The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-11 00:00:00

TRANSATLANTIC AFFAIRS.

The Tinto informs its renders of what it conceives to be
the nature of the great political contest for which the
people of the United States are preparing--observing
parenthetically that the instance of America is a proof
that democratic government is no security against
political animosities. According to the view of the Times
the American radicals are pushing forward to a centralisa-
tion of government which would remove any checks at
present existing on the absolutism of popular will, and the
American conservatives are desirous of retaining these ob-
stacles to the tyrannical power of numbers. The demo-
cratic party are seeking to recal their allies of the South
in order to restore the democratic ascendancy, but the
republicans have advantages of their own in the conflict-
The fact that it we. they and they only who brought the
civil war to a triumphant issue naturally gives them
favour and influence. They seem to rely, too, upon
the support as a political reserve of a large mass
of Americans who side actively with neither
pa.-ty. They have, moreover, a perfect organisation
though the President is on the other side, and they hold
in strength the positions from which the new party must
dislodge them. The contest, therefore, is expected to be
long and desperate, and the issue is so doubtful that no
politician will venture to predict it.
The Daily News says the Mexican problem has been
simplified to this, namely, how to get the Emperor safe back
to Europe—how to evade the capture which some ardent
nationalists threaten him with. In proportion, however,
as the question of the Mexican empire narrows simply to a
personal interest, that of Mexico itself grows in import-
ance. An abdication in favour of the young Iturbide
would have no political value. The settlement most
natural and beneficial would be the accession of Juarez
to the headship of affairs, but Maximilian and the French
h see plunged the country into financial embarrassments of
unprecedented magnitude, such as are altogether beyond
the means of the people ; and whoever succeeds Maximi-
lian will have foreign as well as domestic difficulties, arising
out of the residence of French, Belgians, and Austrians
and the pecuniary obligations of the Mexican treasury, to
France to contend with. The prospect is not a cheerful

one, but whatever hope it contains gleams forth from the
national spirit which has been evoked in resistance to
foreign aggression. If General Juarez can turn this to
socount, and make it the regenerating element of the na-
tional character, he will deserve to be esteemed the second
founder of the Mexican Republic.
The Telegraph sees much significance in the introduc-
tion of the Juarist envoy to President Johnson, and in
the language which was used by General Grant.
Each such compliment is not merely a warning to Maxi-
milian, but a covert threat to France, which supports him.
According to the Telegraph the Emperor Napoleon de-
served thanks from every friend of civilisation and hu-
manity for sending his troops to put down the Mexican
republic, but the event has proved that he miscalculated
the difficulties of the enterprise.