government for not having made public, at the risk of causing them to fail, negotiations which, although conducted by Mexicans, were going in a current useful to our interests? We encouraged the Archduke Maximilian, convinced that it lay with an able direction of affairs to raise Mexico from the state of anarchy and disorder where we found her; but, while encouraging him, we did not bind ourselves indissolubly to his fortunes; we were bound only in the measure of French interests.

We have remained loyally, honorably masters of our movements, and if that were not so, the emperor Maximilian would have hastened to proclaim it, and they would not have failed to repeat it to you in this discussion; we have remained masters of our movements; we have made them wholly subservient to French interests, and when we saw events whose progress belongs neither to governments nor peoples, about to endanger our interests, and cause our sacrifices to be out of proportion with our views, and the role to which we were assigned, we recalled our troops, and we acted wisely.

What do you reproach us with, then? Is it perhaps with having arrested ourselves in

time?

The emperor Maximilian is at this very time favorably situated for maintaining the power with which he has been invested by the Mexicans; it is for him to turn it to advantage. These difficulties exist; they proceed from the deep-rooted anarchy which has corrupted and debased the Mexican population; he disposes of a regular army to check the evil; European contingents are enrolled under his flag; numbers of Creoles are grouped around his throne; a good government will assure to him the unconditional co-operation of the entire Indian population; he can raise to the dignity of citizens those millions of Indians whose systematic exclusion from everything constituting the government, the administration, public life, prevents us from being able to recognize in Mexico the distinguishing characteristics which compose homogeneous nations. Without these distinctive traits, patriotism is a vain word, and not a respectable and imposing idea.

Ah! if there had been in Mexico the cohesion which springs from patriotism, if there had not been on the one side a detestable oligarchy, whose members, liberal and clerical, were engaged in incessant conflict, and on the other side a whole population oppressed and reduced to servitude, our soldiers would not have been able, without being crushed under the number of their adversaries, to act in very small columns for the purpose of operating successfully on points the most distant from headquarters. Several hundred French soldiers penetrated to considerable distance-to two or three hundred leagues from the capital; they everywhere met sympathetic or indifferent populations, taking part in a struggle which did not appear to concern them.

The facts are there with their eloquence; they prove that we have overturned in Mexico an odious tyranny without impairing a pure patriotism.

Soldiers of France, you have been liberators and not oppressors. No sorrow will obscure your glory; preserve tranquillity of soul and of conscience: equity and right are with you. NUMEROUS VOICES. Very good! Very good.

M. LE BARON JEROME DAVID. Ought we to prolong our stay in Mexico until every difficulty should have disappeared; until a complete pacification causes the regular working of the several branches of the government?

I would answer, yes. If it were given us to define, to fix a precise period for the accomplishment of a task which depends upon a mass of different elements--the ability of the prince, the sagacity of those in power, the successive changes of public opinion, the sacrifices of adherents, finally, in a certain measure, events in the other portions of America-I answer no, because all these elements of success give place to the unforeseen, and it would be injurious to give up to unforeseen contingencies the sacrifices demanded of France. We were to leave Mexico; a date was to be fixed for our departure. You were told just now-and that moved me for an instant-"Take care; you are going to leave Mexico, and what will become of your countrymen and the native partisans of intervention? To what dangers will they not be exposed? What will happen? You will be lacking to your promises, and thousands of Mexicans and Frenchmen will reproach you with their ruin, will reproach you with the disasters which will overwhelm them.'

In the first place it is going too fast to imagine the immediate fall of the emperor Maximilian.

Then it would be well, before casting that reproach, to ask, what would have happened if we had given up when Spain and England did. Do you imagine that our countrymen and those Mexicans who had invoked the intervention would have found themselves in a better situation than to-day? You would deceive yourselves greatly.

The affairs of Mexico were difficult and embarrassing. We have encountered difficulties of all sorts; we have tried in every way to overcome them; in every case we have the high boast of having sensibly diminished them; impartial history will recognise it.

In eighteen months we will leave Mexico; during these eighteen months our countrymen and those natives who have not confidence can retire; they will suffer losses, perhaps, but these losses will be much less than they would have been if we had left Mexico at the same time with Spain and England.

Whatever may happen after having obtained full satisfaction through arms, we will have done for Mexico all it was possible to do; all that could be reconciled with the interests and honor of France. (Lively assent.)

For the rest, of two things, one: Either after the departure of our troops the emperor Maximilian will maintain himself, and in that case we will at once have accomplished a considerable work for Mexico, not only to the advantage of French influence, but also in the general influence of the civilization of the world; or the emperor Maximilian will yield to the difficulties which he cannot overcome; he will spend ostentatiously the resources needed for organization; he will pass successively from excessive rigors to measures of exaggerated clemency; he will waver between all parties, without resting upon any, offending in turn those who called for him, and those who might adopt him, in the mad folly-alas! too habitual to governments-of trying to conciliate implacable enemies; in this case we will none the less have proved that the anger of France strikes everywhere those who incur it. If the emperor Maximilian commits blunders which render it impossible for him to maintain himself, it is then important that it be the Mexicans themselves who regulate their own destinies.

As long as the affairs of Mexico are arranged, after our departure, without foreign intervention, I say that the attitude of France is a most enviable one, and that we have courageously attempted a great act of civilization. As to the costs of the war and French interests in case of the fall of the emperor Maximilian, they will remain at the charge of succeeding governments in Mexico: I can scarcely see how we should diminish our financial losses in engaging ourselves further to protect the Mexican credit.

Whatever may happen, we have taught the Mexican populations to understand notions of order, of common law, of general security, of civil equality; these notions may be for a moment obscured by disorders, but gleams of light will arise from them to regenerate Mex ico. Let us not doubt Providence; let us not accord to evil alone the power of duration and expansion. We have thrown fruitful seeds into Mexico; these seeds will bear their fruits, and we may be proud of the part which we have played in this. [Marks of adhesion and approbation.]

Reproaches have been addressed to the government on the subject of the Mexican loan. I have frequently heard reproaches in and out of this chamber.

This loan was openly facilitated by the French government. What is there surprising in that? How! We had our armies in Mexico; we had seconded, as far as we could, the establishment of a monarchy, conceived, it is true, by Mexicans. We had furnished to this cause what is most precious, the banner and the soldiers of France, and we were not to aid the placing of the loan, which is only a small feature of the manifestation of our sympa thies.

Were these loans of 1864 and 1865 issued mysteriously? Was it an unknown situation, founded on ignorance of facts, working the good faith of subscribers? Had not the Mexican question passed through attacks, let me say, angry and exaggerated? Had it not been presented under the most sinister aspects? Had not discussion and contradiction been exercised on the chances, bad and good, of the new empire; on the natural riches of the Mexican soil; on the political state of populations; on the development or the sterility of resources ? Had not all these investigations, all these researches, all these criticisms been laid before the public ever since 1861? The government believed that Mexico would rise up again, and it does not yet despair of it. Do not, therefore, for the sake of your argument, represent the subscriber or the holder of the Mexican loan an incapable person, led into error. Do not ask that the government should be the guardian, the only responsible guide of citizens in the least acts. We revolt every day against this idea, which I declare inacceptable. There were exceptional advantages for the subscriber. Does not every one know that the rate of interest paid by the borrower indicates his chances of solvency? [Movements.]

I do not admit that the subscribers to the loan should be taxed with incapacity; they have acted with full knowledge of the matter. There had been public discussions; they knew what they were doing; it was a question of judgment, of impression, which every one could decide at his own will and pleasure.

SEVERAL MEMBERS. True! [Interruption and various noises.]

Baron JEROME DAVID. If it is true that public opinion in France desires the return of our troops; if it is true that this return is commanded by our well-understood interests, we should have serious guarantees of the non-intervention of foreign powers. I do not believe in the intervention of the United States in the affairs of Mexico. By what right, and for what purpose would they intervene? The population of Mexico is composed of Creoles, half-breeds, and Indians. There is no kind of analogy of relation between the Spanish American race and the anglo-American. Manners, temperament, language, religious faith, all differ; all is opposition and contrast. The question of race is, therefore, out of the question.

There is talk of the Monroe doctrine. Since when has a doctrine enunciated in a message addressed to the nation taken the force of law for foreign nations? We could understand that the United States should be moved by an aggressive neighborhood, or are threatening the internal institutions of the Union; but because one nation is ruled by the republican form, it is not just to pretend that monarchical institutions shall be excluded from the New World, even when they are acclimated among a people who, by their im portance, the relative weakness of their resources, the extent of their territory, the distance of their capital, could not in the least influence the political mechanism of the nation in

question. To sustain such a proposition is not possible in fair and legal discussion, especially when-thanks to the solidity of its institutions-a nation has traversed a terrible crisis, and placed on foot instantly the most considerable armies of which modern history makes mention. There can be no danger to the United States from the Mexican monarchy. It would be years before Mexico could set on foot a single army corps comparable to the contingents raised by the United States during the recent war between the federals and the confederates. Beside the negative right of the United States stands the positive right, recognized by every sovereign nation to make war and to assure its results. In virtue of this right we have seconded the accession of the emperor Maximilian. Now I repeat, if, in consequence of wrong directions, the emperor Maximilian should fall by the will of the Mexicans, France has not to interfere; she declares that she adopts the doctrine of nonintervention. We have sympathies, preferences; the United States are perfectly free to have their impressions of this kind; but it will neither be their business nor ours to meddle in the events which take place in Mexico. If it is difficult to perceive the right of the United States to intervene in Mexico, it is impossible to discover their interest in plunging into so grave an adventure. If, in default of right, there were a true interest for this great nation, for this adventurous, energetic nation, it would be capable of invoking a right, more or less genuine, to subserve its interests. Does there exist a powerful interest which could lead the United States to expose themselves, not to war with France, but to a rupture? Would it be to seek an aggrandizement of territory? The United States are already somewhat embarrassed with what they already possess, now that it is necessary to reconstruct solidly the Union. Would it be their interest to bring Mexico back to its former anarchy ? Is it not to the advantage of the commerce of the northern States to find itself in relation with a country at peace, well governed, disposing of resources well worked and managed! Would not the prosperity of Mexico be an element of wealth to the United States? The different Presidents of the United States have thought so. This thought reveals itself in their messages-they deplore the disorders which have desolated Mexico. President Buchanan said, in 1858: "The successive governments of Mexico have not been able to afford effective protection either to Mexican citizens or foreign residents, against violence and lawlessness." Mr. Buchahan said, in 1859: “Without help, Mexico will not be able to resume her position among nations, nor enter into any course fruitful of good results." After such declarations, the United States could with ill grace deliberately take sides with the faction which we went to Mexico to subdue. When I regard the proofs of good sense and exalted wisdom given by the men of the United States, I say that such a conflict is impossible, and that it will not take place. The United States will learn from the dissolution which has threatened them, and which they have so painfully surmounted, the reserve necessary to renounce the temptations to domination over the New World, which are in violation of justice and reason.

The discoveries of science have brought nearer different continents; relations are multiplied; contact becomes incessant; we are nearing the period when peoples will be called either to unite in the interest of civilization to demand for the works of their genius, for the exchange of their products, for the adoption of their improvements, a new impulse in the path of social amelioration, or to give themselves up to conflict and jealousy in the interest of error and despotism. The United States have better work to do than to allow themselves to be led by the eccentric and quarrelsome instincts of a turbulent minority; they have better work to do than to identify themselves with bad causes which do not concern themthat is, to accept the co-operation of Europe to bring back into the intellectual and economic movement of our times the numerous populations scattered through the immense spaces which extend from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn. We do not go so far as to ask the United States to understand as we do their providential mission; we do not go so far as to demand of them the recognition of the order of things established in Mexico. We desire only that they shall know that we have not carried our banner to the soil of Mexico, where so many of ours have fallen gloriously, to allow that, under pretext of difference of appreciation, and in contempt of the principle of non-intervention, third parties should come immediately after our departure to overturn an edifice cemented with the blood of our soldiers. [Very good!] We have nothing but sympathetic sentiments for the United States. We have not forgotten that our fathers fought in the front rank of the heroes of American independence. We could only deplore a rupture with a friendly nation, whose liberation shines in history like the radiant dawn of the French revolution. Nevertheless, these precious souvenirs cannot prevent us from reminding Americans that France wishes to find among them a reciprocation of the courtesy, the consideration, and the esteem which she accords them. No; the United States will not interfere in the affairs of Mexico. Their statesmen may not at once depart from the strange forms of their official communications and of their harangues, which flatter the American temperament, which is fond of loud and bold declarations. In America, popularity is gained by all sorts of audacity. We will have no trouble in answering the rudeness of the diplomatic style of the United States by the polished, firm, and moderate language which suits a nation like France. [Applause.]

The future of Mexico will rest, then, in the hands of the Mexicans, and no collision will arise from our generous enterprise. We have borne to Mexico the genius of civilization; it may suffer trials, from which it will certainly arise victorious. We may, therefore, gentle

men, regard the future with confidence, and be convinced that, in seconding the policy of the government, we have done an act truly good and useful for the prestige and glory of our country. In sustaining the policy of the government we remain the representatives of that proud and generous France which prefers resolution and even boldness to the reproach of indecision and of fear. Let us be independent of appeals made to selfish and vulgar sentiments, and sustain a policy which has only in view the greatness and dignity of the country. [Numerous marks of approbation. ]

The President WALEWSKI. No one asking the floor, the chamber will pass to the discussion of the articles.

M. ERNEST PICARD. Mr. President, we were waiting for the explanations of the government. I can understand that they are very difficult for it; but they would be very interesting for the country.

The President WALEWSKI. The government is the best judge of what is to be done. [Yes, yes; the vote.]

M. CHAIX D'EST-ANG, vice-president of council of state (rising.) The chamber understands perfectly.

NUMEROUS VOICES. It is useless; the vote, the vote.

The vice-president of the council of state resumes his seat.
The President WALEWSKI reads the first article of the law.

[Translation.]
MEXICO

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Minister of France in Mexico.

PARIS, August 14, 1865. SIR: I have received your despatches to date of 10th July. What you write to me on the affair of our claims very particularly called my attention. You have thought with reason that the necessity of settling as promptly as possible the interests of our countrymen might induce us to deviate, in some measure, from our legitimate requirements.

I consider, therefore, that the settlement in gross-the adoption of which you have proposed to the government of the emperor Maximilian-would on the whole be advantageous to our countrymen and therefore acceptable to us. I invite you, in consequence, to press it in the most serious manner that the arrangements you may have prepared may receive without delay the adhesion of the Mexican government.

Receive, &c., &c.

DROUYN DE LHUYS.

The Minister of France in Mexico to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

MEXICO, September 28, 1865.

Mr. MINISTER: I have received the despatch you have done me the honor to address to me, dated 14th August last. Your excellency having pleased to approve the mode of settlement in gross which I had proposed to the adoption of the government of the emperor Maximilian, for the purpose of arriving at a prompt conclusion of the affair of the claims of France, I resumed with renewed activity this important negotiation, which I had not meantime lost sight of for a single moment. I have to-day the satisfaction of being able to announce to you that my efforts have not been altogether fruitless, and that I signed yesterday, the 27th, a convention which will give, if I do not deceive myself, satisfaction to all the interests in the case.

Please accept, &c.,

DANO.

The modifications of form to be given to the convention of the 27th September, 1865, hav ing retarded the ratifications, we limit ourselves here to giving a summary of the principal provisions of this diplomatic act.

The total amount of indemnities due to Frenchmen for damages caused directly to their properties or persons by Mexican governments or their agents, is fixed at the sum of forty millions of francs. This sum shall be paid in bonds of the Mexican annuity (rentes) at par, and the French government will carry into effect such repartition among its subjects as it shall deem proper.

The French government is already the depositary, under the head of "for account," of s sum of twelve millions of francs in bonds, of the first loan contracted in Paris, at 63 per cent., which should represent at par-that is to say, six per cent. each 100 francs-a sum of 16,440,000 francs.

The 23,560,000 francs remaining due will be delivered in bonds of the same nature at par by the Mexican commission of finance instituted at Paris. After having effected the entire delivery of the sum of 40,000,000 francs, the Mexican government shall be considered as released from any responsibility to the French in relation to reclamations they have put in to this date, and the French government engages not to interfere in favor of those which may be made for the time past.

In consequence of putting in execution of this convention, article 12 of the convention concluded at Miramar, the 10th of April, 1864, is abrogated in whatever has relation to French reclamations.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to the Minister of France in Mexico.

PARIS, November 14, 1865.

SIR: I have placed before the council of ministers, to be the subject of special consideration, the project of settlement of French claims which you sent me with your despatch of 28th September. Two questions have been successively discussed, that of the amount of our indemnity, and that of the mode of payment which it allows.

When the government of the Emperor decided upon settling in gross the claims of its subjects, Marshal Bazaine was requested to ask the Mexican government to remit to us for this object a sum of fifty millions of francs in bonds of the second Mexican loan, which will be added to the twelve millions of bonds of the loan of 1864, already placed in our hands, in execution of the convention of Miramar. What we ask, then, is about the sum which the French commissioners, instructed by you at a later date to study the question, indicated to you as necessary equitably to indemnify our countrymen, say 12,754,366 piastres. The convention you signed with Mr. Cesar fixes forty millions of francs only as payable in bonds of the Mexican rentes at par, and with this will be compounded the twelve millions already in our hands as the whole amount of indemnities allowed to our subjects. There is, therefore, a wide difference between the amount you have accepted and what we deem we have the right to claim; but after having carefully weighed the motives which induced you to make it the basis of the arrangement to be brought about, the government of the Emperor has approved your resolution. His majesty the emperor Maximilian having shown himself ready on the one part to adopt this amount of forty millions of francs, and your personal investigations permitting us to think on the other part that it would in strictness suffice to indemnify our countrymen, it has seemed more in accordance with their true interest to hasten a solution by making deduction to a certain extent from our legitimate demands, than still to delay, in detaining them, the settlements they have so long waited for..

In accepting the amount of indemnity fixed upon in your project of convention, we cannot, however, acquiesce in the mode of payment which is therein stipulated. It in fact presents a difficulty to the Mexican government how to disencumber itself according to the mode prescribed by the project of convention. By the terms thereof, the 23,560,000 francs which remain due to us at par, with the 12,000,000 of francs already in our hands, and representing at par 16,440,000 francs, our indemnity of 40,000,000 francs, these 23,560,000 francs should be paid to us in bonds of the first loan at par, by the Mexican commission of finance instituted at Paris. But the following circumstances render the literal execution of this clause impracticable at this day: Whilst, in fact, the French treasury, using the privilege accorded at the time of the second Mexican loan, was converting the bonds of the first loan remitted in virtue of the convention of Miramar, either for its own account or for the French claiming indemnities, into obligations analogous to those emitted 1865, and then negotiated them, the commission of finances of Mexico was availing of the same opportunity to put also on its side, with the balance of the bonds of the loan of 1864 which remained disposable. At this time, then, the commission no longer has in its possession any bonds of the first loan which it can employ in the manner intended by the project of convention. The Mexican government should at once take this into account, for it has been officially advised of the operation effected. It must, therefore, substitute a new combination for that which the convention contains, as the measure of conversion of bonds of the first loan, determined in the beginning by the commissioners of the Mexican government, is optional. It is more than probable that the 500,000 bonds of the second series will not be delivered in full, considering that a certain number of holders of six per cent, bonds of 1864 will not avail of the option which is given them. The minister of finance estimates that there will remain in consequence without settled employment a number of new bonds, more than sufficient to meet the engagements which the Mexican government may contract with us. It is, consequently, in bonds of this second series, and no longer, as the convention prescribes, in bonds of the first loan, that there will be a way of remitting to us 23,560,000 francs, specified in Article 4, and I request you to ask, in this state of things, the despatch to the commission of Mexican finance at Paris of the orders necessary that it may carry out for us, so far as to meet the above sum, the remainder of the new bonds, the existence of which is anticipated. Accept, &c.

DROUYN DE LHUYS.