640 



MEXICO. 



gency, he could not be in opposition to it ; that 

 he had not specifically declared his unwilling- 

 ness to meet with his colleagues ; and that the 

 Assembly of Notables was alone competent to 

 remove him from office. He also requested 

 that his protest might be sent to General Ba- 

 zaine. 



Subsequently he received from the latter the 

 following communication : 



EXPEDITIONARY CORPS OK MEXICO, HEADQUABTERS ) 



OF TUB GENERAL-IN-CHIEF, v 



MEXICO, 2fov. 2(MA, 1863. | 



TOUR GBACB I have received the protest which his 

 Excellency General Almonte has caused to reach me, 

 with reference to the measures which have been adopt- 

 ed b v the Regency to remove your Grace from the Pro- 

 visional Government I must make known to your 

 Grace that this measure was rendered necess_ary by the 

 attitude of your Grace, and it was taken with my ap- 

 probation, persuaded, as I am, that this was the only 

 means of avoiding the interruption of the march of 

 events. 



May I be permitted to express the desire that your 

 Grace, well inspired, will accept the position as it is to- 

 day, and will reject the advice and the suggestions of 

 imprudent friends, against whom, notwithstanding, I 

 have determined to take the most rigorous measures 

 that I am authorized to employ under the powers with 

 which I am invested. I rely on the abnegation of 

 your Grace, and on your devotion to the country, that, 

 at the moment I am about setting out for the interior, 

 on the work of the pacification and regeneration of 

 Mexico, your opposition will not delay the march of 

 the Government. 



Your Grace will please receive the expression of my 

 high and respectful consideration. BAZAINE. 



General Commanding-in-Chief. 



To his Grace the ARCHBISHOP OP MEXICO. 



In reply, the archbishop argued that his re- 

 moval would delay rather than facilitate the 

 " march of events," and denied the authority 

 of the general in the premises. "This Gov- 

 ernment," he observed, " was terminated on 

 the day of my removal. That which exists to- 

 day may be whatever you wish, but it will not 

 -be the Government announced by General 

 Forey to the Mexican people, to France, to the 

 world," whence he concluded that the act of 

 General Bazaine was null and void. 



On December 15th, at the instigation of Gen- 

 eral Bazaine, a further order was issued by the 

 Regency, removing all obstacles and legal im- 

 pediments to the exercise of rights of action 

 respecting church property, which were in ex- 

 istence at the time of the arrival of the French 

 in the country. This seemed to indicate a pol- 

 icy on the vexed question of sequestration too 

 plain to be misunderstood ; but for the purpose 

 of putting on record their opinions, and with 

 some lingering hope, perhaps, that they might 

 be able to avert the impending calamity, the 

 Church party, represented by the archbishops 

 of Mexico, Michoacan, and Guadalajara, and 

 the bishops of San Luis Potosi and Oajaca, 

 united, on December 26th, in a protest to the 

 Regency, which, hi some respects, is the most 

 remarkable paper produced during the war. 



After reciting the various illegal acts of the 

 Regency, who, they allege, bound themselves 

 Tinder solemn obligations to the Church and 

 the nation, "not to decide any ecclesiastical 



questions, except in accord with the Holy Apos- 

 tolic See," they observe : 



All these acts manifest with the most weighty evi- 

 dence that the Holy Catholic Church in Mexico suffers 

 to-day, at the hands of the Government which actually 

 exists in the capital, a compulsion in its most holy 

 rights and in its canonical liberties entirely equal to 

 that which it suffered when the authorities emanating 

 from the plan of Ayutla * were in power, because such 

 compulsion consists, not in the form of Government 

 nor in the persons of those who compose it, but in the 

 character and importance of its acts ; and those of vour 

 Excellencies tend to expedite the consummation of the 

 work which those authorities began, for you declare in 

 full force the rights and actions which spring from the 

 sacrilegious and illegal laws and from the acts commit- 

 ted against the immunity of the Church by said au- 

 thorities, and even in the same language, for the same 

 odious expression is now used which was then em- 

 ployed to designate the ecclesiastical property. 



Grievous would be the evils which the Church suffers 

 to-day, were they no greater than they were ; but, by a 

 misfortune which we can never sufficiently deplore, 

 there are peculiar circumstances which render still 

 worse the situation of the Church in Mexico, and which 

 increase its grief to an extraordinary degree. 



Then the Government frankly manifested its prin- 

 ciples. It appeared to the view of all this Catholic 

 people in the character of an opposition armed with 

 power against religion and the Church ; and the latter, 

 as a victim immolated by the Government, defended 



_ . luse 



of justice. To-day a Government inaugurates itself with 

 professions eminently religious and moral, after the 

 French army has destroyed, in the capital, that of 

 Juarez, and it presents itself before the Mexican people 

 as the protector of its faith, of its religion, of the 

 Church, and of the priesthood. Then we were ban- 

 ished ; to-day we are invited and received with ex- 

 pressions of consideration ; creating by this means 

 among the people a feeling of confidence as regards 

 their tenderest affections, their dearest interests. Then 

 the prelates leaving our country carried with them the 

 hope that the first political change which should take 

 place would bring with it a complete moral and relig- 

 ious restoration. To-day, returning after such a change 

 to be present at the immolation of all our principles, 

 the consummation of the ruin of the Church, we have 

 received a blow such as is only received at the death 

 of all human hope. Then the Church had only one 

 enemy the Government that persecuted it. To-day it 

 has two : that same Government which still lives in 

 the country, which still has resources of its own, an 

 army that contends hand to hand for every foot of 

 ground, and that counts upon the aid of its principles 

 and interests in the enemy's camp ; and in tne capital 

 an enemy whose first business it is to carry into effect 

 the destructive plans of its opponent in religious and 

 moral affairs. Then we received the blow from the 

 hand of an open enemy : to-day we are attacked by those 

 who call themselves friends of the Church and pro- 

 tectors of its liberties. Then the attack and the defence 

 did not pass beyond strictly national bounds : to-day 

 we have to lament the character which intervention 

 has given to these attacks, and that from it have arisen 

 the exigencies which have obliged your Excellencies 

 to adopt your present course. Then we verified our 

 episcopal acts simply as bishops ; to-day we have to 

 make our defence passive and legal, because we cannot 

 pass that limit also as Mexicans. Then, notwithstand- 

 ing the restrictions imposed by the laws of the press, 

 we could publish our protests and our pastorals 

 to the people, because there existed no other re- 

 straints than such as would result from the incon- 



The plan of Ayntla (1854) led to the overthrow of Santa 

 Anna and the reactionary party, and the establishment of 

 the liberal administration of Coinonfort, under which were 

 passed the flrst lava for the sequestration of church prop- 

 erty. 



