THE UNITED STATES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 114, 12 March 1853, Page 4

THE UNITED STATES.

THE LOSE STAR CONSPIRACY. 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. Foolish, wicked, and inopportune as the Lopez expedition may have been, his fate was 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 iustifiedhis facts are ready to punish his executioners, .besides, with him perished ignominiously more than forty native-born Americans, none of whom iell 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 rights they had infringed ■'but of the wrongs they had suffered. AmouV them -were men from almost every one of our 31 states. Each had near connexions and relations with thousands that knew and loved him • and when these thousands of districts came to hear of the brutality of the Cuban Govern--

men t—the death of Lopez in the public square by the qarrote, and the shooting of h»lf-a-hun-dred Americans in the lack, after they had been compelled to kneel— 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 in the miscarriage of the L'ipez expedition have been detected, and they will be avoided in this new movement. . The Americans have lost all confidence in the Creoles —they will not admit them ■into their councils—they will not trust them at all. lam pretty confident that not a single Creole has been admitted to the secret society of the Lone Star. They are regarded as traitors. It was, in fact, cleared proved that Lopez have been betrayed ; otherwise he would not have landed with so small a force, nor where he did, nor at that particular time. He 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 ever could have gone at any other period of the world's history. They will not carry Colt's rifles, which hold but six rounds, but Jenning's (recently invented), which carry 24 charges, and can, in. experienced hands, be shot 24 times in less than 60 seconds. ..

3. This expedition is a complete organization, Lopez' was an impromptu and a shabby affair. His men were hastily picked up—roenerally poor, and many of them desperate. The Lone Star admits do man to its company whose social standing is not a fair pledge of his honour, truth, courage, and intelligence. No organization of the same number has probably ever been formed in America in which there was so much wealth and character represented. They can raise millions on ctill,but they are not likely to need it, for by their regulations every member contributes a certain sum into the common fund every month or quarter; and numbering as the Lone Star men nowprobably do, 25,000, their fund already is said to exceed half-ec-million; the institution is not yet six months old. Again, the Lone Star is known to embrace many of the most influential, opulent, and distinguished men in the United States. Lopez had not a single man of wealth or public reputation with him. So far as close scrutiny could do it, not a worthless or untrustworthy ijian out of 25,000 has yet been ailowed to pass the threshold of this extraordinary order.

4H3esides the wealth and social respectability of their members, they have a large number of influential editors on: their side; and multitudes who will never join them sympathise with their cause. Among 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 CaptainGeneral has borne so heavily" upon the island that a far greater amount of discontent exists now than any former period. General Concha, the late Governor, was a modem 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 island. 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 tbe attempt had ever been successfully made. Could he have remained in power one year longer he would have utterly exterminated that accursed traflic.. 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. An other 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 flourishing a state for 25 years.. You may not have this latter.fact immediately confirmed by other testimony, but you will soon. There has not been, during the memory of the present gene-

ration, 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 Kepublic. 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 by the 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 have similar religious ceremonies been performed, which indicate that the Lone Star men have the 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 iSO persons have been arrested in various parts of the island, and are now in the prisons of Havannah. Nine young men who were engaged in printing the Voiceof the people of Cuba, a clandestine revolutionary sheet, have been arrested, and a telegraphic despatch announces they are to be garroied* The present Governor Caneda has made known his resolution to show no mercy to any persons engaged in any conspiracy against his authority—" They shall all suffer the garrote, with, every indignity known in the annals of justice." No doubt exists that there was a determination to rise on the 31st of August, but the detection of large quantities of arms and ammunition in various parts of the island probably delayed the insurrection. But it is only for a while. Continual disturbances will occur, and the severity of the Captain-General will only inflame still more deeply the popular indignation, and render the revolution not only inevitable but more merciless when it comes. It is said, onpretty good authority, that the negroes will join the conspirators, and if independence can be gained in no other way there is to be a massacre on the Spanish population. Certain it is that the Cubans are bent on achieving their independence; and they know that whenever they have once risen they can depend on substantial aid from the Lone Star men of the United States. As things now look, it seems highly probable that a bloody struggle is approaching,—Times.