MEXICO. T HIS Mexican affair threatens to degenerate into a sad
imbroglio. The policy sanctioned by this country in regard to Mexican affairs was, in the absence of Parlia- ment, understood to be briefly this : The three Powers most injured by the Mexican contempt for justice agreed to seize the Mexican ports and obtain from the local Govern- ment reparation for misdeeds and security against their re- petition. If the Mexican Government yielded, the expedi- tion would terminate in the appointment of commissioners to collect the customs due at the ports. If, contrary to ex- pectation, they resisted, an expedition would penetrate into the interior, suppress anarchy for the moment, and call a free Cortes to decide on the future administration of Mexico. It was understood that such an invasion would have the ap- proval of all property-holders. and all men who are tired of the existing anarchy, and, while leaving the Mexicans free, would restore the more intelligent classes to their just in- fluence in the State.
The intelligence just received seems to indicate that Spain, in her hasty thirst for aggrandisement, has not only de- ranged this plan, but has roused against it the very classes upon whom Europe relied for support. The Mexicans, it is said, willing to receive the Confederates, are determined not to receive Spain. The news of Marshal Serrano's expedi- tion has reawakened the ancient hostility, and all classes are preparing to resist the invader. Some of the guerilla chiefs have already tendered their aid, all horses and carts have been impressed for military service, and the roads to the capital will all be defended by earthworks, and large bodies of partisans. In short, the arrival of the expedition will be the signal for an outbreak which will compel the Spaniards either to abandon the enterprise or to conquer the country. This is not in the least what was intended by the allied Powers, and the further action of Spain in this direction ought to be at once prevented. We have no right to subject Mexico by force to a rule abhorred by the people, nor have we any interest in increasing the possessions of Spain. The design, as originally unfolded, was to permit the intelligent classes to choose without any coercion whatever, except for the repression of anarchy. If the Cortes chose a Spanish viceroy, that choice would be received with pleasure, for Spain can govern without the obstacles created by difference of race, language, or creed. But no one intended to force Spain upon Mexico, to change a free country into a colony without its own consent, or even to permit the only European Power which supports the slave-trade to commence a career of aggrandisement by the sword. The right to suppress anarchy is always clear, but the right of a civilized race to choose their own government—provided it is a government and not an excuse for anarchy—is at least equally certain. As it is, it seems probable that Spain, while refusing to Mexico her right of choice, will only increase the confusion, and so terminate freedom without creating order. Such a result to the combined action of France and Eng- land would be simply intolerable, and justify the idea that we intervene in Mexico simply to collect our bills. It is not improved by the statement that the Spaniards are acting in concert with the Southern Confederacy. President Davis, it is said, has already a force upon the Bravo del Norte, his envoy has been thrown into prison by Juarez, and he may, unless promptly opposed, seize five at least of the Mexican States. In other words, territories as large as three Eng- lands will be added to the area over which the institution of slavery already extends. Extremely little force is required, the association of bravoes known as knights of the golden circle will furnish plenty of recruits, and, once annexed, Europe cannot redeem these provinces without declaring war on the South. That at such a moment the Mexican Government should be paralyzed by a Spanish invasion, instead of being reinvigorated by the intervention of the allied Powers, is one of the many calamities the quarrel be- tween England and America has already produced. It is doubtful if Marshal Serrano can now be stopped, but Eng- land and France can at least secure to the Mexicans their right of choice, and with it a government strong enough to defy the South, and abolish the anarchy which an unprincipled project of conquest threatens at present only to increase. Europe wants Mexico as a strong and orderly Power, placed between Richmond and the States of the Isthmus, and not as an unwilling, and therefore powerless, dependent of Spain.
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