The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 205, 2 September 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER, 2, 1867.

JM.\JXXUJ\. J., OCil XJUU— J— U, il, JOUI. So long as any hope remained that the terrible news relative to the Mexican tragedy which reached us by the Suez Mail might prove unfounded, we refrained from making any comments on the subject. The receipt, however, of confirma- . . tory intelligence by the Panama Mail sets : our doubts at rest, and we can no longer hesitate to believe that a most foul and barbarous murder has beeu committed upon the person of the Emperor Maximilian, a prince every way entitled to our highest respect, and that Mexico has lost the best ruler she has possessed for thirty^five years past. Even yet our information is very imperfect, and we are unacquainted with the fate which has befallen the adherents of this brave but unfortunate monarch. "When the Mexican General Diaz captured Puebla, he put to death every Imperialist officer in the town. A company of French soldiers, who had beeu separated from the main army, were deliberately shot. Women were hanged upon trees because their husbands or relations were Imperialists, and girls were subjected to worse treatment.. And we cannot doubt that these horrors have been repeated on a larger scale on this occasion. We are told that when the Emperor saw that his cause was lost, with the characteristic chivalry of his race, he laid aside all thoughts of his personal safety, and considered only how he could save the lives of his faithful adherents. With this view he .offered to capitulate at Queretaro, upon the sole condition that the lives of his followers should be spared, but the Juarist commander, thirsting for blood, would not listen to such terms. What followed when the starving garrison were compelled to surrender at discretion, we have yet to learn, but it may easily be surmised with our previous knowledge of the ferocity of Diaz, aud of the horrible massacres that have been committed by the Republicans iv other parts of the country. The world generally will doubtless be inclined to throw all the blame aud respon- ! Bibility of these horrors, as well as of the tragical fate of the Emperor aud also of the empire itself, upon the Emperor of the French. This however is hardly just. That Napoleon is greatly to blame we are not prepared or inclined to dispute. He was mainly instrumental in creating the empire of Mexico, and in inducing the Austrian Archduke to accept the proffered crown, and it is indisputable that he was bullied by the United States into recalling the French auxiliary army, and that, to meet the pressure . thus put upon him, he. left both Emperor and empire in the lurch. This was neither generous, nor noble, nor dignified, nor iv any way worthy of the ruler of the French nation. It was in fact part of that deplorable foreign policy which has allowed Prussia to outrival France as a continental power, and which M. Thiers, with characteristic boldness, lately so severely censured in the Legislative Chamber of: France. The Mexican expedition has perhaps brought more dishonor oh France, or- at least to her Government, than any event in her modem. history. Profiting by the brief misfortunes. of the United* States, l^apohjon seiit an army to Mexico id accbm-

plfsh two ends ; the: redress,of-wrongs wantonly inflicted on French^interests in that country, and the development of the civilising "influence of the Latin race," as a counterpoise to the gross and all-devour-ing Anglo-Saxon.element. And what has been the issue? Freuch interests are more deplorably compromised than hefore; and -as to the poor Latin race, it is just now running away as fast as it can, for the French inhabitants of Mexico are either flying in consternation from the country, or are asking to be naturalised as Mexican citizens, in order to escape the disasters from which France no longer attempts to befriend them, whilst the American press, hitherto respectful and sympathetic, contrasting this ignoble result with the lofty language of tho Emperor and his ministers, has followed the retreating French army with mingled scoffs and reproaches. Still it is not fair to hold the French Emperor alone responsible for the lamentable fate of the Mexican empire. A large share in the guilt of the horrors to which Mexico is now a prey.rests upon the United States. It was Yankee policy, Yankee encouragement, Yankee sympathy, Yankee money aud filibusters, that maintained the Juarist faction, and enabled them to keep the country iv a perpetual state of embroilment, and all the efforts of the "Maximilian Avengers," chivalrous as they appear, who, the telegram tells us, are now being organised in New York, will be too late to undo the results of this .miserable policy of interference. If it be true that the sovereigns of Europe are all of them brothers and sisters/and that they form but one family,' the calamities which have befallen two of their number must have thrown a terrible gloom over the festivities which have lately taken place at Paris, and also at Buda on the occasion of the Emperor of Austria's coronation as King of Hungary. Rarely have two such blows —to say nothing of the sad death of the young Archduchess Mathilde, the affianced bride of Victor Emmanuelheir'—been dealtpn two crowned heads a£ have fallen on the royal families of Austria aud Belgium. A second instance of so great a calamity is not to'be found in contemporaneous history, and they almost force one to believe in the recurrence of the old fatality attached to the House of Austria. It is impossible not to feel a sort of superstitious compassion for the young Emperor —for he was only thirty years of age —who has just met his fate so bravely, especially when we remember all that was done to persuade him to accept the crown of Mexico, and to quit the palace of Miramar, where his widowed Empress, the near relative of our own beloved Queen, and who sailed across oceans on a mission of life and death on behalf of her illfated Emperor, is now enduring a torture far greater than the loss of life —the loss of her reason. The Emperor Maximilian, who made his public entry into Mexico on the 12th of June, 1864 —little more than three years ago —was a generous and highly accomplished prince, and his memory ought to be held in especial respect by the inhabitants of these colonies, since it was owing to his suggestions as Admiral of the Austrian navy, and indeed at his cost, that the Novara was dispatched on a scientific expedition to these regions, and we were thus enabled to profit by the experience and researches of Dr Yon Hochstetter, whose work on New Zealand has become a standard authority on all matters connected with the geological and mineralogical statistics.of the colony.