establishment of religious freedom in Mexico.[1] All. this produced a dampening effect in reactionary circles. Such language was not what they had been led to expect. The allies had come to counsel, not to war against, Juarez and his party. Nothing worthy of notice occurred at the conferences of the plenipotentiaries till the pecuniary claims were made the subject of consideration. It must be borne in mind that at the first conference, on the 9th of January, Prim proposed, and his colleagues accepted, that, together with the joint note they purposed addressing to the Mexican government, each of them should furnish "a separate note of the reparations" demanded by his government. At the second conference Saligny manifested the impossibility of fixing the amount of the indemnities due French citizens.[2] At the third conference, on the 13th of January, in which the commissaries were to present their respective ultimata, Saligny failed to appear, and Jurien had to read the French ultimatum, which consisted of ten articles, some of which were incompatible with Mexican in-
- ↑ Era para ellos, como de costumbre, cnestion de algodones y de biblias.' Id. In the Spanish córtes it was later asserted that England's action in seceding from the intervention had been due to her opposition to the catholic church. Córtes, Diario Senado, ii., no. 95, 1126. The British demands were set forth in four articles: 1st, Mexico was to furnish a formal guarantee for the faithful execution in future of previous treaties between her and Great Britain; 2d, restore the $660,000 stolen by Marquez from the British legation, and $269,000 balance still unpaid of the Laguna Seca affair, with interest at 6 per cent on the former and 12 per cent on the latter; moreover, 6 per cent interest on sums that should have been paid, and were withheld by the law of July 17, 1861, suspending payments; 3d, to admit British agents at the ports with power to reduce import dues to one half, and to intervene the same as the Mexican officials in the collection of customs duties to insure a just and equitable distribution of the proceeds; 4th, the Mexican government was to proceed at once, in concert with the British minister, to the adjustment of all pending claims ascertained to be just. Lefêvre, Doc. Maximiliano, i. 150-1.
- ↑ The other plenipotentiaries, admitting that they might find themselves in the same predicament, proposed to get over the difficulty by adopting a common form in order to bring about the immediate recognition of the reparations already accepted, and also in principle that of such as after examination should appear to be just and legitimate. This the British minister had intended should be afterward ascertained by mixed commissions. The French government had no idea of what amount should be claimed; at one time it thought of five or six million dollars, and never, even at a wild computation, exceeded ten million. Romero, Hist. Intrig. Europ., 92-5.
