Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/343

Rh is based upon the right of might. The assembly which issued the plan and nomination may be challenged, but the country cannot repudiate the immense vote which lent confirmation, whatever the insincerity and reservation underlying that vote. The plea of compulsion affected only a part. It was but natural to suppose that a nation so long torn by revolutions and attendant maleadministration would hail a stable government; and Napoleon and Maximilian hugged the belief only too eagerly, the latter influenced not a little by the glitter of an imperial crown. Unfortunately, their views were framed by European standards, and by the expressions of a comparatively small party in Mexico. The rest of the people they failed to understand or to fully consider. There was little to fear from the passive Indian, but everything from the middle race, the mestizos, that mixture of activity and indolence, of brightness and dreaminess, insincerity and selfishness, in whose ever-growing strength rests the future of the country. Although reckless and improvident by nature, the mestizo had tired for a while of war, and yielded with the substantial classes to the effort for a peaceful rule. But soon his jealousy was roused by the growth of foreign influence, and the preference accorded to assuming officials from beyond the ocean. The gleam of foreign bayonets supporting the throne now flashed wider, and his restive independence of spirit took alarm, fostered by conservative discontent. The very strength of the invader became a source of weakness.

The liberal policy of Maximilian was based on apparently good grounds, seeking as it did to conciliate factions, which formed the worst foe to unity and progress, and making an effort to reach the people itself. If in a sense he turned traitor to the principles of the party to whom he stood bound, and consequently lost a certain support, he did so in search of advancement, and in the hope of greater gains. He meant well. Noble ideas ever filled his mind with