He governed with the aid of the "scientific" party--a group which believes in the virtue and power of science, exiles theology and metaphysics, denies mystery, and confesses utilitarianism as its practice and positivism as its doctrine. The Mexican politicians, in renouncing Catholicism after the Reformation and the passing of the Jacobin laws, have not abandoned dogma and absolutism in doctrine and in life. As in modern Brazil, positivism in becoming the official doctrine. The heirs of Juarez are slowly returning to Catholicism; they aspire to definite certitudes; they have their "Syllabus." In the President political majesty and the religious pontificate were united, as in the Muscovite Czars and the Spanish kings. In the restoration of the colonial order Juarez and Lerdo de Tejada attracted European capital, for the Yankee supremacy troubled them. Against this policy, which was based on racial interests, General Diaz protected North American capital; bankers and adventurers invaded the country, dominated its industries, and built railways. How check the fatal current which brings the all-conquering gold from the North? The national transformation is the work of the magnates of Wall Street; Mexico is becoming a "zone of influence" for the United States. [Illustration: GENERAL PORFIRIO DIAZ. President of Mexico (1876-1880 and 1884-1909). To face p. 162.] The scientific party, intoxicated by an orgy of utilitarianism, has not sought to arrest the great {163} plutocracy of the North by means of European alliances. Unity, wealth, peace: these are the magnificent features of modern Mexico, the admirable work of the Dictatorship. The Yankee peril; lay dogmas which fetter intellectual evolution; a level of utilitarian mediocrity without ideals of expansion, without culture, without the true Latin characteristics; popular ignorance and fresh revolutions: these are the disturbing aspects of this long period of tutelage. If the country triumphs over the obscure agents of dissolution, the influence of Porfirio Diaz will be as durable as that of Pedro II. or Portales or Rosas. [1] _Memoires autographes_, Paris, 1824, p. 28. [2] The brilliant Mexican historian Bulnes states that French intervention was "the revolt of Napoleon III. against the Monroe doctrine" (_El verdadero Juarez_, Mexico, 1904, p. 816). [3] Bulnes, ibid., p. 101. [4] Diaz pacified Mexico by means of the weapon employed by Rosas--fear. Bandits and revolutionaries were shot. His victims are said to have numbered 11,000. {164} CHAPTER II CHILI: A REPUBLIC OF THE ANGLO-SAXON TYPE Portales and the oligarchy--The ten-years Presidency--Montt and his influence--Balmaceda the Reformer.