THE UNITED STATES. [From the Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 782, 29 January 1853, Page 4

THE UNITED STATES. [From the Times.]

New York, Saturday, September 7. — 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 snppose, some evenu of importance concerning the political fortunes of Cuba are likely to take place during the coming fall and winter. Let me first of ail 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 bis deatb has never slept. He was canonized as a martyr of liberty, and thousands who would never have justified hi» acts

were ready to punish bis executioners. Besides, with him perished ignominiously more than forty native-bora Americans, none of whom fell an- ! wept or unremembered. Even the magnnnitnous 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. Among them were men from almost every one of our 31 states. Eacb bad near connections and relations with thousands that knew and loved him ; and when these thousands of districts came to bear of the brutaliiy 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 back, 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 Lopez 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 — tbey will not trust them at all. I am 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, clearly proved that Lopez had been betrayed; otherwise be would not have landed with so small a force, nor where be did, nor at that particular time. He was led into an ambush ! Americans have confidence in one another, but nobody any longer believts the word of a Culmno, So the Americans will keep their own counsels, they will head their own expedition, and tbey wil] 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 leaning's (recently invented), which carry 24 charges, and can, in experienced hands, Le shot 24 times iv less than 60 seconds. 3. This expedition is a complete organization. Lopez's was an impromptu and shabby affair. His men were hastily picked vp — generally poor, and many of them desperate. The Lone Star admits no man in its company whose social standing is not a fair pledge of his honour, truth, courage, and intelligence. No organization of the same number has brobably ever been formed in America in which there was so much wealth and character represented. They can raise millions on call, but tbey 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 now probably do, 25,000, their fund already is said to exceed half a million ; the institution is not yet six month? old. Again, the Lone Star is known to embrace many of tbe 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 man out of 25,000 has yet been allowed (o pass the threshold of this extraordinary order. 4. Besides 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 a;e tbe myriads whose friends and relations suffered io the Lopez expedition, who have kindled a flame in almost every 1 county in tbe Union, which can and will, at tbe proper moment, burst into a general conflagration. 5. Tbe Administration of the new CaptainGeneral 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 & modern man, of which Spain has bad so few. His arrival was the daybreak of a brighter period for Cuba. So everybody said; so everybody believed. He entered at once on tbe path of wise, gradual, judicious reforms. He held out expectations of amelioration in all departments of the Government. He nearly succeeded in annihilating tbe most offensive and the most oppressive monopolies of the island. He proved himself an honest, an in- , corruptible man. But tbe chief and greatest and boldest of all his reforms was to put an end to | the slave trade. This vras the first time tbe attempt had been successfully made. Could he have remained in power one year longer be would | have utterly extermipated that accursed traffic, j Bat, on authority which I cannot reject, I learn that the suspension of these crimes and abuses | so materially diminished tbe revenues of the Crown that this faithful and upright servant was recalled. | Another and less scrupulous man fills bis place, who has gone back to tbe old system ; and now crime, corruption, and villainy fill tbe island, and the slave trade has not been in so flourishing 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 been, during the memory of the present genera* tion, so cruel and tyrannical a Government in Cuba. So say the Cubans, Spaniards, and Creoles ; so say our American travellers ; and so j say the crowded castles and dungeons of tbe island. Under the plea that our occupation of Cnba would end the slave trade. there, tbe Norththern States would join in and justify tbe movement ; and with tbe knowledge that Cuba would bring to tbe South nearly a million of slaves, tbe 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 tbe mild and benignant sway of a powerful and well organised 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 the adhesion of hundreds. 6. Now, let us look at some indubitable signs of public feeling in confirmation of all this. It seems that Arcbbishcp Hughes, of New York, on being requested by tbe Lone Star men, did say, " mass for tbe eternal repose of the sonls of Lopez and bis 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 Stir men have the sympathy and countenance of the Catholic Cburcb. 7. The present state of tbe island of Cuba indicates the probability of an approaching revolu-

tion. Nearly or quite 160 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 Voice of the People of Cuba, a clandestine revolutionary sheet, have been arrested, and a telegraphic despatch from New Orleans yesterday announces that they are all to be garroted. 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 to 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 has probably delayed the insurrection. But it is only for a wLile. Continual disturbances will occur, and the severity of the Capuin-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 on pretty good authority, ibat the negroes will join the conspirator!, and if independence can be gained in no other way there is to be a massacre of 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 '.bat a bloody struggle is approaching.