MEXICO. 



525 



eponsible c&ses of the highest functionaries, when by 

 us it mar be ordered, or any other case or business 

 which we, specially for the public interest or con- 

 venience, in cases of urgency, may deem proper to 

 consign to it for an express decree. 



4. To give opinions on all questions that we, di- 

 rectly or through the ministries, may lay before it. 



5. "To perform any other duty that by law or by us 

 may be eiven to it. 



ART. ill. The Council will confine itself to giving 

 opinions on all points on which it may be consulted, 

 making on them the observations that it may deem 

 proper. 



ART. IV. The President, Councillors, and Audit- 

 ors will be at will appointed and removed by us. 



ART. V. The annual salaries will be as follows : 

 President, $6,000; Councillors, $4,000; Auditors, 

 $1,500. No one will have a right to any other re- 

 muneration. In no case will he be allowed to draw 

 emoluments from the Treasury, nor from those in- 

 terested. 



ART. YI. The President, Councillors, and Audit- 

 ors cannot exercise any functions in any branch of 

 the administration ; but we will confer upon them 

 the functions that we believe of use to the public 

 service. 



In the formation of this body the opponents 

 of the empire fancied they detected an aping 

 of Napoleonic ideas, and an evidence of the 

 Xapoleonic influence. The latter suspicion 

 seemed presently to be amply justified by a 

 decree of the imperial government, forbidding 

 the shipment of bullion from Mexico in any 

 but French bottoms, and to any but French 

 ports, which brought out a protest from lead- 

 ing English bankers to Earl Russell. The sign- 

 ers of this document characterized the decree 

 as "unusual and arbitrary," and deprecated 

 the idea of a hasty recognition of the new gov- 

 ernment by sending a minister to Mexico. 

 Their action came too late, however, to pre- 

 vent this, as steps had already been taken to 

 recognize the empire. A similar course had 

 been followed by the other great powers of the 

 world, with the exception of the United States, 

 and during the latter part of the year a con- 

 siderable number of foreign ministers arrived 

 at the capital. 



According to the "Estafette,"the official paper 

 of the capital, the committee on finance re- 

 ported in December that thirty millions of dol- 

 lars would cover the expenses of the Gov- 

 ernment for the succeeding fiscal year. This 

 journal, however, was of the opinion that forty 

 millions would scarcely suffice for this purpose, 

 reasoning in this way: For payment of the 

 public debt and indemnities there "would be re- 

 quired twelve or thirteen millions ; for the 

 French army remaining about five millions; 

 and then, after paying all the costs of the civil 

 administration, salaries of employes, clergy, and 

 officials, the army of foreign and the army of 

 Mexican troops, exclusive of the French, there 

 would remain nothing for instruction and pub- 

 lic works. The " Estafette " admitted that there 

 was little money in the countiy, and that it 

 would be hopeless to attempt at present to raise 

 more by means of taxation, whence the conclu- 

 sion became inevitable that retrenchment would 

 have to be practised in the public administra- 



tion or money raised by loan. So disheartened 

 was Maximilian by the financial embarrassments 

 by which he wa s surrounded, that he is stated 

 to have written to the Emperor iNapoleon ask- 

 ing the assistance of a practical business man 

 to establish the credit of the new Government; 

 and he subsequently sent Don Eustaquio Barron, 

 a weathy capitalist, to Europe to raise funds. 

 Toward the close of the year a variety of new 

 schemes for railroads and telegraph lines were 

 brought forward ; and with a view of opening 

 new avenues of industry, the emperor addressed 

 a note to the Minister of the Interior, directing 

 him to inquire as to the best means of encour- 

 aging the cultivation of coffee, cotton, sugar, and 

 other tropical products in Mexico. 



In the preceding volume of this work the 

 circumstances which, in the latter part of 1863, 

 brought the regency into collision with the re- 

 actionary or Church party, were detailed at 

 length. The ecclesiastics, incensed at the refusal 

 of the new Government to annul the laws of 

 confiscation passed under preceding liberal ad- 

 ministrations, awoke to the bitter reflection 

 that the European intervention, for which they 

 had so unscrupulously and successfully labored, 

 instead of inuring to their benefit, would prob- 

 ably prove an additional source of disappoint- 

 ment, and possibly of despoilment. In other 

 words, their property was no safer under Max- 

 imilian than under Juarez. A lingering hope, 

 however, seems to have prevailed that the 

 new emperor, himself a member of a strong 

 Catholic family, of absolutist tendencies, would 

 refuse to ratify the action of Gen. Bazaine, and 

 that the Church, reinstated in ah 1 her former 

 wealth and privileges, would still be the con- 

 trolling influence in Mexico. They therefore 

 paid sedulous court to Maximilian on his arrival, 

 but soon found that the "march of events " (as 

 the French officials termed it) would not permit 

 him, however willing he might be to do so, to 

 annul the policy initiated under the regency. 

 The confiscated estates could not be restored, 

 the old privileges could not again be enjoyed, 

 and to their horror the emperor showed a dis- 

 position to permit complete religious toleration 

 in his dominions. The clergy found themselves 

 at last, as the Archbishop of Mexico had some- 

 what prematurely asserted in his correspond- 

 ence with the French journals, actually in a 

 worse condition than under Juarez, and in con- 

 sequence then- influence was at once directed to 

 pulling down the political structure they had 

 been at such pains to erect. Miramon, their 

 chief champion in the cabinet and the field, 

 commenced to intrigue against the Government, 

 and so far compromised himself that he was 

 sent out of the country. This warned others 

 that in the presence of the material power, 

 swayed by Maximilian, any attempt to over- 

 throw the empire would meet with a bloody 

 repulse. But their efforts, it is said, were not 

 less active, if compelled to be made in secret, 

 and the army of Diaz inOajaca, the last strong- 

 hold of the liberals, was, on good authority 



