[9] In that
event, he will never relinquish his grasp on Mexico, unless compelled to
do so by force of arms. Should the rebellion succeed, as he professes to
believe it will, his instrument and accomplice, Maximilian, will be
discarded with as little ceremony as the first Napoleon discarded some
of the puppet kings whom he saw proper to crown and discrown according
to the exigency of his occasions.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) terminated one of the wars of
England with Louis XIV. The renunciation by France of the cause of the
Pretender was the most material advantage accruing to England from that
treaty. But the ink was hardly dry with which it was written, before
England took umbrage at France for efforts to rebuild her navy, which
had been seriously reduced and crippled by the events of the previous
war, and also for the encroachments of the French in Canada on the
English settlements. For these causes the Seven Years' War was
commenced, and, under the auspices of the first William Pitt,
successfully prosecuted, until France was completely humbled. Now,
however, Napoleon the Third constructs a navy more powerful than France
ever before possessed, and, instead of molesting some obscure English
settlement in the interior of America, appropriates to himself a great
country, fertile in resources, with mines of incalculable wealth, and in
close proximity to English colonies, cherished by the most vigilant
protection of England.
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