PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xni 
more unpopular in Mexioo 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 Revolu- 
tion. 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 peo- 
pie 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 j 
one of the great family of nations on this Continent, striving to free her- 
self 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 con- 
tracts, 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 out- 
break 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 republi- 
can 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 in- 
dependence 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 dis- 
cuss the measure of separation, and much is said of seeking assistance, 
should it be necessary, from the cabinet at Washington." 
