Art. 9.-PORFIRIO DIAZ-SOLDIER AND STATESMAI 1. Porfirio Diaz, seven times President of Mexico. By M Alec Tweedie. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1906. 2. President Diaz and Modern Mexico. By Enrique C Creel, Mexican Ambassador to the United States. New York: Sunday Magazine, 1907.

3. Ethics in Action: Porfirio Diaz and his Works. By a Soldier of the Old Guard. Mexico City, 2a Independencia, 1907.

4. What does the Future hold for Mexico? By Henry Litchfield West. New York: Harper, 1908.

5. La Sucesión Presidencial en 1910. Issued by El Partido Nacionál Democrático. Coahuila, Mexico: Francisco

J. Madero, 1909.

6. Un Pueblo, un Siglo, y un Hombre. By Dr Fortunato Hernandez. Mexico City: Geographical Society, 1909.

ALMOST a century has elapsed since the once immense colonial empire of Spain began to disintegrate and! crumble away, and the most precious of her oversea possessions, gained for her by Cortez, Pizarro and their successors, as they firmly believed, for all time, one by one threw off the oppressive yoke under which they had groaned for some four hundred years. The South American colonies availed themselves of Napoleon's conquest of Spain to establish their own independence; and, after Napoleon's fall, the mother-country, weakened by her terrific struggle with France, and hampered by internal revolutions and the worthless government of Ferdinand VII, was able to do little towards recovering her lost empire.

Mexico was almost the first Spanish colony to enter upon the struggle for freedom; but, though the initial blow at Spain's dominance was struck in 1810, it was only in 1821 that an independent government was successfully established, and the Republic of Mexico was set up. Some years previously, in 1817, Chile had declared herself free; while Venezuela, Paraguay, and New Granada had broken away from the Spanish Viceroys' authority and had formed themselves into the Republic of Colombia, only, however, to be again broken up and reconstituted into separate independent sovereign states. Ecuador and Peru, the

latter the very centre of Spanish colonial power, were lost to the Crown of Spain in 1821; while Guatemala in 1822 and Bolivia in 1823 seceded from the mothercountry. Buenos Aires and Uruguay established their own independent governments in 1824; and the smaller Central American colonies of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica were no less successful in breaking their fetters, San Salvador being the last province to revolt, in 1843, against the Spanish dominion. Florida had been sold by Ferdinand VII to the United States, which, on its own account, subsequently seized Porto Rico and the Philippines and emancipated Cuba. Thus, with the exception of the Canaries, a few small islands in the Gulf of Guinea, and one or two 'presidios' in Morocco, Spain has been dispossessed of all her colonies.

On September 15, 1910, General Porfirio Diaz, President of the United States of Mexico, will enter upon his eightieth year and the thirtieth year of his Presidency, an occasion which will synchronise with the holding of important celebrations in connexion with the centenary of Mexico's emancipation from Spain. The occasion is not only one of great interest in relation to the life of an exceptional man, but will solve the important question, which has for some time been agitating the minds of Mexicans, and is of interest to the world at large-the question, namely, who is to succeed him. The existing presidential term will expire on November 30, 1910; but, though so recently as January 1909 General Diaz declared na personal interview that, 'no matter what my friends and supporters may say, I retire when my present term of office ends; and I shall not serve again,' he has now definitely accepted re-nomination.

in

It was in 1830 that Porfirio Diaz was born, at which date Mexico had already experienced some nine years of strenuous existence as a Republic. A twelvemonth's freedom from the yoke of Spain was succeeded by an Empire under Agustin Iturbide, whose ludicrous attempt at monarchy was cut short by his execution. Then came President Vittoria's ephemeral Constitution, which was followed by a succession of internecine revolutions, interrupted by united struggles against the last lingering remnants of Spanish authority. Thus young

Diaz was reared amid a turmoil of alarums and exer sions, the din of which reached even the remote com of Mexico where he was born, the city of Oaxa situated at a distance of some 234 miles, then neces tating about a week's journey, from the capital. Her at the time of the American invasion of Mexico, namely in 1848, he was studying for the Church under the tutelage of his uncle and guardian, Bishop José Agustin Dominguez, and watched over by his good friend Licenciado (lawyer) Marcas Perez, Governor of the State of Oaxaca. It says much for Diaz that, even at this early period of his life, when he determined to forsake the cloister for the more stirring scenes of the camp, he was enabled, by his striking personality, to influence in his favour such an experienced man of the world as the State Governor. He, moreover, braved the displeasure of his uncle the bishop with calm determination. Certainly neither of them could foresee at that time that it was to be the hand of this young ex-priest which was to help in perpetuating the separation of Church from State, and to keep in stern subjection the once all-powerful influence of Rome in Mexico.

The life of Porfirio Diaz may be divided into two distinct periods-his brilliant career as a soldier, and his inestimable service as a statesman. Bulwer Lytton once wrote of Richelieu that it was strange so great a statesman should be so sublime a poet. Of Diaz it may be observed with equal truth that it is remarkable so good a soldier should have proved himself so great a statesman. The disposition to destroy and the desire to build up do not often go hand-in-hand, the world offering but few examples of a man, who has once freed his country from a succession of troubles, succeeding, as Porfirio Diaz has succeeded, in turning the ruin of war into the prosperity of an abiding peace. Simon Bolivar, the great Latin-American liberator, may be cited as an opposite case in point, his brilliant services as a soldier being partially obliterated by his unwitting blunders as a ruler.

Poverty and even privations were among the earliest experiences of young Diaz. His father and mother were so badly off that they were compelled to keep a small inn, known as the Sun,' at Oaxaca City; the

former, while still a young man, falling a victim to Asiatic cholera and leaving a family of six small children, of whom Porfirio was the eldest, in indigent circumstances. Diaz' parents, José Faustino Diaz and Petrona Mori de Diaz, the latter of Indian (Mixteca) blood, were, however, very highly respected in their eity; and the humble birthplace of Porfirio for many years remained a national shrine. To-day it is the site. of a great public school named after the President, erected by the nation in his honour.

With the determination to be a good soldier rather than a bad priest, young Diaz left the Jesuits' seminary at Oaxaca at the age of nineteen. By this time he had received a good education, so thorough, indeed, that he had been enabled to give private lessons in Latin to other students, while he also filled the important position of librarian at the Institute of Sciences. Although he had studied law under Marcas Perez and Benito Juarez (afterwards President), he did not take any degree, owing to the fact that the then President, General Santa Anna, feeling alarmed at the liberal tendency of the educational establishment where Diaz was a pupil, autocratically suppressed it. This, as much as anything else, provoked Diaz into rebellion against the tyrant; and it was he who organised one of the first bodies of malcontents to rise against Santa Anna, who, for many years, proved himself the evil genius of Mexico.

As a consequence of this, proscribed and with a price on his head, young Diaz was compelled to fly; and for several years he was relentlessly persecuted by the Government of his own country on the ground that he was a rebel. So long as General Santa Anna remained in power-and this, with several interruptions, continued from 1843 to 1853-Diaz continued to be a refugee; but he nevertheless succeeded in taking an active part at a distance in the several revolutionary outbreaks which at that period characterised republican government in Mexico, when, indeed, war seemed to be the only national industry.

In 1856 the great struggle between the Conservatives (the Church party) and the Liberals was at its height; and Diaz took the side of the latter, in support of the now Governor of Oaxaca, Benito Juarez, who subse

quently, as above stated, became President of Mexi Young Diaz did not escape the risks of battle, for, wh still a subaltern, he was seriously wounded, and, as has himself stated, 'suffered great physical agonies an the bitterness of death.' His contemporaries are una mous in declaring that the stoicism which he displayed in these trying circumstances was highly remarkable int youth of his age. He received one of his most serious wounds on August 13, 1857, when fighting at close quarters at the battle of Ixcapa. He was struck in the side by a bullet which long remained embedded in the body, and caused him great suffering. First aid having been administered, to the astonishment of his men he rose from the ground and continued fighting until weakness put an end to all further efforts. As an evidence of the severity of this wound, it may be observed that it was found to be in a septic condition some fifty days after the battle, by which time the bullet itself had completely disappeared. It was not until twenty months afterwards that some American surgeons who were in Mexico succeeded in extracting the projectile.

Long before his complete recovery, however, Diaz was again to the fore, sword in hand, defending his native city of Oaxaca against the attacks of the Conservative leader, Marcelino Cobos. Ill as he was, he took an active part in the long siege which the Liberal forces were called upon to withstand in the convent of San Domingo, again undergoing great physical privations, including that of semi-starvation. The city having been abandoned by the local government, Porfirio Diaz was compelled to make his escape; but it was not for long that he was absent from the scene of action. Gathering around him many of his former followers, Diaz, who by this time had been raised to the rank of captain, pursued his old enemy, Marcelino Cobos (one of the notorious rebel brothers of that name), as far as Jalapa in Tehuanteper, and there defeated him on February 25, 1858. It was Diaz also who, later on, confronted and overcame the fanatical Spanish Carlist Conchado, a man of the same low stamp of character as the Cobos. In the famous battle of Rancho de las Jicaras, fought on April 13, 1859, Diaz won for himself the rank of commander; and, at the battle of Mixtequilla, in the following June, be

4