But we by no means contend that this state of things is to last forever, or that events may not occur and men arise well calculated to promote the regeneration of Italy by very different means from those which have been suggested by the revolutionary party. If, instead of taking their cue from Austria, and holding their dominions almost as fiefs of the empire, the reigning princes of Italy had the spirit and the sagacity to follow a line of national policy of their own, they would have as little to fear from insurrection at home as from foreign If we were to scrutinize with a searching and a invasion. The natural relation in which they prophetic eye the present condition and the future might be supposed to stand towards a state like destinies of that great empire which extends from Austria, which occupies so formidable and prepon- Semlin to Milan, we should be filled with unwonted derating a position in their own country, would and melancholy forebodings as to the trials it may appear to be, not one of servility and subjection, have at no distant period to undergo. A childish but of free rivalry. And if this rivalry were emperor, a decaying minister, a bigoted family directed by able statesmen, not into the channels council, an aristocracy ill-acquainted with its of political intrigue or military hostility, but into duties and its rights, a peasantry which is in some the broad tract of public improvement, the impor-provinces imbued with the most anti-social doctance of the Italian states would be immeasurably trines, an unformed middle class, an embarrassed

treasury, and a dissected territory, are things which surround with sinister presages the House of Austria. Her foreign rivals, to the east, to the north, and to the south, are incited to press on in their respective lines of policy by the evident embarrassment and alarm of the cabinet of Vienna. Russia has her designs, more than commenced, upon the Sclavonian populations; Prussia has affected to take the lead in the affairs of Germany; and in northern Italy the national competitor for power is to be found in the House of Savoy. With each of these states Austria has formed close alliances, for the purpose of crushing popular movements and checking the advancement of the time; but each of them will prove her formidable rival and opponent whenever it is discovered that the true basis of their power is the national development of their respective dominions.-Times.

From the New Orleans Tropic. SCENES IN THE SUBURBS OF MATAMOROS.

AFTER you get over the ferry, you have an open and picturesque road before you of nearly half a mile to the city of Matamoros. Much to interest presents itself, for everything, to American eyes, is unlike the familiar road side." The hedge of a small cotton field, now broken down in places, is worthy of attention, for it is characteristic of the fences of the country. There being no timber to split into "rails" the Mexican cannot disfigure the landscape with those awful "worm fences" that so mar our own fields; on the contrary, he plants with some care the thorn bushes and the delicate brush that everywhere grow spontaneously; strengthening them with the trunks of the palm

tree.

the inhabitants indulge in. It was a mere lodging room after all, in rainy weather, for the Mexicans of the poorer classes live out of doors, sleep under the shade of their stunted trees, or upon the door steps of their rude houses.

66

The house is "a mere form," equally enjoyed by hens and chickens, pigs, goats, fleas, and other domestic animals. The kitchen garden" seemed inviting, though in waste; figs were ripening upon a wilderness of luxuriant trees, pomegranates, with their russet sides, met the eye-tall green corn, of the best quality, waved in the constant breeze, and on the ground, there ripened in modest obscurity squashes that in size seemed to show a near relationship to the succulent pumpkin. In front of the house I noticed a large hole, occasioned by a shot thrown in the bombardment; in the inside of it one of our own troops was sitting very comfortably on a bench, eating hot corn, evidently set before him by a Mexican woman, who, though she did no credit to her sex in the way of personal beauty, seemed to honor it by her hospitality.

Just beyond this thatched house, you are turned off the road by the " 'Sand-bag-fort battery," a rough work, that afforded protection to three or four pieces of artillery in the bombardment of Fort Brown. The rain had already washed down some parts of the walls, and two or three big-headed mules seemed to hold it in full possession.

66

The road everywhere is pleasant, and cottages were filling up with "cake and beer shops;" the Americans, like their progenitors across the waters," must be well fed to fight well, and this characteristic is taken advantage of to the great profit of innumerable hangers-on of the camp. In one of these little shops I found the stock to consist of an empty claret box, a jug of whisky, two tin cups, a few pounds of maple sugar, a pail of Rio Grande water, and a Mexican saddle worth one hundred and fifty dollars.

A thousand vines and wild flowers soon tressel over this "breast work," binding it together in a solid mass; tropical birds, with gay plumage, bury themselves in its interstices. A Mexican hedge, You now get out of the fields and come into the therefore, soon becomes a formidable defence suburbs of the city; the road takes a sudden turn against a foe, defies the most viciously disposed to the right, and gives you an extended view down cattle, offers a shade at noon, and is the place of one of the streets that leads " way back toward resort for all the gay, the musical, and the beauti- Monterey."-On your left you perceive the tortuful of the feathered tribe. A large species of black-ous winding of the river, and upon the rolling land bird will much attract attention. It seems very are the thousand tents belonging to our army. The tame and familiar; a pair would generally be seen tents stretch out before you for miles, until they together mounted on some high limb, and perform-grow into seeming white spots, like snow balls ing a series of bowings and contortions truly wonderful to behold, throwing their heads into the air, burying them under their wings, then turning their feathers up with all imaginable roughness, and giving utterance to the strangest varied scream ever heard, the conclusion of which is like the whizzing, crashing sounds made by the breaking off and falling of a heavy limb of a tree. Birds with a pale ashy plumage, and tails resembling those denominated" of Paradise," flitted about, and a miniature dove, not larger in its body than a robin, pecked modestly in the dust-the most beautiful and loveable bird we ever saw.

resting on the bluish sward. Nearer to you is an unfinished powder magazine; the workmen have abandoned it after raising its thick square wallsthe ruins of houses are hidden away among the long weeds—a ranchero wends his way across the broken field, and two or three soldiers off duty stop him, to hold a long conversation in Irish and English, and Spanish, and although they are entirely unacquainted with each other's language, they seem very familiar and agreeable companions.

A very thick-set, 1. rmer looking old gentleman, in a linen roundabout, and remarkable for short legs and long body, mounted on a snow-white This hedge led to a poor Mexican farmer's cot- charger, followed by a mounted dragoon, most tage, facing close upon the road, and as it repre- perpendicular in his saddle, and covered with trapsents its class it is worth examination. The walls pings, passes by. If you inquire who that is, you of it are made of reed, about three or four inches will be laughed at, for it's the commander-in-chief thick, and ingeniously held together by others of the army of occupation, and he is going over running crosswise, not unlike rude basket work." to consult with several officers," about something The rafters of the house are made of gigantic reed, he made up his mind should be done "nolens vothatched securely from admitting the rain, by long lens," a month ago. salt marsh grass, cut about the mouth of the Rio Grande. There were no windows-two doors, situated on either side, admit all the light and air

Turning up the road into the city, you pass ove a very handsomely constructed bridge laid in waterproof cement; it was a public work of the better

Up high in one corner of the front is something that looks much like a large cage. The cage is the balcony whereon at eve steal forth the females of the family to enjoy the evening air; they are out of the reach of stolen kisses, or letters of love, and Mexican jealousy is somewhat appeased by this arrangement, while the lower part of the house, presenting a bare wall, protects both male and female from the assaults of sudden revolution, of lawless robbers, of plundering soldiery, and thefts of hungry officials; that house speaks a volume of melancholy detail of the social and political condition of Mexico.

days of the Mexican republic; on the other side on the cultivation of the country, the laziness of rise tall trees for the country, giving to it a pictu- the inhabitants, the manners of the various classes, resque and rural appearance; cleverly over it, and and the superstitious forms of the Romish church: you are in the city. On your right is a large together with some sketches of public men, and brick house of a wealthy citizen, who was a colo- some statistical accounts, useful if correct. At nel of militia on the 8th and 9th; you are struck other times they are less akin to the theme, though with its desolate front; it has not a window or with an interest from their indications of American door that is made for comfort or ornament, and character; involving speculations as to what Mexthose that present themselves are protected by ico would be made in the hands of the "free and thick heavy batten doors and blinds. enlightened"-discussions on the interests of Great Britain to preserve peace between Mexico and the States, lest the export of the precious metals should be suspended on the inferiority of the Mexican cavalry, and the incapacity of the Mexican army to wage war. Some of the others are remote, and rather dry; with notices and extracts touching Cortes and the early state of Mexico. In fact, the book seems to have been got up with some view to the interest attached to Mexico, and to have been written currente calamo from memory. This mode of composition has its advantages; it prevents, as General Thompson remarks, excess of detail: but the subjects should have been ob"Hare is de Republica de Rio Grande y amiga served with reference to future publication, or the de los pueblo, neu papier, one beet." A newspaper observer should have had a more vigorous and racy boy for the first time in the Republic of Mexico. mind than this writer. General Thompson seems He was looked upon by the inhabitants in favor an excellent person, who really wishes to have a of the old dynasty, as Indians look upon the appear- higher state of morality than his countrymen; but ance of bees; it showed that the white man was the chains of "a tyrant majority" are too strong coming. He was an old boy, though young in for him. He is ever halting between two opinions; newspapers, being full sixty years of age, but he and though professing himself averse to the annexdoes bravely. "Hare is de Republica." "Hold ation of Texas and the seizure of California, he on there," cries a volunteer," "let us have a does not put his opinions upon any rule of right, number." All sad reflections upon the condition but he thinks the United States territory quite of Mexico, suggested by the prison-like appear-large enough. ance of the Mexican colonel's house, pass away, This national peculiarity is indeed a distinctive for intelligence had found wings, and those even feature of the book, and almost the only one it in Mexico who run, can in future read; a new or- possesses. In Europe, writers vary with their der of things had commenced, and sudden and sin- class. The lawyer-author is shrewd, sensible, and gular improvements for the better were bound to worldly, in his observations, and clear if not close follow in Matamoros. in his style cæteris paribus, the medical man is as sensible and penetrating, but not perhaps so tangible, and more professional in his choice of topics: the private gentleman has his distinctive traits in GENERAL WADDY THOMPSON'S RECOLLECTIONS an agreeable but somewhat superficial observation,

66

OF MEXICO. *

From the Spectator.

GENERAL THOMPSON was sent to Mexico in

1842, as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary," to effect the release of such citizens of the United States as had joined that Texan overland expedition, for purposes of territorial robbery, of whose well-deserved failure and sufferings Mr. Kendall published an account. The general sailed from New Orleans, and reached Vera Cruz without incident; thence he proceeded to Mexico by diligence, himself on the box, without further incident than daunting some robbers by the display of the arms of the corps diplomatique. On his arrival at the capital, he effected his business in excellent style, as he gives us to understand; and made a good arrangement in reference to some claims on behalf of his government, though the senate dis-allowed one of his principal items: he also made a single excursion in the vicinity to examine Tezcuco and the pyramids in its neighborhood. In this summary is comprised the story of his journey.

The substance of the book consists of the narrative, expanded by reflections and disquisitions. Sometimes these are spontaneous, and spring naturally from the circumstances-such as remarks

*Published by Wiley & Putnam.

a less direct tone in his criticisms, and a nice discrimination where anything like personal charge or personal feelings are involved: the diplomatist or other public man has a larger view, a more business-like precision, and a still more guarded style, (with the exception of Lord Londonderry :) whether amateur or professional. The manner, and so on through every other kind of writer, or rather, as Walter Scott said, the no manners, of an American, are always of the same cast. Of course, individual qualities will have their play. The man of vigorous mind will write in a more vigorous style than the feebler-minded person; the rattling go-ahead speculator will strike off a more rapid narrative than the sedate and elderly individflorid manner than he who has none; and some traits ual; a man with imagination will display a more of vocation will probably peep out, especially in the divine. But there will throughout be a famened," who is less distinguished by having no suily likeness. We recognize the "free and enlightperiors than by having everybody for an equalexcept indeed the blacks; though General Thompson struggles hard for an exception as regards private service.

"The President has a very splendid barouche drawn by four American horses, and I am ashamed to say driven by an American. I can never be

DEATH OF MR. HAYDON.

-n, an

come reconciled to seeing a Native American per- | forming the offices of a menial servant; but I felt diminutive size of their horses, and the equally 277 this the more on seeing a foreigner and in a for- diminutive stature and feebleness of their riders, "I should regard it, [the cavalry,] from the eign land thus waited on by one of my countrymen. as utterly inefficient against any common infantry. I was more than ever thankful that I lived in I said so in conversation with Čolonel Bthat portion of our country where no man is theo- officer who had seen some service, and had some retically called a freeman who is not so in fact, in reputation. I was not a little amused at his reply. feelings, and in sentiments; no decent Southern He admitted that squares of infantry were geneAmerican could be induced to drive anybody's rally impregnable to cavalry, but said it was not coach or clean his shoes. I have no doubt that if so with the Mexican cavalry, that they had one the liberties of this country are ever destroyed that resource by which they never had any difficulty they will perish at the ballot-box; men whose in breaking the square. I was curious to know menial occupations degrade them in their own what this new and important discovery in the art self-esteem, and deprive them of the proud con- of war was, and waited impatiently the push of sciousness of equality, have no right to vote." replied-the lasso; that the cavalry armed with lassos rode up and threw them over the men formhis one thing,' when to my infinite amusement he ing the squares, and pulled them out, and thus made the breach. I remembered that my old nurse had often got me to sleep when a child by promising to catch me some birds the next day, by putting salt on their tails, which I thought was about as easy an operation as this new discovery of the Mexican colonel. I had read of kneeling ranks and charging squadrons,' but this idea of Bonaparte fought and gained the battle of the Pyramids against the best cavalry in the world, lassoing squadrons was altogether new to me. the Mamelukes, entirely in squares. He lost the battle of Waterloo because the British squares cavalry, during all that long and awful conflict. were impenetrable to the next best, the French The idea, however, of the lasso did not occur to the Mamelukes in Egypt, nor to Bonaparte at Waterloo. I was reminded of the equally novel attack of the Chinese upon the English, when they were all formed in battle array, and the Chinese threw somersets at them instead of cannonballs and shells.

From the general character of our author's reminiscences, coupled with the fact that all he saw, and a good deal more, has been described with greater freshness and vivacity by other writers, they do not furnish much matter for interesting quotation. We will rather address ourselves to the more political parts of the lucubration. Here, in surveying the inside of the Cathedral at Mexico, is a feeling analogous to that which Blucher is said to have more tersely expressed when taken to the top of St. Paul's.

"As you walk through the building, on either side there are different apartments, all filled, from the floor to the ceiling, with paintings, statues, vases, huge candlesticks, waiters, and a thousand other articles, made of gold or silver. is only the every-day display of articles of least This, too, value; the more costly are stored away in chests and closets. What must it be when all these are brought out, with the immense quantities of precious stones which the church is known to possess? And this is only one of the churches of the city of Mexico, where there are between sixty and eighty others, and some of them possessing little less wealth than the cathedral; and it must also be remembered, that all the other large cities, such as Puebla, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Zacatecas, Durango, San Luis, Potosi, have each a proportionate number of equally gorgeous establishments. It would be the wildest and most random conjecture to attempt an estimate of the amount of the precious metals thus withdrawn from the useful purposes of the currency of the world, and wasted in these barbaric ornaments, as incompatible with good taste as they are with the humility which was the most striking feature in the character of the founder of our religion, whose chosen instruments were the lowly and humble, and who himself regarded as the highest evidence of his divine mission, the fact that to the poor the Gospel was preached.' I do not doubt but there is enough of the precious metals in the different churches of Mexico to relieve sensibly the pressure upon the currency of the world, which has resulted from the diminished production of the mines, and the increased quantity which has been appropriated to purposes of luxury."

We believe this estimate of the wealth of the church in Mexico to be much exaggerated; but the fact does not alter the view, although in another place the general thinks no enemy would rob the churches.

The following account of the Mexican cavalry and things in general is from a discussion about their military establishment and its discipline. The lasso, though doubtless absurd in such a battle as Waterloo, might not be altogether so ridiculous in an irregular contest on the prairies or swamps with small bodies of inexperienced infantry.

their cavalry, may do very well to fight each other;
but in any conflict with our own or European
"The Mexican army, and more particularly
troops, it would not be a battle but a massacre.

From the Spectator.

DEATH OF MR. HAYDON.

hand on Monday, at his house in Burwood Place,
Edgware Road. The unfortunate gentleman had
MR. HAYDON, the painter, died by his own
suffered from pecuniary difficulties for many years,
and recently they had become very pressing. He
had expected relief in his present emergency from
a source that failed him; and this disappointment
preyed upon Mr. Haydon's mind. On Monday
morning he rose at an early hour, and went out;
but returned at nine o'clock, apparently fatigued
with walking. He then wrote a good deal. About
ten he entered his painting-room, where he was in
the habit of locking himself in when earnestly
engaged. He afterwards saw his wife, who was
band's special desire; he embraced her fervently,
and then returned to his studio. About a quarter
dressing to visit a friend at Brixton, by her hus-
to cleven, Mrs. Haydon and her daughter heard
the report of a pistol; but as the troops were exer-
Mrs. Haydon went out.
Miss Haydon entered the studio, and beheld her
cising in the park, they took little notice of it.
father crouched upon the floor, dead. The inquest
About an hour after,
that followed disclosed one of the saddest tales
ever unfolded before a coroner.

The Jury, under Mr. Wakley's direction, as-
sembled on Wednesday morning, at a tavern near