It is less than two years since General Diaz resigned the Presidency in Mexico, and little more than one since Francisco Madero, the leader of the revolution, formally succeeded him, and again there is civil war. For nearly a week heavy fighting has been going on in Mexico City, and so far no definite result has come of it. The rebels are led by Felix Diaz, a nephew of the old President and the author of a recent unsuccessful attempt to capture Vera Cruz; mutinous soldiers liberated him from prison, together with Bernardo Reyes, who was imprisoned by President Diaz for "sedition" and again imprisoned by the present Government for open rebellion. So far the struggle has mainly been carried on in the city, which has suffered severely from the artillery employed by the rebels at the Arsenal and the Federal forces at the Palace. Rumour has it that the provinces are joining in the conflict.

For, ever since Madero came into office, there have been revolts, of varying importance, up and down Mexico. In the South Zapata, who gave his name to the brigand Zapatista bands, laid claim to the Presidency; when Emilio Gomez resigned his seat in the Ministry his partisans broke into revolt; in the North Orozco and Trevino, both Federal Generals, followed suit. The present outbreak is thus only the climax to the unrest of the past eighteen months, and its seriousness does not lie in the street fighting, the destruction of buildings, or the danger to foreign subjects so much as in the tendency which it seems to show in Mexico to revert to what in the United States they call the "revolution habit." Mexico had the habit pretty badly before Porfirio Diaz made himself despot; had it so badly, indeed, that some of her citizens who were sincerely attached to the Republican system could not refrain from appealing to the sword when the country was not being ruled quite as they liked it. Diaz crushed all opposition until at last his ruthlessness and cruelty swept him away. It may be that, now that his hand is gone, the old spirit will rule again. We hope not, and the revolt of Felix Diaz may prove, of course, to be the last effort of the old despotism and the new disaffection. But the signs are bad.

The rival leaders must be well aware that they have more to gain from compromise than a general civil war. Unfortunately, rival leaders in the Latin Republics have usually little love for compromise, and would sooner risk everything for a personal victory.

[9-19 February are known as the Ten Tragic Days in the history of the Mexican revolution, ending in the arrest and subsequent death of Madero. The revolution lasted from 1910 until 1920.]