26 AUGUST 1871, Page 3

The Americans are in a mess in Corea; very victorious,

as they would say, but under the necessity of retiring, for all that. It seems from the detailed accounts that the Coreans finally refuse to hold intercourse with them, alleging that they prefer " their ,own civilization of 4,000 years," and that although defeated in the contest for the forts which protect the Kanghoa, the river leading up to the capital Hanching, they are not discouraged. They have collected an army of 30,000, who wear armour formed of 40 thicknesses of strong cotton cloth, almost impenetrable to a sword, and can pour in a very heavy, though ill-directed fire. Admiral Rogers, having no army to land sufficient to cope with this force, has been obliged to retire, and the situation is therefore this. Either the Americans must give up the attempt to reach the capital, in which ease both Coreans and Chinese will be oncost- raged to kill Europeans, or they must send an army of 5,000 men, in which case they will have to spend half as much as we did on the Abyssinian War. We rather think they will spend the money, hoping to compel Corea to reimburse it, and the men could be raised in California easily enough. The base of opera- tions, however, must be San Francisco, which is very far off, unless General Grant could effect some arrangement with Spain, and operate from the Philippines.