THE leading Whig newspaper of New York characterizes the official papers on the foreign enlistment dispute, brought over by the last American mail, as an attempt to get up "a difficulty with Great Britain, to influence the approaching elections and the Presidential contest of 1856." If this be so, we appear ourselves to have followed the bad example, in a readiness to believe certain alleged designs against Ireland, as a ground on which to build a difficulty" with America. The most extravagant credulity might well refuse to give credit to such insanity as a piratical descent upon Ireland. Former examples exist to show what chances there were for filibustering in such a direction, even when a rebellious spirit was alive and hopeful; and to try to accomplish, with the embers of dead parties, a conflagration which could not be lighted out of their utmost life and heat, were to indulge a dream more silly than presented itself to even the diseased imagination of poor Smith O'Brien. to American interests, can we possibly arrive at any conclusion but that with the possession of Cuba would begin grave troubles for America? One of the last acts of the last Whig President was to declare that its annexation would be a measure deeply fraught with danger, inasmuch as it would incorporate into the Union a State peopled by a foreign rule, and otherwise operate prejudicially in every way to the industrial interests of the South. And here Mr. Fillmore touched a point which cannot well be avoided in discussion of the question. It is not size that constitutes the greatness of a country. The vast increase of people and of territory in the States may be fairly matter of just pride, but there must be some limit to that doctrine of expansion. Our friends have been adding to their stars and stripes as our enemy has been adding to his; and while Texas has been tacked on to one empire and Bessarabia to the other, the half of Mexico has been swallowed, to all appearance, as easily as the half of Poland. But it is the system of Russia to absorb what she conquers in a mode not practised by civilized States. Annexation with her is but another word for extirpation-of all that constitutes a people. The same dark despotism overwraps whatever race or religion becomes subject to her sway, Christian, Mahometan, Greek, Caucasian, or Persian. Is this a model for the Americans? And if not, what will they do with Cuba when they get it? If a foreign element be introduced into the Union, and the right of citizenship given to slave-importing Spaniards, are they to be guaranteed a perfect immunity, and liberty of extension, for all their national habits and peculiarities? The question is more full of difficulties for the Union itself, than for any other country likely to be affected by it. Let us hear what a highly intelligent American, after a residence for some time in Cuba, has to say. We find, in a clever series of sketches just The difficulty which really exists is one published by an American lawyer (Pictures that we should ourselves, by all practicable from Cuba), the result of his actual obmeans, avoid meddling with, if it be possi-servations in the island thus given : ble. Cuba is a difficulty, in all senses of the word; and the only men who can hope to get good out of the present excitement, belong to the class who originated the Lopez expedition. In spite of "manifest destiny," and the “ ora tors of the human race," I cannot regard the annexation of Cuba to the existing American Union as a probable event. Cui bono? to whose But this Cuban question we are not dis-profit, indeed, would it turn? Take that word posed to treat in any other sense than as an of Cuba to gain by such a change in their conin its lowest sense. What have the population American question. What business have we dition? If accomplished peacefully, the negroes with it indeed as anything else? What do of Cuba, who constitute the majority of its inwe owe the Spanish government, that we habitants, lose whatever privileges they may should play the Quixote for them on behalf possess, and incur a sharper servitude. The of their worst-governed possession? Con- Creole whites liberate themselves from the opfining ourselves strictly to that point of pressive dominion of men of their own race, and view, however, and having exclusive regard tongue, and faith, to enter into an unequal alli ance with a people who are proclaiming their determination to retrench the political rights of the Catholic and the foreigner-a people whose energetic competition and restless temper would soon thrust the islanders from their stools. of the Maroon war, bequeathed by the Spaniards to the English in Jamaica — of the suc cessful fugitives who so long bade defiance to the power of Holland in Surinam - of the Indian revolts of Central America, all bear one moral; nor should we imagine that our energy and our resources would enable us to win a speedy triumph over our savage foes. Let us not forget how long and how audaciously a handful of Seminoles held at bay the allied forces of the Republic, and of three southern States. The everglades of Florida are not more deadly to the white man than are the wildernesses of Cuba. All this we must expect if the organized hostility of the negroes should be confined to a small proportion only of their number. Should the flame of revolt spread far and wide, we might as well throw men and money into the burning crater of a volcano, as waste them upon the attempt to But were the economical prospects of annex If accomplished by violence (and in this way alone is annexation at all likely to be achieved), the Cuban people will find themselves plunged into the most frightful confusion. When a Spanish minister declared that Cuba must be "Spanish or African," he did not utter a menace; he merely stated a dilemma. The servile wars which broke out simultaneously with the triumphs of Hannibal, and the civil conflicts of the Syllan age; the Jacqueries which followed the English victories in France, and the thunder of insurrection with which the Haytian slaves silenced the uproar of the revolutionary contest in '92-all teach us what we are to expect from the negroes of Cuba in the event of a great subjugate the island. Cuban war. And the negroes of Cuba, be it remembered, are not merely formidable fromation as flattering as they are now frowning, their numbers, but from a nucleus of trained infelligence already existing among them. That any intelligent and thoughtful Cuban, reflecting upon the anomalous situation of his country upon the elements of disorder which quiver in its heart-upon the vices of its finan-am sure that there is an echo still in the heart cial system, under which the capitalists and the land-owners of the island are enclosed in a fatal circle of claims that cannot be enforced, and of obligations that cannot be discharged — that any intelligent or thoughtful Cuban should anticipate other than ruinous consequences from a sudden and violent disruption of the bonds (hateful as they may be) which bind his country to Spain, seems to me utterly incomprehensible. And what is America to gain by the acquisition of Cuba? Financially, nothing. The violent transfer of Cuba to our hands, would entail ruin upon our now flourishing commerce with the island, by cutting down the island's prosperity. The number of small tobacco farmers in Cuba, and consequently the tobacco crop, might for a time be increased; but the great interest of the island-the sugar interest-would be sadly shaken by the overthrow of public confidence; for the general insecurity of property which must follow such a convulsion, would particularly affect enterprises which call for such heavy investments of capital, and depend for their success upon so many contingencies as do the production and manufacture of sugars. Those canny economists even, who know no Sibylline leaves but those of the ledger, must admit that no financial advantage can be expected to flow from the acquisition of Cuba to any States but Louisiana and Texas. The prostration of Cuba would give them a practical monopoly of the American sugar market. But this is not all. The acquisition of Cuba, charged with servile war, would be for America a first step, and a serious one, in the direction of military extravagance. We could not preserve our dominion in the island without maintaining there an army at least twice as numerous as that which we now possess. The histories there are other and higher considerations which should make every right-minded American resolute to withstand the current which is drifting the popular will in that fatal direction. The greed of gold burns in our veins; but I of republican America to the brave words of the Imperial Roman law, Neque humanum fuerit ob rei pecuniariæ quæstionem libertati moram fieri-"It would be unworthy of men that liberty should be delayed by pecuniary considerations." It was in the interest of slavery that the project of Cuban annexation was conceived long years ago. It is in the interest of slavery that the project is now pursued. Here and there, indeed, southern men have been found far-sighted enough to perceive that, in expecting any real accession of power from the conquest of Cuba, the South sadly overrates her own force of repression, and as sadly underrates the explosive forces sleeping in the bosom of the island. But the body of southern politicians will not believe this. They laugh at general laws, and doubt the unseen powers. Despairing of their northern frontiers, they have long looked to Spanish and Portuguese America as "fresh fields and pastures new," into which the power of the Union must force a way for slavery. The accidental defeat of their designs upon California has only stimulated their zeal in other directions. Mexico, Central America, the Valley of the Amazon, lie along the horizon of their hopes. Cuba and Hayti are nearer at hand. To pursue the annexation of Cuba in the interests of slavery is to pursue the doom of the Republic. I say nothing of the possibilities of disastrous foreign war which lurk in that pursuit, for I am sure that America can take no serious detriment at any but American hands. We have nothing to fear from the world. But have we nothing to fear from ourselves? Slavery is an institution so essentially false and mean in principle, so thoroughly barbaric in spirit, that no man can labor in its service without barbarizing his temper and his intellect. If it does not find men unscrupulous, it makes | Cuba, its inhabitants will be driven perforce them so. to the trial of whether they cannot obtain it But an unscrupulous Republic is a despotism elsewhere. in embryo. TREATMENT OF THE CONVICT BANKERS. We have been taught to believe that our country had another mission than to repeat the piracies of Rome, or to rival the chicanery of Russia. THE announcement of the conviction and The pages of history are full enough of suc- sentence of the three bankers at the Central cessful robbery and of lucky gambling. The Criminal Court, on Saturday, startled the World's welcome to America was a tribute to the town. "But will the sentence be carried humane dignity of a Washington, and to the out? will it not be commuted?" The queshonest wisdom of a Franklin. When we forfeit tion is suggested not only by the current our claim to be proud of that tribute, we fling idea that persons so well connected must find away our best birthright-we come down from our high place—we take a vulgar station in the some favor, but still more perhaps from the we invite a vulgar fortune and a vulgar difficulty which the mind naturally feels in associating the habitual condition of men, earth fate. It is not yet time thus to despair of the Re-like baronets and bankers, with the costume, public. condition, and daily life of a convict. Not less also, perhaps, from the difficulty of comPerhaps we should not ourselves go so far pleting the idea that men in the position of as this American writer, though all will be a Sir John Dean Paul can enter into courses disposed to admire his manly and honorable which involve conviction and consignment to spirit. We have less faith than he appears a convict prison. In a simple view, the very to have in the possibility of Cuba obtaining turpitude of the course adopted in the house independence for itself, and yet we are as "near Temple Bar" is scarcely made apmuch convinced as he is that it cannot go on parent to the mind, until we substantiate much longer in its present state. All this is the fact that it is of a kind which puts the for the Spanish government to consider. If offender in a prison-costume, and classes him the island is to remain a Spanish possession, with thieves and other malefactors. It is we are convinced that there must be a com- scarcely possible to suppose that a West-end plete revision of the Spanish colonial system dignitary and a magnate of the trading world in it. At present it is governed despotically can go to lengths like that; and we stop to by a Captain-General, and for the last half see if there is not some qualifying circumcentury has had almost as many Captains- stance, some peculiarity proper to titled perGeneral as there are years in that period of sonages and monied men, calculated to draw time. The despotism has, therefore, been a distinction between them and ordinary crimconstantly varying one, with neither system inals. If we look to the evidence, we see nor policy. Material prosperity alone has that there is no such distinction. The Jury carried Cuba through such a government; found none, the Judge found none, and the but material prosperity brings with it also Executive Ministers will find none. They other consequences; and we have but to read could not at this stage introduce a distincthe experiences of this American, or any tion, because it would blast the character of other observant traveller, to see that a higher any Minister who should show favor on pergrade of general intelligence is now devel-sonal grounds; and on public grounds, any oped in the place than has existed till very kind of mitigation in favor of these men recently. No other West India island can would be a proclamation that there is a conat present compare with it in modes of culti-ventional license for practices such as they vation, in mechanical substitutes for labor, have used. in improved manufactures, roads, railways, For there can be no idea here of revenge. harbors, and ports, in amendments, luxuries, Bitter as the feelings of individuals may be, refinements, and enjoyments. We have also sweet as the knowledge that the offenders to remember, as we remarked some few will undergo some pain in return for that months ago on the occasion of the disturb- which they have inflicted, the Government ances at Madrid, that the greater part of the and those who adjudged them to punishCuban proprietary is resident; that the ment did not act on principles of retribution, island is the home of the planters; that all but for the sake of example, which, in a their hopes, thoughts, interests, and fami- public sense, is the only purpose of punishlies are bound up with it; that they are ment. That the sentence will be carried out educated, wealthy, and really attached to we are convinced, although literally the law the transatlantic home. In short, they are permits almost any kind of mitigation. The better suited for constitutional government Crown claims, and has long exercised, an than Spain itself is, and if what is granted unbounded power of remitting or lessening at Madrid be much longer withheld from punishments by pardon. But transportation cannot be commuted into penal servitude by | Henry Fauntleroy? The whole place looked the Crown, though it could by sentence of so conventionally regular, and so comforta the Court. The Crown, however, could let bly arranged, that none could have imagined out the convict bankers upon a license or that the spectre of crime was haunting aa ticket-of-leave, and this could be done to- abode apparently filled by the household virmorrow, according to the letter of the law. tues. There was the nice old fashioned library That it will be done, no one expects; but with its shelves loaded with classic tomes of the precise rule of practice is uncertain. history, bending beneath British essayists, The Home Office has established for its own with printed reams of admonitions on Pruguidance and that of the prison authorities dence, and the long etceteras in her train. the scale of periods at which tickets-of-leave A few new books were carelessly tossed in a are to be granted, supposing the conduct of corner, and "Dissuasions against Popery," the prisoner not to stand in the way of the and "Melvill's Sermons," were to be seen indulgence; but it has not published the amongst them. Lying on a work-table was scale, and we only learn it bit by bit in the a large album, filled with water-colored Prison Reports, in returns to Parliament, sketches from a female hand, of the various and in such communications as Colonel Jebb's country seats where she had sojourned. recent letter in the newspapers. What number of years will have to be passed by the bankers in imprisonment (supposing them not to be transported), before, under the regulations, they will be eligible for a ticketof-leave, we do not know. Spectator, 3 November. From the Press, 3 Nov. That album, with its feminine autographs, « 217 STRAND," AND THE CONVICT BANK-man nature which would have given him ERS. subjects for his peculiar style. TAKING up the Red Book the other day, We could not help remembering our ob we lighted accidentally on "217, Strand," servation of the fraudulent bankers' former with the names of "Strahan, Paul, and town abode, as we read Baron Alderson's Bates," opposite to it. In the next edition sentence of their punishment. Their case of that more useful than entertaining "an- was an extraordinary one in all its phases, nual," a different address, in a more whole- from first to last, and in no respect was it some, but less fashionable place, will be more singular than in the perfect confidence given. We happened to be more struck with which the convicts relied upon their with the change in their situation, as we plea under the "disclosure" clause. The some months since strolled through the suite discussion of that plea is too purely technical of reception-rooms in the private residence for comment here, though we may possibly at" 217, Strand." What a respectable ap- have to examine it at a future time, for impearance of perfect "respectability was mense importance in " City quarters atover the whole arrangement of those gentle- taches to the strict interpretation of the manlike apartments! They were furnished, Bankers' Act. We prefer rather to examine not flashy or gaudily, but in an elegantly the justice of the artful pleas so plausibly quiet style of chaste decoration. You as- talked in certain commercial quarters. cended by a Portland-stone staircase to the Strange sophistry, indeed, has been had relobby. To the right was a dining-room, in course to for the purpose of palliating the which one could have been comfortable even enormous frauds perpetrated at 217, in a November fog. At each side of its fire- Strand." We shall expose the dangerous place were two carved pieces of curious wood- sophistry, which we are sorry to hear whis work, with scriptural subjects, and richly-pered, and muttered, though scarcely openly framed oil-paintings hung upon the crimson avowed. walls. It was a capital snuggery for a cheerful company not less than the Graces, or more than the Muses. - Then who could have thought, on sauntering through the other rooms, that they who dwelt therein would be condemned before the year was over to fourteen years' transportation as convicts, and that their names would be classified henceforward in the dismal catalogue of criminal gentlefolk which numbers in its items those of Dr. Dodd and 66 For example, it is furtively asked: — "But were Paul and Strahan so veryshockingly bad, after all? Of course," cry Messrs. Gammon and Quirk, "we do not defend their conduct; but we look at it calmly, and what they did was not much worse, if at all so, than what is done by the consignees, who undertake to pay at sight for cargoes, delude captains of ships, sell the goods of the foreign merchant, and fail be fore the week is over, leaving a dividend of five shillings in the pound. Or, look at the law can touch the acts of bankers; and it is number of fraudulent bankrupts, who are let lucky for the commercial credit of the counoff with only a couple of years' imprisonment try that it can be made to do so. - fellows who might have paid thirty shillings in the pound. Or, look at the numerous cases of executors, who have used in their own business the capital of their wards, though specially left to their guardianship under the wills of deceased friends. Does the criminal law deal so severely with them?" This glib sophistry runs too fast. To prove that a man is not morally bad because his conduct may bear colorable precedent in the vitiated mercantile morality of the age is utterly beside the purpose. It is too true that the morality of the commercial world is becoming very low, and that is a reason why the criminal law, for the sake of society, should be called into active operation. If men cannot be restrained from evil deeds by considerations of honor, then severe statutes must be tried. Hence the Bankers' Act was passed by the Legislature. A great part of the indignation felt against these convicts arises from the connection of the house with the religious world. "Tartuffe's bank has broke," is a cry which stirs many feelings. As to what degree the "Tartuffeism" was carried to, people must judge for themselves. We have all heard of "Sir John's Private Chapel," "White Cravats," "Exeter-hall," &c. It is no wonder that such things should exceedingly stimulate the indignation, and people recollecting them are not in any mood to appreciate any dexterous fallacies used on behalf of a company which considered tuum" to the extent of £130,000 as its "meum. These, and many other reasons, may be enough to teach the whispering tribe of Gammon and Quirk that acts of fraud are worse in proportion to their gigantic extent; and we cannot help saying that the most dangerous of all mental habits is that which sports with the casuistry of crime, after the fashion of some apologists for things done at " 217, Strand." From The Economist, 10 Nov. MISCHIEF-MAKERS BETWEEN NATIONS. But, then, how can the case of the bankers be morally discriminated from those of other bankrupts, or from the executors who escape the criminal law? It can, we answer, be plainly distinguished. Bankers advertise themselves to the whole world as men whose special business is to take care of the money of other people. They are trustees, and are We do not believe that there is any classpaid for being so. They can realize a large of men in England who entertain any hosincome by their lucrative agency to their customers. They are admitted into the secrets of important families. Rank from the West-end, Capital from the "City," throng their offices and solicit their intervention. They exist for the most confidential service; their banking-houses are, as it were, the confessionals of commerce, and to violate the engagements so secretly contracted is the worst kind of breach of trust. The Legislature has thought so advisedly. The Bankers' Act was passed in 1828, when a galaxy of firstrate juridical talent was in Parliament. Cord Lyndhurst was then Chancellor, and Lords Eldon and Tenterden were in the Upper House, while Brougham, Sugden, Scarlett, and Wetherall were in the Commons. The Act taking statutory cognizance of such dark deeds as Strahan, Paul, and Bates committed was passed after full consideration, and we trust that it will continue to be upheld by the Legislature of the country. The Old-Bailey logic which would try to exculpate the convicts by classifying their acts with those of consignees cheating their foreign correspondents, and knavish executors, proves too much. If the criminal law could effectually be made to reach the dishonest consignees and executors, it ought to do so; but there are difficulties in the way obvious to every jurist. But fortunately the tile feeling towards the United States, or who have the least desire to create bad blood between the two peoples. Of course there are many who dislike what is peculiar in American characters and manners; many who are irritated by the language of the American Press; many who condemn the tone and proceedings of the American Government; many who feel just and becoming indignation at the projects and behavior of a portion of the American democracy. But the all but universal sentiment in this country is an earnest desire to remain on good terms with the Americans, to draw closer and closer the bonds of amity, to sympathize with what is estimable, to endure what is offensive or antipathic. Our merchants desire this cordial feeling as an affair of interest; our statesmen desire it from motives of political prudence and as conducive to the progress and well-being of the great commonwealth of nations; and the British people as a whole desire it from simple, uncalculating kindness of heart towards close relatives and worthy neighbors. But unfortunately in the United States the case is different. There we believe that the sentiments of sympathy and affection we have just described as prevailing here are, indeed, reciprocated by the great body of native Americans; that the enlightened, |