The policy of Santa Anna, at present, is to act on the defensive, preparatory to taking the offensive. He is now at work at San Luis, in collecting and organizing a powerful army, the most formidable ever yet seen in the republic. He will address himself to the Mexicans, with such appeals as may rouse them to a sense of their danger, and will, perhaps, attempt to lay hold of the immense riches of the church, to sustain the national cause. In the latter, he will probably fail; it is the greater power in Mexico, for power does not centre exclusively in the army, and but a small portion of it in the people, if there can be said to be a people at all. His object is, no doubt, to make himself a _dictator_, or an absolute despot; and this he cannot accomplish, without, in the first instance, having the support of the church. When sufficiently strong by means of the army, he can then use the church as a part of his machinery. Every thing depends on his success in this war. If he succeeds in repelling the invasion, he will, in all probability, be able to establish his power on a permanent footing of hereditary despotism. To conquer the country, our shortest course is, to deal at once with the church and the great land holders, and make them responsible for their peons; for the proprietors not only own the land, with but few exceptions, but also own the population, just as the Russian noble owns the serfs of his estate. Since the Mexican revolution, the States and territories north and west of the line from Tampico to Mazatlan, and even the States which I have mentioned, directly west of the great river, have been rapidly returning to their original state of barbarism. Contrary to the usual course of things on this continent, the indian tribes have here been, for years, encroaching on the whites, instead of being encroached upon and driven back. In the States of Durango, Chewawa, Sonora, Sinaloa, and in Lower California, the Apaches and Camanches, are continually laying waste, robbing, plundering, and murdering, and each succeeding year, their ravages are becoming more and more extensive. Under the royal government, posts were established every where, troops were kept up, and the inhabitants protected, by pursuing the marauding parties, the only way in which a country can be protected from savages. But they did not arm the inhabitants, and require them to assist in defending themselves. There was no militia, and consequently, when left to themselves, they are perfectly helpless. There could be no greater blessing to them, than to be placed under the protection of the United States. I repeat, that my object is not to encourage a spirit of conquest. In indulging in these speculations, I endeavor to be guided by the spirit of truth.