THE advent of the month finds the country involved in WAR, in actual, active, and thus far successful, war with Mexico. The event is one for which our readers have been prepared, and which, had the country remembered the councils of her wisest statesmen, would have surprised no

one.

From the date of the consummation of the annexation of Texas, Mexico has been pledged to war. That event was preceded, attended and followed by the most emphatic declarations which a nation can possibly put forth, that she would listen to no terms that should prevent this appeal to arms. She regarded the annexation of Texas as a forcible seizure of a portion of her own territory. This was the aspect in which alone she would view the case-and the question of war thus became with her not a question of expediency but of necessity. The declarations of SANTA ANNA to the American Minister, that he would "war forever for the reconquest of Texas," and that "if he died in his senses, his last words should be an exhortationto his countrymen never to abandon the effort to reconquer the country," expressed the deliberate determination of the nation; and the reasons which he gave, are substantially those on which the government of Mexico bases its concurrence in this policy: "You, sir, know very well that to sign a treaty for the alienation of Texas would be the same thing as signing the death-warrant of Mexico;" and he is reported to have added that "by the same process the United States would take one after another of the Mexican provinces, until they should have them all."* Upon the rightfulness of the persistence of Mexico in her claims upon Texas, as her province, we have nothing here to say; but the fact that Mexico did and would persist in that claim, was well known when annexation was accomplished and the united voices of CLAY, WEBSTER, VAN BUREN, WRIGHT, ADAMS, GALLATIN, and all our ablest public men, declared that in adopting Texas we adopted also her war with Mexico.

Since annexation was consummated, Mexico has been constantly preparing for war, though under various pretexts and by various devices, she concealed her formal declaration of hostilities until the 23d of April last, when her President, PAREDES, issued his manifesto to the world.

The active operations thus far comprise an active bombardment of Fort Brown, op

posite Matamoros, and two pitched battles upon the American side of the Rio Grande, both of which were hard-fought actions, and resulted in the brilliant and most honorable triumph of the American arms. Of these three actions the official dispatches authorize the following summary statement: Fort Brown, which has just been built by General TAYLOR opposite Matamoros, sustained a cannonade and bombardment from the opposite side for 160 hours, during which time two officers killed and ten men wounded, comprise all the casualties incident to the severe assault.

On the 8th of May General Taylor, with 2,300 men, on his way from Point Isabel to Fort Brown, was met at Palo Alto by a Mexican force of about 6,000 men, with seven pieces of artillery and 800 cavalry. The latter had taken a strong position, from which, after a severe action of five hours, they were dislodged with a loss of at least 100. The loss of the American force was 4 men killed, 3 officers and 37 men wounded-Major Ringgold of the former and several of the latter mortally. The American troops encamped on the field of battle.

On the 9th the march was renewed, and at Resaca de la Palma it was discovered that a ravine crossing the road had been occupied by the Mexicans with artillery. The following extract from General TAYLOR's dispatch to the Department at Washington, sets forth, briefly and clearly, the nature and result of the action that ensued:

"I immediately ordered a battery of field artillery to sweep the position, flanking and sustaining it by the 3d, 4th and 5th regiments, deployed as skirmishers to the right and left. A heavy fire of artillery and of musketry was kept up for some time, until finally the enemy's batteries were carried in succession by a squadron of dragoons and the regiments of infantry that were on the ground. He was soon driven from his position and pursued by a squadron of dragoons, battalion of artillery, 3d infantry, and a light battery, to the river. Our victory has been complete. Eight pieces of artillery, with a great quantity of ammunition, three standards, and some one hundred prisoners have been taken; among the latter General La Vega and several other officers. One General is understood to have been killed. The enemy has recrossed the river, and I am sure will not again molest us on this bank.

"The loss of the enemy in killed has

elevation of about 8,600 feet above the sea. Here the united stream is called by different designations, but is known throughout by the name of the Sutlej. Below the confluence its general course is south-west, with a very rapid declivity to Rampoor. From this latter spot to Belaspoor, its course is generally west and south-west; hence it holds a very winding course to Roopur, where it makes its way through the low sandstone range of Jhejwan, and finally enters the plains of the Punjaub. It then passes between Philor and Loodheeanah, and its width, at the season when lowest, may be stated approximately at 250 yards, with an average depth of seven feet. Up to this point the stream is said to be navigable at all seasons, for vessels of 10 or 12 tons burthen, and steam may be made available in light vessels to the very foot of the hills. The whole length ofthe Sutlej, up to this point, has been estimated at 570 miles, 130 of which may be said to be in the plains.

These are two of the sides of this confiscated territory, which lies in the form of an equilateral triangle, having upon the other side the Himmalaya range for its lofty barrier. Its entire area is set down at about 8,500 square miles, and its aggregate annual revenue is not far from £400,000. The level part of this country is deemed the garden of Upper India, and is dotted at slight intervals with large and flourishing cities. First in importance is Jalinder, situated in a tract of amazing fertility, amidst flourishing orchards of mangoes and other trees, and, though once a place of great celebrity, as the vast number of large and handsome mausoleums in its neighborhood would testify, has still, at the present day, a population of about 40,000. Rajwarrah, on the direct route from Loodianah to Lahore, contains a population of about 15,000, situated in an equally fertile region; and there are also other places, Mundee, Kupoorthalao, Kurtapoor, &c., of considerable size and wealth. Information regarding the hill districts is scanty, but it is confidently said that they will be found, on minute survey, from their more northerly position, to exceed in value any similar portion in the British provinces, and that the mineral and other resources will amply repay the energy of British enterprise, provided that enterprise be directed with proper spirit and discretion.

Here is a vast, rich and most important region of Central Asia brought at once within the scope of British enterprise and civilization. That the result in the end will be good, it were distrusting Providence to doubt. Here, as in China, will a new and immense region of the earth, hitherto inaccessible, be thrown open to the regenerating influences of Christianity and Christian institutions. Thus is the

great scheme of the world's redemption carried forward, by instrumentalities in themselves of doubtful justice, but under the guidance of the infinite and omniscient God. To the reflecting mind, the words of that eccentric but most romantic of fanatics, Dr. Joseph Wolff, seem little more than the words of soberness, when he declares that he considers the British government in India to be those kings of the East predicted in the revelation of St. John, who will be instrumental in bringing the Eastern world to the knowledge and acceptance of the Christian faith.

Nothing is more remarkable than the vigor with which the British are pushing their conquests in the heart of Asia, unless it be the ardor with which they are searching the globe for unexplored and habitable regions. A very valuable account of discoveries in Australia, with a description of the coasts and rivers explored and surveyed during the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle, from 1837 to 1843 inclusive, has just been published in London; and this is but a single specimen of the similar works which are almost constantly issuing from the British press. This great field of British colonization has been hitherto but slightly known: but the results of this exploring expedition have accumulated an immense amount of invaluable information concern. ing it. The volumes are accompanied by maps, engravings and everything necessary to elucidate the statements they contain. They have a good deal of popular interest, and much more of scientific value. Some of their most curious passages relate to the habits of the savages, and to their conduct upon coming for the first time in contact with whites. The following brief extract exhibits certainly a novel phase of the maternal sentiment:

"The reader will remember the native named Alligator, whom I have mentioned on a previous visit to Port Essington. I witnessed in his family an instance of affection for a departed child, which, though it exhibited itself in this peculiar manner, was extremely touching. The wife had treasured up the bones of the little one, and constantly carried them about with her, not as a memento mori, but as an object whereon to expend her tenderest emotions whenever they swelled within her breast. At such times she would put together these bones with a rapidity that supposed a wonderful knowledge of osteology, and set them up that she might weep over them. Perhaps, in her imagination, as she performed this melancholy rite, the ghastly framework before her became indued with the comely form of infancy; bright eyes once more sparkled in those hollow cells, and a smile of ineffable delight hung where, in reality, was nought but the hideous grin of death. I exceedingly regret that the mother who could feel so finely was some time afterwards over-persuaded to part with the bones of her child."

The French Government, also, manifests considerable zeal in prosecuting scientific researches into slightly known regions of the earth. The Count of Castelnau, charged with a scientific mission in South America, announces in a brief letter published in the Moniteur, that he has accomplished a journey across the deserts of the American Continent, which has heretofore been deemed impracticable-having gone by land from the capital of Brazil to that of Bolivia. Leaving Rio Janeiro on the 8th of October, 1813, he reached Chuquisaca on the 20th September, 1845, having been nearly two years in crossing the deserts in the centre of the Continent. After exploring the north of Paraguay, he went to Matto Grosso, capital of the province of that name, the climate of which is so unhealthy that none but negroes can bear it. In a population of 1,200 he found but four whites, and those were public functionaries. On entering the country of the Chiquitos Indians, he visited the magnificent missions formerly established by the priests in the deserts, and was greatly struck with their grandeur. He then crossed the Monte Grande, an immense forest, greatly dreaded by the Spaniards, and arrived in the waters of the Rio Grande, which, though very deep and dangerous, he was obliged to ford. Twelve leagues further he reached the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where he met, for the first time, marks of western civilization. "It is impossible," he says, "to refrain from mentioning the delightful emotions I experienced, as did also my fellow-travelers, in seeing bread for the first time for two years. After a stay of a month in this city, we left it to ascend the Andes, and in twenty days we reached Chuquisaca, all in good health, which appears almost miraculous after the fatigues and privations that we were obliged to undergo during this long journey across the Continent." The barometer was carried all the way, and thus the level was constantly taken. He has sent home various collections, destined for public institutions.

The feasibility of cultivating Cotton in some other part of the world than America has for some time engaged the earnest attention of British statesmen and men of science. In India experiments are still in active progress, under the supervision of Americans. At the meeting of the London Society of Arts held on the 22d of April, the general subject was made the theme of a paper by Mr. Banks, who treated it at some length, and with a good deal of ability. Among other interesting points of information which he set forth, we find it stated that the sea-coast of Africa presents a large territory which is capable of being made to produce cotton in larger quantities, and of a quality equal if not superior to the

American. From inquiries which he had made at the Wesleyan and Baptist Missionary Societies, he had ascertained that the missionaries of both those societies have instructions to promote such objects as the cultivation of cotton among the natives at their several stations, which extend all along the coast of Western Africa; and he strongly urged the necessity of their introducing the saw-gin, in lieu of the rollergin and hand-labor, to free the cotton from the seed, and the screw-press for packing it into bales for exportation.

The death in Russia of NIKOLAI POLEVOI is mourned by the continental journals as that of a zealous friend of the literature and cultivation of his country. His life has greater interest from the remoteness of the scene of its labors, from general knowledge and sympathy. He was born at Inkutsk, in Siberia, in 1796, and inherited an unconquerable passion for books, which led him to embrace literature as a profession, after many years of dutiful devotion to the business which his father wished he should follow. His father's failure and ruin led him into literary pursuits, and for ten years he edited the Moscow Telegraph, which set the example in that country of a higher and more manly tone of criticism. He was the author of a History of Russia, and several other works of considerable merit.

The Paris papers announce the death, in his 94th year, of one who played a conspicuous part in the stormy scenes of a terrible time-M. Sevestre, a member of the National Convention-amongst the most violent-and one of those who voted for the death of the King. He was a member, too, of the Committee of General Safety; was charged with the surveillance of the Royal orphans in the Temple; and reported on the death of the Dauphin. He was exiled in 1815: and returned to France after the revolution of 1830.

The death of the Astronomer BESSEL at Koningsberg, is justly declared as that of one of the most eminent savans of the age. An English periodical journal gives an interesting outline of his life and his contributions to the science to which his labors were devoted. No one person during the present century has done more for the advancement of astronomical knowledge than he. His time was devoted unceasingly to the investigation of the heavens; and, by the immense number and accuracy of his observations, he laid down the exact position of tens of thousands of stars, for which he received, in the year 1829, the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London. Having obtained instruments of very great power and accuracy, he directed his attention to observing, with extreme care, the remarkable star, 61 Cygni, to endeavor, if possible, to ascertain the least apparent parallax; and, after a

patient and continued series of observations from the summer of 1937 to the spring of 1840, the result of his labors was crowned with so much success, that another gold medal was presented to him by the same Society. From these observations, it appears that the distance of this star from the earth is nearly six hundred and seventy thousand times that of the sun; and it is the first star whose distance has been ascertained. In 1842, by direction of the King of Prussia, he visited England. The health of Professor Bessel had been declining for some years, and the letters state that he died peaceably, after long suffering, in the 62d year of his age.

The Life and Speeches of O'CONNELL have been published, but in the form which the editor, his son, has given them, they will do but slight service to his reputation. It is in fact mainly a repeal pamphlet, instead of a record of the life and sayings of one of the most remarkable men of his time. The outline of his life is valuable and interesting mainly from the want of such a work; passages from it, however, will be read with pleasure, and among them this sketch at second hand, of O'Connell as an advocate:

"In one of those entertaining sketches of the Irish bar which, some two or three-andtwenty years ago, Mr. Shiel and Mr. William Henry Curran, at present a Commissioner of the Insolvent Court, supplied to a London periodical, Mr. O'Connell's manner of life, in the times referred to by himself in the foregoing extract, is, if we may use the word, outlined with considerable vigor and effect. The silent and absorbed vigil for hours before the dawn; the dimly-lighted study; the sign of our salvation hanging pictured against the wall; the motionless form beneath it, with head bent over the voluminous law-papers scattered in profuse disorder around; the same hermit-like figure, a few hours later, transformed into the bustling barrister, keeping contending attorneys at a run, to match his mountaineer rate of going, as he hurried to the courts: the third transformation, late in the afternoon, when the man of legal points, and formal precedents, and abstruse arguments, would be found the merry, fearless, rollicking agitator, declaiming in a popular meeting, and now playing on the laughing faculties, and anon on the deepest and most powerful feelings and passions of his auditory, with a master hand--as he assailed with ridicule the petty despots of the day, or depicted, with terrible vividness, the wrongs, the miseries, the oppressions of Ireland and her people: such were the leading features of Mr. Shiel's sketch; and they were true to nature."

Two books upon the contemporary poets of Germany have just been published in Paris; one by M. Ñ. Martin, and the other by M. H. Blaze. Both are valuable the first being marked by its sympathy with those who like Freiligrath, and others who have used their pens in the advocacy of

liberal principles, and the other being especially pre-occupied with the question of Art, placing far above the political poets those who, like Kerner and Grèin, are simply poets. Martin's work is said to be much the most readable, and in most respects mcre valuable than the other.

CHEEVER'S Lectures on BUNYAN, and his "Pilgrim in the Shadow of the Jungfrau Alp," are somewhat generally noticed by the London critical press. Of the former work the Athenæum speaks in commendation, saying that it is deeply tinged by the author's peculiar theology, but this is so closely coincident with that of Bunyan himself, that the circumstance is not deemed a disadvantage. The Critic says that the latter book shows the author to be a real lover of nature, of genuine enthusiasm, and able to arouse in the reader a sympathy which wins them to his pages.

The work of our countryman, THOMAS L. M'KENNEY, Esq. upon the Indian Tribes of North America, has been sent to London, and is characterized by the leading critical authority as "the most magnificent illustrated publication that America has yet sent to England." Bearing in mind, however, the battered appearance of the Ojibbeway Indians recently exhibited in London, the Athenæum hints at the possibility of some cosmetic process having been employed by those Indians whose portraits are given in this splendid work.

The Hand-book of the Young Artists in Oil Painting, recently published here, is highly commended as a valuable contribution from the United States to the art.

HEADLEY'S "Alps and the Rhine" is very highly praised by some of the London critics, and spoken well of by all. He is promised a "hearty welcome in England" whenever he chooses to write.

The foreign correspondence of the Atheesting and important movement in Rome, naeum gives us a glimpse of a very interto redeem the masses of Italy from the profound ignorance in which they are involved. The effort, in comparison with the object to be attained, is feeble, but it has not been without some promising results. It seems that in 1836 several private impart to the apprentices in particular, some individuals were inspired with a desire to knowledge that might be useful to them. Michele Gigli, an advocate, and Giacomo Caroglio, a poor carver in wood, first established two Schools for this purpose, where artizans are gratuitously instructed in reading, writing, accounts and religious doctrines. In 1842, so far had their example been followed, that there were eight schools, with 1002 pupils. The movement is regarded by intelligent observers as highly promising and important.

At a recent meeting of the Geological Society of London a paper by DR. CHARLES