There is a new report that Mexico has declared war
against the United States, backed by new " documents" purporting to be official : but, as in the case of the previous apocryphal report, a comparison of dates throws some doubt upon the fact. The papers were enclosed in a letter sent to New Orleans, by way of Belize, from Vera Cruz : the letter is dated on the 21st July, the docu- ments are all dated on the 16th : the advices received at New York direct from Vera Cruz come down to the 23d; and although they speak of a declaration of war as probable, they speak of it as a future act; whereas the hasty letter, sent circuitously, at an earlier date, speaks of it as a thing done and publicly known. Private information may have got the two days' start ; but there is something very suspicious in this clashing of dates. True or not, however, violences seem but too probable. Mexico evidently feels all the exasperation of mortified feebleness ; and the United States Government were collecting troops in the newly- acquired Texas, so as to be ready at once to provoke and to strike. Texas was still busy preparing her constitution, in order to a formal admission into the Union ; and before that final settlement, it seems likely enough that Mexico would lose her self-command and be betrayed into some folly most injurious to herself. On whatever side the right lies, there is no doubt which possesses the might.
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