The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS

TIMES.—The embarrassments of the Mexican
question, though not unexpected, are beginning to
assume unwelcome prominence, and the dilemma, it
must be confessed, is complete enough to disturb
the most prudent of Governments. The Americans
have now brought their civil war to a close, and if
they are burdened with an enormous debt, they have
scarcely yet felt its pressure, and are contemplating
their prospects with characteristic confidence and
unabated energies. They have powerful armies
still on foot, conducted by able and successful
generals ' • their navy is still formidable, and all the
means of campaigning exist in readiness and abun-
dance. Under these circumstances they are left to
consider a kind of national challenge, given at a time
when they were unable to attend to it, but still dis-
played openly before them and the world. The
Emperor of the French, in organising and effecting
the conquest of Mexico, set the famous Monroe Do-
ctrine at defiance. He did what the Americans had
declared no European Power should ever be per-
mitted to do. He established a monarchical Govern-
ment under the protectorate of France upon the
American continent, and he holds his ground with as
much success and as hopeful a prospect as such an
enterprise admitted. Mexico is actually an empire
ruled by a European Sovereign, supported by
European bayonets. The Americans must either
let all this pass, or they must resent it at the cost
of war, and the perplexities of the alternative may
be inferred from the contradictory reports which
have recently reached us. In one part of our in-
telligence yesterday it was stated that the Ameri-
cans would almost certainly fight ; 'in another, and
that happily the latest, it is authoritatively an-
nounced that the army on which this fighting would
have devolved is to be immediately disbanded. We
should hail such a decision with unalloyed satisfac-
tion, but it is probable nevertheless that the question
is rather suspended than resolved. The Ameri-
cans cannot fail to draw encouragement from the
notorious difficulties of the case itself. They know
full well that France has got a bad bargain, and that
Frenchmen are perfectly alive to the fact. France
would not only have to fight the United States at a
great disadvantage, but she would be fighting for
a prize held in no kind of esteem. For once, war
and conquest have proved unpopular in France, and
there is scarcely a party or class in the State which
does not regard the Mexican expedition with strong
dislike. Nor is the Emperor himself at all insensible
to the charges and risks of the enterprise. It has
cost him much as it stands, and has returned very
little ; add an American war to the account, and the
result would be alarming. Naturally, therefore,
the Americans imagine that a time must come when
a decided word quietly spoken by their Government
would induce the Emperor to take a step, which,
after all, would be taken in his own interest and to
the certain satisfaction of his subjects. Of such ex-
pectations a temporising policy is the natural result.
At present any decisive action would only end in
war, for the Emperor has said as 'much, and war the
Americans are not disposed to provoke. So they
reserve the question, in hopes that time and events
may bring about a more acceptable solution. This
is prudent policy—mere prudent even than It appears,
for not only may it be reasonably doubted whether
a time is even in prospect at which it would be for
the advantage of the Americans to relieve the French
of their conquest, but it is questionable whether
Mexico would be worth their having even without
the war which it would cost. Their intestine con-
flict is over, but as yet there has been no political
reconciliation. The South has abandoned its hopes
of national independence and its attempts at mili-
tary rivalry, but it has resumed with singular bold-
ness its political antagonism. The restoration of the
Union proceeds with a greater fidelity to the origi-
nal than anybody had anticipated. The recon-
structed South will, to all appearance, be precisely the
South of former days—just as hostile to the North,
just as unsympathetic and discordant as before. The
annexation of Mexico would simply be the addition
of so much weight to the Southern element in the
Union—of so much power to the Southern party
in politics. It must be understood, too, that inter-
vention necessarily means annexation and nothing
else. If the Americans were to dislodge the French
from Mexico, they must step into the vacancy
created. Upon that point there is no question.
None know better than the Americans theniselves
that the Mexicans are incapable of self-government,
and that what was projected by an alliance of
European Powers, accepted by all as a necessity,
and finally accomplished by France, was a proceed-
ing absolutely inevitable at some time or other. It
is sheer absurdity to think of " Mexico for the
Mexicans," or to imagine any practicable party of
natives or patriots. The Republic of Mexico had
become a hopeless and insufferable nuisance. 'The
Americans expected in good time to abate it them-
selves, but the impatience of the world became too
strong for them, and while they were otherwise
occupied the work was undertaken by France. H
they were now to relieve France of the duty, it would
be for the sake merely of a speculative principle, and
at the cost of troubles, even apart from war, more
serious than those now weighing on the French.
France at any rate suffers no political or adminis-
trative embarrassment from her Mexican enterprise.
It is a costly and unremunerative investment, but
that is all. In American hands it might prove a
national calamity. So long as Mexico is reorganised
upon the model of civilised States, it signifies little
to whose hands the work is committed. From a
European point of view the difference between French
and American agency in the matter is not important,
but as the enterprise was a most ungrateful one,
and by no means easy, we should certainly regret to
see it impeded in the present stage of its progress.
The Emperor of the French has now achieved con-
siderable success in substituting the responsibilities
of a regular Government for the hopeless anarchy
and rampant brigandage into which Mexican life
had been resolved. Nor is it doubted that this
success will be gradually completed. Throughout
the United States it is confessed that unless the
Government of Washington interferes, an effective
and permanent Government will be consolidated
in Mexico under the sceptre of Maximilian, and
this obvious prospect is alleged as an argument for
immediate intervention. We should be sorry to see
such advantages destroyed. The duty is not a duty
which the Americans need covet. It is not much
relished by those who perform it, and nothing but a
principle as abstract as the Monroe Doctrine itself
would induce them to defend by arms their title to
the burden. It would be a hard thing to fight for a
loss, and yet that would be the condition of a war for
Mexico. Such a case haddbetter be left as it stands.
To the Americans even the mineral wealth of Mexico
would be so much superfluity. They possess already
in their unexplored and uninhabited. territories such
mines of riches as almost surpass calculation. Mexico
could add nothing to all this, but it could take a
great deal away. It promises little good to any-
body, but Maximilian, by the aid of his friends, is
making the best of the bargain, and has got the
worst of it over. If the Americans were now to
undo what has been done, and recommence the
work themselves, they would probably he the first
to acknowledge thatl the Monroe Doctrine had been
maintained at a cost out of all proportion to its
essential value.

HERALD.—How to lay the Atlantic telegraph
cable, and how to stop the cattle plague, are two
knotty problems 'which occupy a considerable share
of public attention at the present time. As usual,
under the pressure of exciting circumstances, there
is abundance of advice ; but the practical value of
the several prescriptions does not readily appear. In
regard to the cattle plague, everybody feels that
something ought to be done, for to lose our chops,
steaks, and prime joints is a contingency not to be
endured. In justice to the farmers and graziers
it must be admitted that they have shown a
very commendable alacrity in organising themselves
on a system of defence and mutual assistance.
The land-owning interest also displays a disposi-
tion to come forward and aid the tenant farmers
in their struggles against the devouring murrain.
The times are getting rather hard for John
Bull. The sturdy Briton looks up at the weeping
skies and longs for a dry day to carry his corn.
While thinking about his loaf he is reminded of
his beef. A potato blight is bad enough, but an
infectious typhoid fever among the ox tribe is even
worse. There is something the matter with the
milk jug, and there is a story of some inhuman ex-
perimentalist who tested the character of the lacteal
supply by dosing a kitten with milk until the un-
happy little animal died as effectually as if ithad
been poisoned. It is an essential feature of the
cattle plague that it directly tends to increase the
expense of house-keeping. Our advertising columns
lately contained an announcement that sundry cow-
keepers and dairyrnHenhasdtehaed,
held
and unanimouslyameeting atthe
Britannia Tavern, Hampstead,
resolved " that in consequence of the great loss of
stock from disease and the high price of provisions"
the price of milk should be advanced to sd. per
quart. Dear milk doubtless means dear butter and
dear cheese ; but the London dairymen appear to
think that as provisions in general have gone up in
price
milk ought not to be an exception. Butter is
already outrageously dear, and as for milk, the
annual deficiency of the rainfall, the disappearance
of parishes pumps, and the peril which besets the
metropolitan water supply owing to the neglected .
state of the Thames above Staines, may suggest the
possibility that even milk-and-water will become a
luxury for the rich rather than an article of diet for
the poor. It is not within our province to calculate
how much water goes to the composition of a pail
of milk ; it is enough for us to know that the milk
of commerce—as the chemists would say—is hence-
forth to be sd. per quart. The resolution fails to
specify anything about " further notice," so we

presume that the days of fourpenny milk are for
ever gone. England without beef is a picture of
desolation which we dare not contemplate. Philo-
sophers already speculate on the consequences of the
physique and morale of the nation to be apprehended
from a deficiency of animal food. A rise in the
price of beef, also, has an influence on all the ele-
ments of our national dietary. It is equivalent, in
fact, to a further depreciation in the value of gold.
If all our cattle were of home growth this would be
of less consequence, for while our currency declined
in value our stock would rise. But we are import-
ing eattle to an extent which tells us that what we
pay for meat goes very largely into the pocket of
the foreigner. As a great meat-eating people we
are drawing our dinners from all Europe, and not
merely from our own pastures. We have at length
gone as far as Russia, and from that empire we
are said to have brought the taint which
now threatens our herds with sickness and
death. It is difficult, however, to trace the actual
connection between the disease which exists in Russia
and that which is now beginning to afflict our own
country. No cattle suffering from the steppe mur-
rain have been detected among the importations
received on our own shores, and where the disease
distinctly shows itself among our cowsheds and pas-
tures it seems to have a preference for the English
stock. So far as rigid proof is concerned the foreign
salesmen have rather the best of the argument. Nor
is it easy to conceive that the malady can continue
latent in the foreign cattle during the whole period
of their transit from Russia to England, only to be
manifested after the animals are fairly mingled with
the English stock. There is an unquestionable
mystery in the propagation of this ruinous disease,
and the positive language of Professor Gamgee does
not make the matter any clearer, however satisfac-
tory it may be to his own mind to disdain all argu-
ment with those who may dispute his dictum. The
ascertained facts are these—that the murrain which
has killed so large a proportion of the London dairy
cows corresponds in its symptoms and fatality with
the well-known murrain of the Russian and Hun-
garian steppes. This disease is not indigenous to
our clime, and although presentin England from
1745 to 1757, was then traced to the importation of
some Dutch calves, and by rigorous measures was
at length extirpated. From that time to this we
appear to have been free from it. How then does
it come among us at the present time, after so long
an interval ? Bearing in mind that the disease is
essentially foreign in its character it is reasonable to
conclude that it comes to us from abroad. But how
does it come to us if we cannot trace the disease in
the animals which are landed at our ports ? May it
be that cattle not themselves diseased are yet able
to transmit the infection ? For instance, it is said
in regard to our own English stock that sheep which
do not themselves imbibe the disease are yet able to
communicate from one herd of cows to another. If
a cattle-truck may carry infection, much more may
cattle and sheep. Is it not, also, a generally
received principle that a contagious disease will
often rage with peculiar violence in a new area?
Where a disease has raged before it seems to
have less power for further mischief. Hence our
home stock may take the virus when the more
seasoned foreigners are able to resist it. We do
not pretend to speak with certainty as to the
actual mode in which the murrain propagates itself.
Neither do we think that even the most -learned
professors of the veterinary art are as yet so fami-
liar with this curious bovine disease as to be entitled
to decide authoritatively concerning it. Professor
Symonds, indeed, has spoken with some reservation
on the subject. He declares the disease to belong
specially to Russia, Austria, and the Danubian pro-
vinces. Westward of this region the complaint is
never known, except as conveyed thither by cattle
already diseased, or possessing the complaint in the
stage of incubation. Sanitary regulations almost
forbid the idea of the former method, and the incu-
bation theory alone remains to account for the occa-
sional appearance of the disease beyond its proper
line, unless the theory of transmission by infection
be adopted. We are surprised that Professor Sy-
monds did not refer more distinctly to this latter
hypothesis, for, after acknowledging that the pre-
cise mode by which the disease propagated itself was
" a knotty point," he went on to say that sheep
transferred from an unhealthy to a healthy herd
would convey the contagion as surely as the diseased
cows themselves—a fact which. fully harmonises
with all that is said as to the danger of infected
sheds, trucks, and roadways. Our columns tell
from 'lay to day the lamentable spread of this dis-
ease, and although extensive districts are yet un-
affected by it, the scourge is making itself felt from
the coast of Devonshire to the heart of Scotland.
Fresh orders in council make their appearance, and
England and Wales are placed under a sort of
epizootic interdict. Great meetings of the agricul-
tural interest are being held in our county and
market towns, large subscriptions are being raised
to provide compensation for slaughtered and buried
beasts, veterinary inspectors are being appointed
wherever the disease shows itself, measures of iso-
lation and extermination are both propounded and
acted upon, and the principal remaining question is
in reference to the importation of foreign stock. On
this latter point a correspondent in our columns to-
day offers some special suggestions, while in another
communication will be found some professional ad-
vice as to the treatment of diseased cattle. If the
murrain be not in the nature of an epidemic, sweep-
ing through the atmosphere, and striking, like the
lightning flash, unawares, it may be hoped that the
rigorous precautions which are now being adopted
will prove sufficient for the purpose. No doubt
there will be great loss, even at the best ; but it is
one thing to let the disease run riot through the
country, and another to keep it within the nar-
rowest bounds which prudence and energy can
command.