ernment of Mexico; that he is not known in the States whose representation he attempts to assume, and that the proposals he has allowed himself to make to this government are formally and solemnly rebuked and repelled by the legitimately constituted authorities thereof. The confidence I have in the justice and sound judgment of the government of the United States induces me to address this communication to it, rather to enlighten its opinion than for any other purpose. If I had the least suspicion that Cortes would be received in this city as the duly authorized agent of any fraction of the Mexican republic, and that his proposals, whatever they are, might be taken into consideration, I should think it my duty to protest formally and without delay against such procedure and the arrangements Cortes might make. I avail of this occasion to repeat to you, sir, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c. M. ROMERO. [Enclosure No. 1.-Translation.] GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF CHIHUAHUA, Your note, dated 20th November last past, which I have received to-day, and the copy you send me of what you addressed to the department of foreign relations and government, of same date, at the city of San Luis Potosi, have informed me of the unpatriotic steps taken with the minister for foreign affairs of that republic, Mr. Seward, by one D. José Domingo Cortes, about the annexation to the United States of this State and those of the Pacific coast, in order to free them from French intervention. I at once approve the assurances you made to Secretary Seward, denying so calumnious an imputation, and repudiating it as unworthy of any good Mexican; and I assure you the government in my charge, and can also aver that the others in question, are very far from entertaining such wretched views, because, although it is sure they will as far as possible resist French intervention, it is no less sure that they pant for and will at all hazards secure the nationality of Mexico, and its existing institutions; being able to assure you, in fine, that not only is all news wanting here about the mission and character which the said D. José Domingo Cortes has attributed to himself, but that the existence even of such an individual is unknown, whose condign punishment you demand with so much justice from the supreme government of the nation, to which on the first opportunity I shall render an account of this incident, and of this present reply, in case the communication from your legation may have gone astray. It is gratifying to me to add to the previous explanations, and in reply to your note, the assurances of my very distinguished consideration. God, liberty, reform ! Citizen M. ROMERO, LUIS TERRAZAS. In charge of the Mexican Legation to the WASHINGTON, July 9, 1864. A true copy: In absence of the secretary, FERNANDO DE LA CUESTA, Officer of the Legation. [Enclosure No. 2.-Translation.] MEXICAN REPUBLIC, GOVERNMENT OF THE STATE OF SINALOA, AND MILITARY COMMANDANCY, MAZATLAN, January 24, 1864. In La Libertad, official journal of Durango, of the Sth instant, I saw published the note which your legation addresses to the governor of that State, and the reply to it, both papers relating to the false mission upon which the Spaniard D. José Domingo Cortes presented himself to the Secretary of State of that republic, Mr. Seward, making proposals to annex to the North American confederation the States of Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, thie and the territory of Lower California. The adventurer D. José Domingo Cortes never has been a governor in this country, nor made representative of the States which he has been calumniating to the cabinet of the United States of the north, by describing them as discontented with the constitutional rule which governs them, and so false and faithless in the actual struggle with the invasion as to wish to throw themselves into the arms of a neighboring nation, rather than seek safety in battle, as they have done in sending their contingents of blood to the interior, and preparing with men and materiel of war at their disposal to resist the French and traitors on their own territory, where, as yet, they have not gained in favor of intervention the vote of a single settlement, unless such as has been forced from them by the compulsion of brute violence. I fill my duty as representative of the State of Sinaloa by pointing out in this note, for the information of the government of the United States and confusion of the intriguer Cortes, the falsehood and calumny he used in his conference with Mr. Seward, in proposing to him, in the name of the States mentioned, annexation to that country. I send copy of this note to the supreme government of the nation for its proper application, and beg you to make it public, and to accept the assurance of esteem and consideration with which I subscribe myself your obedient servant. Liberty and reform ! Citizen MATIAS ROMERO, F. GARCIA MORALES. Mexican Minister to the United States of America, Washington. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 9th instant, with its accompaniment, relating to the movements of ex-General Don José Domingo Cortes, of Mexico, and to assure you that its information and suggestions will receive my careful attention. I avail myself of the occasion to renew to you, sir, the assurances of my dis tinguished consideration. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. Señor MATIAS ROMERO, &c., Washington, D. C. Mr. Romero to Mr. Seward. MEXICAN LEGATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Washington, July 12, 1864. MR. SECRETARY: I have the honor to transmit to you, for the information of the government of the United States, a copy of La Accion, No. 28, a paper published in the city of Saltillo, the capital of the State of Coahuila, under date of the 18th of June last, which contains an article written by Señor Zarco, a distinguished Mexican writer, in which he very clearly demonstrates the impossibility for the French agent in Mexico to comply with the pecuniary obligations he has contracted, even though should his acts be binding upon the Mexican nation. I do not doubt that the data and remarks contained in said article will be viewed with interest by the government of the United States. I avail myself of this occasion to renew to you, Mr. Secretary, the assurances of my most distinguished consideration. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, &c., Washington, D. C. M. ROMERO. [From La Accion, Saltillo, June 18, 1864-No. 28.] PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MONARCHY IN MEXICO. ARTICLE 1.-The question of finance. From the rapid examination that we have made of the convention of Miramar, it appears that besides the humiliations, the dishonor, and the shameful pupilage which the inexperienced Austrian prince has taken upon his projected empire, he has imposed upon it a pecuniary burden of $126,580,000, which is required for the payment to France of the expenses of her piratical expedition, the hire of her soldiers in continuing the monarchical propaganda, the cost of the semi-monthly steamers which are to bring to the protecting army the orders of their government, and in making a small payment on account for the French reclamations, which are all admitted and recognized, and are to be paid. The manner of revision adopted in the convention for these reclamations and certain antecedent circumstances give foundation to the belief that this last item is more expansive than any other, and that the archduke, whether from his ignorance of the facts or by reason of his profound gratitude to Bonaparte, has not ventured to offer even the slightest objection. As reclamations have been the ostensible pretext of the war, and from them are to be satisfied the expectations of certain great personages about the court of the Tuilleries as well as enormous commissions, as has been seen in the private correspondence of Jecker, and as, since the time of the conferences of Orizaba, the French plenipotentiaries have constantly sought to state the amount of these reclamations only in round numbers and without any kind of examination, it is necessary to bear in mind that only on account of the Jecker affair fifteen millions of dollars are claimed, and twelve millions on account of other reclamations which have never been even presented to any government of the country. In order that the world may judge of the morality of these exactions, and that his holiness Pope Pius I, who condemns usury, should not hesitate to pronounce his blessing upon all these affairs, it is well to recall that the fifteen millions of Jecker proceed from a loan of $750,000, and that the twelve millions of other reclamations arise from a debt of only some hundreds of thousands of dollars. This addition of $27,000,000 will probably bear an interest of 6 per cent. per annum, and thus in a term of twelve years it will amount, with capital and interest, to $46,440,000, making the total amount of the compromises of the convention of Miramar reach the sum of $173,120,000. Supposing this debt to France is only paid, according to one of the articles of the convention, the sense of which is not very clear, in annual payments of five millions of dollars, it will result that the new empire will have to send this tribute during a period of thirty-five years, from which will result an enormous addition in the payment of interest. We will now proceed to examine another financial transaction of the archduke, that is, the contract for the loan. After designing it for fabulous sums, after Minister Fould had refused France as a surety for it, after the Emperor of Austria had declared he would take no part in the business, and, finally, after the English bond-holders had refused to enter into the combination, the famous loan was reduced to the issue of titles for forty millions of dollars, that had to be disposed of in the markets of Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, and Amsterdam, at 63 per cent. Let us suppose that speculators take all these titles, Maximilian loses, or, more properly speaking, causes the empire to lose 27 per cent. by this issue, or, what amounts to the same thing, he only receives $27,200,000, acknowledges a debt of forty millions, and loses at once, on the principal alone, $12,800,000. But as he has to pay an annual interest of 6 per cent. for these forty millions, the loss in twelve years will be $28,800,000. The result of all this is, that the contract and loan give the new empire only $27,200,000, and in twelve years cost $227,500,000. The calculation is simple: a loss of $200,320,000. This is a magnificent first lesson in economy, order and foresight, given by the monarchy to the republic! Can a government thus beginning its existence keep up its credit to meet future obligations? It would be a phenomenon as new as it is incomprehensible. The empire, then, relies upon the sum of $27,200,000, hardly enough for the first year, to defray the expenses of its inauguration and future splendor; and after that, bankruptcy and poverty, as it is easy to demonstrate, and the gloomy conviction that Napoleon basely deceived the archduke when he told him that he was going to seat him on piles of gold and silver instead of on a throne. Allowing that all the bonds find purchasers in European markets, Maximilian's private debts of eight millions of francs will have to be deducted from the $27,200,000, as well as the farewell presents made in Austria, alms left for the vagrants in Trieste, costs of the journey from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and the $10,000 pin-money renounced by the archduchess when she left Vienna. The total yield of this great loan, a great portion of which remains in France, amounts to as we commonly say-a pie in the dog's mouth. The first days of jollity and frolic, of invitations and triumphal arches, of feasts and flattery, being over, we must look at the serious side of empires, to the question of finance, and then the eyes of the astonished Dutchman will see such a vortex before him he will miss his secondary position as kinsman of the Emperor Francis. Let us now endeavor to estimate, as nearly as possible with the most authentic data, the annual expenses of the Mexican empire. As a debt of honor, a sacred debt of gratitude, the cost of the crown, we have, in the first place, the tribute to France, giving the mildest interpretation to the contract, $5,000,000; interest on the loan, $2,400,000. The financial question must be connected with the diplomatic, and as it is known that you can collect from a power de facto by force, without acknowledging it as a legitimate government, or having any intercourse with it, as the Penaud and Dunlop contracts made in Vera Cruz between the constitutional government and England and France prove, whether the new empire is acknowledged or not, we shall see these claims urged by the English, Spanish, and American creditors. This shows an interest to be paid on the English debt of $4,200,000. As it is impossible to pay at once the $600,000 that Marquez robbed from the British legation, and as this is one of the archduke's debts of honor, an annual instalment of 6 per cent. will have to be paid upon it, making $36,000. Interest on the Spanish debt, $605,000. By virtue of the Mon-Almonte treaty, binding upon the empire, which must close its eyes to all kinds of frauds, an additional sum must be paid of $400,000. Interest on the North American debt, at 6 per cent.. estimating the principal at two millions, to say the least, $120,000. The estimates of the empire, then, only for what may be termed international obligations, not including loss and damage claims by English, Spanish, Ameri. cans and Germans, will amount to, per year, $12,781,000. Now, let us pass to the interior estimates. Keeping in mind the brilliancy of the throne necessary to lend charms and respectability to the empire, the great innovation of giving the clergy salaries, thus imposing the expense of public worship upon the treasury, and the difficulty of satisfying our priests for the loss of their titles, parish perquisites, mortgage rents, and the necessity of keeping a large army of Austrians or Mexicans, and the inexpediency of giving those soldiers less pay than the French, and remembering there can be no representative system till there is peace, we think this estimate not far from being correct, namely: International obligations.. Interest on the home debt.. Appropriation for the empress. Expenses of the imperial household. Worship and the clergy, at least. The army, 40,000 men, with the same pay as the French...... The civil list, with pensions, rewards, annuities, secret service fund, &c., &c.. A total annual expense of.... $12, 781, 000 1, 200, 000 1,500,000 100,000 100,000 5, 000, 000 8, 000, 000 8, 000, 000 36, 681, 000 Relying upon the synoptical table of Mr. Miguel Arroyo, who estimates the number of imperial partisans at five millions, in order to supply the budget it would be necessary to establish a system of imposts, where every inhabitant would have to pay on an average a tax of more than seven dollars apiece. But while Maximilian, counselled by Corta, Budin and Schergenbecher, is perfecting this prodigious invention, the empire would have to suffer a deficit of $24,681,000 in the second year of its establishment, as the revenue could not be more than sixteen millions annually, considering the state of war and other serious obstacles. We must bow humbly to this wonderful result, and admire the genius and skill of Napoleon III, the great politician of our age, and the wisdom acquired by an Austrian visiting the holy places and mosques, and the foresight of the reactionary party. How is this deficiency, threatening to increase from year to year, to be supplied? That is the question! It is the death of the empire in its cradle. How are you to extract gold and silver from the mountains offered by the perfidious Napoleon to the innocent archduke, instead of a throne? French generosity is not to be depended upon, further than fulfilling its good intentions and hiring soldiers. The Austrian brother will not spend a florin after he has robbed his |