5 DECEMBER 1846, Page 2

The intelligence from the United States indicates a revulsion of

affairs. In Mexico, the invasion makes no progress ; and in the Union men are beginning seriously to question the expediency of the whole war. Mr. Webster declares it illegal, unconstitu- tional, impolitic, and expensive. Citizens feel that it is expensive ; and they seem suddenly disposed to resent the undoubted stretch of power which made Mr. Polk dash into the war without authority from Congress. He shows signs of faultering : he talks of referring the matter to Congress, as if he dreaded the unshared responsibility. Had all Mexico been seized and an- nexed by a coup-de-main, he would have had no fears about responsibility ; but he has only a poor show of victories to boast as the fruit of his indiscretion, which therefore turns out to be not venial. On the other hand, the Whigs are making irresistible advances towards a decided majority in Congress ; so that the penitent Polk is likely enough to incur austere penance. One very ingenious conjecture has gained currency. It has already been suspected that there was an understanding between Santa Anna and the Government at Washington ; and the 'cute politicians now guess, that what the two chiefs have agreed upon is, to close the war, bringing it by simultaneous but apparently independent courses to a peaceful termination. • The elections in the State of New York are complicated with the very curious American question of rent. Many landholders pay wt chief-rent to families who have possessed the fee-simple from early times : the American spirit revolts against that feudal tenure, is jealous of such Anti-Republican landlordism, and seeks to del)rive the owners of the property, whether they will or not. It is a version of Irish agitation against Absenteeism or for "fixity of tenure," on a Yankee scale. The Anti-Rent party in the " Empire State " is sufficiently numerous and influential to have held the balance and elected its own nominees. It has ap- pointed as Governor a gentleman who defended the rioters that killed a Sheriff engaged to enforce payment of rent. Decidedly, our Transatlantic brethren seem to have retrograded since the days of the sagacious Jefferson, and of that scrupulous Washington who remembered and paid a debt of one cent for crossing a ferry.