Benito Juarez, the President of Mexico, died on the 18th
inst. He was an Indian by race, and was much indebted for his advance- ment to the steady support of the Indians; but he was an able and determined man, who sincerely desired the welfare of Mexico, so far as he understood it. He fought bravely against the French in- vasion, and his execution of Maximilian, though cruel, for Maxi- milian imagined himself elected by the people, was forced on him, Maximilian having signed, though with reluctance, the order to exe- cuteall patriots as rebels against his authority. He endeavoured dur- ing his three Presidencies to maintain order and restore credit, but the bitter hatred of the Church, whose estates he had confiscated ; of the Spanish party, which he had defeated ; and of the foreigners, whom he suspected, compelled him frequently to acts of unjusti- fiable violence. He was a great Indian, but as far as we can understand his career an Indian still, with a strain of unscrupulous- ness in his character which marred or destroyed its grandeur. Mexico will now probably be the scene of a savage civil war for the dictatorship, in which the Indians will win. Tejada, the Chief Justice, who under the constitution becomes ad interim President, is a moderate clerical, and will be resisted by the whole of the Liberal party. Resistance in Mexico implies insurrection.
