The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-19 00:00:00

BRITANNIA.

Tito, EraNtNO, THE TICKET Ilk LEAVE.—TILE GREAT
1.110-r ScaN at from PIIE ANGEL OF rEAcc AND PARDON.
Ft) Pr..l,asor Pepper and Mr. ()trek., —Mepars. Parker and Ran-
dall.—Aud OLD HOOEY. THE BAKER OF BISHOPSGATE.

RIGLI Nat A r ktILIDGE.
11114 DAY Morale*, 4h 4len. . Arkemons, 4h. MTh.
10-moiutOw—Marning, 51. 145... Aftereoca. bh. 33

LONDON, IVEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19.

RECENT accounts from the City of Mexico bring
glowing reports of the progress of civilization, as
imported by French bayonets. Marshal Foasv
had " sequestrated " the property of all persona
in arms for the defence of their country; bad es-
tablished the freedom of the press so completely
that no outward difference of opinion could pos-
sibly prevail BAIA° the rights of the conquerors ;
bad constituted a Provisional Government and an
Assembly of Notables ; had assumed the Minis-
try of War ; declared a blockade of the ports still
held by the " enemy ; " formed a force of
" counter-guerillas ;" and last, but not least,
given a grand ball, at which any lurking pa-
triotism in the breasts of the ladies of the capital
succumbed to the fascinations of their gallant en-
slavers, though we may hope and believe the cap-
turers were captured. The City of Mexico at the
present hour is a transplanted Paris—organised, ad •
ministered, policed, and " muted," drilled, danced,
and decreed, into order, stability, and raptures. Only
one thing seems to be wanting as yet to this
Paradise Regained, and that is the Opera
Coinigor, which, as all the world knows, it is the
mission of France to carry round the world. As
VOLTAIRE used to say, when they were breaking
heretics ou the wheel in the provinces, " these
" people are the leaders of civilization ; for
have they not the OpEra Cantigile at Paris?"

There is no reason to doubt that in Mexico, as
in every other country under similar circum-
stances, a large number of substantial citizens
whose fortunes rise and fall with every variation
in the political barometer, regard the French '
advent as large classes of respectable Frenchmen
regarded the advent of the Allies in 1815, ,
with a feeling warmer than complacency. I
In every country long agitated by revolutions
there are plenty of good easy patriots who would
accept peace and quiet at any price, front any
bands, even at the cost of independence. Who
will pretend that within half -an-hour's walk of this
office there is not to be found the raw material of
an English Council of "Notables," if a FOREY
should come over to deliver us from evil speaking,.
The French funds rose after an immense national
disaster, and when " order "is again restored in
Poland the French and English funds will rise
together. Let us not be misunderstood. We are
not comparing great European monarchies with
an American Republic. It is not to be denied
that the condition of Mexico, convulsed with
never-ending intestine struggles, torn by cruel
factions, and preyed upon by semi-savage poli-
tical adventurers, was deplorable enough
to make even Spanish rule regretted, to hold out a
continual pretext and provocation to foreign
rapacity, to disgrace and imperil the canoe of
those institutions which were called into existence
in the New World to redress the balance of the Old.
If, to purge such a flagrant nuisance and such
an injury to the largest commercial interests, •
European invasion was indispensable, a French
invasion was probably in many respects the most
indulgent and most effective remedy. For the
Zouave or the Chasseur may be a tiger in pursuit
of • marshal's baton on the field of battle, but he
becomes • ben enfant, a gay deceiver, perhaps, but
ever courteous and aimable, as the uninvited guest
of the city he "occupies." All visitors to Rome
speak in high terms of the forbearing politeness of
the French army ; and even in the great Napoleonic
wars the braves who carried off the pictures and
the plate never failed to leave good works behind
them in the shape of roads, and bridges, and civil
codes. NAPOLEON the THIRD'S fifteen thousand
apostles of humanity, or what remains of them
after the summer solstice, will probably make
themselves useful to the Mexicans, and certainly
agreeable. But can the good behaviour of French
soldiers remove the original stigma of a war
upon a weak people begun in defiance of a formal
convention, and in contempt of solemn promises,
and carried out with that mingled tritlence and
perfidy the manifest success of which, aided and
abetted by the cowardice or complicity of contem-
porary statesmen, is still the wonder and delight
of the age we have the happiness to live in ?

Now, we would assure excited correspondents,
who ingenuously hope to find themselves in
the condition of residuary legatees of the French
" Financial Commissioners" in Mexico, that the fact,
which none will dispute, that a French Protectorate
is preferable so anarchy, makes it none the less
regrettable that the Government of Mexico,
which Marshal FOREY takes credit for replacing
by atrocious criminals and furious bigots,
was more moderate, liberal, and respectable
than any of its predecessors; that its public acts
were at least consistent with the principles
of 'B9, which the French EMPEROR is for ever
invoking, and that its most flagrant abuses were in-
herited. But the qualities which should have saved
were destined to condemn the late Mexican Passe-
DENT in the sight of a devout protectreasof the Pops.
Desperate speculators may deem it a great advan-
tage to the world that the Empress Euczivez has
called a new rose " Vera Cruz," and a river yacht
" Puebla ;" that new scenes and personages have
succeeded to the Emperors of AUSTRIA and CHINA
in the military pantomimes of the Pari-
sian stage, and that the loyal cantatas
on the Sr. NAPOLEON were furnished with
new themes of glory and bombast. But
simple people of less " sober minds" will ask
with some uneasiness where the next victim for
the theatrical sacrifices of the Cirque Napoleon is
to be found, and what weak State or defenceless
people is to supply the theme for the cantatas on
the 15th of August next—and next? For nothing
is more evident than that it is becoming more and
a necessity to the Second Empire that a French
army should be always making havoc and " &yang-
" iug peopled' (Sy cutting them to pieces) some-
where In the world. Another quation that occurs

to more "sober minds" is, under what guarantees the
Archduke MAXIMILIAN would think himself justi-
fied in humiliating his country and his house by
accepting the gift of a Mexican crown from the
Sovereign who dragged Austria in triumph, and made
her army a raree-show for the populace of Paris,
and from the Notables whom a French Marshal
scrapes together among the jobbers of a cowering
city. Most certainly no responsible Government
of England will ever concur in guaranteeing to any
untrian Archduke who should consent to be the
I ~.-ateful dupe of a NAPOLEON'S benevolence the
throne of Mexico against a league of American
Republics, or against the " manifest destiny" of the
Anglo-Saxon race. And, failing England, will the,
future Sovereign of Mexico turn to Spain for a
guarantee ? Or will he insist on the perpetual
guarantee of an army of French mercenaries?
From Austria he will not get a man or a dollar.
When the new Corps lAgialatif meets in Novem-
ber, the Maxican theme will have to be discussed,
as above all a French question ; for Poland will
have looked in vain for succour to the heir of that
EMPEROR for whom she shed her best and bravest
blood in torrents, and the Ruler of France will
have seized Mexico as a sop to an Austrian Arch-
duke only to find that, having sown bad faith
broadcast, he has reaped a splendid harvest of
distrust.