The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-03-08
France and Mexico.

VIC uuo LII tlo NeW 1Ork Ne1CS, an
interesting letter from John Mitchell,
dated Paris, February Is. We make
the following extract in relation to
Mexican affairs in the French capital:
Already both the French Chambers
have resounded with loud debates
upon Mexico. All parties, from the
Emperor down to the Marquis de
Boissy, are eager to have the French
troops home, and to stop the enor-
nous expense of the expedition. The
only question is, when and how, and
on what terms the French force can
be honorably withdrawn. Doubtless
you will have in New York, by tho
ordinary channels, the remarkable
speech delivered yesterday by Mar
shal Forey, who was first commander
in-chief of the Mexican expedition;
but lest you should not, may give
an abstract of it here. It is to be
promised that the orator speaks SIM
ply as a Senator and Marshal of
France, and by no means as an organ
of the Government.
s'Let no one believe" says the
Marshal, s'that the Government
which we overthrew in Mexico, main
tanned itself there by the sympathies
of the population; no, it maintained
itself by terror alone; which is the
reason that the presence of our flag
was alone sufficient to destroy it.
Once delivered from the Government
of Juarez, the Mexican people, free
in the expression of its votes, gave
itself to the Emperor Macmillan. I
do not pretend to discuss here the
letter written by Mr.. Seward to NJ
de Montholon, the 9Th of December,
1865; but I may be permitted to
affirm, that it was by no means
through force, under the pressure of
the presence of our army, that popu-
lar suffrage was pronounced. No; it
was the people themselves who, IA
tigued by a bloody anarchy, pro-
claimed that the Empire was more
in harmony with their wishes and re-
quirements.
The Marshal next combats the idea
that there is any preference for Re
publican form of government in
Mexico; and then proceeds to the
pressing question: 81 come to the
question of the return of our troops
At what moment should that take
place? Many men, no doubt sincere,
but who seem to me not sufficiently
jealous of our national honor, desire
an immediate recall. I also wish for
the return of our troops, if not i'm
mediately, at least as soon as posi-
BILE; but we must examine when that
step will be really possible. ''The
orator then enlarged upon the habi-
tual and inveterate anarchy in which
Mexicans have always delighted to
live, and insists that the great evil of
Mexican life is terror; not terror of
the French troops, but of the bandits,
which would Immediately resume the
ascendant, if those troops were now
| Withdrawn.
cit must be stated, he says, "fear
is the great misery of Mexico. It is
that which has rendered the popula-
tions incapable of defending them
selves and of resisting their oppress-
ors. I have seen in Mexico villages,
towns, cities, whose inhabitants,
being provided with arms and ammu-
milton, were able to resist, and yet
suffer themselves to be pillaged and
burnt by bands of guerrilleos, al
though they had at stake their for
tunes, their lives, and those of their
wives and children. It is thus that
populations hundred or thousand
times more numerous than their as
sailants, have allowed themselves to
be disarmed, pillaged, slaughtered
without resistance. We must
leave to those populations the time
to recover their moral by contact with
our soldiers, and to acquire, through
that intercourse, the spirit of order,
the honesty, the courage which ami
mate French troops, and to which all
are forced to render homage"
AS to the idea insisted on by some
Frenchmen, that after all the Mexi-
can Liberals are contending for
the independence of their country,
he declares, on the contrary, that the
real enemies of that independence
were the followers of Juarez, and
that the French force is Eberating
army.
"In my opinion, there would be
the greatest peril in now recalling our
forces. The Emperor has declared
that we went to Mexico to protect
French interests, and to defend our
fellow-countrymen. Well, if we now
brought that army away, all the
| French idents would be obliged to