Fincastle Mirror

From the London Times.

In proportion as public respect and confidence, the only solid foundations of a government whatever may be its form, crumble away beneath the feet of Ferdinand and his servile Ministers, they and their foreign auxiliaries are driven to the fruitless labour of catching at straws, and attempting to realize the most absurd and desperate chimeras. It is perfectly evident from the tone of the Ultra-royalist newspapers, French and Spanish, that the re-conquest of America has now become the forlorn hope of the cause of legitimacy in Spain. Without the revenues of the precious colonies, those of the Spanish church must ere long be appropriated--in other words, confiscated--to the famine which devours the State in all its departments, and every man in his senses knows that the dollars of Mexico are forever gone. Not so the Bourbon Cabinets. Facts and arguments to them are, on that subject, equally unavailing. The Etoile of Tuesday last distinctly assures us, that the men of war San Labio, San Bias, and three corvettes, are arming in the port of Cadiz--that the expedition is destined for the Pacific,--and that with this maritime succour, the "Viceroyalty" of Peru will soon find itself in a condition to destroy the revolutionary army of Chili, as well as the forces from Terra Firma Columbia, which now desolate that beautiful region. In what, then, consists the Peruvian Fidelity? In Canterac and his army: In one word, then, they are destroyed. The same day has brought us both text and comment--the Etoile, and the correspondence from La Plata. By the former, the Viceroy is to receive help from Spain; by the latter the Viceroy has been placed beyond the reach of succour. The troops of Columbia have attacked and demolished his army, the last feeble prop of Spanish legitimacy. Bolivar was fast approaching the great scene of action, and the force which was to serve under this virtuous and illustrious Commander was nearly twelve thousand men; almost as many more were engaged in occupying other points of Peru, so that the interests of the "Viceroyalty" are likely to require something more than the aid of two armed ships and three sloops of war from Cadiz. In one word, the die is cast, the game is ended--an expedition sent against the United States by Spain might be more speedily crushed, but not more certainly than any she, or France in masquerade, could launch against the South American Republics. Were it otherwise, it would be of little moment. If the new states of America be weak, which they are not, England is strong enough to support them. Should England abandon this noble and imperious duty, North America may perform it for her, and punish her by enjoying the consequent advantages unrivalled. The Holy Alliance may issue its manifestoes, it may placard free nations, it may send a regiment of Pazos to intrigue and corrupt, and undermine and menace, to make virtue a name, and servility a religion, wherever sordid, shallow, or pusillanimous minds are to be found mis-conducting the great interests of a supine and indifferent society; but against America, it is a warfare altogether unseasonable and feeble. The mass of the American population, high and low, lay and clerical, are full of the spirit of revolution: they have been relieved and raised by the change: it animates and cheers them--it opens to them the road to riches and self-respect. Force would be ridiculous against such a community; corruption would have few materials on which to operate; and intrigue, as in Mexico, would lead its vicious agents to a dungeon.