The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-06
THE NEW YORK PRESS.
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uPoN CURRENT ToPICs--CoMPILED EVERY
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The sltuatlon In Mexleo.

years in predicting, except as to the exact
Zine what would be the ultimate issue of
affairs in Mexico. In the first place, those who
Nere well acquainted with the intentions of
Dur Government, to say nothing of the temper
nf our people, knew that it was not among
,ossible things that an Austrian Prince, foisted
npon Mexico by force of French arms, assum-
ing to be an Emperor in despite of the will of
Mexican people, who had long ago chosen a
republic as their form of government, should
he recognized as Emperor of Mexico by the
ITnited States. We should ave deserved the
contempt of the world had we recognized him.
In the second place. Macmillan himself, partly
by the great wrong he committed, and partly
by an excellent thing which he did, lost the
support of both the great parties in Mexico,
and was in consequence, absolutely without
support, except by French bayonets.
The two great parties in Mexico, for the last
yeneration each in turn in the ascendancy,
have been the party of the PuroS (Liberals)
and the party of the Church. MaXimilan
incurred the lifel long hatred of the first when
he accepted Napoleon's invitation to become
an Emperor on American soil. He had but
the Church to fall back upon. When he first
arrived that party was jubilant. A scion of
royal house, usually considered as devoted to
the interests of Rome as any other in Europe,
the general expectation was that he would
restore to the Mexican Church what she
deemed her outraged rights - the same to
recover which she had waged, under the
leadership of Miramon, three-years' war.
The dignitaries of that Church, especially
after Maximilian's visit to the Pope, made
on the eve of his departure for Mexico,
had made sure that one of his first i'm
perial acts would be the resembling
of those famous claws of Reform"
passed under Juarez's rule, in 1850, by which
nearly 5000, 900, 600 of landed property that
had been accumulating for centuries in ecclesi-
astical hands, including half the City of Mexico,
was, to use the Mexican phrase, SecuLGrized;
that is, confiscated and sold for the benefit and
behoof of the Government. They were doomed
70 bitter disappointment. Maximilian, in
spite of their remonstrances, formally ratified
Juarez's action in the premises, and they lost
all they had hoped for from the new conner.
Thenceforth Maximilian had no longer party
in Mexico. He was placed in the same situa-
tiOn that John Tyler once occupied, with
scarcely "corporal's guard" left. His fate is
sealed now. By this time doubtless, he is
prisoner, fugitive or a corpse. We hope it
is not the latter. His death, in cold blood, as
Mexican prisoner, would be, as Fouch6 said
OF the Duke d'Enghein, ''worse than crime
it would be political blunder." Alive and
spared, the dethroned usurper would excite
little interest, and less sympathy shot or
hanged, the murdered Emperor would become
a martyr.
But what is to be the result when he passes
from the scene wise reconstruction, peaceful
consolidation, or chronic anarchy Many pro-
phesy the latter; we are very much given, we
Anglo-Saxons to looking down somewhat
superciliously on all races but our own; and
1t is an easy and convenient cross-cut to the
future to predict that it will be but repeti-
Of hn OF UhxyN NuhaY1 fba
are gone, and the Mexicans once more posses
sors of their country, should they not fall to
quarrelling again among themselves, with the
old exhibition Of partisan rivalries, civil
brawls plans Gas they call their political plat
forms) by the dozen, and pronunciamentos
appearing as regularly as a quarterly maya
zine, but often at shorter intervals?
There is an old legal maxim that with the
cessation of the cause for law, the law itself
should cease. We admit that the general rule
in Mecico throughout the past has been
anarchy and civil strife. But what was the
chief cause of this An answer, which we
believe to be true one, came up at the time
Macmillan disappointed the last hopes of the
Church, in curious way. When, in 1864,
the imperial decree ratifying Juarez's confs-
cation of the Church lands appeared. the
Archbishops and Bishops of Mexico met in
council and issued a solemn protest against
the measure, denying that the Emperor had
any right in the premises, and stigmatizing
his action in this matter as nothing better
than high-handed plunder. The better to
enforce their argument, and to show that this
ratification was as much opposed to the public
sentiment of the nation as to law and reli-
glon, and that the hearts of the people were
with them, they declared that all the
wars OF the country, for the last
quarter OF a century, had originated in defense
OF ecclesiastical rights. The annual income OF
the Church, from the lands confscated in 1850
was from $40, 600, 900 to $25, 900, 600 a wear:
that was more than double the annual reye
nues of the Mexican Government-a revenue
amply sufficient to carry on war, and em
ployed, as their own incautious admission
shows, for that very purpose. This ill-usei
wealth is gone. The property so stubbornIy
fought for is lost forever. The cause haviny
ceased, may we not expect that what used 4
be the rule in this matter will cease also ? LIE
us wait and see, refraining from sinister pro
phecies of evil. These people have Tough
etubbornly, not only for their independence
but for a radical platform of principles, {
which no nation need be ashamed Here an
the items which compose the creed of tn
Juarez or Liberal party:-l. A Constitutions
Government 2. Freedom of religion and
the press. 3. Naturalization of the surpu
church property. 4. The abolition of Eaero
that is, of military and cclesiasticaltribunal
as they existed under the old system, accor,
ing to which military men and ecclesiast
were amenable to their own tribunals onl.
8. Reduction of the tariff. 6. Free immigr
tion. 7. Popular education.
When Juarez was Governor of the State
Oalaca, one of his first acts was to establis
public schools in every district of the Stat
All this looks well. 1t gives promise of bett