Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-11-10
The Imperial Failure.

We are called upon to chronicle, this week,
the extinction of the Mexican Empire The
event has been for some time expected, and
Will take no one by surprise; yet 1t will
doubtless occasion sincere mourning among
that large class who were lately its admiring
friends. 1t was promising affair at its birth
lived on promises, and hardly left little
else to pay its debts and funeral expenses.
Like precocious children it had too big a
head for its bodily strength. and has failed
for want of nourishment and vigor in its ex-
tremities. Macmillan has abdicated, and
ere this has embarked upon the war steamer
of his imperial brother. which has been await
Ing him at Vera Cruz to reconvay him to
his relatives in Europe. Sic transit, sc. The
most glorious idea of Louis Napoleons reign
has proved bubble. blown by his conceit of
his sagacity and lllimitable resources, and
pricked by the shadow Of coming American
bayonets. The maddest man in the world.
at this time must be the French Emperor,
who. by his overweening estimate of his abil-
ity and good fortune. has missed the grand
object of his life-that of extending the French
boundaries to the Rhine-and has failed in
it, too, because of his attempt to conciliate
monarchism in Europe by the destruction of
republicanism in America. That attempt
brought him into an alliance with Austria,
instead of Prussia, and has cost him in ma
terial strength, of men and money. more than
enough to have secured the long wished for
boundary. When the three Powers which
initiated the attempted conquest CT Mexico
began their piratisal enterprise there is little
doubt that they fully understood the scope
of the measure, and contemplated as part
of it. a war upon the United States. Such
war would have been a sequel of the enti-
ente coydiale which had been often threaten
ed by English and French journals, and had
even been foreshadowed in ministerial ad-
dress in the British Parliament. English
statesmen. however, discovered their error in
time to withdraw from the adventure, and
left the elephant of American conquest on
French hands. They had discovered some
thing more to their taste. and concluded that
fighting us under neutrality, and destroying
Yankee commerce on the high seas with AL
abamas, was a safer investment and healthier
for their own commerce than open warfare.
Louis Napoleon, notwithstanding his cha
grin at his failure in Mckee, has much to be
thankful for. Had the condition of Europe
been such as to have allowed him. he doubt
less would not have accepted defeat in Mex
leo until he had spent there the full strength
of his Empire. Such an issue would have
been calamitous to us, but would have been
fatal to him. European complications have
given him an excuse to his people and the
world for Withdrawing in time from an un-
dertaking in America which would have been
the political grave of himself and his dynas-
ty. "Napoleonic ideas would have wreck
ed on Mexico, as aforetime they were wreck
ed on Spain. Whether his undeniable ability
will be sufficient to retrieve his present loss
of prestige, the future can only determ-
inc. 1t is usually more difficult task to
prop falling fortune than build new one
Mexico is once more free from the rule of
imperial desrotism, and it only remains for
the treaty between the United States and
France to be carried out in its integrity,
for her to be free to exercise her republican
instincts and organize her government upon
the most liberal principles consonant with the
condition and intelligence of her people. All
honor to her brave patriots who have nobly
resisted the Establishments and bribes of
treason. and have re- baptised in their blood
her independence and freedom May her
future be as glorious as her past has been un-
fortunate, and may the blood of her children
appease the demon of dlscord within her bor-
ders.