class of our people , and the resolution to avenge his death has never slept . He was canonized as a martyr of liberty , and thousands who would never

    have justified his acts were ready to punish Ins executioners . Besides , with him perished ignominiously more tlian forty native-born Americans , none of whom fell unwept or unremembered . Even the magnanimous pardon extended by Her Catholic Majesty Isabella to the American prisoners who experienced her clemency finally resulted in . a very different manner from what Her Majesty or her advisers could have supposed . Those captives returned to tell the history not of the right * they had infringed , but of the ivrongs they had suffered . Among them were men from almost every one of our thirty-one states . Each had near connexions and relations with thousands that knew and loved him ; and when these thousands of districts came to bear of

    the brutality of the Cuban Government—the death of Lopez in the public square by the garrote , and the shooting of half-a-hundred Americans in the bacJc , after they had been compelled to Tcneel—all these recitals stirred an indignation in the hearts of our people which cannot be appeased , except by the extermination of Spanish power from that island . " 2 . The folly and blunders which ended inthemiscarriage of the Lopez expedition have been detected , and they will be avoided in this new movement . The

    Americans have lost all confidence in the Creolesthey will not admit them into their councils—they will not trust them at all . I am pretty confident that not a single Creole lias been admitted to the secret society of the ' Lone Star / They are regarded as traitors . It was , in fact , clearly proved that Lopez had been betrayed ; otherwise he would not have landed with so small a force , nor where he did , nor at thut particular time , llo was led into an ambush ! Americans have confidence in one another , but nobody any longer believes the word of a Cubano . So the Americans will

    keep their own counsels , they will head their own expedition , and they will go more completely prepared for the contest than any company of invaders could havo gone at any other period of tho world's history . They will nob carry Colt ' s rifles , which hold but six rounds , but Jenning ' s ( recently invented ) , which carry twentyfour charges , and can , in experienced hands , be shot twenty-four times in less than sixty seconds . " \\ . This expedition in u complete organization . Lope // was an impromptu and a shabby affair . His men wore hastily picked up—generally poor , and many of them desperate . The ' Lone Star' admits no iniin to its company whose social standing' is not u fair pledge of his honour , truth , courage , and intelligence . No organization of the same number bus probably ever

    been formed in America in winch there was so much wealth and character represented . They can raise millions on call , but they are not likely to need it , for by their regulations every member contributes a certain sum into tho common fund evory mouth or quarter ; and , numbering us the ' Lone Star' men now probably do , 25 , 000 , their fund nlreaily is Kiiid to exceed half a million ; the institution is not yd six mouths old . Again , the VLono Star' is known to embrace many of tho most influential , opulent , and distinguished men in tho United States . Lopez hud not a h ' ui ^ Io man of wealth or public reputation with him . So fur as close scrutiny could do it , not a worthless or untrustworthy man out of 25 , 000 has yet been allowed to puss the threshold of this extraordinary order .

    " 4 . Besides tho wealth and social respectability of thoir members , they havo a largo number of influential editors on their nido ; and imiltitudoa who will

    never join them sympathize with their cause . Amdng these are the myriads whose friends and relations suffered in the Lopez expedition , who have kindled a flame in almost every county in the Union , which can and will , at the proper moment , burst into a general conflagration . " 5 . The administration of the new Captain-General has borne so heavily upon the island that a far greater amount of discontent exists now than at any former period . General Concha , the late Governor , was * a modern man , of which Spain has had so few . His arrival was the daybreak of a brighter period for Cuba .

    So everybody said ; so everybody believed . He entered at once on the path of wise , gradual , judicious reforms . He held out expectations of amelioration in all departments of the Government . He nearly succeeded in annihilating the most offensive and the most oppressive monopolies of the islands . He proved himself an honest , an incorruptible man . But the chiefest and greatest and boldest of all his reforms was to put an end to the slave trade . This was the first time the attempt had ever been successfully made . Could he have remained in power one year longer , he would have utterly exterminated that accursed traffic .

    But , on authority which I cannot reject , I learn that the suspension of these crimes and abuses so materially diminished the revenues of the crown , that this faithful and upright servant was recalled . Another and less scrupulous man fills the place , who has gone back to the old system ; and now crime , corruption , and villany fill the island , and the slave trade has not been in so nourishing a state for twenty-five years . You may not have this latter fact immediately confirmed by other testimony , but you will soon . There has not not been , during the memory of the present generation , so cruel and tyrannical a Government in Cuba . So

    say the Cubans , Spaniards , and Creoles ; so say our American travellers ; and so say the crowded castles and dungeons of the island . Under the plea that our occupation of Cuba would end the slave trade there , the Northern States would join in and justify the movement ; and with the knowledge that Cuba would bring to the South nearly a million of slaves , the Southern States would do the same thing ; while all Americans , and all friends of liberty everywhere , would rejoice if so fair and fertile an island should ( without crime or blood ) fall under the mild and benignant sway of a powerful and well organized Republic .

    " So say the Lone Star men ; and there is certainly some force in all this . It is , at all events , persuasive , and every day brings them the adhesion of hundreds . " 6 . Now let us look at some indubitable signs of public feeling in confirmation of all this . It seems that Archbishop Hughes , of New York , on being requested b y tho Lone Star men , did say ' mass for the eternal repose of the souls of Lopez and his brave companions , fallen in the struggle for Cuban liberty ;' although the prelate refused to preach a sermon on the occasion . Also in New Orleans havo similar religious ceremonies been performed , which indicate that tho Lone Star men havo tho sympathy and countenance of the Catholic church .

    " 7 . The present state of the island of Cuba indicates the probability of an approaching revolution . Nearly or quite- 150 persons have been arrested in various parts of the island , and are now in tho prisons of Havannah . Nino young men who were engaged in printing the Voice of the people of Cuba , a . clandestine ) revolutionary sheet , havo been arrested , and a telegraphic despatch from New Orlciuis yesterday announces that they arc all to bo garrotad . The present Governor , Canudu , has made known his resolution to show no mercy to any persons engaged in any conspiracy against his authority— ' They shall all suffer the garrole , with every indignity known in tho annals of justice' No doubt , exists that there was a determination to rise on tho IJlst of August , but tho detection oi

    largo quantities of arms and ammunition in various purls of the island , has probably delayed tho insurrection . Hut it is only for a whilo . Continual disturbances will occur , and tho severity of tho Captain-Gcnenil will only inlhune still more deeply the popular indignation , and render tho revolution not only inevitable , but more merciless when it comes . If , is . said , on pretty good authority , that tho negroes will join tho conspirators , and if independence can he gained in no other way , there ; is to ho u massacre of tho Spanish population . Certain it is thai , tho Cubans are bout on achieving their independence ; and ( hey know that whenever they havo oneo risen they can depend oil substantial aid from the Lone Star men of tho United States . As things now look , it seems highly probably

    that a bloody strugglo isjijuproaching . " Tho authorities jit Washington appear to bo on tho look-out . According- to the correspondent , of tho New York Courier , tho Spanish minister has culled tho attention of tho Government to tho projected invasion :

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091852/page/5/