he has succeeded. Even though the enterprise has not been popular in France, it at least served to attract the thoughts of the French to a foreign topic,-it has furnished a subject of conversation and debate, and it has, moreover, shut the mouths of the war-party in France, and established a solid excuse for the Emperor not engaging in a European conflict until he had got this Transatlantic affair off his hands. These were considerations of present value which Napoleon was not likely to underestimate, though he could not frankly avow them. Nevertheless they would have been void of force if the expedition could not have been justified upon intrinsic grounds. And it is to the peculiar character of those grounds, as illustrative of the scope of the Emperor's views, that we desire briefly to draw attention, before considering what are likely to be the actual results of the enterprise.

The grandeur of a nation depends upon the influence of the ideas and interests which it represents, not less than upon the material force which it can exert. England, for example, is peculiarly the representative of Constitutional Government and of the interests of commerce. In Russia we behold the head, and representative Power, of the Greek Church. France, also, we need hardly say, is a representative Power. Her monarchs for centuries have borne the title of the "eldest son of the Church;" they have been the protectors of, and at all events they peculiarly represent, the Church of Rome. But the Church of Rome has been losing ground, alike in the Old World and in the New. The great kingdom of Poland has dropped out of the map of Europe, and nearly all its parts have gone to increase the territories of Protestant Prussia, and of Russia the champion of the Greek Church. The loss has not been compensated by an adequate increase of power in the States which adhere to the

Latin Church. Spain, once the greatest Power in Europe, has for long been torpid, and, though now showing symptoms of revival, will never regain anything like its former position in the world. In America the collapse of the Romish Church has been still more conspicuous. On the other hand, the Protestant and Greek Powers are prospering and extending themselves. The greatest change which is impending in Europe-the downfall of the Ottoman rule-will bring a vast extension of power to the Greek Church; and slowly but steadily the same Church, following the battalions of Russia, is spreading over central, and will soon spread likewise over south-western Asia. It will extend from the Baltic to the Pacific, from St Petersburg to Petropaulovski. Protestantism has still greater triumphs to show. Accompanying the colonies of England, it has become the dominant faith in North America among the thirty millions of the Anglo-Saxon race, who may be said to hold the fortunes of the New World in their hands. In India, in the Australian world, at the Cape, and wherever England has planted her energetic colonies, it is the Protestant Church which reigns supreme. By his intervention in Mexico, Napoleon III. endeavours to arrest the decay of the Romish Church in America, and to check the continuous spread of the Protestant Anglo-Saxons. The "Empire of the Indies," reared by Spain, and so long a bright gem in the tiara of the Popes, has gone to wreck. Brazil, with its enormous territory but mere handful of people, is the only non-Protestant State in America which is not a prey to anarchy and desolation; and a few years ago, the gradual extension of Anglo-Saxon power over the whole of the New World appeared to be merely a question of time. Seizing a favourable opportunity, the "eldest son of the Church" now intervenes to repair the fallen fortunes of the Papacy in Central America, and in so doing

to erect a barrier against the tide of Protestantism, and to reflect new lustre upon the Church of which he is the champion, and with whose greatness that of France is indissolubly connected.

These considerations affect the moral, rather than the political, greatness of France; but there are others of a different character which moved Napoleon III. to attempt the regeneration of Mexico. The latter, however, relate to the same object considered from a different point of view. Europe is remodelling herself on the principle of nationality. Twenty years hence, the Slavonian race will have experienced a great augmentation of power-partly from increase of population, which is proceeding rapidly in Russia, and partly from a more perfect political organisation and community of action established among the now scattered portions of that family of nations. The Teutonic race is destined to experience a lesser but somewhat similar increase of power. Compelled by disasters which, even in this hour of triumph, may be seen to await them, the Germans will consolidate their strength by unification, and will thereby acquire much greater power than they now possess, even though they lose a considerable portion of their nonGerman territory. In the face of these contingencies, Napoleon III. meditates, has long been meditating, how France is to obtain a commensurate addition to her strength. Centralisation and organisation are already complete in France; no new strength is to be looked for from these sources. Her population, too-unlike that of Germany and of Russia-is stationary, and even threatens to decline if some new impulse be not communicated to it. How, then, is she to keep her place in the future? Partly, replies Napoleon in his secret thoughts, by incorporating the Rhine provinces and Belgium thereby acquiring at once an increase of population, and a strong

and advantageous frontier. Partly also, he hopes, by establishing a league, a community of sentiment and action, between the so-called Latin races of France, Italy, and Spain-in which league France will naturally hold the first place. By his intervention in Italy, he has endeavoured, and not unsuccessfully, to attract Italy to him as a dependent ally. By his intervention in Mexico, he plays a part which will tend to attract Spain likewise; and he trusts to complete an alliance with that country by, ere long, supporting the claims of the Spaniards to the possession of Gibraltar; and also, if an opportunity offers, of effecting a "unification" of the Peninsula by obliterating Portugal (the ally of England) as an independent State. Meanwhile, by regenerating Mexico, he adds to his own renown-shows himself a fitting leader for the future league of the Latin races; and, at the same time, he opens a new field for the commerce and enterprise of France, which may help to save the nation from its social demoralisation and concomitant discontent, and impart to it a new and healthy impulse towards increase of population, without which it will be impossible for France to retain her high position among the Powers of Europe.

Mexico is a country well fitted to engage the attention of a great monarch, to justify his efforts on its behalf, and to more than repay them by the results which will attend its regeneration. The climate of its central and most inhabited region is perfectly suited to the constitution of Europeans, and especially of the so-called Latin races. The country abounds in mines of the precious metals; and so great are the treasures hidden in its mountains that the mineral wealth of the country is still, comparatively speaking, undeveloped. The soil, too, is remarkably fertile; and owing to its peculiar geographical formation, the country yields in perfection most of the productions alike of the temperate and the

torrid zones. Extending for 1200 miles along the seaboard of the Atlantic, and 900 miles along the coast of the Pacific, Mexico contains an area three times larger than France, situated between the two great oceans of the world, and presenting in its southern portion a route well fitted to become a highway between them. Mexico contains within herself all the material elements of a great empire. All that is wanted is to regenerate her people to revive in them the energies which they, both Indians and Spaniards, once exerted gloriously in the olden time-and thereby make them fit to profit by the extraordinary natural resources with which they are surrounded.

On either side Mexico is bordered by a narrow low-lying coastregion, abounding in heat and moisture, where vegetation presents the full luxuriance of the tropics. The interior of the country, on the other hand, consists of a vast tableland, as level as the sea, of an average height of 7000 feet above the coast; and out of this great plain rise chains of mountains rich in minerals, and lofty isolated peaks, like snow-capped Popocatepetl, the breezes from which cool down the summer heat. Here and there, especially on its outskirts, this great plain is seamed by profound valleys or glens, bounded by precipitous walls of rock; and standing on the temperate table-land, the stranger beholds with amazement the gorgeous scenery of tropical vegetation which opens upon him in glowing colours in the val

ley beneath. Mexico is rich in indigenous plants and flowers. On the plains, the strange - looking stems of the cactus, like grotesque vegetable pillars, silent and unbending to the wind, rise to the height of twenty feet, gorgeous with scarlet or yellow blossoms.* The air is perfumed by the wild and profusely-growing convolvuli, with their graceful bell-flowers. And the vanilla plant, whose pods yield an expensive luxury, grows spontaneously in the coast-regionivy-like climbing the loftiest trees, while its large white flowers, striped with red and yellow, fill the forest with their rare and delicious odour. The coffee-tree is indigenous, and can be most successfully cultivated in the region above the reach of the malaria, on the comparatively temperate mountain - slopes between four and five thousand feet above the sea. The cocoa-shrub also is indigenous, but requires the damp and sultry warmth of the coastregion. In such districts it is. amazingly productive. Humboldt, in his Tropical World,' says he never should forget the deep impression made upon him by the luxuriance of tropical vegetation on first seeing a cocoa plantation. "After a damp night, large blossoms of the theobroma issue from the root at a considerable distance from the trunk, emerging from the deep black mould. A more striking example of the productive powers of life could hardly be met with in organic nature." Tobacco, indigo, flax, and hemp grow wild, and amply repay cultivation.

The vegetable productions which supply the necessaries of life are numerous and remarkably productive. Maize, which of all the indigenous productions of the New World has been of the greatest value to Europe, yields about two hundred-fold, and on the best cultivated land five hundred-fold; and in the coast-region, sometimes three crops of it are raised within the year. The banana, the most prolific of all vegetables, likewise abounds in Mexico, and might support a population of unusual density. Planted with the banana, a piece of land will yield a weight of fruit a hundred and thirty times greater than if planted with wheat, and fifty times greater than if planted with potatoes. Wheat and barley, introduced from Europe, thrive in the temperate region, and, owing to the natural fertility of the soil, yield large returns. The sugarcane of Mexico, famed for its unrivalled abundance of saccharine matter, is cultivated not only in the coast-region, but on the adjoining mountain-slopes, above the noxious influence of the terra caliente. The cotton plant, though yielding its finest qualities in the moist coastregion, can be cultivated on the higher grounds, especially as the Mexican plant is capable of resisting the effects of frost. In truth, the vegetable productions, as well as the mineral wealth of Mexico, are almost unrivalled in the world; and in course of time, when foreign capital has been introduced, and when the population has increased alike in energy and in numbers, it will become a great exporting country, and will rise in prosperity while benefiting the world at large.

To know what a country may become, we must know what it has 'been. When Cortez landed on the mainland of America, he heard from all quarters the fame of a great empire and a magnificent monarch; and when he began his memorable march inland from Vera Cruz, he soon met abundant proofs of the prosperity of the country and the power of its ruler. Superb

presents were brought to him-cultivation, aided by irrigating canals, overspread the plains and valleys— populous cities rose in his path. There was a well-ordered administrative system, and a powerful priesthood. Immense teocallis, or pyramidal temples, rose in stages to the height of 100 to 300 feet and more— covering so much ground, that the base of one of them, not remarkable for its height, was twice as large as that of the Great Pyramid of Ghizeh while from their summits perpetual fires blazed, lighting the darkness of night with strange and lurid gleams. Under the Emperor were Caciques, or great nobles (like the Daimios of Japan), ruling their provinces in unswerving and devoted loyalty to the Emperor. There was a numerous and well-cared-for army, with orders of knighthood resembling those in Europe,-and (remarkable fact) a Chelsea Hospital or Hotel des Invalides, in which the veterans were cared for at the expense of the state. shall never be said," wrote the grave and circumspect Cortez to Charles V., " that I have exaggerated facts. I shall do what is possible to relate, as well as I can, a few, of which I have been an eyewitness, so marvellous that they pass all belief, and for which we cannot account to our own selves."

"It

The wonder of the Spaniards was at its height when, after defiling through the mountain-passes, they entered the valley of Mexico, and saw before them a great basin or plain seventy miles in diameter, bounded on all sides by lofty mountains, and studded with great and populous cities, clustering around the series of connected lakes which lay in the centre of the valley. Several of those cities, like Tezcuco and Cholula, had a population of 150,000; and the whole valley was richly cultivated. In the centre of the great lake, approached by three causeways from the mainland, rose the capital, Tenochtitlan (Mexico)— the Venice of the New Worldwith 300,000 inhabitants. There were the royal palaces of Monte