the period under the ruthless rule of Diaz, that has not been marked by one or more attempts at revolution. That most of these attempts have been successful is shown by the fact that within this period Mexico has experimented with some thirty-eight different forms of government under eighty-five rules.
During the fifty-five years which elapsed between the date of her independence and the accession of Diaz to power, she had tried thirty-six of these several forms of government under seventy-five rulers. This excessive mutability in government which probably no other people on earth ever passed through can only be accounted for by the existence among her leaders of a contempt for law and order, a spirit of selfish ambition and lust for power and an absence of the restraints of patriotism and devotion to the public welfare without a parallel in history.
This contempt for law and order has affected the nation not alone through its influence on internal affairs; it has also resulted in several grave international complications.
In 1838, Mexico became involved in serious difficulty with France, arising from outrages on the persons and property of French citizens at different periods of her revolutionary history. In that year the French Government, wearied with ineffectual demands for reparation, sent a fleet of
