PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xv 
ing the salted ears of Colonel Borda, which were sent to the daughter of 
Rosas."* 
These and similar outrages are alleged as the cause of the recent in- 
tervention of England and France. The interference is said to be one of 
merciful humanity, and we trust that the continued succession of mobs and 
revolutions with which Mexico has been scourged for the last twenty years 
will not reduce her to the sway of some tyrant like Rosas who will deluge 
her with native blood and compel us to be no longer indifferent spectators 
of her misrule. 
In such a juncture the course of this country will be perfectly clear. 
True statesmanship looks steadily to the advancement of mankind — to the 
eradication of all brutality from our race — to the assertion of the omnip- 
otence of Peace and Reason in modern government. If it be the will of 
God that Christian civilization and refinement are to be spread over this 
world, I shall hail the day as a blessed one for the Mexican people when 
perfect peace and perfect alliance shall be established between us as In- 
dependent Nations. But if it be the Divine fiat that we are to interfere in j 
Mexican politics, and that the various bloods of the Mexican race are ' 
finally to mingle with the mighty stream of the Anglo-Saxon, which seems 
destined to fill every vein and artery of this mighty Continent, then, as- 
suredly, will our distracted neighbors, at length, secure to their country 
tranquillity, progress, and glory. 
Baltimore, 1846. 
* " Buenos Ayres and the Republic of the Banda Oriental," by Mrs. S. P. JenKins— 
in the American Review, vol. 3d, pp. 161, 163. 
