c Ocean;
each of them being enhanced in value by the distance of any others
worthy of the name, San Francisco being nearly one thousand miles from
Port Discovery in the north, and San Diego six hundred miles from the
Bay of Magdalena in the south.

That in the hands of any vigorous possessors this country would form a
most powerful kingdom, is beyond all question; and Sir George Simpson
evidently thinks that it might easily be acquired, and with a
legitimate claim too, by England. But the still higher question is the
policy of a perpetual increase of territory. England already has in
America a larger extent of territory than she can people for five
hundred years to come. But the possession of California, and perhaps of
the whole extent of the Mexican provinces, is on the eve of decision;
the American invasion has found no resistance that can deserve the name.
The Mexicans fly in every quarter, and a few discharges of cannon put
them to flight by thousands. At this moment the whole Mexican Republic,
equal in size to half a dozen European States, appears to be crumbling
into fragments. The rambling expeditions of the Americans are ravaging
it in all directions with impunity, and armies which might have been
long since annihilated by a mere guerilla war, have been suffered to
march from city to city, with scarcely more resistance than a
cattle-stealing skirmish. By the last intelligence, San Juan d' Ulloa
has fallen, and Vera Cruz has capitulated after a siege of only three
days and a half. The castle is the strongest fortification in the
Western World--and, as Napoleon said of Malta, "It is lucky that it had
somebody inside to open the gates for us:" the garrison of this fortress
seems to have been placed there merely for the purpose of surrendering
it. But, whatever may be the fate of men who had such a fortress to
defend, and yet whose defence actually cost the assailants but
_seventeen_ killed! there can be but one feeling of commiseration for
the unhappy inhabitants of Vera Cruz, on whom was rained, day and night,
a shower of shot and shell amounting to more than seven thousand of
those tremendous missiles. It is computed that the slaughter, and that
slaughter chiefly of women and children, amounts to thousands. These are
terrible things, even where they may be supposed the _necessities_ of
war. But here we can discover no necessity--Vera Cruz was _no_
fortification, it was nearly an open town. We recollect no similar