The Mexican tragi-comedy approaches its fifth act. General Forey, it
will be remembered, selected thirty-five persons who, in their turn, were to select an assembly of two hundred and fourteen Notables. The Assembly has met and decreed that Mexico should be an Empire and that the throne should be offered to the Archduke Maximilian of Austria. The Archduke will, it is said, accept ; but as yet no formal reply has been given, and the terms of agreement are being arranged be- tween the Emperor and his nominee. It is stated that these will include the occupation of Mexico by a French army of 15,000 the hoof—an excruciating operation of no conceivable use, men, the payment of French expenses, past and future, and included, within the next ten years. Little, however, is accurately known, and it is more than probable that the terms will include a territorial cession. Strange to say, the arrangement seems not unpopular either in Germany or France. The Germans think "Archduke Max." has opened to them a new career; the French are delighted with the thought that the time is at hand when they will have done with Mexico.
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