human character was degraded; secondly, disloyalty to republican
institutions, so that through him the Republic has been arrested
in Europe; and, thirdly, this cruel and causeless war, of which he
is the guilty author.




RETRIBUTION.


Of familiar texts in Scripture, there is one which, since the
murderous outbreak, has been of constant applicability and force.
You know it: "All they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword"; [Footnote: Matthew, xxvi. 52.] and these words are
addressed to nations as to individuals. France took the sword
against Germany, and now lies bleeding at every pore. Louis
Napoleon took the sword, and is nought. Already in that _coup
d'etat_ by which he overthrew the Republic he took the sword,
and now the Empire, which was the work of his hands, expires. In
Mexico again he took the sword, and again paid the fearful
penalty,--while the Austrian Archduke, who, yielding to his
pressure, made himself Emperor there, was shot by order of the
Mexican President, an Indian of unmixed blood. And here there was
retribution, not only for the French Emperor, but far beyond. I
know not if there be invisible threads by which the Present is
attached to the distant Past, making the descendant suffer even
for a distant ancestor, but I cannot forget that Maximilian was
derived from that very family of Charles the Fifth, whose
conquering general, Cortes, stretched the Indian Guatemozin upon a