nearly two years. From the standpoint of the French rulers, the moment
seemed auspicious for France to interfere in American affairs. The
establishment of a great Latin empire, founded under French protection
and developed in the interest of France, which must necessarily derive
the principal benefit of the stupendous wealth which Mexico held ready
to pour into the lap of French capitalists,--of an empire which in the
West might put a limit to the supremacy of the United States, as well as
counterbalance the British supremacy in the East, thus opposing a
formidable check to the encroachments of the Anglo-Saxon race in the
interest of the Latin nations,--such was Napoleon's plan, and I have
been told by one who was close to the imperial family at that time that
the Emperor himself fondly regarded it as "the conception of his reign."

Napoleon III labored under the disadvantage of reigning beneath the
shadow of a great personality which, consciously or unconsciously, he
ever strove to emulate. But however clever he may be, the man who,
anxious to appear or even to be great, forces fate and creates
impossible situations that he may act a leading part before the world,
is only a schemer. This is the key to the character of Napoleon III and
to his failures. He looked far away and dreamed of universal
achievements, when at home, at his very door, were the threatening
issues he should have mastered. The story is told of him that one
evening, at the Tuileries, when the imperial party were playing games,
chance brought to the Emperor the question, "What is your favorite
occupation?" to which he answered: "To seek the solution of unsolvable
problems." It is also related that in his younger days a favorite axiom
of his was: "Follow the ideas of your time, they carry you along;
struggle against them, they overcome you; precede them, they support
you." True enough; but only upon condition that you will not mistake the
shrill chorus of a few interested courtiers and speculators for the