With a nice but unobtrusive sense of historical aptness the Colegio de México has celebrated the melancholy centenary of Maximilian’s execution by completing its series of French diplomatic dispatches on the Intervention and the Empire. Like its predecessors, this volume is ably translated and edited. A list of the dispatches giving writer, date, and a brief statement of contents would have been useful, especially since the index is limited to names.
Shortly after the beginning of this volume the Marquis de Montholon, who had served as principal French representative during the establishment of the Empire, was transferred to the Washington legation. Most of the dispatches, therefore, were the work of Alphonse Dano, who took his place. Dano played a less influential role than his predecessor, but his detailed commentary on events will probably be just as useful to the historian. His final dispatch, written from New York, ends with words which ring like the Lamentations of Jeremiah through the writings of nearly all nineteenth-century visitors to Mexico: “Meanwhile, what will become of Mexico? … No one has any confidence in the duration of the present state of affairs; when Congress convenes, discussions, disorder, and disunion will begin again; …anarchy and confusion will be such that only North American intervention can remedy them” (p. 554).
