Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/18

 Rh more unpopular in Mexico with all classes than the hint of monarchy, save perhaps, a suggestion to fill the throne with a French or Spanish Prince. No one would venture on so perilous an eminence. The Church and the Military would oppose the scheme as inimical to their present power:—the People would oppose it as at variance with the spirit of their Revolution. The throne would soon be hewn to a block. Despotism in Mexico must be masked, as it is wherever it exists in this century. I may be told that this is surely a very bad state of things and that humanity must mourn over the misfortunes of the race, but, that the people of the United States have no more right to interfere in the matter than they have to settle the domestic differences in the family of a neighbor who lives unhappily with his wife. I beg leave, however, to dissent from this opinion. Mexico is not merely a social neighbor whose rights are guarded and whose offences are punished by municipal laws, but she is one of the great family of nations on this Continent, striving to free herself from the tutelage under which she groaned for three centuries, while the Spanish yoke hung round her neck. She is bound by international ties, pledged in international treaties, burthened with international contracts, and, above all, loaded with debts to foreigners, growing not only out of regular loans, but forced from individuals by exactions, wrongs, personal injury and enormous injustice. The whole foreign world, is therefore, directly interested in this distracted realm independently of the concern that all Christian men must feel in the progress of nations;—but, of all parts of Christendom, none has so deep a stake in it as these United States. If, as in France, since the fearful revolution of '98, each popular outbreak had been but a feebler swing of the great democratic pendulum, bringing it nearer and nearer to repose and tranquillity, we should bid these people "God speed," and hail them heartily on their way to republican greatness. But, instead of approaches to peace and happiness, the pendulum of Mexican revolutions has swung, with each vibration, further and further from the centre of gravity; so that, instead of poising at length like a plummet above the Truth and the Right, it is now converted into a vast weapon, whose terrific gyrations threaten with ruin everything within the scope of its tremendous whirl.

There is, however, another view of the matter, which should have weight in the consideration of Mexican affairs.

A recent letter from Yucatan, received at New Orleans, by way of Mexico, says:

"The people of Yucatan are in daily expectation of declaring the independence of that province. Offences on the part of the Mexican Congress towards Yucatan have dictated this step. Two assemblies, composed of the most distinguished personages, have already met to discuss the measure of separation, and much is said of seeking assistance, should it be necessary, from the cabinet at Washington."