On the other hand, having reason to know, as I do, the desires of the allied Governments, and especially of that of His Majesty the Emperor of the French, which is no other than was established in our unfortunate country, and that by ourselves, a Government strong in order and morality, put an end to the pillage and vandalism which now prevail in every corner of the Republic, and that the commercial world may obtain the immense advantages which our most fertile land holds forth from its natural wealth and geographical position, it was my duty to hasten my arrival, in order to make known to you those sound intentions, which imply, on the other side, also the philanthropic idea of securing for ever the independence, the nationality, and the integrity of the Mexican territory.

To establish, then, a new order of things, you should trust in the effective co-operation of France, whose illustrious Sovereign always sheds his beneficial influence wherever the object is that a just and civilizing cause should prevail.

Mexicans!

If my honourable antecedents, if the services I have rendered to my country, as well in the glorious struggle for our independence as in the guidance of her policy at the various periods when I formed a part of our Cabinet, or represented the nation abroad; if all this, I repeat, can give me a title to your confidence, unite your efforts to mine, and you may be assured that we shall very speedily obtain the establishment of a Government such as is suitable to our character, our necessities, and our religious belief.

This is the assurance of your countrymen and best friend, JUAN N. ALMONTE.

Orizaba, April 21, 1862.

General J. N. Almonte to the peaceful inhabitants of Orizaba. My Countrymen,

Being proclaimed by you General-in-chief of the National Forces, and supreme Head of the nation ad interim, my first duty is to convey to you my most earnest thanks for the confidence you have just placed in me. You are acquainted with my sentiments, made known to you in the Proclamation which I addressed to you from Cordova, and you will have seen already that I did not deceive you when I assured you in that Proclamation that you might trust in the effective co-operation of the French forces for establishing a Government of order and morality.

Thus, beginning from yesterday, you are enjoying the benefits of that co-operation, and thus you find yourselves liberated from the forced loan of 200,000 dollars which was about to be imposed on

you by the Chief of the Forces of the barbarous Government which at present exists in the capital of the Republic, for the affliction and the shame of the Mexicans.

Yet, console yourselves, for that Government will speedily disappear, and he will shortly have the pleasure to address you from Mexico who now subscribes himself as your countryman and best friend, JUAN N. ALMONTE.

No. 136.-Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell.—(Received June 2.) (Extract.) Puebla, April 29, 1862. I LEFT Orizaba at mid-day on the 22nd instant, with Commodore Dunlop, Mr. Walsham, and Mr. Consul Glennie, and we reached this place on the morning of the 24th. A house had been provided for our reception, and every possible attention was shown to us by the Governor and the authorities of the town.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day General Doblado himself called, and, during a long interview, he explained how anxious he was, on the part of his Government, to grant that satisfaction and redress to us which he had been prepared to concede during the Conferences that would have been held at Orizaba on the 15th instant, had it not been for what he characterized as the violent and unjustifiable violation of the preliminary Convention of La Soledad by the French Agents. He went on to say that, as they had clearly also violated the London Convention, by openly espousing the cause of the Reactionary faction and sustaining them in their rebellion, he concluded that both the Spanish Agent and ourselves had regained our freedom of action, and were at liberty to treat singly with the Mexican Government, provided that by so doing we could obtain such a settlement of the claims we were bound to support as would prove satisfactory to our respective Governments.

I have already expressed to your Lordship my opinion that he is perfectly sincere in thus expressing himself; as well, also, as my belief that he is the only man who is capable of re-establishing peace and order in the country.

Commodore Dunlop was present at this and the subsequent conferences which I had with General Doblado.

After discussing the question in all its bearings, and considering that we were now perfectly free agents in arriving at any solution of our pending differences with Mexico which should prove satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government, the Commodore and myself finally signed, yesterday evening, with General Doblado, a Convention which I have every reason to believe will meet with the approval of your Lordship, as its stipulations secure to the London and Convention bondholders the recognition of all former Conventions and

Agreements made in their favour; whilst at the same time it gives us the only tangible security which this Government has to offer for the due payment, in specie, of the claims brought forward by British subjects, amounting in all, as far as they are known, to the sum of nearly 3,500,000 Spanish dollars.

The basis on which this arrangement is concluded is a Convention lately signed by Mr. Corwin, The United States' Minister here, with the Mexican Government, by which the latter are to receive from the Government at Washington a loan of 11,000,000 dollars, at 6 per cent. interest, guaranteed by a mortgage on the waste lands and the remainder of the Church property still disposable.

Should this Treaty be ratified, the first instalment of 2,000,000 dollars, which is to be immediately received by the Mexicans, is to be handed over to us in order to pay off the privileged class of claimants, to whom is due, according to our calculation, about 1,700,000 dollars.

As our list of acknowledged claims does not agree with that furnished by the Mexican Government, General Doblado is anxious for us to decide which claims are really entitled to be placed in the first, or privileged class, and for them then to be paid out of this first instalment of 2,000,000 dollars.

The remainder of the 11,000,000 dollars to be received from The United States are to be paid within the term of 16 months, we receiving a fourth part of each instalment as it becomes due, until the liquidation of all the claims comprised in the second class, the whole of which are to be submitted to the verification of a Mixed Commission, composed of one English and one Mexican Commissioner, whose differences, should any exist, are to be settled by the fiat of an umpire, whose decision is to be final.

Should the Convention above alluded to not be ratified by the Cabinet of Washington, then the same lands and Church property, offered to them as a guarantee, are to be sold by a Commission appointed for the purpose by the Mexican Government, and the proceeds thereof are to be immediately applied to the liquidation of the English claims, in accordance with the decision of the aforesaid Mixed Commission.

According to our calculation, the first or privileged class of claims, including those of the Legation robbery and the Laguna Seca, will amount to about 1,700,000 dollars, which will thus come within the 2,000,000 dollars set apart for their immediate liquidation.

Most of these claims are acknowledged by the Mexican Government to their full amount, but others are not; whilst some of those in the second class are stated by General Doblado as belonging to the first.

As it was impossible, away from the archives of the Legation, to clear up this question on the spot, it was decided that all the claims were to be submitted to the Commissioners when, on proper proof being adduced, their classification would become complete, and we should then pay those justly entitled to preference out of the 2,000,000 dollars at once made over to Her Majesty's Government, as being more than the amount required for their liquidation. This will account for the reason why I have been obliged to depart from your Lordship's instructions with reference to this matter, as conveyed to me in your despatch of the 30th of March, 1861.

With regard to the claims of the London and Convention bondholders, they will be paid as heretofore out of the 59 per cent. of duties payable at the Vera Cruz and Tampico Custom-Houses, besides what belongs to them from the Pacific Custom-Houses when the proceeds of the latter become available for that purpose.

I have got an Interventor placed already at Vera Cruz: and the stipulations of the Convention give the real bona fide powers of one at all the ports of the Republic where we have Consular Agents, or where I may name any such for the purpose specified. This is a great step in advance, as we have hitherto had no means of knowing what duties were really collected in any of the ports except the two above-named.

By this arrangement we have obtained all the real power we want, without at the same time risking the ratification of the Convention, and wounding the national pride, by the hateful word "Interventor," which I have found so constant an obstacle in the way of anything like a satisfactory arrangement of this vexed question.

The obliging the importers to pay that part of their duties owing to the bondholders, in "bonos," secures the latter from the frauds hitherto practised on them by unprincipled merchants paying only half their duties in ready money to the Customs authorities, who preferred that mode of settlement to having to wait the proper time for the receipt of the whole sum legally due to them.

General Doblado is, as I have already informed your Lordship, invested with full power by the Congress to conclude any Treaty with foreign Governments, so that their sanction is not necessary, the ratification of the President being alone required. This is a mere matter of form, which General Doblado assures me will be gone through to-day on his arrival at Mexico, for which city he started this morning at 4 o'clock.

I herewith inclose a copy of the English version of the Treaty for your Lordship's information, not having time to have a regular copy of the whole document made out, for the English mail will

leave in a couple of hours' time, thus preventing me from analyzing each separate Article as I should have wished to do.

Directly I hear of the Convention having been ratified by the President, I shall repair to Mexico; as, although that course is attended with some inconveniences, yet, on the whole, I consider it better for me to repair to my post under such critical circumstances as the present.

I have acted in the whole of this affair on my own responsibility, and to the best of my judgment, for the good of Her Majesty's service, and I only trust that my conduct may merit your Lordship's approval.

Everything I have latterly done has been based, of course, on the direct violation of the London Convention by the French Agents, which, in the opinion of Commodore Dunlop and myself, has restored us to a perfect freedom of action, in forwarding those important interests which have been intrusted to our charge.

I should be ungrateful were I not to state how much I have been indebted to his able co-operation with me on every occasion, when I have profited by the great experience and sound judgment he has invariably displayed throughout the whole of this trying

business.

Should your Lordship approve of the Convention, the original of which I will send home as soon as possible, its ratification should be forwarded to Mexico, there to be exchanged by me against that of President Juarez.

Earl Russell.

C. LENNOX WYKE.

(Inclosure.)-Convention between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and the Republic of Mexico, for the final Settlement of those Questions, Claims, and Differences which have given rise to a Suspension of Diplomatic Relations between the two Governments.-Signed at Puebla, April 28, 1862.*

WHEREAS certain claims upon the Government of Mexico on the part of companies, commercial firms, and private individuals, subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, are still pending and remain unsettled; Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and the President of the Republic of Mexico, being of opinion that a speedy and equitable settlement of all such claims will contribute much to the renewal of the friendly feelings which should ever subsist between the two countries, have resolved to make arrangements for that purpose by means of a Convention, and have named as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say:

Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Sir *Not ratified. See page 592.