ENGLAND AND MEXICO, 1824-1825^ 



By Frederic Logan Paxson 



The activities of Great Britain in Mexico during the years 1824 

 and 1825 were inspired, not only by a desire to ascertain the actual 

 conditions prevailing in that republic, with a view to ultimate recog- 

 nition, but also by an anxiety lest the United States should profit by 

 proximity and interest, and thereby acquire undue advantages in 

 Mexico. These facts are clearly developed by the Foreign Office 

 correspondence of these years, and the follo\Aang extracts from the 

 correspondence tell the story, with but httle need for comment. 



It was with difficulty that Canning preserved in his Mexican agents 

 the neutral attitude which he desired to show to all the Latin-Ameri- 

 can colonies. The most imperative instructions often failed to direct 

 the actions of the men on the ground. "You are sent," he instructed 

 one of them,^ "to ascertain the Fact of Mexican Independence, not 

 actively to promote it; and to form and report an Opinion of the Sta- 

 bihty of the Government, not to prescribe its form or attempt to influ- 

 ence its Councils. " Yet there was a quality in the Mexican influence 

 to which none of his agents was impervious. Whether it was a cor- 

 rupt attack, or a sympathy with the spirit of independence, or a truer 

 view based upon better information, is hard to say; but certain it is 

 that the EngHsh agents cannot be accused of faihng to see certain 

 dangers taking shape along the northern frontier, or of faihng to try 

 to inspire both Mexico and the Foreign Office to resist them. 



As early as January, 1824, the agent, Lionel Hervey, had announced 

 to Canning that Mexico was ready to enter into exclusive trade arrange- 

 ments with Great Britain, and had advised strongly in favor of such 

 an arrangement. Spain had been expelled, he said, and Mexico was 

 too poor and too weak to stand alone. "Hence the Mexicans are 

 looking anxiously around them in quest of an AUiance with one of the 



' Reprinted from the Qttarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, October, 1905, Vol. IX, pp. 

 138-141. 



" Canning to Morier, July 30, 1824, Foreign Office MSS. 



115 



