WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR MEXICO?
IT is high time that we in England should take into serious con- sideration the question, What can be done to save the. miserable and impotent republic of Mexico from extinction as an independ- ent nation? Apart from all the problematical evil consequences of its absorption into the United States—and they are momentous— the fate of Mexico has an immediate practical importance for all classes of men in this country, being inseparably identified with that of a vast amount of British capital. Expunge Mexico from the list of nations, and with the same blow you put out the fires on, thousands of English hearths. Already we have suffered enough by the waste and decay of the wealth we have invested in that country ; the annihilation of what remains would scatter bankruptcy among our merchants, paralyze our industry, dis- order all the functions of our national life, and spread starvation among our working classes. And this is the conclusion to which events are tending in a rapid and accumulating flood, that must inevitably bear down all such flimsy barriers as Santa Anna's countrymen can set up against it. That the United States are bent on seizing the whole Mexican territory is a fact they scarcely' condescend to disguise. The manner in which they intend to effect their purpose is also appa- rent; it is the same as that by which they have already secured Texas ; the same piratical system as that by which they had begun to possess themselves of. Louisiana, before they had the opportu- nity of acquiring it in the more legitimate way of purchase. The present petty warfare they are waging on the frontier is but an episode in the great plot. General Taylor's force is but the precursor of the real army of invasion—the squatter and back- woodsman, men in whom it is a hereditary and invincible in- stinct always to depart from before the approach of civilization, to avoid every spot where law has become established, and never to feel themselves thoroughly at home except on debateable ground. By men like these, coming by twos and threes, then by scores and hundreds, and finally in multitudes, like carrion birds to the quarry, the Northern provinces of the republic will be overrun; and thence, the process will be continued until the whole territory is filled and mastered by these unprincipled and
desperately energetic immigrants. Already many of the
pro- winces have shown a willing alacrity to meet the destiny &re; foresee; not from any affection they bear to their encroaching . neighbours, but because they are weary of anarchy, hopeless of relief from their own wretched nominal Governments, and eager to accept the blessings of law and order from any Power strong enough to secure them. Mexico must be tranquillized, and her strength consolidated by good and stable government, or she is lost. This has long been felt by her allies ; and they have even suggested and indirectly urged the adoption of the means that seemed to them most likely to bring about the desired result. The proposed panacea was the conversion of the republic into a monarchy, the sceptre of which should be swayed by some European Royal cadet. It is needless to discuss the abstract merits of this plan, since it is a mere fig- ment of political speculation, at present beyond the scope of any practical discussion.
There is but one sure way to save Mexico, and that is, to trans- fer fresh, healthy blood into her languid veins ; to colonize a por- tion of her magnificent territory with a people worthy to occupy and able to defend it. If Mexico were to mingle a portion of the Anglo-Saxon element with her population, she might venture to cope with the moiety of that indomitable race that now threatens her existence. In our paper, last week, on the project of cut- ting a ship-canal through the great American isthmus, we pointed out the admirable opportunity now offered for peopling the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and realizing the incalculable natural advantages of one of the most eligible commercial sites on the face of the globe. That majestic region, teeming with boundless wealth, washed by two oceans, traversed half its breadth by a navigable river, which offers at its mouth the finest harbour in the Gulf of Mexico, may now be secured by Englishmen. Will they refuse to accept a region which was selected by the sa- gacious mind of the great conqueror Cortes to constitute his own private domain ? If so, the French will be delighted to grasp the prize we disdain.
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