The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The Crown of Mexico has been offered
to the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, and the
proverbial fortune of the Hapsburg family may be
illustrated, perhaps, by the union of two Empires in
one House. With the establishment of the new
State we have only such concern as necessarily at-
taches to the abatement of a political nuisance and
the substitution of an organised and responsible
Power. With the motives of the French in this
arrangement we have no desire to quarrel ; with the
interests of Austria it is not our basieess to meddle.
But there is a question involved in the transaction
which, though familiar enough already to a large
class of readers, should by no means be left without
notice at this stage of affairs. A certain State, in-
habited by an independent nation and known for
about 40 years as a Sovereign Republic, has been
invaded by the armies of the French Empire,
and after an obstinate resistance has been so far
conquered that the invaders are in possession of its
capital, and are there superintending the recon-
struction of the country and the erection of the
Government now under consideration. It is not
very surprising that such an expedition should be
represented as an attack upon the liberties of a peo-
ple and a violation of public law. That the armies
of a great European Sovereign should cross the
Atlantic, disembark on the shores of the New World,
dethrone the rulers of an independent State, change
its form of Government, and offer the dominion to a
stranger, is certainly a proceeding requiring con-
siderable justification in the present century. A con-
quest of Mexico in these days must be based upon
principles very different from those which were
thought sufficient in the times of Cortez and Pizarro.
Before, therefore, the consummation is actually pro-
claimed we may venture on recalling to the public
mind the incidents of the story which is thus to be
concluded. We can have no hesitation in asserting
that the Republic of Mexico has deserved its doom ;
that its rights were forfeited; that, whatever may
be the end of the affair, the Mexicans have no com-
plaint against France, and no title to the sympathies
of Europe. So notorious, indeed, are these facts that
they have been universally accepted on both sides of
the Atlantic, though France has been left by the
course of events to act upon them alone. It is of much
importance that this should be remembered. Strictly
speaking, the French army, though composed exclu
sively ofFrench soldiers, did but represent what are
called "troops of execution" in the administration
of Confederate Germany. The sentence of Europe
had gone forth against Mexico, and she was put
under the ban of Christendom. As regarded the ac-
tual judgment on her offences, England and Spain
were not only of one accord with France, but were
originally engaged even in the execution of the sen
tense. When we contributed our quota to the Mexi-
can expedition we placed upon record our opinion of
the case, though when it came to the point of action
we shrank from the logical consequences of our de-
cision. It was perfectly plain when the allied squa-
drons sailed for Vera Cruz that some such result as
is now witnessed must be the end of the enterprise,
if the enterprise was to have any practical end at
all. We understood this well enough, but we pre-
ferred to leave our objects unaccomplished rather
than ace 'mplish them at the necessary cost. Spain
understood it equally well, and was fully prepared
to go through with the design as France has done,
but withdrew when she discovered that the work
could only be effected in partnership. France,
therefore, was left alone in the affair, with a mono-
poly of the profit and loss together. Had she done
as we did, she would perhaps have displayed more
commercial wisdom ; but in that case the spectacle
would have been offered to the world of three great
Powers showing their teeth against a small culprit,
after outrageous provocation, but declining to bite
when the necessity arrived. Nor should we omit
to add that the estimate of Mexican deserts was
precisely the same in America as in Europe. The
Government of the United States never made the
least secret of its opinions on this point, or of its
policy either. Its design was to let Mexico " drink
the cup of anarchy to the very dregs," until at last
the State should become an utter wreck and leave
its great neighbour the benefit of salvage. That
the Mexicans had completely and hopelesvly failed
in the attempt at self-government, and that their
country must fall into the hands of some stronger
Power, were propositions accepted as beyond dis-
pute. 'What France has done it was competent to
any one of half-a-dozen Powers to do. These Mexi-
cans, in their anarchy, had not only effaced all ves-
tiges of civil order among themselves, but had pro-
ceeded to the most intolerable outrages upon the
subjects of foreign States. There was a case of war
against them at any moment. They not only de-
frauded others of their just dues, but they plundered
and murdered the unhappy residents in their country
without fear of consequences. Their chiefs had less
respect for the usages of civilization than New Zea-
land savages. It is not long ago that one of these bri-
gands,
being then actually ruler of Alexico,broke open
the house of the British Legation, and stole from it
upwards of £lOO,OOO which had been deposited
there under the presumed protection of the British
flag. To talk of such people as heads of political
pat ties is absurd. If ever there were such parties
in Mexico, they have long since given way to mere
factions of brigands with their rank and file of
cutthroats. Probably there was once a contest be-
tween the old Conservative element preserved in
the Church, and the new Liberal element created
by the success of the Revolution. though we have
seen it argued that the true origin of the strife was
in the conflict between Federalism and centralisa-
tion. But, whatever may have been the first
causes of civil discord, it is clear that they have
long ago vanished, and that no principle whatever
was capable of being established by the success of
any one military leader. We had ceased at last to
take any interest in the vicissitudes of their inter-
minable wars. Whoever was uppermost, the prac-
tical results were the same—anarchy everywhere,
pillage in every great town, rapine and murder
all through the land. We have been told—and it
is the only plea indeed, which the notoriety of the
case admits of--that though all these things bad
undoubtedly been going on all this time, they were
at length coming to an end exactly when we chose
to interfere, and that Juarez, if we had but let him
alone for six months longer, would have inaugu-
rated order in Mexico. There is no answer to a
prophecy, but we can truly say that Mexico was
not called to account precipitately, and that if she
had not quite so much indulgence as she required
she hada great deal more than she could reason-
ably claim. One eonciusion from all this must be
clear—Mexico has no grievance in the eyes of
Europe. By a long series of outrages and by the
dereliction of every public duty she exposed herself
to war, and she has succumbed to a conqueror.
That conqueror has treated her with, at any rate,
a show of consideration and deference. He has in-
vited her notables to dispose of themselves, and,
after their experience of Republican institutions,
it would certainly not be surprising if they sin
cerely desired a Governeuet4 of another form. If
France finds her account in the political
prospects which these arrangements open, we can
only say that she has been at the whole charge of
the proceeding, and that the bargain does not
appear to be extravagantly in her favour. If an
Austrian Archduke chooses to undertake the mis-
sion of regenerating Mexico, we can only wish him
success. It is not conceivable that under any Go•
vernment whatever the Mexicans should fail of
being better ruled than before ; and, if France and
Austria can make Mexico a State in which life and
property are secure, and public obligations respected,
they will certainly-leave Europe and Mexico their
debtors.

PosT.—Mr. Thackeray was, we believe, the first
writer of any note in modern times who took up his
parable against the doctrine that men engaged in
art or literature are entitled to any special exemp-
tion from the business obligations of life. Men like
Steele and Goldsmith, Theodore Hook and Haydon,
Dr. Magin and De Quincey, had so steadily in-
sisted on the fact that between the artistic tempera-
ment and the practice o. a prosaic economy there
exists some eternal incompatibility, that the world
had ceme to think so too; and, although in his
lectures on " English Humorists" the eminent
author we have named did his best to upset this
delusion, yet it still prevails to some extent, and
is likely to be much strengthened by recent revela•
tions in the Court of Bankruptcy. Although we
are not disposed to go quite so far as Mr. Thackeray
in refusing to see any distinction whatever between
the practice of art or literature and that of any of
the more regular professions, yet still it muss be
admitted that many of the pleas put forward on
behalf of iefaulting geniuses, are wholly invalid.
One sometimes hears it said, for instance, that
the precariousness of the income which is derived
from the pen, the pencil, or the stage is one
source of the improvidence with which it is ex-
pended. 'There is, indeed, a certain amount of
truth in this statement, for no writer, painter, or
actor, except the very few who stand quite at
the top of the tree, can make sure of retaining his
hold upon the public so long as any ordinary bar-
ris,er,
surgeon, or physician can depend upon re-
taining his connection. Tne reason is that these
latter professions, although competitive, are not
to competitive as the others. But still, making
all allowance for the few grains of truth which this
view of the subject carries, they are not enough to
outweigh the bread facts that, on the whole, almost
any follower of the pursuits above mentioned, who
is of average merit end industry, can make sure of
bread, and that most of them contrive by some
means to add a little sack to it. Profeesions like the
church, the artily, arid the civil service do not admit
of being compued with any one of the ebeee. In
these, ni,n compound for certeiely of incoms by
surrendering the chance of making large fortune.