FRENCH CLAIMS.
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dependence and sovereignty.[1] The pecuniary pretensions of the French, though not assailing Mexico's sovereignty, were no less unjust and exorbitant. The first claim was set down at twelve million dollars.[2] They wanted the immediate payment without allowing Mexico the right of examining into their justice through a mixed commission, as practised among civilized nations. The second pecuniary demand preferred by Saligny was that of Jecker and Company for fifteen million dollars, which the Spanish plenipotentiary, and with him Wyke and Dunlop, after a warm discussion, declared inadmissible.[3]
- ↑ Article 7th would give French agents interference in the administration of justice in cases where French subjects were concerned; and article 9th was to give the French control of custom-houses, the right to lower duties, etc. Id., 97-9; Lefêvre, Doc. Maximiliano, i. 147-50; Córtes, Diario Congreso, vi., ap. 1, no. 138, 57-65.
- ↑ Wyke wrote his government, Jan. 19, 1862 (no. 30 of the British correspondence), that Saligny had fixed the unadjusted French claims at twelve million dollars, saying that he had not examined them, as this would occupy twelve months' time; but he supposed this sum to be within one million or two, more or less, of the amount actually due. Sir Charles assumes to explain the nature of these claims. Nineteen out of twenty of the foreigners residing in Mexico, he says, have a claim of one kind or another against the government, many of them being no doubt just; the rest he declares to be fabricated for the purpose of obtaining pay for some pretended grievance, such as an imprisonment of three days purposely incurred to set up a claim. Romero, Hist. Intrig. Europ., 99-100.
- ↑ Here we have the true inwardness of the fraudulent claims. Jecker was a Swiss by birth, always known as such. It is not claimed that he became a Frenchman till March 26, 1862. Suddenly, without having resided in France or done service to that nation, he appeared as a full-fledged Frenchman, under color of which transformation his claims were advanced by Saligny. Wyke, in the despatch before mentioned, gives the history of Miramon's last financial operation. When his government was at the point of co!lapsing, Jecker & Co. lent it $750,000 in specie, at 5 per centum intercst, as originally agreed upon, receiving therefor fifteen million dollars in treasury bonds, an infamous contract causing discontent throughout the country, and which neither the government of Juarez nor any other would ever recognize. Arrangoiz, Aléj., ii. 361; iii. 20-1; Lempriere's Notes in Mex., 242. Wyke added that he had understood Juarez' government was disposed to pay the $750,000 with the interest due. Méx., Legis. Méj. (1856, July-Dec.); Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., viii. 628-9; Archivo Mex., Col. Leyes, iii. 929–-32; Méx., Mem. Hac., 1870, 475-6. Hidalgo, Apuntes, 104, claims that however onerous or even extortionate, 'nada tenia que ver en él el representante de Inglaterra,' who had opposed the pretension. 'El de España le secundó en esa resistencia.' He would have England and Spain complacently aid Saligny to rob Mexico. The Mexican government was not responsible. Lefêvre, Mex. et L'Interv., 260. On the other hand, it was claimed that the affair might be looked at from a double point of view, namely, the private interests of Jecker and Company, which had become those of numerous Frenchmen and benevolent establishments, compromised by their bankruptcy; and those of the general interests of commerce which by the clauses of the Jecker contract were benefited by
