a long and disastrous conflict, her provinces disaffected to the central Government, her people incapable of commercial initiative. At the commencement of his reign for his occupancy of the Presidential office can be designated by no other term—he wisely concentrated all his energies upon securing a lasting peace with his immediate neighbours, and so strengthening internal control that domestic unrest might be reduced to a minimum. In this he was eminently successful. He then directed his grasp of affairs to the commercial interests of the country. Railway lines were constructed and extended into hitherto inaccessible provinces. Exhaustive statements of the hitherto untouched mineral riches of the country were placed before American and European capitalists, who recognising that Mexico now possessed a trustworthy dictator whose efforts seemed to be directed towards the good and not the exploitation of his country, gladly furthered his objects by placing large sums at his disposal. The revision of the tariff and the severe repression of smuggling were included in his reforms. He found Mexico a desert of decay, a poorer and more piteous Spain. He raised her to the ostensible position of the most flourishing and important of the Spanish-American nations.
The career of Porfirio Diaz appears to point an analogy with that of a still greater figure in Mexican history—Hernan Cortés. In the two men we seem to discover the same contempt for obstacles to be overcome, the same absolute indifference to criticism; the same large, almost universal grasp of affairs and ability to discover and utilise the men required for certain definite tasks. These are the attributes of great administrative genius. Such a spirit Porfirio Diaz undoubtedly was. A careful observer of the polity of the other States of Latin-America, he was studious to avoid the pitfalls which he saw engulf other virtual dictators.
At the age of 80 he was absorbed as ever in the extension of Mexican prestige. In many circles of the Mexico of 1910,
