MEXICO. 



563 



confiscated. These have been exappropriatcd by the 

 empire, and applied to colonization. These lands are 

 sold to immigrants at one dollar per acre in five equal 

 annual instalments. Generals Price and Shelby, 

 of Missouri, Governor Harris, of Tennessee, Judge 

 Perkins, of Louisiana, the Kev. Mr. Holman, of Mis- 

 souri, and a number of others, have already estab- 

 lished themselves there. They are all highly pleased 

 with their prospects. By the time the railway through 

 to Vera Cruz is completed, and the last instalment 

 falls due, they will have improved their farms, when 

 the most staid among them expect that these farms 

 will be worth ten, twenty, and even fifty dollars the 

 acre. A gentleman from Louisiana has been there 

 for seven or eight years. He established a coffee 

 plantation of eighty acres, which is now in good bear- 

 ing, and the crop from which last year was valued at 

 $16,000. The Cordova cottee sells in the New York 

 market as Java, and the tobacco equals that of Cuba. 



Each married man there is allowed six hundred 

 and forty acres, but it- is now generally admitted that 

 one-fourth of that quantity will probably be quite as 

 much as one family will be able to cultivate; it is so 

 fertile and wonderfully productive. 



Agents have been established at various convenient 

 points to assist emigrants on their arrival in the 

 country, by giving them information and furnishing 

 them with the necessary certificates and passports to 

 enable them to pass the custom-houses, to enjoy all 

 the rights, privileges, and exemptions of the Em- 

 peror's decree. 



At present the following agencies have been estab- 

 lished, namely : L. Orotesa, at Vera Cruz ; John 

 Perkins, formerly of Louisiana, at Cordova ; John T. 

 Lux, formerly of Lousiana, at Monterey; Alonzo 

 Ridley, of California, at Mazatlan ; Captain of port 

 of Tampico, at Tampico ; Captain of port of San Bias, 

 at 'San Bias; Captain of port of Matamoros, at Mata- 

 moros; Mr. Ramon de la Vega, President de la Junta 

 de los Mejores de Colima, at Manzauillo. 



Favorable inducements were also held out 

 to European emigrants, several companies of 

 whom, from Germany, Italy, and Belgium, 

 wers at the close of the year reported on their 

 way to Mexico. In Juue a proposition was 

 made by the Minister of Agriculture and Manu- 

 factures, to introduce one hundred thousand 

 laborers from the coast of Africa to cultivate the 

 tierras calientes, which would otherwise have 

 to be abandoned, as the white race cannot sup- 

 port the heat of the climate. He estimated the 

 consequent increase of national wealth at fifty 

 millions of dollars annually. On the authority 

 of Mr. Arroyo, the imperial agent in New York, 

 Maximilian later in the year expressly declined 

 to permit the introduction of this class of emi- 

 grants. According to the same person, an im- 

 portation of Chinese coolies was forbidden," on 

 account of the conditions imposed upon said 

 workmen, which reduce them to a state of 

 virtual slavery." Mr. Arroyo was further -au- 

 thorized to announce, that " not even a shadow 

 of slavery would be tolerated in the empire, and 

 that colonization would be made with freemen, 

 tinder no other conditions than those to which 

 the civilized world consents, and the law of the 

 empire demands." 



The financial condition of the empire proved 

 to Maximilian and his ministers a source of 

 great and constantly increasing perplexity. 

 The inexperience and unpractical character 

 of the committee of Mexicans appointed in 

 1864 to devise a system of finance, prevented, 



as might have been supposed, the adoption of 

 any sensible measure. Meanwhile the expenses 

 of the empire so largely exceeded the receipts, 

 that unless some means were speedily taken 

 either to enhance the revenue or to retrench, 

 the permanence of the Government would be- 

 come exceedingly questionable. From a pamph- 

 let published in Washington in the interest of 

 the friends of the Mexican Republican Govern- 

 ment, we derive the following statement of the 

 public debt of the country at the close of 1865 : 



From this it would appear that the public 

 debt has been increased by the experiment of 

 intervention, and the establishment of an em- 

 pire, $190,103,045 over the sum total under 

 the republic. The contrast between the annual 

 expenditures of the two governments is equally 

 striking, as the following tables show : 



Annual expenditures of the Government of the Republic 

 as established by law of Congress August 16, 1S61. 



Interest on the foreign debt ..$2,760,022 



For foreign relations $210.340 



Forborne departments 1,798,059 



For finance 1,578.624 



Forwar 4,745,395 



8,327,418 



Total annual expenditures of the national 



Government $1 1,037,440 



Annual expenditures of the Government of Maximilian. 



Interest on his foreign debt (of which interest 



$10,377,777 is to France) $12,966,204 



Annual cost of his lottery scheme in Paris 1,891,237 



Personal expenses and civil list of Maximilian 



$10,500 per day (paid daily) 8,832,500 



25,000,000 francs per annum on account of ex- 

 penses of French contingent, according to 

 treaty of Mirnmar 4,629,629 



400,000 francs per voyage subvention to the 

 French line of transport steamers from St. 

 Nazaire 



Ministers, legations, consulates, agents, employi's. 

 pensions, gilts, travelling expenses, military 

 and civil expenses, and charges of bis foreign 

 armed force...'. 26,220,563 



Total annual expenses under Maximilian.. .$49,929,326 

 Annual expenses as fixed by the national Congress 



under the republic 11,057,440 



Annual increase under Maximilian $3S,S41,SS6 



* This should more properly, perhaps, be stated at $S1,- 

 632,560. The sum of $2,859,917, which represents the debts 

 recognized under the republic as due tr French subjects, is 

 included in the additional loan of $20,370,870, given lower 

 down in the table. 



