MEXICO.' 



641 



reniences of a trial. To-day the press is bound in 

 such a manner that it is open only to those who 

 favor the intervention. The publication of a Pon- 

 tifical allocution, of an edifying and moral retraction, 

 and of any paragraph copied from abroad in which al- 

 lusion is made to the authority of the Holy Father with 

 respect to the ecclesiastical questions of this country, 

 are the subjects of formal admonitions to the press, 

 and of prohibitions to insert in the future this class of 

 articles, at the same time that anti-ecclesiastical, and 

 sometimes even scandalous doctrines pass unnoticed. 

 It is for these reasons that, speaking of the situation 

 in which circumstances have now placed us, we con- 

 sider it worse than before. 



Then follow several passages of denunciation 

 against the "sacrilegious laws of spoliation" 

 which the Regency are attempting to reenforce, 

 and which, notwithstanding their "illegal, 

 ruinous, unpopular, and sacrilegious character," 

 they comglain, are " pompously called laws of 

 reform.'" Alluding to the surprise and con- 

 fusion which the course of the Regency has 

 caused them, and to the absence of any jus- 

 tifiable motive, founded on public conveni- 

 ence, for adopting such a course at this time, 

 they add : 



That Senor Juarez with his party should enact such 

 laws, and should work unceasingly to carry them into 

 effect, this we can well conceive, as well as the ener- 

 getic opposition of the prelates and the conscientious 

 resistance of all true Catholics ; but that a Govern- 

 ment under the protection of France (not as a conquer- 

 or, not as attempting to overthrow our independence, 

 but as respecting it and offering to save it, and in- 

 structing its commander-in-chief not to interfere with 

 the freedom of its acts), which has just been estab- 

 lished as the Government of a nation in virtue of the 

 vote of a Council of Notables, and in opposition to the 

 Government of Senor Juarez, that such a Government 

 should work for the laws which this latter has dictated, 

 these being, as they are, the essential and sole cause of 

 the division among the Mexicans and of the civil war, 

 this we cannot understand. * 



We well know that to present such proceedings in a 

 favorable light a thousand plausible excuses are in- 

 vented, principally to win over by surprise the Court 

 of France, which lacks the data indispensable to judge 

 of the state of society here. But the truth will not be 

 long in appearing in its true light, and to the scandal 

 of the world it will be known that the immense ma- 

 jority of the Mexicans are essentially Catholic, that 

 they respect the laws of God and of their Church, that 

 they bewail the attacks received from the Government 

 of Ayutla, and that if they manifested themselves in 

 favor of the intervention, it was because it presented 

 itself as their protector, not against the persons for 

 that would be but a childish jest but against the acts 

 of the Government of Senor Juarez. But the attitude 

 that the intervention to-day takes by such dispositions 

 has transformed its triumphs to victories over the par- 

 ty oppressed, for it gives force and vigor to the claims 

 and rights emanating from such acts. 



The bishops then examine the conduct of 

 Gen. Bazaine and the Regency by the light of 

 the instructions given to the former by M. 

 Drouyn de 1'Huys in August, and find that these 

 instructions have been obeyed neither in letter 

 nor in spirit. The motive for this disobedience 

 they allege to be a trivial one : 



And what has been the cause. What powerful mo- 

 tive has precipitated this crisis ? Perhaps the supreme 

 interests of society ? Perhaps an extreme necessity, 

 a sudden emergency, a tempest which could not be 

 assuaged by any other means ? No ! it was the most 

 VOL. HI. 41 A 



trifling cause, the most insignificant in regard to the 

 effect. 



The complaint of a French subject, and the request 

 of the General-in-Chief made to your Excellencies by 

 virtue of this complaint. This is the cause of all; 

 this is what Mexico has to hope from the impartiality 

 that was promised, and from the non-interference of 

 that chief in order to leave the Government free in its 

 acts ; this is the melancholy synopsis of the situation 

 in which the Mexican Church to-day finds itself. 



They therefore hope that all the proceed- 

 ings instituted by the Regency may be suspend- 

 ed ; but if this hope should prove fallacious, 

 they desire to utter their solemn protest against 

 every act affecting injuriously the property of 

 the Church, declaring all such acts utterly null 

 and void ; and conclude with the following 

 declarations : 



First That it is not lawful to obey the communica- 

 tions of the 24th October, the circulars of the 8th of 

 November and the 15th instant, nor any orders tending 

 to aid the execution of the said decrees of Senor Jua- 

 rez, nor to cooperate therewith. 



Second That neither that Government nor any Gov- 

 ernment, whatever it may be, has any authority to take 

 possession of the property of the Church ; that, there- 

 fore, both the decrees of that Government and the no- 

 tices and circulars issued by order of your Excellen- 

 cies, involve an illegal and tyrannical disposition of 

 the most sacred property, and are subject to the cen- 

 sures of the holy Church, and especially to the excom- 

 munication fulminated by the Holy Council of Trent, 

 in chapter 11 of session 22 de reformatione. In conse- 

 quence there are comprehended in this canonical pen- 

 alty not only the authors and executors of the decrees, 

 notices and circulars aforesaid, but also all those who 

 in any way cooperate or have cooperated toward 

 their fulfilment. 



Third That the political change which has taken 

 place in Mexico in consequence of intervention has 

 not altered or lessened in any respect the obligations 

 and moral and canonical responsibilities to which those 

 of whom we have just spoken are subject, and that 

 therefore all of our protests, circulars and diocesan or- 

 ders, issued by reason of the so-called constitution and 

 laws of reform, remain in all their force and vigor, and 

 are applicable to the notices and circulars of your Ex- 

 cellencies already mentioned, and to whatever other 

 dispositions of your Excellencies that tend to place in 

 execution the laws, decrees and acts to which our ca- 

 nonical protests, said manifestation, circular and dio- 

 cesan orders refer. 



Those incurring the censure of the said canon, in 

 virtue either of the law of the 25th of July, 1856, of 

 the decrees published in Vera Cruz by Seuor Juarez 

 in July, 1859, or afterward in Mexico," of the commu- 

 nications and circulars issued by order of your Excel- 

 lencies, or of the disposition or orders of whatever 

 authority or person, public or private that is to say, 

 the authors, executprs_ or cooperators in the despolia- 

 tion of the Church in its property, lands, rents, posses- 

 sions, claims, rights, temples, objects contained therein 

 destined to public worship, &c., are strictly obliged to 

 make restitution and reparation for the scandalous 

 crime ; and they cannot be absolved, not even at the 

 point of death, if they do not comply with the condi- 

 tions established by the Church and set forth in our 

 circulars and diocesan decrees aforesaid. 



So frank an acknowledgment that the seques- 

 tration policy of Juarez was " the essential and 

 sole cause " of the present complications, and 

 that there has never been any question at issue 

 in Mexico but that of the Church property, was 

 unexpected by the liberals, and seemed to jus- 

 tify the charges so freely made against the 

 Church party. The protest, however, except 



