No. 7.

Despatch 10.-Extraordinary diplomatic mission of Spain in Mexico.

The undersigned representatives of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and of her Catholic Majesty have the honor of transmitting to their excellencies, plenipotentiaries of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, a copy of a note just received from General Doblado, in reply to the collective communication which they addressed to him upon the 9th of this month. The undersigned have not hesitated to accept the offer made them by General Doblado, in the name of his government, to come to Orizaba, in spite of the rupture of the treaty of London, and of the preliminaries of Soledad, with the hope of arriving at a friendly solution of the questions to be settled between the allied pow ers and Mexico, seeing that the government is disposed to reject none of the admissible pretentions of the three powers. As the note, and implicitly the offer, of General Doblado are addressed also to the French plenipotentiaries, it is incumbent on them to decide upon the answer it suits them to give. The undersigned take advantage of this opportunity to renew to their colleagues the assurances of their most distinguished consideration.

ORIZABA, April 14, 1862.

THE COUNT OF REUS.
CHARLES LENNOX WYCKE.

Their Excellencies the PLENIPOTENTIARIES
of his Majesty the Emperor of the French.

This is a correct copy.

JUAN ANTONIO LOPEZ DE CABALLOS.

The French plenipotentiaries refused to accede to the invitation in the following despatch:

No. 8.

The undersigned, plenipotentiaries of his Majesty the Emperor of the French has the honor to declare to their excellencies, representatives of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and of her Catholic Majesty that, on their side, they cannot accept the offer made to the commissioners of the three high powers by General Doblado.

It is very natural that the representatives of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and of her Catholic Majesty should embrace the said offers if they entertain the conviction that the present government of Mexico has the will and power to comply with its promises and fulfil its engagements; but the representatives of his Majesty the Emperor of the French are far from feeling an equal confidence, since, upon this especial point, they cannot be ignorant of the decisive views of their governments. As far as relates to the independence of Mexico and reform, no one knows better than the minister of foreign relations, there is no question of these; and the representatives of his Majesty the Emperor of the French hasten to profit by this occasion to reject all insinuations of those who in vain expect to excite passions in a country that has never hoped anything from our intervention but order and liberty.

The undersigned, while answering directly the communication of the minister of foreign relations, have the honor of reiterating to their colleagues of England and Spain the assurances of their distinguished consideration.

CORDOBA, April 15, 1862.

Correct.

A. DE SALIGNY.

E. JURIEN.

J. A. L. DE CABALLOS.

The minister of state to the minister plenipotentiary of Spain in Mexico.

MADRID, May 22, 1862.

EXCELLENT SIR: Her Majesty the Queen has informed herself, with the liveliest interest, of the despatches of your excellency, of March 29 and April 12 and 16, and having heard the opinion of her council of ministers, has deigned to approve of the conduct of your excellency in the different circumstances in which you have been placed, and of your resolution to re-embark the troops of the expedition under your command.

This same declaration the president of the council and myself have had the honor of making in the session of the congress of deputies, of the 19th ultimo, and it should calm the natural anxiety of your excellency at the responsibility likely to lie upon you for the serious determination you adopted.

Not being able to dispense with a diplomatic agent more or less characterized in Mexico, your excellency would have proceeded with great provision by having disposed that the secretary of legation, Don Juan Lopez de Caballos, should have gone to that capital to look carefully into the events that took place there, and to act in the best manner possible in favor of the subjects of the Queen, if, unfortunately, any new vexations should take place. Mr. Caballos tells me that your excellency had already thought of this, and it has received. the approbation of her Majesty.

Your excellency is hereby authorized to remain at the Havana, or to come to this court, according as you may think proper in regard to the negotiations that have been commended to your zeal and patriotism. As long as events are not developed and carried out in the territory of the republic, nor a government established as they desire to establish, your excellency will not be able to make use of your representation in that capital. But, if considerations superior to these should decide you to go there, the government of her Majesty will approve of whatever resolution you may adopt, with the understanding that you will not present your credentials to the government that may be organized until her Majesty the Queen has examined in her wisdom the facts that have given rise to its formation, and decided whether she will enter into immediate negotiations with it.

What has hitherto taken place, and what may take place hereafter, has been of such a serious nature that the government of her Majesty cannot make any precipitate resolution, and she reserves her own judgment and her appreciations in regard to the same to fix the line of conduct most conducive to the honor and interests of the nation.

By royal order and consent of the council of ministers I inform your excellency for your knowledge and effects.

God, &c.

S. CALDERON COLLANTES.

Letter of Admiral Lagravierè to General Prim.-Annexed to despatch No. 4 of

General Prim.

[Translation.-No. 1.]

TEHUACAN, March 20, 1862.

MY DEAR GENERAL: What has occurred since your last letter was written? I thought you were in Puebla, with Sir Charles Wycke, and I see to-day by your letter of the 20th that you are still in Orizaba with dispositions very dif

ferent from what I had a right to suppose. Our engagements are certainly, as you justly say, the same, since we contracted them in concert, and we have formed together a good and wise policy. I have never doubted but that we should come out in an honorable manner. I have no more desire than yourself to burn our ships under a futile pretence, and furnish the Mexicans with a pretext for complaint. I have always been disposed to recognize, with yourself, that it was necessary here to avoid embracing too openly the cause of the party constituting the minority, and which is generally opposed throughout the country; but, at the same time, I have not failed to declare to you, as often as the occasion required, the nature of the counsels I should wish to give to all the parties that divide Mexico.

The establishment of a monarchical government has always appeared to me the only method of putting an end to the dissentions which have made this unfortunate people an object of scandal to Europe. In order to arrive at this termination, I have thought that conciliatory measures were the best. This is the reason why I hastened to sign the treaty of Soledad, thinking that a truce would give us time to work upon minds without appearing to force them, and would permit us to prepare them for the solution that to me seemed the most favorable. When General Doblado gave us notice of the measures of proscription he had just adopted, it appeared to me that our dignity did not permit us to espouse them, and I pronounced myself ready to found upon this ground a declaration of rupture. There exists another point upon which I am ready from this moment to explain myself with the most perfect frankness, without waiting for the opening of the conferences of Orizaba; I refer to the guarantees we must demand of Mexico before treating of the arrangement of matters purely financial. The government of Mexico might accord us the most complete satisfaction respecting our several claims, without our being for this a whit further advanced. It is not compacts, more or less advantageous, that we require; what we need is the certainty that the government that has signed them will have the strength and will to enforce their execution. The last instructions I have received upon this point are decisive; and even if they were not so, I would take it upon myself to exact that this question should be solved before beginning to discuss the others. I am certain I should have met with support from you in establishing this opinion. I surely did not deceive myself when I thought that in your opinion, as well as in that of Mr. Doblado, the treaty of Soledad was nothing else than the adoption, in principle, of the military occupation of Mexico by the allied forces.

If any doubt upon this point has existed in the mind of the Mexican government, I think it right and loyal to dispel at once all illusions, and make known to it the first exigencies it must count upon. If this communication give rise to immediate hostilities I am ready, as I have already told you, to fall back upon Paso Ancho, and to open a new campaign from this instant. I am equally of opinion that a complete amnesty is requisite, without conditions and reserves, which would allow us to consult the true wishes of the country. Do you find it more advantageous, in agreement with Sir Charles Wycke, to seek, in order to break our convention, a motive, I will not say a pretext, in wrongs which it seems to me date from very far back? You know, my dear general, that I am accustomed to speak to you without reserve, and to disclose to you my whole mind.

You have, with your moderate and prudent conduct, done a great service to this country. You have preserved it from disastrous consequences from an expedition conceived with an exaggerated confidence, and which Spain would not have been able to sustain alone without sensible prejudice to her finances. You have done more. You have facilitated to us the means of tranquilizing Mexico with regard to our intentions, and to make her understand that we have not come to establish a dominion she did not desire. In my opinion it was a fault

to have given a color exclusively Spanish to our expedition; firstly, allowing that the number of your troops was much the most considerable; next, for having reserved for your personal illustration and for your military knowledge the charge of creating for yourself a position so preponderant that the action of the other plenipotentiaries must naturally disappear, in part, before your own.

If you had been actuated by sentiments less noble and generous-if you had been merely a soldier, in place of a political man, you would have dragged us fatally into a war, inasmuch as that national feeling, which your prudence alone has assuaged, would have arisen against us. I doubt not, although nothing has been said to me, that the Emperor, in deciding to send here a new army and a general to command his troops, has looked only to giving free scope to the actions of France, and to reserve to it the most complete liberty in its decisions. I certainly shall not interpret this determination as a proof that our alliance is weakened that it obliges me, even when my sympathies did not impel me to do so, to lend the most active and disinterested co-operation to the Spanish army in whatever position it might be; but I think, at the same time, I should consider the importance given to my mission as a notice that I must not subject my political views to those of any other plenipotentiary.

I should be surprised, my dear general, to be unable to proceed in concord with you, since I repeat that I retract in nothing from what we have already agreed. You will permit me only to be, in future, more watchful against a certain deference which was called forth more by your personal character than by your superior position. In a word, I am resolved to continue, happen what may, until I accomplish the end I have proposed. In order to attain it, I am decided to take advantage of the true sympathy that appears to exist here towards France. Consequently, without disclaiming our alliance, without separating in anything our cause from yours, I insist that it be well understood by all that our expedition is a French expedition, and is at the orders of no one. I should have wished, my dear general, to go myself to give these explanations in person, and arrive as soon as my letter at the appointment you have been pleased to give me, but I find myself still invested with the entire and immediate command of the troops which I have conducted to Tehuacan.

I have not at my orders any officer of sufficiently high rank to be able to confide to him, with all security, a command which may from one moment to another call for the adoption of prompt and decisive steps. I have requested General Lorencez to come and unite with me, or to send me the chief of his staff, Colonel Valaze. Then I shall have greater liberty of action, and I will place myself in agreement with M. de Saligny in order to fix, if necessary, out of Tehuacan, the point of our residence. I desire that the battalion of commanded by General Lorences, at Tehuacan, should continue its march. It is impossible to foresee what may arise from all the complications in which we find ourselves, and I should not be sorry to re-enforce my little army.

Receive, my

tire regard.

dear general, the assurance of my highest consideration and en

E. JURIEN,

Vice Admiral, Commander-in-chief of the
French expeditionary troops in Mexico.

His Excellency General PRIM,
Count de Reus, marquis of

P. S.-I write to General Lorencez by the mail which carries you this letter, that if the position of the Spanish army should find itself in the slightest dedegree threatened, the batallion of which left Vera Cruz to unite

with me at Tehuacan, should place itself at once under your orders.

E. J.

REPLY OF GENERAL PRIM TO ADMIRAL LAGRAVIERE.

[Translation of the annexed No. 2 to the despatch No. 24, of General Prim.]

General Prim to Admiral Jurien de Lagraveirè.

ORIZABA, March 21, 1862.

MY DEAR GENERAL: M. Legrand has delivered to me your confidential de spatch and esteemed favor of the 20th.

Before all else, I thank you for the order you have given to your battalion of to remain here and help us in case the Spanish troops should find themselves menaced.

In inviting you to allow the to rest awhile here, it was not at all on account of the possibility of their help being needed, since at this moment I find myself perfectly tranquil, threatened by no danger, and, above all, because with my troops I fear no attack from the Mexicans, whatever be their number. I have simply wished to avoid your soldiers fatiguing themselves in case that the conference once met, it should be therein agreed to exact from the governernment what we have a right to exact from it, without departing from the policy followed until this time, and without taking from the principal object of the allied expedition.

Can we permit that, whilst we remain tranquil in our cantonments, the Mexican government should continue vexing our countrymen residing throughout the republic, exacting the payment of the two and a half per cent. upon their respective capitals, as is actually done, General Doblado giving as a pretext that he has the right to demand it? Can we permit the same Doblado to threaten us with the re-establishment of the decree prohibiting the commercial movement between the custom-house of Vera Cruz and the interior if the said customhouse is not restored to him? Can we permit that a forced loan of 500,000 dollars be exacted from six houses in Mexico, three of them Spanish, calculating at 100,000 dollars each?

You see, dear friend, why Sir Charles Wycke and myself have assumed a more energetic attitude than that we held when you left us the last time. I send you enclosed the last letter of Mr. Doblado. You will be able to judge, in seeing it, if such curtness of language in any way suits us.

In General Doblado's letter, and in my explanations, you will find the motive of our warlike attitude; seek for no other, since this alone exists. I do not use with you the policy of a diplomatist, but the most frank. I speak as a true soldier.

From the first you have had the same idea, "to avoid being reproached with having subjected yourself to the Spanish general," and now wish it to be well understood that you will act with perfect freedom, and establish at the same time that in future, (as until now it may have been said that the expedition of the allies was a Spanish expedition,) it is therefore now converted into a French expedition.

Neither you nor I have on any occasion had complete liberty in our own determinations, since we have always found ourselves obliged to act in accordance with the decisions adopted in the conferences, far as regards politics; as to military actions, both of us have been able to act as we thought proper, and I owe you the justice you have done me, acknowledging that for my part I have never, upon any occasion, done anything that might give reason to believe or even to suspect it was not so. As to the Spanish contingent, it was the greatest, for it was composed of 6,000 men, the French consisting of 2,500, and that of the English of 1,000; but not for this has the expedition ceased to be an allied expedition, and as such directed solely by the decisions of the conferences. Have I ever asked for the least preference? Never. You have seen me give