The quarrel of the United States with this country about
the destruction of the Caroline steamer, in which Mr. M'Laon is so painfully involved, has assumed a very dark and alarmins. aspect. A New York packet-ship has just brought intelligence calculated to give the worst direction to the anxiety which prevails. A ru- mour reached this country, by the last vessel which came over be- fore, that Mr. M‘Lron had been liberated on bail, but afterwards seized by the mob and recommitted to prison. The real case is yet worse than the rumour implied. It appears that when it was known in Lockport, the town where Mr. M'LEOD was imprisoned, that he was to be released under bail, a public meeting, the num- bers of which are variously reckoned from two to five hundred, was imm- diately convened ; and a committee was appointed to confer and to remonstrate with the Judge by whom the bail had been ad- mitted, and with the persons who had become bound for the pri- soner. This was in the evening ; and it was past midnight when the assemblage learned that their wishes would be fulfilled in the morning; and until then they adjourned. Meanwhile a guard was placed by the mob over the court-house, where Mr. M`LEon still remained; and a piece of cannon was fired from time to time imme- diately in front of it. In the morning, the meeting again assembled ; and then the Judge and one of Mr. M‘Laon s bail attended to explain, and to announce that Mr. M‘LEon had been again delivered into custody. This outrageous procedure has received the con- demnation which it merited in Congress ; but in the mean time, ulterior proceedings founded upon it are not arrested ; for the Grand Jury have found a true bill arrainst Mr. M‘Lcon, and his trial is to take place on the fourth Monday in March. It becomes a grave question, whether the Government, if unable to protect their own law from violation by disorderly assemblages—their judges from being called personally to account by public meeti protect the defenceless prisoner from the inveterate rs %MK which he is pursued, and secure to him a fair triag: AgAttlirAt' rancour should carry matters to extremity, the consevenees ,ftauld , be deplorable beyond the power of language to dose tiler
The excitement about the Boundary dispute thitatens fresh troubles : the Legislature of Maine have voted a sum to " remove"
the Queen of Great Britain's troops from the territory " called dis- puted' by the British Government."
The untoward aspect of the political horizon in America is not relieved by a glance at the commercial world. The United States Bank has for a third time suspended cash payments. Attempts are made to explain the circumstance away, by showing that the Bank has actually paid off a large amount of its liabilities, and that it only stopped on account of a temporary pressure in the stream of demands ; but nothing can explain away its effects, which seem to have been most disastrous. A reaction has already taken place here : the shares of the Bank, worth 91. each before the news ar- rived, have since been sold for half that price. What the counter- reaction may be when the state of the London market is made known in America, perhaps the best-inthrmed cannot guess ; nor what may be the influence of monetary disorders upon the state of political affairs. Altogether, there is cause for much solicitude ; which is not lessened by the consideration that this country re- mains in utter ignorance of what its own Government is doing : whether it is supporting its best interests with zeal, or merely keeping the question " open"; whether it is combining firmness with a cour- teous and conciliatory demeanour, or giving new cause for exas- peration by a punctilious and overbearing carriage ; whether, in short, it is avoiding or seeking war. The country, perhaps, will not know till it is called upon next year to pay for the fight or for the " maintenance of peace."
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