times he had received a good education, so thorough, indeed, that he had been enabled to give private lessons in Latin to other students, while he also filled the important position of librarian at the Institute of Sciences. Although he had studied law under Marcas Perez and Benito Juarez (afterwards President), he did not take any degree, owing to the fact that the then President, General Santa Anna, feeling alarmed at the liberal tendency of the educational establishment where Diaz was a pupil, autocratically suppressed it. This, as much as anything else, provoked Diaz into rebellion against the tyrant; and it was he who organized one of the first bodies of malcontents to rise against Santa Anna, who, for many years, proved himself the evil genius of Mexico.

As a consequence of this, prescribed and with a price on his head, young Diaz was compelled to fly; and for several years he was relentlessly persecuted by the Government of his own country on the ground that he was a rebel. So long as General Santa Anna remained in power-and this, with several

interruptions, continued from 1843 to 1853-Diaz continued to be a refugee; but he nevertheless succeeded in taking an active part at a distance in the several revolutionary outbreaks which at that period characterized republican government in Mexico, when, indeed, war seemed to be the only national industry.

In 1856 the great struggle between the Conservatives (the Church party) and the Liberals was at its height; and Diaz took the side of the latter, in support of the now Governor of Oaxaca, Benito Juarez, who subsequently, as above stated, became President of Mexico. Young Diaz did not escape the risks of battle, for, while still a subaltern, he was seriously wounded, and, as he has himself stated, "suffered great physical agonies and the bitter

ness of death." His contemporaries are unanimous in declaring that the stoicism which he displayed in these trying circumstances was highly remarkable in a youth of his age. He received one of his most serious wounds on August 13, 1857, when fighting at close quarters at the battle of Ixcapa. He was struck in the side by a bullet which long remained embedded in the body, and caused him great suffering. First aid having been administered, to the astonishment of his men he rose from the ground and continued fighting until weakness put an end to all further efforts. As an evidence of the severity of this wound, it may be observed that it was found to be in a septic condition some fifty days after the battle, by which time the bullet itself had completely disappeared. It was not until twenty months afterwards that some American surgeons who were in Mexico succeeded in extracting the projectile.

Long before his complete recovery, however, Diaz was again to the fore, sword in hand, defending his native city of Oaxaca against the attacks of the Conservative leader, Marcelino Cobos. Ill as he was, he took an active part in the long siege which the Liberal forces were called upon to withstand in the convent of San Domingo, again undergoing great physical privations, including that of semi-starvation. The city having been abandoned by the local government, Porfirio Diaz was compelled to make his escape; but it was not for long that he was absent from the scene of action. Gathering around him many of his former followers, Diaz, who by this time had been raised to the rank of captain, pursued his old enemy, Marcelino Cobos (one of the notorious rebel brothers of that name), as far as Jalapa in Tehuantepec, and there defeated him on February 25, 1858. It was Diaz also who, later on, confronted and overcame

the fanatical Spanish Carlist Conchado, a man of the same low stamp of character as the Cobos. In the famous battle of Rancho de las Jicaras, fought on April 13, 1859, Diaz won for himself the rank of commander; and, at the battle of Mixtequilla, in the following June, he attained to the rank of colonel. After the recapture of Oaxaca in the following year, Diaz was created a colonel in the regular army, having up to that period ranked only as colonel in the National Guard or Militia. It is eloquent of the character of the man that all this time he had been acting entirely upon his own initiative, having apparently been completely forgotten by the Federal Government, as six months had passed without any communication between Diaz and the capital.

Diaz' subsequent achievements by force of arms, such as his recapture from the Conservatives of the city of Tehuantepec; his repulse of their fierce attack (under the leadership of the traitor Marquez) upon Mexico City in 1861; his second victory over Marquez at Jalatlaco, in the same year; his first serious encounter with the invading French and his services at the battle of Pueblo in 1862; his unwavering devotion to the republican cause all through the subsequent Maximilian troubles, and the numerous exploits which he performed on this occasion in defence of his country; his subsequent imprisonment by and escape from the hands of the French in 1865; his long and capable leadership at the storming of Pueblo for the second time in 1867, as well as at the siege of Mexico City which occurred in the same year, down to the period of his triumphant entry into the capital in June, 1867-all show Porfirio Diaz to have been successful both as a fighter and as a leader; while all through he asked nothing for his services, and even refused the position of Minister

of War when offered to him by his grateful patron Benito Juarez, who had in 1858 been elected President.

The attitude assumed by Porfirio Diaz in connection with the death of Maximilian in 1867 has formed the subject of much diverse and no little condemnatory comment; much must be allowed, however, for the sentiments of a pure-bred Mexican, and his intense antipathy to an alien sovereign, forced upon his distracted country against its almost unanimous will. It has been asserted that Diaz might readily have used his influence with President Benito Juarez to spare the life of the unfortunate Maximilian, but the question naturally arises, Why should he have done so? To him, as to many thousands of other Mexicans, Maximilian, both in his person and his policy, represented all that was hateful and dangerous to the precious freedom for which the patriots had fought and died, and which-even at the moment of its attainment-was threatened with 'destruction. That Porfirio Diaz showed no disposition of mercy to Maximilian is true. It is equally true that Maximilian, who had issued a stern edict against all Mexican republicans caught with arms in their possession, would have shown none to Diaz.

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With the withdrawal of the French from Mexico and the death of Maximilian, Diaz' services as a soldier remained for a period uncalled for; but troublous times for the Republic were still to come. turn of Benito Juarez to power in 1867 was followed, after a stormy and somewhat violent period, by his death in 1872. The seething discontent occasioned by the actions of his successor, Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, found expression in the revolution of 1876, in which Diaz himself took an active part. Lerdo's subsequent flight was the beginning of Diaz' triumph,

for, after acting as Provisional President for a few months in that year, he became actual and Constitutional President in 1877.

Altogether Porfirio Diaz has been elected to, and has occupied, the position of President of the United States of Mexico upon seven different occasions. On May 5, 1877, he first took the oath of office as Constitutional President for the period terminating on November 30, 1880. General Manuel Gonzalez then succeeded him, Diaz consenting to accept the minor portfolio of Fomento (Minister of Industries) in the Cabinet. Resigning that position in the following year, he was appointed Governor of his natiye State of Oaxaca, and retained the post until his second election to the Presidency in December 1884. From that date he has remained Chief Magistrate without change until to-day.

The term of his first Presidency was so brief, and Diaz found his country in such a state of confusion, that few notable events of his early government of the Republic are to be chronicled. The chief event of his second Presidency, from 1884, was the adjustment of the country's public debt, considered by him an indispensable condition for the re-establishment of the nation's credit. Here, almost at the outset of his career as a statesman, Diaz manifested the honesty and the upright purpose of his character; to his prompt and energetic action in dealing with the matter of the public finances may be traced the commencement of Mexico's rehabilitation as a nation. was not without difficulty that the Government succeeded in awakening public interest upon the question of monetary reform, since it ran the risk of seriously unsettling the public mind, and of working harm to important and sacred interests, without any apparent countervailing advantage. In less

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experienced and capable hands than those of Porfirio Diaz and his astute Finance Minister, Señor Limantour, the fact of the public being suddenly apprised of the probability of a change in monetary legislation might have occasioned a panic and a complete derangement of commercial affairs.

For many months before any public announcement was made, Diaz and his advisers were in constant conclave regarding the proposed measures, calling to their counsels the leading and most trusted bankers in Mexico, men who were finally formed into a body known as the Mexican Commission on International Exchange. These experienced financiers met at Mexico City, and helped to prepare publicopinion for the impending change; and no doubt they contributed powerfully both to arouse and to calm public interest in the investigation of the ques tions connected with currency and exchange, with the result that the modifications in the laws and practices which had for so long been in vogue were received not only with calmness, but even with gratification. The pernicious effects of the fluctuations of exchange demanded the stabilizing of the gold value of currency; but the Government naturally had to meet and overcome the objections of silver-producers, the importance of whose views may be estimated when it is remembered that Mexico has long been the greatest silver-producing country of the world. In spite of the opposition offered by the owners of silver-mines, who strove vigorously to preserve the privileged position which the existing monetary legislation of Mexico had afforded them, General Diaz, recognizing that the existing conditions were detrimental to the interests of the majority, resolved that nothing should interfere with their amelioration. Не was sufficiently clear-sighted to perceive that the mine-owners would gain

as much through the changes in system, not the least of which would be the reduction of taxes on mining, as they would lose by the restriction of coinage. The Government were too intelligent to attempt to bring about legal parity in monetary currency all at once; but, having resolved upon the expediency of creating a gold fund to attain and preserve stability in the rate of exchange, they proceeded slowly and carefully with the arrangement of details.

The advance of Mexican railways likewise took a marked turn for the better between the years 1885 and 1888, a period characterized by a continuation of the Republic's progress politically, financially and commercially. Although a time of great financial stringency was subsequently experienced, in 1892, owing to the heavy fall of silver and a succession of bad harvests, the country was kept steadily on the road to improvement, mainly by the discreet policy and the shrewd judgment shown by Diaz in the selection of his ministers, and in their handling of difficult problems. It was at this time that General Diaz began fully to appreciate the value, as coadjutors, of Señor José Yves Limantour and Don Matias Roméro, the first of whom still remains perhaps the most powerful, as he is undoubtedly the most able, Minister of the Diaz Cabinet.

Railways were pushed, if not rapidly, at least efficiently throughout the country; and Mexico's commercial relations were improved accordingly. During his third Presidency, and indeed throughout his long period of government, General Diaz gave the fullest support to the construction and financing of fresh railway lines; and he personally inaugurated with much ceremony the opening of the Mexican Southern Railway, the second purely British enterprise of its kind in Mex

ico (the Mexican Railway being the first and only other). He also attended the inauguration and opening of the drainage works of the Valley of Mexico, likewise an enterprise undertaken by a British firm. At this period, so firmly had Mexico's position been re-established in the estimation of the business world, that the Municipality of Mexico City, under the auspices of the Federal Government, was able with little or no difficulty to negotiate in London a public loan of 2,400,000l. at 5 per cent.

President Diaz has been no less successful in regard to the latter-day railway policy which he has pursued. For many years the Government has contemplated taking over the control of the railways, which was deemed necessary in order to safeguard the country from the serious consequences which would ensue were the chief routes of communication to remain in the hands of foreigners. The danger was no imaginary one, for, with the tendency to absorb everything into huge trusts which was then, as now, characteristic of the United States, it seemed as if Mexico's powerful neighbor might soon acquire and control every railway line in the Republic. Had the railway systems of Mexico once been absorbed into those of the United States, the practical independence of the Latin Republic would have disappeared, and the way would have been paved for a more definite domination. The diplomatic move of President Diaz in thus anticipating events, and in insisting upon the autonomy of the Mexican railways, has been completely justified; but, while the country has already experienced the benefits of this policy, it is perhaps more in the future that its advantages will be enjoyed.

During his fourth Presidency, from December 1, 1892, to November 30, 1896, many important national events occurred. Owing in part to the tact

and firmness which he displayed, General Diaz prevented a war from breaking out between Mexico and Guatemala; and a treaty, which has since served to maintain the peace between the two neighboring Republics, was signed on April 1, 1895.

Mexico at this time was in a very discouraging economic condition. The mischief, which had assumed a serious form in 1892, was growing steadily worse. A prolonged drought, bad harvests, and a further heavy decline in the price of silver. which was accentuated by the closing down of the Indian Mint, had occasioned widespread disaster and financial stringency, from which all sections of the community, governmental as well as private, were suffering. The violent fluctuations in the price of silver were no doubt the main factor in the country's distress, since they acted as an effectual bar to commercial transactions with gold-standard countries and to foreign investors coming into Mexico. Recognizing this fact, and in spite of his having received no training as a financial expert, President Diaz exhibited at this stage a gift of intuition, combined with much intelligence and tact, which enabled him to solve the problem, delicate and dangerous as it was, with complete success. That the crisis was not only met but overcome was largely due, as Diaz himself must have felt, to the unlimited confidence of the country and its foreign creditors in the ability and integrity of the Government. So eminently successful was this financial policy that the fiscal year 1894-5 was wound up with a small surplus, the first, it may be said, that had ever figured in the financial history of the Republic.

With the achievement of budgetary equilibrium, Diaz' fourth Presidency ended and his fifth commenced, for it will be readily understood how nearly

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unanimous was the voice of the country in calling upon the man who had proved himself so skilful a ruler at a time of great national trouble and anxiety, to retain office as President. His fifth term fortunately found the country rescued from its difficulties and making rapid headway under a peaceful and progressive Government. was during this period, between December 1, 1896, and November 30, 1900, that Mexico was selected as the only Latin-American nation to participate in the Peace Conference held at the Hague in 1899. The same year witnessed the important financial operation of converting all Mexico's foreign debts into a new loan of 22,700,0007. bearing interest at 5 per cent., as against the 6 per cent. hitherto paid, Thus, for the first time, were the Republic's foreign debts firmly established on a new and solid foundation --a skilful operation which succeeded in saving to the national exchequer a sum of no less than 1,678,981. annually. The capital of the National Debt of Mexico was in June 1907 44,156,4721. Once again, in 1900, the general voice of Mexico called upon General Diaz to continue in office for yet a sixth term of four years. Beyond a partial readjustment of his Cabinet, and the consolidation of existing financial and commercial institutions, little remains to be recorded of this period, if we except the creation of the post of Vice-President, to which further reference is made hereafter. During this term, however, the Mexican Government were successful in negotiating a further loan of $40,000,000 (4.000,0001.) at 4 per cent. interest, a circumstance worth recording, since borrowing at so low a rate clearly indicated the improved commercial and political status of the country.

It would be altogether unreasonable to expect perfection in any new form of