The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—On the 12th of June, 1864,—just three
years ago this very day—Maximilian of Austria
made his entry into the city of Mexico, and assumed
the government of his new Empire. He is now a
prisoner, and the last news is that he is to be tried
by Court Martial ; but we are not told on what
charge. Juarez, into whose hands he has fallen,
refused to give Mr. Seward any previous assurance
that the captive's life would be spared, but the wishes
of the American Government must have some
weight with the Mexican chief, and will, we trust,
suffice to turn the scale in favour of humanity and
reason. We have no reason to doubt the authen-
ticity of the intelligence at length received of the
circumstances of Maximilian's downfall, and, indeed,
though the successive reports have been conflicting,
the statements themselves have been rather prema-
ture than false. The capture of Queretaro was
announced some days before the place had actually
fallen, but the event was certain, and the question
one of time alone. It was perfectly true that the
Imperial cause had become hopeless, that the ascen-
dancy of the Republicans was established, and that
flight or capture represented the sole alternative
before the unfortunate Maximilian. The informa-
tion since received is not only circumstantial but
precise. On the 15th of last month, the city of
Queretaro, with the whole of the Imperial garrison,
fell into the hands of the Republicans. An outpost
it seems was taken by surprise ; the Imperialists
were thrown into confusion, and at last, after en-
deavouring to effect a retreat, were obliged
to surrender at discretion. Not only the Emperor
Maximilian, but his Generals, Castillo and Mejia,
were, we are told, among the prisoners. No men-
tion is made of Miramou in the despatch, but as he
had been seriously wounded in a sortie from the place
a few days previously it is improbable that he could
have escaped. All the war material, stores, and
munitions of the Imperialists became the spoil of the
conquerors, and the power of the party itself is for
the present at an end. So ends, in short, this
episode of intervention in Mexico. The
French army has been withdrawn, the empire
has collapsed, a Prince of the House of Haps-
burg depends for his life on the clemency of
an Indian soldier, and the anarchy of the country
is more complete than it ever was before. That
the experiment of interference has been a disas-
trous failure cannot be denied, and yet the
least faults were those of the unhappy Prince
who endures the worst of the misfortune. He had
not all the qualities of a great ruler, but his merits
were above the average, and if he had been a miracle
of wisdom and genius it is doubtful if he would have
fared much better. The Mexicans, or rather a large
faction of the Mexicans, would have none of him ex-
cept under coercion, and the United States took care
that the coercion should not be applied. The French
army of occupation sufficed to keep the disaffected
in awe. Juarez himself had given up the game, and
little by little tranquillity and civilisation were
making themselves felt. Then came the interdict
from Washington; the French—that is to say, the
Police—were removed, and Maximilian exchanged a
protected throne for the leadership of a native fac-
tion fighting for power. The fight has gone against
him, and Mexico is now what it was in 1862—per-
haps something worse. Before the European inter-
vention Juarez was President of the Republic—that
is to say, as far as Mexico had any organised Go-
vernment it wasin the hands of the faction of which
Juarez was chief. This man, who is an Indian of
pure blood, bad established for the moment the
superiority of his own party, called the Liberal
party, over that represented by Marquez and Mira-
mon, the allies of Maximilian. It has even been
argued that his success expressed something more
than the temporary ascendancy of a faction, and
that at the time when the French deposed him he
was preparing to put the affairs of Mexico on a bet-
ter and more stable footing. We can only hope that
this may have been true, and that the man into
whose hands the destinies of the country have been
thrown may really prove to be endowed with the
will and the power to govern. So far, however, as
our experience went we had no evidence of such
promise. Our countrymen in Mexico fared little
better under Juarez than under his predeces-
sors, though it may be admitted that he never
proceeded to such extremities of outrage as were
committed by Miramon. It is in his favour at pre-
sent that he represents the triumph of nationality
and independence. It may be supposed, too, that
the defeat of the rival faction, as consummated in
the capture of Queretaro, will Mexican parties
less evenly balanced than formerly, and so invest
the Liberals with greater power. We see already
that the pretensions of Juarez will be disputed, but
if he has prevailed over his ancient rivals, he may
have little, perhaps, to fear from these new com-
petitors. Miramon and Marquez were reputed the
best soldiers in Mexico, and a remnant of European
troops still adhered to the cause of Maximilian.
Juarez, however, has got the better of these enemies,
and his future work will lie with less formidable foes.
We should be willing enough to look at the affairs

of Mexico from a favourable point of view, but it
would be a bad promise of regeneration and amend-
ment if Juarez were to inaugurate his new Presi-
dency by the massacre of helpless prisoners. Such
cruelty could do no possible good even by way of
example. Maximilian is warning enough already.
No European Prince, it may be confidently pre-
sumed, will follow in his footsteps, or seek a throne
for himself in the famous halls of Montezuma. The
Mexicans must settle their own affairs, or, at any
rate, must get assistance from their own side of the
Atlantic. The experiment of European intervention
.was costly and unpopular even before the Americans
decided that it should be hopeless. Nobody will go
to Mexico again. The warning to intruders is suffi-
cient, and Juarez could add nothing to its force by
vindictive cruelties. The " Latin race," who do not
exceed in numbers the population of an English city,
must look to their own destinies, and settle them-
selves, if they can, under the Government of a
native Indian. At any rate, Europe will meddle
with them no more. What the Unite I States will
do remains to bo seen. They have forbidden—not,
we must admit, against expectation--the civilising
agency of a foreign Power, an agency which would
at least have given Mexico an organise Govern-
ment, though under monarchical institutions.
Mexico has now, as it will have been seen from
the style of the despatches published yesterday, a
purely republican Government, but it exists in style
only. Practically there is no Government in
Mexico at all, and the Empire of 1864 has disap-
peared only to make room for the anarchy of 1862.
TIIE " WEST3IINSTER GAZETTE" ON MR. MILL
AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.—Eminence has many
drawbacks. Intellectual eminence has drawbacks
of a very special character. In days when locomo-
tion is so easy, and when communication of every
sort is so rapid, it is at times an uncomfortable thing
to be a great man in any line, but a very positive
disadvantage to be considered a great thinker. In
the good old times, when the production and pub-
lication of works was slow, when the capital of
Scotland was at least three good days' journey
from town, and when the world generally was
slower than at present, a man had time to condense
and mature his thoughts. He was not always to be
got at ; the difficulties and inconveniences of moving
great distances gave a man some excuse for holding
his tongue. To-day, no such excuse exists. A man
may make his speech in the House one evening and
be in the far North the next, lecturing the students
of an university about their position, advantages,
and duties. The custom of exacting a speech from
prominently intellectual men, upon whom some
honorary distinction has been conferred, may be a
pleasant one for the listeners ; but it must fre-
quently be a very irksome one for the speaker.
A man cannot, on all such occasions, be expected
to do full justice to his real or supposed powers.
Mr. Mill has the good or ill-fortune to occupy
a very prominent position as a thinker in the eyes.
of his countrymen. His is, we cannot help think-
ing, an instance of the position we have laid
down. His remarks, however, to the students of
St. Andrew's, may be regarded as an essay rather
than an off-hand speech. Mr. Mill does not seem
to have looked upon their custom of exacting a
speech from their Rector as a provoking one, for
he calls it a " highly commendable usage." His
aim, according to his own statement, was to " travel
with them over the whole range of the materials
and training which an university supplies as a pre-
paration for the higher uses of life." The immense
scope of Mr. Mill's subject seems to have stood in
the way of any successful treatment. It was alto-
gether too bulky. There are portions of this essay
in which Mr. Mill lays down his views with em-
phatic distinctness and concision ; there are others in
which his arguments and even his meaning arc
hazy. At one time he condenses apparently vital
principles in such a manner as to remind one of
the trite brevis esse laboro, obscures
,fio ; at another
he unaccountably amplifies undeniable truths, the
simple statement of which would have been quite
sufficient. Stated briefly, the contents of the essay
of the Member for Westminster are : I.—A Sum-
mary of the Scotch University Studies ; IL—A
Word in favour of the combination of Literary and.
Scientific Education ; lll.—The Function of the
Study of Languages in Education • IV.—The Func-
tion of Mathematical Studies ; V.—The Function
of Logic ; Vl.—The Function of Physiology and
Psychology ; VlL—The Function of History, Poli-
tical Economy, and International Law ; VIII.—The
Function of Theology. Mr. Mill's essay is, there-
fore, in outline, exhaustive of the whole subject of
intellectual and moral education. With regard to
the first point it is noticeable that the Rector eulo-
gises freely the plan of Scotch university studies
to the disparagement of those pursued south of the
Tweed. In this estimate he probably had in view
the more utilitarian notion of high education ob-
taining in Scotland. The students of St. Andrews
were not, we surmise, unwilling listeners to this
portion of his address. In discussing the function
of linguistic studies in an education, the Rector
speaks plainly and decisively. Whilst stigmatiz-
ing the enormous waste of precious youthful
energy on the mere mechanical labour of making
Latin or Greek verses, he stands up for the study
of the classical languages as being, from the intri-
cacy of their form, and the perfection of their logical
construction, the greatest helps in developing the
mental faculties of analysis and combination. On
his road, he summarily touches the necessity of
French, and the desirableness of German, not so
much as aids to intellectual proficiency, as a com-
pliment to education itself. Mr. Mill thinks a
few months spent in any particular country will
give a man a better knowledge of the language
than as many years study of them at home. We
take the liberty of challenging this statement. If
Mr. Mill means to say that for a few of the pur-
poses of daily life a man will get a more available
stock of common-place French or German by living
n France or Germany twelve months, than he will,
by studying either of these languages twelve years
at home, we agree with him. But he appears to
us quite wrong in supposing that such attainments
are' at all scholar-like. It is common abroad to find
waiters at hotels who speak fluently four or five
languages for the purposes of their calling, but who
have no notion whatever of their construction. We
think that what Mr. Mill advocates is generally
found to produce shallowness and flippancy. The
knowledge of a language is one thing—the power
of speaking a language is quite another. There
are many scholars in this country much more con-
versant with the construction and literature of the
German, Italian, and French languages than the
majority of the natives of those countries, who still
find themselves at a loss to express the simplest
ideas in them. To have a scientific knowledge of
a language is one thing ; to make that language
available in speaking is another ; and we cannot
help feeling that the really superior man is the
scientific master of a language. Mr. Mill very
properly distinguishes between the study of the
classical languages and classical literature. The

former develops the analytical powers of the mind ;
but Mr. Mill discovers advantages much more de-
cisive in the study of " classical literature." He

lays it down that -the ancients have accumulated
an untold treasure of what may be called " The
wisdom of life ;' the rich store of experience of
human nature and conduct, which the acute and
observing minds of those ages, aided in their obser-
vations by the greater simplicity of manners and
life, consigned to their writings, and most of which
retains all its value." The vagueness of what Mr.
Mill calls " the wisdom of life " is obvious. How-

ever, he gives us a little further on some sort of
explanation. Having enumerated several of the
great writers of antiquity, he says their works are
" replete with remarks and maxims of singular good
sense and penetration, applicable both to political
and private life ; and the actual truths we find
in them are surpassed in value by the encourage-
ment and help they give us in the pursuit of truth."
Mr. Mill here leaves the first portion of his state-
ment, and dismisses curtly " the wisdom of life,"
to take up the " stimulation and discipline to in-
tellect" that may be gained from the authors in
question. Mr. Mill has only stated one side of a
truth. No one will think of denying that in the
ancients may be found a repertory of profound,
social, and political maxims ; but, at the same
time, Mr. Mill must know that in some of the
authors given will be found a great deal more. He
must know that the student cannot fail to see that
most of their eloquent treatises were merely abstrac-
tions ; that they represented ideal excellences which
the ancients personally never aimed at ; that they
were in the strictest sense " mere speculations ;"-
and that in some of the writers named—Horace,
for instance—the author himself practised a very
curious "wisdom of life." All the teaching that
can be got from these men is purely Pagan • and,
as we hope to show later, requires, if students are
to appreciate it at its due worth, and conic from
its study unhurt, much more than Mr. Mill ever
dreamt of suggesting. One of the main results of
studying the ancients is, accordino. to Mr. Mill,
the disposition and resolve engendered " to ques-
tion all things ; to accept no doctrine, either from
ourselves or from other people, without a rigid
scrutiny by negative criticism." He then says—
" With all this vigorous management of the nega-
tive element, they inspire no scepticism about
the reality of truth." Only just as much scepticism,
we suppose, as will hold the mind in universal
doubt—not " as to the existence of truth," because
the denial of its absolute existence would be non-
sense, but as to its whereabouts—until the inquir-
ing student shall have settled that he has found it,
or shall have given up its pursuit in despair. If
every intellect were perfectly constituted, and the
sources of truth equally open to all, perhaps there
would not be so much danger in the enunciation
of such a doctrine ; but biding this absolute perfee-

tion of the human intellect, and this complete open-
ing up of the sources of truth, we take the liberty
of saying that if such be the results of; the study
of the ancients, it is, at least on one side, as de-
structive a one as ever was engaged in. Mr. Mi
essay comprises so many great subjects,
and con-
tains further on so much that is open to grave ob-
jection, that we shall have to return to the discus-
sion next week. Mr. Mill would certainly, how-
ever, save his readers some trouble, if, in discusing
tangled and difficult points, he would bear in mill
the emphatic praise he gives the ancients, and
lie would himself endeavour to merit a larger share
of the encomium he bestows on them than we can
honestly accord him. " They always (to begin
with) had a meaning; they knew what they wanteci
u
to say ; and their whole purpose was to say it wit"
the highest degree of exactness and completeness,
and bring home to the mind with the greatest pos-
sible clearness and vividness." We are not 01
opinion that the handling, en grns, of such sub-
jects as University Education, will allow a ion/
how great soever his intellectual powers, to do jus-
tice to himself, or to satisfy those whom he Woldu
teach.