"American flag had been torn down." Mr. Squier,
agent of the United States, had previously negotiated
with Honduras for Tigre and other islands in the Bay of
Fonseca, on the Pacific coast, to be ceded to the United
States. We learn also that he had previously taken
possession of Tigre. According to private letters, an
English force has also seized the ports of Truxillo and
Moro. Mr. Squier, it is added, demanded the evacuation
of Tigre in six days, which was refused by Mr.
Chatfield; but the latter agreed to submit the question
to his Government immediately. One letter-writer,
dating from Leon, says that Mr. Chatfield denies the
right of Honduras to sell—denies her national existence
(formerly part of Central America), also of San Salvador
(likewise a part of Central America), and also because
England has a lien upon the islands of Honduras, and
the ports of Moro and Truxillo in San Salvador, in
virtue of loans and claims of British subjects, duly
guaranteed. These claims arose, it is said, prior to
the division of Central America into small republics.
Tigre Island is about 120 or 130 miles west by north
of Lake Nicaragua, and is naturally a point of some
importance in connexion with the projected Nicaragua
Canal, and it therefore acquires great value in American
calculations.

The message of the President of the United States,
on the meeting of Congress, on the 24th of December,
embraces many topics; among which, the relations of
his government with Great Britain is, of course, the
most interesting. On this head, he says:—"Our
relations with Great Britain are of the most friendly
character. In consequence of the recent alteration of
the British navigation acts, British vessels, from British
and other foreign ports, will (under our existing laws),
after the 1st day of January next, be admitted to entry
in our ports, with cargoes of the growth, manufacture,
or production of any part of the world, on the same
terms as to duties, imposts, and charges, as vessels of the
United States with their cargoes; and our vessels will
be admitted to the same advantages in British ports,
entering therein on the same terms as British vessels.
Should no order in Council disturb this legislative
arrangement, the late act of the British Parliament, by
which Great Britain is brought within the terms proposed
by the act of Congress of the 1st of March, 1817, it is
hoped, will be productive of benefit to both countries."
The President expresses his pleasure at the resumption
of diplomatic intercourse with France, after its temporary
interruption. Regarding the dispute between
Denmark and Sleswig-Holstein, he professes the strictest
neutrality. With regard to Germany, the following
passage is remarkable:—"Although a minister of the
United States to the German Empire was appointed by
my predecessor in August, 1848, and has for a long time
been in attendance at Frankfort-on-the-Maine; and
although a minister, appointed to represent that empire,
was received and accredited here, yet no such government
as that of the German empire has been definitely
constituted. Mr. Donnelson, our representative at
Frankfort, remained there several months; in the
expectation that a union of the German states, under
one constitution or form of government, might at length
be organised. It is believed by those well acquainted
with the existing relations between Prussia and the
states of Germany, that no such union can be
permanently established without her co-operation. In the
event of the formation of such an union; and the
organisation of a central power in Germany, of which
she should form a part, it would become necessary to
withdraw our minister at Berlin; but, while Prussia
exists as an independent kingdom, and diplomatic
relations are maintained with her, there can be no
necessity for the continuance of the mission to Frankfort.
I have, therefore, recalled Mr. Donnelson, and
directed the archives of the legation at Frankfort to be
transferred to the American legation at Berlin." The
message earnestly calls the attention of Congress to an
amendment of the existing laws, relating to the African
Slave Trade, with a view to its effectual abolition; and
sketches out the proposed plan for a canal across the
Isthmus of Panama, inviting all nations to co-operate
in this great work.

On the 22nd of December, after sixty-four ballots, the
Honorable Howell Cobb, of Georgia, the democratic
candidate, was elected Speaker of the House of
Representatives.

The Hungarian Refugees have arrived at New York,
where they have been received with great distinction.
Before leaving Europe, Governor Ujhazi, the defender
of Comorn, wrote from London to General Taylor
informing him of the desire of the Hungarian exiles to
find an asylum in the United States. General Taylor
said, in reply:—"The people of this Republic have
deeply sympathised with the Hungarians in their recent
struggle for constitutional freedom, and in the calamities
which have befallen their unhappy land; and I am sure
that I but speak the universal sentiment of my countrymen
in bidding you, and your associates, a cordial
welcome to our soil—the natural asylum of the oppressed
from every clime. We offer you protection and a free
participation in the benefits of our institutions and our
laws; and trust that you may find in America a second
'home.'"

General Cass has given notice in the senate of an
instruction to the Committee on Foreign Relations, to
inquire into "the expediency of suspending diplomatic
relations with the Austrian Government," on account
of her cruel political executions of the Hungarian
patriots. A resolution proposed by Mr. Root, of Ohio,
tending to establish territorial governments in the
Mexican conquests, and prohibiting slavery therein, has
produced a division of 101 to 81; which the Northern
or Wilmot Proviso party deemed a triumph.

The Legislature of the State of Vermont unanimously
voted resolutions expressing readiness to receive the
Canadas into the American Union, provided the step
were effected "without a violation of amicable relations
with the British Government and of the law of nations."

A strange and romantic incident has occurred in the
Boston Lunatic Hospital. A mother and daughter
(emigrants) both became inmates at different dates, and
were placed in the same story of the building, where
they had access to the same hall. They met and recognised
each other, though one had left the other years
ago in Ireland. They had each crossed the ocean,
become residents in New York, and lost all knowledge
of the other's history or fate; both became bereft of
reason, and in a madhouse, surrounded by those who
were hopelessly insane, the child and parent met;
though reason was dethroned, and they were there with
minds diseased, yet nature triumphed over the clouded
intellect, and for a brief moment they conversed on the
land of their birth, and of their separation.

Advices from California to the 16th November have
been received. The new Constitution, of which we
some time since gave the marked features, had been
adopted almost unanimously. The rainy season had set
in; the streams in the mining country were already
much swelled, and large numbers of miners had returned
to the coast for winter quarters. In consequence, there
had been a sudden rise in the cost of provisions, &c.,
and an increase of disease; the cholera, dysentery, and
fever prevailed—though not so fatally as to cause much
alarm. The gold-digging of the year is thought to be
only about equal to that of last year—about 8,000,000
dollars' worth.—A letter from San Francisco says,—
"Walking through the city reminds me of an immense
fair; music issues from every third house, where gambling
is carried on to a frightful extent, ragged looking
fellows staking their 10, 20, or 30 dollars at montem,
and losing them with the utmost coolness.  Women
occasionally may be seen, with handkerchiefs full of
dollars and doubloons, playing with great eagerness."

The rush for California from the United States is
described as being immense. No less than three steamers,
each filled with passengers, left New York for the
golden land a few days before the last mail for England.
Emigration to the Pacific also from New England is
quite active. It is calculated that there are at present
300 ships in the Bay of San Francisco, mostly without
crews; that 500 vessels have sailed from the United
States for California, besides steamers; that these vessels
have conveyed 50,000 passengers; and that 50,000 more
have gone by land, making 100,000 in all.