The apparent advance of the Whig party in the United
States enhances the intrinsic interest in a speech just delivered by Mr. Henry Clay. The eloquent statesman declares, boldly and un- equivocally, that the Mexican war was begun by his own country, and not, as Mr. Polk pretended, by Mexico; that it is impolitic; and that the annexation of Mexico would be injurious to the United States, since the military power necessary to subjugate and keep down an alien people would be inimi- cal to the institutions of the Union itself. These are views which both Washington and Jefferson would have shared ; and it is satis- factory to see them vindicated by so distinguished a citizen as Henry Clay. Expectation of his being able to carry them out in office, indeed, is checked by the frequent disappointment of his hopes as a candidate for the Presidency. Nor do we feel war- ranted in placing a very implicit trust in the calculations of Whig progress. The Whig party may comprise the natural aristocracy of the United States—the intellectual as well as the moneyed aristocracy ; but it is a minority, and enjoys little Byrn- pathy from the sovereign people.
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