642 



MEXICO. 



as a confession extorted from incensed and 

 disappointed men, attracted little notice, the 

 arguments contained in it having been often 

 stated before ; and the Regency pursued with 

 unruffled complacency the course marked out 

 for them by Gen. Bazaine. The judges of the 

 Supreme Tribunal, who were all members of 

 the Ohurch party, having, in defiance of the 

 decree of December 15th, refused to expedite 

 the ecclesiastical property cases, were prompt- 

 ly removed from office by the Regency, who 

 announced in a manifesto to the Mexican people 

 that their " line of conduct was traced before- 

 hand by gratitude to the intervention, and by 

 the interests of the country, which it was neces- 

 sary not to separate from the French policy." 



The following correspondence between Gen. 

 Neigre, whom Bazaine had left in command of 

 the city, and the Archbishop of Mexico, though 

 occurring after the close of the year, is ap- 

 pended as forming an important and indis- 

 pensable part of the proceedings above related : 



MEXICO, Jan. 16th, 1864. 



Tour Grace: There has just been brought to my 

 knowledge a matter of very grave import. Certain 

 incendiary publications, which have been put under 

 the doors of various houses and scattered clandestinely 

 among the public have reached my hands. 



The authors of these culpable publications magnify 

 petty material interests which our holy religion re- 

 pudiates, and appeal to the most detestable passions 

 against the army of his Majesty the Emperor, which 

 baa come to rescue Mexico from anarchy, and to afford 

 protection to the pastors of souls, in order to allow 

 them the greatest liberty in their holy ministry. They 

 forget that those prelates of whom they pretend to be 

 the organ, and whom they make to appear as humili- 

 ated and despised, have never been surrounded with 

 more respect and veneration. 



I desire to believe, your Grace, that you are ignorant 

 of these criminal proceedings. I therefore have to de- 

 nounce them to you, and to address to you an entreaty 

 in the interest of public order and tranquillity; since, 

 in the name of the Catholic religion, of which we 

 Frenchmen are the eldest sons, and in the name of the 

 prelates whom we cover with our respect, a degraded 

 party is in movement to disturb the national repose. 

 Tell that party, your Grace, that we are watching it, 

 and know its machinations ; that the French army, in 

 accord with the lawful Government of the country, will 

 maintain tranquillity; tell it that, although we are 

 always reluctant to employ violent measures of repres- 

 sion, we shall know how, if circumstances put us 

 under that painful obligation, to make them return 

 again to the obscurity from which they are daring to 

 put forth diatribes which prove them to be the real 

 enemies of Mexico. 



Be pleased to tell them this, your Grace, and if they 

 stop at your evangelical words, your Grace will have 

 done a great service to humanity, and, failing their 

 gratitude, vou will have ours. 



BARON NEIGUE, General in Command. 



To his Grace the ARCUBISHOP OP MEXICO. 



REPLY Or THE ARCHBISHOP TO GEN. NEIGRE. 



Tour Excellency : In reply to the communication of 

 your Excellency of the loth" instant, I have the honor 

 to assure you, with respect to incendiary writings dis- 

 tributed through the city, that I have not had, nor 

 even now have, any knowledge of them up to the pres- 

 ent time. It would, therefore, have been necessary 

 that I should have read them to be able to answer you, 

 and I would thank you sincerely if you would have the 

 kindness to send me a copy of them. 



Here I would finish my letter if you did not make in 

 yours certain assertions that, independently of the 



writings referred to, you throw upon the Mexican 

 clergy. It is, therefore, indispensable to rectify these 

 assertions in case they are not exact. 



There is an acknowledged fact one publicly notori- 

 ous which is, that we have all protested against the 

 two individuals who assume to be a government, and 

 against the circulars of the 9th of November and 15th 

 of December last, and we declare categorically that the 

 Church, in its immunities and rights, is at present the 

 object of the same attacks that it had to suffer during 

 the government of Juarez ; that never was the Church 

 so bitterly persecuted; and that we, the chief prelate, 

 from the position in which we have been placed, find 

 ourselves in a worse situation than at that period. 



Your Excellency tells me that in the exercise of 

 their sacred ministry the jjastors of souls enjoy the 

 greatest protection and the most complete liberty, and 

 that they have never been held in greater respect and 

 veneration. Your Excellency, then, will perceive that 

 the two documents quoted (our manifesto and your 

 letter) represent, with respect to the position ot the 

 Church, two propositions entirely contradictory, and 

 that of the two propositions one is necessarily true and 

 the other consequently false. 



In conformity with this statement of facts, and the 

 deductions of logic, it results that we, a Mexican 

 prelate, find ourselves, according to your assertion, in 

 the alternative of denying those writings or of retract- 

 ing our words. 



We cannot retract, because we have spoken the 

 truth, protested justly, and acted rightfully, and we 

 feel in our conscience that we have been placed in the 

 painful necessity of acting thus. 



From what your Excellency tells me, I infer that you 

 are ill informed with regard to the situation of the 

 Mexican Church, and I am convinced that had you 

 known the facts, the interests involved and the motives 

 which have determined our conduct, you would have 

 done us justice in the opinion which you would have 

 formed of that conduct. 



I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency a 

 copy of my protest. 



\ our Excellency will be pleased to accept the ex- 

 pression of my consideration. 



PELAGIO ANTONIO, Archbishop of Mexico. 



To his Excellency BARON NEIGUE, 



General in Command. 



The position of the United States, during the 

 year, in relation to the Mexican question, w 

 a peculiar one. On the one hand, the Gove 

 ment was supposed, in accordance with 

 popular interpretation of the so-called "Mo 

 roe doctrine," to be pledged to oppose a 

 interference by foreign Powers with the po- 

 litical affairs of the American continent; while, 

 on the other, the exigencies of the existing 

 civil war monopolized her military resources 

 to an extent which would render protest or 

 opposition to the schemes of France of little 

 effect. The popular sympathy lent itself to the 

 cause of the Mexican liberals, and, notwith- 

 standing the hands of the Government were in 

 a measure tied, there were not wanting many 

 persons, friends as well as opponents of the 

 administration, who thought that the tradition- 

 al policy of the country should not bo aban- 

 doned, and who believed that a protest, C-VIMI 

 though accompanied by no military demonstra- 

 tion, would have prevented the establishment 

 of an empire in Mexico. This led to a discus- 

 sion in the public prints respecting the history 

 and object of the promulgation of the Monroe 

 doctrine, with a view of ascertaining exactly 

 what the Government pledged itself to do in 





