pour cause d'indisposition), et elles l'ont trouvé conforme et l'ont approuvé.

JUAN ANTO. LOTEZ DE CEBALLOS, Secrétaire

de la Mission de Sa Majesté Catholique.

COMTE A. DE LA LONDE, Secrétaire de la Légation de France.

JOHN WALSHAM, Acting Secretary of Her Majesty's Legation.

No. 120.-Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell.—(Received May 14.) MY LORD, Orizaba, April 12, 1862. CONVINCED of the necessity of promptly conveying to your Lordship the fullest and most detailed information relative to the events now passing in Mexico, I have deemed it advisable to send home, as the bearer of these despatches, Mr. Horace Johnston, Second Paid Attaché of Her Majesty's Mission, who is ready to offer any explanation that may be required with reference to these matters.

From the turn affairs have now taken here, things revert to the state they were in before the intervention was undertaken, when I was desired by your Lordship to leave Mexico with all the members of Her Majesty's Legation, in order to join the Admiral at the Island of Jamaica.

Suffering severely, as I now am, from liver complaint, I could neither go there nor to Bermuda, where that officer now is, and I shall therefore proceed to the cooler climate of New York, where I can receive any orders from your Lordship in 10 days, and am at the same time within easy distance for communicating with the Admiral.

Under existing circumstances I cannot, of course, go up to Mexico; I cannot remain where I am, for so soon as the French army begins its hostile advance, swarms of Mexican cavalry will be down here to cut off their communication with the coast, which, from the smallness of their force, they will not be able to maintain ; nor can I remain in Vera Cruz, where yellow fever is now raging, and Europeans rapidly dying from its effects. The "vomito" has set in much earlier, and with greater intensity this year than usual, and will now last more or less until the end of October next.

The English in Mexico are not now likely to be molested, and their interests will be watched over by Mr. Consul Glennie, in whose prudence and judgment I have every confidence.

I propose leaving Vera Cruz with Mr. Walsham for New York direct on the 28th instant in Her Majesty's ship Challenger, and shall await there your Lordship's further instructions.

Earl Russell.

I have, &c.

C. LENNOX WYKE.

No. 121.-Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell.-(Received May 14.) MY LORD, Orizaba, April 13, 1862, 5 P.M. I HAVE just received a communication from General Doblado offering to come down here and sign a Convention with me for the settlement of the British claims.

A similar communication has been also addressed by that Minister to General Prim.

We have both individually accepted the proposal made to us, and expect General Doblado down here on the 17th.

The French begin their forward and hostile movement on Mexico about the 23rd, carrying with them General Almonte, Padre Miranda, and the other persons banished by the Government with which they had originally intended to treat at the same time as ourselves.

Whether I succeed in signing a Treaty with General Doblado or not, I still am inclined to proceed to New York, there to await further orders from your Lordship, as, if I were to go up to Mexico at present, I should be exposed to suspicion on the part of the French, and probably accused by their agents here of encouraging and aiding the Mexican Government to oppose a resistance to plans which they know I disapprove of.

General Prim, for similar reasons, will proceed to the Havana, there to await the further instructions of his Government.

The English residents in Mexico will, in the event of my temporary absence, always receive due protection from Mr. Consul Glennie, who has, during the last 3 months, performed that duty to the entire satisfaction of all his countrymen. I have, &c. Earl Russell.

C. LENNOX WYKE.

No. 122.-The Secretary to the Admiralty to Mr. Hammond.—(Received May 14.)

SIR,

Admiralty, May 14, 1862. I AM commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to send you herewith, for the information of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, copies of two letters from Commodore Dunlop, dated the 11th April, reporting the circumstances which have induced the British and Spanish Commissioners to withdraw from Mexican intervention.

E. Hammond, Esq.

I am,

&c.

C. PAGET.

(Inclosure 1.)-Commodore Dunlop to the Secretary to the Admiralty. SIR, Orizaba, April 11, 1862. I HAVE the honour to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the A that in consequence of the

[1862-63. LIII.]

determination of the French Commissioners to disregard entirely the preliminary Convention between General Prim, on behalf of himself and his colleagues, and General Doblado, signed at Soledad on the 19th February, and approved by the Commissioners collectively, without any sufficient cause, as it appears to the British and Spanish Commissioners, and the intention of the French, after having marched their troops back to Paso Ancho, in conformity with Article IV of that preliminary Convention, to move forward on the city of Mexico, taking with them General Almonte, Padre Miranda, and others of the Reactionary Church party, who are proscribed refugees, the British and Spanish Commissioners have considered it their duty to withdraw from the intervention in Mexican affairs, and as soon as possible to embark their troops, and to leave the country.

This determination was taken in consequence of what passed at a conference held in this city on the 9th instant, for the purpose of receiving explanations from the French Commissioners of steps adopted by them without consultation with their colleagues, which appeared to the latter entirely at variance with the Convention of London, and which, if joined in by them, would commit their Governments to a policy not contemplated or desirable, nor in unison either with the interests of Great Britain and Spain, or with those of Mexico.

I hope to be able to forward a copy of the procès-verbal of the Conference alluded to above, which will be the clearest statement of the intentions of the French and the arguments put forward to sustain their recent policy that can be given, and at the same time to add further explanations of my own; but if in the few hours before the departure of Mr. Johnston, Attaché to the British Legation, for England, I should not be enabled to obtain a copy of the procès-verbal, I will forward it by the packet of 2nd of May.

I shall embark the two Companies of British Marines still in Vera Cruz as soon as possible, and send them to join the battalion at Bermuda; and I have promised General Prim to convey, 1,500 Spanish troops to Havana in Her Majesty's ships, as he has not sufficient means of transport of his own, and it is of the greatest possible importance to the health of the troops that they should not be delayed at this season in Vera Cruz.

The Spanish troops have already commenced their march towards the Coast; as soon as they have all passed Paso Ancho, the French troops will commence their march on Mexico from that place.

I cannot at present give any information as to the line of conduct that will he pursued by the Mexican Government in consequence of this most sudden and unexpected independent policy of

the French but it is to be presumed that it will be looked upon

as a declaration of war.

The Secretary to the Admiralty.

I have, &c.

HUGH DUNLOP.

(Inclosure 2.)-Commodore Dunlop to the Secretary to the Admiralty. SIR, Orizaba, April 11, 1862.

WITH reference to my letter of this day's date, I have the honour to add, very hurriedly, as detailed an account of the recent policy adopted by the French Commissioners (as far as I can comprehend it), and of the necessity that, in consequence, has arisen for the withdrawal of the British and Spanish Commissioners from the intervention, as my time will permit.

I must trust to the procès-verbal of the proceedings at the Conference to put their Lordships in possession of the arguments used by our late French colleagues to justify their departure from all previous engagements, for I confess myself unable either to enter into them or to understand them.

Previous to my departure from Vera Cruz, the newly-arrived division of French troops, under General Lorencez, had marched from Tehuacan to join the division already at that place under ViceAdmiral Jurien de la Gravière; and the General permitted the Mexican General Almonte, a priest of the name of Miranda, and others of the Reactionest party, to proceed with him under French protection. These persons are all proscribed refugees, not having been included in the amnesty published by the present Government, General Almonte was elected by his party Provisional President of Mexico, and may therefore be looked upon as the ostensible head of the Church party, which is still in arms against the de facto Government, under General Marquez, a man whose name is famous, even in Mexico, for the ferocious cruelty of his acts towards foreigners and natives, and for the numerous robberies and extortions he has been guilty of.

General Almonte arrived at Vera Cruz from Paris by the English packet of the 27th February, and is one of the chief promoters of the Monarchy question; although an Indian, he is a man of education and considerable intelligence, and has a character for moderation not generally shared by the rest of his party, The priest well known in Mexico by the name of Padre Miranda, is generally execrated as a cruel, unscrupulous intriguant, who has been the chief mover in some of the worst transactions of the Reactionist party.

Although I was, in the absence of my two military colleagues, acting as chief authority in Vera Cruz, General Lorencez did not communicate to me his intention of taking with him these refugees,

2

which act was contrary to the previous agreement of the Commissioners of the 3 Powers. As soon as I was made aware of it, I wrote to Sir Charles Wyke and General Prim, who were at Orizaba, and communications passed between them and Admiral de la Gravière upon the subject, on their part remonstrating strongly against these proscribed refugees being taken into the heart of the country under French protection without the consent of the Commissioners. The full particulars of these communications I am unacquainted with, but no doubt they will be laid before Her Majesty's Government by Sir Charles Wyke.

The result, however, has been a communication on the part of Admiral de la Gravière to the Mexican Government, stating his intention to disregard the preliminary Convention, approved by himself and the other Commissioners, made between General Prim, on the part of his colleagues, and General Doblado, in conformity with Article IV of that Convention, to retire with his troops to Paso Ancho, with a view to an immediate advance on Mexico.

This communication being tantamount to a declaration of war on the part of the French, and the step having been taken without any previous consultation with their British and Spanish colleagues, was a virtual departure, on the part of the French, not only from all previous engagements between them and their colleagues, but also from all their own engagements with the Mexican Government, as agreed to in the preliminary Convention, immediate steps were taken to assemble the Commissioners at Orizaba, in order that a Conference might be held, with a view to demanding from our French colleagues a full explanation of the cause of their separate action, as well as a declaration whether they had resolved to depart from the spirit of the Convention of October last, signed in London by the Representatives of the 3 Powers, and which had hitherto been considered as the basis on which rested the policy to be pursued by the allies towards Mexico; and especially to ascertain whether the French Commissioners intended to adhere to that portion of Article II of the said Convention which stipulates that the High Contracting Powers are not "to exercise, in the interior affairs of Mexico, any influence calculated to interfere with the right of the Mexican nation to choose and constitute freely its own form of Government."

The French Commissioners did not both arrive in Orizaba until the 9th instant, and on that day the Conference was held which led to the withdrawal of the British and Spanish Commissioners from all further action with those of France, as stated in my previous letter of this day.

My despatches of this date are forwarded by Mr. Johnston, Attaché to Her Majesty's Legation in Mexico, who goes to England