The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-26 00:00:00

vanquished in detail by Yankee emigrants, or driven
to a corner by a Yankee army, is even more out of
the question. He must hold Mexico for the present,
if he have to send a hundred thousand men there
and incur a debt of a hundred millions. What, he
will do will probably be to attempt to gain time,
with the view, perhaps, of ultimately abandoning the
new empire in such a way as to save his honour. If
the United States Government can be induced to
declare its resolution to remain perfectly neutral on
the Mexican question—as it might possibly bein-
duced to do upon certain assurances—short work
might be made of Juarez and his few remaining
supporters, and the empire formally established over
the whole country, the French troops might be
withdrawn, and the new Emperor might be left to
himself and his foreign legions. After a decentin-
terval the other part of the arrangement might be
carried out. France could not, of course, guarantee
the new Emperor against the consequences of quarrels
with his neighbours. The United States could very
easily pick a quarrel with him, and the short-lived
empire thus fall into the American Union without
the slightest reproach upon France, whose interests
would be regarded by a recognition of the debt
due to her by Mexico for the attempt at regenera-
tion. That would be a very inglorious and con-
temptible ending (A the providential mission of
France in America, but it would be quite of a
piece with the inglorious policy which the French,
like the English, Government has pursued on
this American question. The turn of France
comes first. Ours will soon follow. We have more
at stake, and unless Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, and
the Duke of Argyll become our triumvirs, we shall
fight, and no doubt win, but the cost will be tremen-
dous. We shall preserve our colonies, and maintain
our honour, but we shall have to spend thousands of
lives and millions of pounds to do so, whereas via
had the chance of securing both for ever at a risk of
the most trifling kind. The first fruits of the triumph
of the North are bad enough. Mexico, the prey for
40 years of constant anarchy, had a bright future
before it. Order was re-established. Security
against foreign enemies and internal peace invited
the capital and energy of Europe to develope its rich
resources and increase the common stock of human
enjoyments. It is arrested at the very outset of the
career that promised so brightly. The mere dread
of Yankee interference has sufficed to rekindle dis-
order and frighten away capital. For years the Em-
peror, assuming that he is able to maintain himself
upon his throne, will be unable to devote all his
energies, as he had hoped, to the improvement
,of
his country, the development of its wealth, and tile
promotion of his people's happiness. He will have
to give all his thought to its defence against its
powerful neighbour, to the suppression of the revolts
that neighbour will foment, or to avoid the quarrels
it will try to fasten on him. In the more probable
case, that, left in the lurch by France, he is van-
quished by Juarez and his allies, Mexico will be
handed over again in almost its whole extent to the
anarchy from which it has just been lifted. The
emigrants may colonise Sonora and the adjoining
states, the United States may annex them, but the
rest of the country would be left to the old factions,
;c1 the old system of murder and extortion.