The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-08-31

No more decisive step could possibly have been
taken to bring the civil war in Mexico to a crisis,
than the decree recently issued by JuAREz, confs-
eating the Church property to the uses of the Gov
eminent. By this act all hope of compromise is
blown to the winds, and both parties have now no
recourse but to draw their swords and throw away
the scabbards. With the supporters of the Next
can Church and its temperatures, the position in
which they have thus been placed leaves them no
choice but to conquer or to succumb; whilst the
Liberals have staked their last card upon single
throw, and must stand the hazard ofthe die. All
the springs of bitterness are now unsealed and I'M
less some stronger Power interposes to put an end
to the conflict, which is about to be renewed the
declaration of PALAFox will be realized There will
be ''war to the knife and the knife to the hilt -
and the massacre of Tacubaya will be followed up
on both sides by similar exhibitions of savage fe-
rocity. And there is nottingham indicates an early
termination of the struggle. The decree confscat-
ing the property of the Church. though general in
its terms must, necessarily, be limited in its prac-
teal application, for it only be enforced in the
poorer and least populous Departments, and, even
| there, the act of enforcement will tend to nfame
the fanaticism of the ignorant masses, who have
been taught to regard the spoiaton of the clergy,
the expulsion of the monks and friars from their
conventual establishments, and the compulsory re-
turn to their homes of all women who have entered
upon their novitiate as acts of sacrilege which are
not even to be contemplated without experiencing
a sensation of horror. The village curas may do
much towards allaying this feeling, but it is too
deeply grounded in the popular belief to be wholly
eradicated. This decree of JUAREz, therefore,
sweeping as it may appear, though it may have
the effect of deprivng the Church of some portion
OF Its vast revenues, can, by no means, seriously
impoverish it, for the great bulk of its wealth con-
sists of real estate in the City of Mexico,
and in the adjacent Departments, where the Liber-
ais have never yet been able to maintain their
foot-hold. 1t is possible that there may be found
capitalists who will even advance money upon the
hypothecaton of property so situated but we doubt
whether Senior LERDo, who is now in this country
charged with the mission to negotiate a loan upon
such basis, will find many who are eager TO risk
their means in so uncertain an investment. In
deed, if the money were to be had it is question:
able whether the success of the Liberals would be
any more assured than it has been for the past two
years. Men might be enlisted, and munitions of
war might be purchased but neither men nor
munitions of war will be found of any service
where the commanders are either ignorant or self
wiled, or jealous of each other, and are at best,
either brgandS themselves, or the leaders of bri-
gands. So far as the respective chiefs are con-
cerned. there is very little confidence to be reposed
in either party. Law and order on the part of the
Reactionists, means nothing more than the pre-
dominance of military oligarchy, supported by
the authority and amenable to the dictates
of the superior Clergy; whilst Liberty, as
defined by the Liberals, also a
military oligarchy supported by the means
derived from the sale of Church property
From neither party can perfect tranquility
and impartial exercise of the powers of
government be expected. Every provincial chief
aspres to the Presidency. Every petty commander
of garrison has plan of his own for the saliva
ton of the Republic The local government of
each Department entertans opinions more or less
opposed to those of all the other Departments
What powers are reserved to the Central Govern
ment, and what to the several States, have never
been defined, or when defined, they have been so
frequently violated, ignored misunderstood, re-
vised, or abrogated by successive combinations,
plans, programmes, pronunciamentos, that it
has now become impossible to determine their re-
spective limits. For nearly forty years anarchy
has been the rule, and order the exception, until
at length, internecine struggles have succeeded
in laying waste the country-ruining the finest
estates-depopulating whole misunderstanding
the mines to be abandoned, and in reducing to the
lowest condition the internal and external COM
merce of the country. How then can it be possible
for unworthy leaders, intent only upon their own
Selfaggrandisement, to establish good govern
ment in Republic where the elements of turbu-
lence are so many and obedience to the laws is I'M
known; where there is confidence to be reposed
in the rulers for the time being, and where very
small portion of the lions hide is eked out with
the fox's skin? Look at the present condition of
affairs-the Capital a hot-bed of intrigue-MIRA-
MON, rash, arrogant, and conceited, now menacng
and now cajoling the clergy-at issue with ZU-
LAoGA, but not daring to break with him utterly
indignant at the course pursued by MARQUEE
yet without the power to displace that assassin
decreeing forced loans which can only be exacted
from the timid-ordering new emission of paper
money which no one will receive, and dealing out,
through the Archbishop of Mexico, excommunica-
tions upon the Liberals, of which but few take any
heed. JUAREz still keeps possession of Vera Cruz
and the frontier Departments, but there is dscord
in his Cabinet and personal jeaIousies among his
lleutenants, which prevent all concert of action
and render impractcable those measures which
might eventually result in driving the Reactionists
from the Capital-VIDAURRI, GARCIA, DEGoLLADo
ZUAzUA-no two of them agreeing as to the best
course to pursue, and, in the meantime, the war
degeneratng into a series ofpetty foraysand faction
fights, in which cultivated fields are laid waste and
the inhabitants of the cities are plundered with no
hope of redress, nor with much prospect of a
change for the better. Such is Mexico at the pre-
sent day, harassed alike by her oppressors and her
delverers, and scarcely able to say which lays the
heaviest hand upon her, and such she must con-
tinue to be until some superior Power steps in and
dictates terms of peace.