thorities at the time of such suspension of payments, but which had not yet been made over to the agents of said bondholders.

3. The payment of interest on all sums above specified, from the date of their abstraction or detention, as compensation to the owners thereof for the loss and inconvenience to which they have been subjected by these arbitrary proceedings.

4. That the British Consular Agents at the ports shall be authorized by the Government to examine the books and render an account of the receipts of the several Custom-Houses there, such agents receiving directly the assignments for the bondholders from the importers, in a manner hereafter to be agreed on between us.

As I believe we are entirely of the same opinion with reference to the advantages to be obtained by a reduction of the tariff, I trust that your Government, with this object in view, will adopt some measure of reform in this branch of your administration, so comprehensive in its nature as entirely to remove the evils caused by the present high rate of duties, which are as prejudicial to foreign commerce as they are to the best interests of the Republic.

By a frank acceptance of these conditions no obstacle will then remain to prevent a renewal of official intercourse between your Government and this Legation, which, without such an arrangement, will be finally broken off, and thus lead to consequences fatal to the friendly relations which it is so desirable to maintain between the two countries.

Awaiting your reply, I have, &c Señor Zamacona.

C. LENNOX WYKE.

(Inclosure 5.)-Señor Zamacona to Sir C. Wyke.

(Translation.)

Government House, November 21, 1861. THE Undersigned, Minister for Foreign Affairs, has had the honour to receive the note, dated yesterday, which his Excellency the English Minister, Sir Charles Lennox Wyke, was pleased to write him.

The Undersigned after his repeated conferences with his Excellency Her Britannic Majesty's Minister is as much convinced as his Excellency that there does not really exist any difficulty for the re-establishment of the ordinary relations between Mexico and Great Britain. He is entirely of the opinion of Sir Charles Wyke as to the great interests that the two countries have in maintaining and drawing still closer their relations; and the sincere desire to re-establish them has doubtless given rise to the conciliatory spirit that has reciprocally prevailed in the conferences held for that purpose, and which has so much contributed to attain it.

The question pending since a year, relatíve to the abstraction made in November last by the usurpers of the public power of a sum belonging to the holders of Mexican bonds in London, and deposited in the Calle de Capuchinas, gives this Government an opportunity of showing its conciliatory and willing spirit, and its desire to terminate all the difficulties pending with Great Britain. Notwithstanding that the Government of the Republic has protested against the responsibility that might be laid to its charge on account of that odious attempt, it has also protested its desire to prevent as far as possible the losses that the holders of bonds have thereby suffered, and therefore agrees to facilitate to them the reimbursement of the sum robbed, if the said holders of bonds cede to the Republic their action for indemnity from the produce of the property of the perpetrators of the crime that has been or may be sequestrated. This concession, with which the Government of Mexico responds to those which his Excellency Her Britannic Majesty's Minister has made in the arrangement of this affair, removes one of the principal difficulties pending between the two nations. This Government does not then make any objection to the acceptance of the conditions contained in the note of his Excellency Sir Charles Wyke, bearing yesterday's date.

As regards the tariff at present in force in the Republic, the Undersigned believes that, in fact, a reform in this matter in a liberal sense will be equally beneficial to the nation as to the foreign commerce; and as this Government is authorized by Congress to make it, it is at present occupied with carrying out this work. By means of it will be removed the ills which, as indicated by Her Britannic Majesty's Minister, are caused by the amount of the duties at present levied on goods imported; and his Excellency will perceive it, by simply knowing that the Government, following the rules that the Congress has laid down for it, and the principles of liberal political economy, will carry out the following bases in the new tariff that will be published in a few days:

That the reduction on the import duties is to consist in 40 per cent. on the present amounts;

That when the reform, which is to be put into operation 4 months after its publication, has been once made, no change shall be able to be made in the import, export or additional duties, without informing the commercial body 6 months beforehand;

And that in the new tariff shall not be included the Article that figured in the project lately presented by the Committee of Finance of the Congress, which authorized the States of the coast to place duties on the export of their own products.

The Undersigned indulges in the same belief as that entertained by his Excellency Her Britannic Majesty's Minister, that after the

declarations contained in this note, and after the points to which it refers have been consigned in a formal Act, for which this Government is ready, there will not be any obstacle to prevent the renewal of relations between it and that Legation, and drawing still closer those bonds of sympathy and common interest which unite the two The Undersigned, &c.

nations.

Sir C. Wyke.

MANUEL MA. DE ZAMACONA.

No. 109.-Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell.—(Rec. January 1, 1862.) (Extract.) Mexico, November 28, 1861. In my despatch of the 25th instant I had the honour of laying before your Lordship, in detail, the business which had occupied my attention since the departure of the last European mail.

My labours, as your Lordship will have seen, terminated in my having obtained a considerable reduction in the existing tariff, and in having signed such a Convention as promised to place our relations with the Mexican Government on a somewhat better footing than they have been for some time past.

It is to be sincerely regretted that Congress was so carried away by party feeling as not to perceive the error they were committing in throwing out a Convention which, both in form and substance, avoided, as far as possible, any attack upon the honour and amour propre of the nation, and yet held out to Mexico the means of coming to an equally satisfactory settlement of the difficulties. with France and Spain whenever these two Powers demanded redress at their very doors.

Congress, as if frightened at what it had done, passed a resolution on the 23rd instant abolishing the law of the 17th of July, and stating that the Convention assignments should be again paid, as beretofore, to both classes of bondholders, as well also as those sums due to them at the time the suspension of payments was decreed.

As this would, of course, not satisfy me, I had no choice left but to present at once to Government an ultimatum, and demand my passports in case it was refused.

On the presentation of my ultimatum Señor de Zamacona resigned, the Minister of War having done so the day before; and there is now a probability of the other members of the Cabinet doing so likewise, unless Congress r. traces its steps, for the Government have sent back the Convention to be reconsidered by them as a last

resource.

To-day I had a visit from Señor Lerdo de Tejada, the leader of the Opposition in Congress, who called to ask me whether I would consent to any modification in the Convention; as, if I would agree to modify the Articles concerning the repayment of the Legation and conducta robberies, and the powers given to enable our Consul

to act as interventors, he would engage to pass it through Congress, and then accept the vacant post of Minister for Foreign Affairs, which under such circumstances he thought the President would confer upon him.

My answer was a simple one, and to the effect that having already made every concession possible in my negotiations with Señor de Zamacona, I could make no others. On receiving this answer Señor Lerdo de Tejada retired, and with him disappeared every hope of the Convention's ratification.

I have only now again to express to your Lordship my high sense of Mr. Corwin's conduct through the whole business; he has stood by me in the most honourable manner, and, on learning the rejection of my Convention by Congress, refused in the most positive manner to advance the Government one dollar of the proposed American loan. Nor can I pass over in silence the services of Señor de Zamacona, the Minister for Foreign Affairs; he at all events has been sincere in trying to second my late endeavours, and his resignation of office proves that there is an exception to every rule, even as regards Mexico and the Mexicans.

I shall start for Vera Cruz with the members of my mission as soon as I can conveniently do so, leaving Mr. Consul Glennie in charge of the archives, and with him that most excellent public servant, Don Rafael Beraza, so that the merchants here shall not suffer by my absence in the courier arrangements. Havana will probably be the place where I shall await your Lordship's instructions, but wherever I may settle to go I will not fail to remember the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch of September 28, in reference to the Admiral on the station.

Earl Russell.

C. LENNOX WYKE.

P.S. Since writing the above I have received the inclosed letter from the Mexican Foreign Office, by which your Lordship will see that I am requested to wait for the answer of my ultimatum until the new Minister for Foreign Affairs is appointed.

(Inclosure 1.)-Propositions voted by Congress abrogating the Law of July 17, 1861.

LA DEROGATION DE LA LOI DU 17 JUILLET.-Voici le texte de la proposition présentée et adoptéé, le 23 du courant, par le Con. grès qui l'a dispensée des formalités du réglement; elle a pour auteurs MM. les Députés Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, Manuel Ruiz, Mariano Riva Palacio, Montes, Dublan, Linares, Piño y Ramirez, Baz, Suarez Navarro et Chico Sein.

ART. I. Sont dérogées les dispositions de la Loi du 17 Juillet de

la présente année qui se réfèrent aux Conventions Diplomatiques et à la dette contractée à Londres.

II. Le Gouvernement mettra immédiatement en voie de paiement les assignations respectives, conformément aux dispositions et aux réglements antérieurs à la dite Loi.

III. Le Gouvernement remettra immédiatement au Congrès une notice des sommes qui existaient au moment de l'expédition de la Loi et de celles qu'il aura reçues depuis, appartenant aux dites assignations, en initiant les lois qu'il jugera nécessaires pour rembourser les dites sommes aux créanciers des Conventions et de la dette contractée à Londres, et pour procurer au trésor les fonds dont il manqué pour cet objet.

Economique.-Une Commission du Congrès déclarera au Président de la République la convenance que le Gouvernement, en publiant la présente Loi, expose et explique officiellement les raisons de justice qu'il a eues pour rendre celle du 17 Juillet, et les motifs pour lesquels elle est dérogée, en ce qui touche aux Conventions et à la dette contractée à Londres.

SIR,

(Inclosure 2.)-Sir C. Wyke to Señor Zamacona.

Mexico, November 24, 1861. THE rejection of the Convention of the 21st instant by Congress on the night of Friday last has, I regret to say, put a term to those measures of conciliation by which, after 6 weeks' incessant labour and sacrifices, we had sought to remove the serious differences between the two countries.

Under these circumstances I have but one course left open to me, and that is, without delay to present to your Excellency the ultimatum of Her Majesty's Government, requiring the acceptance of the following conditions, viz.:

1. Immediate abrogation of the Law of the 17th of July last.

2. That in the ports of the Republic, Commissioners, to be named by Her Majesty's Government, shall be placed for the purpose of appropriating to the Powers having Conventions with Mexico the assignments which those Conventions prescribe shall be paid out of the receipts of the maritime Custom-Houses, including in the sums to be paid to the British Government the amount of the conducta robbery and the money stolen from the British Legation in the month of November last.

3. That the Commissioners shall have the power of reducing by one-half, or in any less proportion that they think fit, the duties now levied under the existing tariff.

If these terms are not complied with, I shall find myself under the necessity of quitting the Republic with all the members of my