course," he added, "we received the empress with courtesy and cordiality, but the plan heretofore determined upon by the Emperor's government will be execated in the way we announced."

SIR: The Princess Charlotte, of Mexico, left Paris yesterday for Miramar. She received on Wednesday the visit of the Emperor and Empress of France. and at her departure was conveyed to the railway station in the Emperor's carriage. In spite of these flattering attentions, and the cordiality with which she was received at St. Cloud, I am informed she sets out from Paris with no reason to congratulate herself upon having come.

Her proceeding to Miramar before going to Brussels, taken in connection with the more significant fact that during her stay in Paris no member of her immediate family has visited her, would seem to indicate a certain coolness in her relations with her brothers of the royal house of Belgium. I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant,

JOHN HAY,

SIR: I transmit herewith for your information copies of the President's proclamation of the 17th instant, declaring null and void a decree of Prince Maximilian closing certain ports in Mexico.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN BIGELOW, Esq., &c., &c., &c.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

[August 17, 1866.-Declaring null and void a decree of Prince Maximilian closing certain ports in Mexico.]

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF ANERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas a war is existing in the republic of Mexico, aggravated by foreign military intervention; and whereas the United States, in accordance with their settled habits and policy, are a neutral power in regard to the war which thus afflicts the republic of Mexico; and whereas it has become known that one of the belligerents in the said war, namely, the Prince Maximilian, who asserts himself to be emperor in Mexico, has issued a decree in regard to the port of

Matamoras and other Mexican ports which are in the occupation and possession of another of the said belligerents, namely, the United States of Mexico, which decree is in the following words:

"The port of Matamoras and all those of the northern frontier which have withdrawn from their obedience to the government are closed to foreign and coasting traffic during such time as the empire of the law shall not be therein reinstated.

"ART. 2. Merchandise proceeding from the said ports, on arriving at any other where the excise of the empire is collected, shall pay the duties on importation, introduction, and consumption, and on satisfactory proof of contravention shall be irremissibly confiscated. Our minister of the treasury is charged with the punctual execution of this decree.

"Given at Mexico, the 9th of July, 1866."

And whereas the decree thus recited, by declaring a belligerent blockade unsupported by competent military or naval force, is in violation of the neutral rights of the United States, as defined by the law of nations, as well as of the treaties existing between the United States of America and the aforesaid United States of Mexico:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the aforesaid decree is held, and will be held, by the United States to be absolutely null and void, as against the government and citizens of the United States, and that any attempt which shall be made to enforce the same against the government or the citizens of the United States will be disallowed.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington the seventeenth day of August, in the year [SBAL.] of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, and of the independence of the United States of America the ninety-first. ANDREW JOHNSON.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

No. 365.]

Mr. Bigelow to Mr Seward.

[Extract.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Paris, September 7, 1866.

SIR: This mail will convey to you the important intelligence that the treaty of peace between Austria and Prussia, which was signed at Prague on the 23d ultimo, has been ratified, and that Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys has been replaced in the ministry of foreign affairs of this empire by the Marquis de Moustier, at present French ambassador at Constantinople.

The treaty of Prague, copies of which are given in all the public prints, conforms substantially to the preliminary treaty at Nikolsburg, of July 26th. The most important difference is in the clause which relates to Italy. By the sixth article of the preliminary treaty, the King of Prussia engaged to induce his ally, the King of Italy, to assent to the terms of the preliminary treaty, and to the armistice based upon it, as soon as the Emperor of the French should declare that Venetia was placed at the disposition of the King of Italy. The Emperor authorized Mr. Benedetti, his ambassador at Berlin, to make that declaration on the 29th of July. The second article of the definitive treaty affirms and recognizes the reunion of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom with the kingdom of

Italy, without any other onerous "condition than that the liquidation of the debts due from parts of the ceded countries should be recognized in conformity with the plan followed in the treaty of Zurich."

The preliminaries of Nikolsburg contained nothing about the Venetian debt. This is the only difference between them of practical importance. It will add largely to the financial burden of Italy, but will not, I have reason to believe, delay many days longer the execution of a definitive treaty of peace between Austria and Italy. Those here who ought to be best informed upon the subject expect the negotiations will have reached a successful termination before the 20th instant.

The surrender by Mr. Drouyn de Lhuys of the portfolio of foreign affairs, which he has held at three different periods-the last time for the term of four years, and always with distinction-has naturally produced a great sensation; the greater from the obviously constrained silence of the French press upon the subject.

*

*

*

Mr. de Moustier was ambassador at Berlin and Vienna before going to Constantinople. Though he has never achieved any European fame as a diplomatist, his colleagues who know him think that he lacked nothing but the opportunity to do so. So far as his appointment denotes anything further than a desire to secure harmony in the imperial councils, it would appear to indicate a disposition to cultivate friendly terms with the government at Berlin, where, I am told, Mr. de Moustier left a favorable impression, and where his appointment has been received with great satisfaction.

Mr. de La Vallette did not receive the diplomatic corps yesterday. He was hunting with the Emperor, who has happily recovered sufficiently from his late illness to enjoy the sports of the chase.

I am, sir, with great respect, your very obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

JOHN BIGELOW.

No. 366.]

Mr. Bigelow to Mr. Seward.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Paris, September 7, 1866.

SIR. The press of this capital has been permitted of late to discuss with quite unaccustomed freedom, as you may have remarked, the questions growing out of the extraordinary and most embarrassing relations of France with Mexico. I enclose a few articles from journals which you are not likely to have seen, but to which I am disposed to attach more than ordinary import

ance.

The three articles from the enlightened and conscientious pen of Monsieur Cochut, which appeared in the Temps of the 18th, 22d, and 23d of August, are chiefly important for the information they lay before the French public for the first time in regard to the financial relations of France and Mexico. I have reason to suppose that the figures which he gives were received from the high

est source.

The articles from the Opinion Nationale of the 29th and 30th of August, from the pen of its editor, M. Gueroult, derive importance

First, from the unusual freedom with which the Mexican enterprise is denounced in a journal which has been acquiring for a year past more and more official authority.

Second, from the fact that the writer is a member of the Corps Legislatif, for the city of Paris, and

Third, from the fact that he is supposed to consult with Mr. Rouher, the minister of state, very freely upon all public questions in which the government is supposed to have a policy not already fully disclosed to the public. These considerations enforce Mr. Gueroult's recommendation that the government should not attach an exaggerated importance to any promised indemnities for its Mexican investment, and above all should make no sacrifice and run no risk of ulterior complications to insure them. "Our insuccess," he says, "is complete, incontestable; and the only reasonable course to take is, to accept things as they are, without seeking to color, dissemble, or extenuate them; the essential point is to finish with them, to finish radically, leaving nothing behind which can become a point of departure for new complications. It is not necessary, he says, to leave garrisons in the seaports, when we leave Mexico, charged to collect the revenue for our benefit. That would only lead to a recommencement of difficulties without number, which would make us re-enter by another door the inextricable labyrinth from which we must get out at any price. We must cut into the quick; leave nothing behind; finish, at all hazards, this bad business. A few millions more or less are not an interest to be balanced against the freedom from anxiety which would result to us from the complete and radical termination of this unhappy affair. In a word, the Mexican expedition has been a bad business. We must set it down to profit and loss, and occupy ourselves no more with it; neither believing, nor appearing to believe, nor letting others believe, that any returns are to come from it. For the present we should pursue but one end; bring back our troops and our flag, establish with the government which shall succeed Maximilian's as good relations as the situation will permit, and which will assure us, as far as anything can be assured in that country, the safety of our country people."

He

Mr. Gueroult expresses the opinion which was given by Mr. Saillard to the Emperor on his return from Mexico, that there will never be a civilized government in that country till it has been born again into the United States. says, and no doubt alludes to Saillard's remark: "All who have seen Mexico nearly, agree that she is destined to be devoured by the United States. They have already invaded, peopled, and colonized California, Texas, and New Mexico. The rest will follow as fast as (the traces of the civil war being effaced) their need of expansion shall be manifested."

In his article of the following day Mr. Gueroult treats of the liability of France for the loan negotiated here, if not through the government, under government auspices. Without venturing to say whether the government ought to assume that loan, he presents the case so strongly in that direction as to indicate to my mind a disposition on the part of the government to assume it if public opinion should justify such a step. I think one of the purposes of Mr. Cochut's article of the 23d was to help prepare the public mind for that result. Independent of the moral obligation of the government to assume those bonds from which it has itself received large sums, I think the Emperor would not be indisposed to profit by the transfer of those bonds from the shoulders of the few to the shoulders of the whole people, with the view of making the nation interested in treating them and the government under whose auspices they were issued as considerately as possible, and disposed to take advantage of any opportunity that may present itself, in future negotiations with the United States or Mexico, of realizing something from them.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

JOHN BIGELOW.

[From the Temps of August 18.-Translation.]

THE MEXICAN CRISIS.

The arrival of the empress of Mexico in Paris has made the forgotten affairs of that country the order of the day. There is no doubt about the object of this voyage; the official journals of the Mexican empire thus divulged it on the 7th of July:

"Her majesty the empress starts for Europe to-morrow. She goes to treat about Mexican affairs, and make various international arrangements. This mission, accepted by our sovereign with true patriotism, is the greatest proof of abnegation the emperor could offer his new country. We give this news that the public may know the real intention of her majesty's voyage."

Mystery is impossible in these important affairs, undertaken by such a courageous and intelligent sovereign. The news that has come to us from Mexico for several months explains the whole affair. The New Era, the semi-official journal of the French expedition, speaking of the empress's departure, says: "Things look very gloomy." In Sonora and Sinaloa, near California, the imperial garrisons are much diminished, and disasters are anticipated. On the other limit, towards the Texas frontier, the rout of a column conveying a specie train, the desertion of many imperialists, the capture of Matamoras, where the Juarists had a rich booty of merchandise, the use of its entry fees, one of the most important ports to the Mexi can treasury, the ports of Acapulco, on the Pacific, and Tampico both feebly defended, the warlike people of the Huasteca in rebellion--these are checks which the authorities do not try to conceal.

The aspect of affairs would be more gloomy still if paragraphs from American newspapers and scraps from private letters were taken into consideration. The official promise made in Paris before the Corps Legislatif to recall the French troops, the only ones that inspired fear to the dissidents, has echoed widely in the New World, and has produced the anticipated effect. The republicans are so firmly convinced they are masters of the situation that the partisans of Juarez and Ortega are already contending for the presidency. Abominable and cruel reprisals terrify those who have openly declared for the new rule: and the poor Indians, not knowing what to do, hide themselves in the forests with their goods and cattle, and avoid both parties.

Well-established revenues could not long stand such a state of things; so the few and uncertain resources of the Mexican treasury were soon drained. By a formal order of Maximilian, great efforts are making to enforce the European engagements; but there is want in the civil departments, and even around the throne. The paragraph above quoted shows the discouraging crisis of the 5th of July. The abdication of Maximilian seems inevitable. The empress, then, with that boldness we admire in the French, and which secures her our sympathy, developed a plan to restore the situation, and started for Paris the next day.

The court of Mexico complains of not being able to follow a proper policy, because it has no army at its disposal. The French generals, in their marches, follow their own will without making it accord with that of the government. The foreign auxiliaries have not performed what was expected of them, and some have been discharged. The troops, called imperial ists, are, for the most part, bands of certain chiefs like Mejia, depending upon the influence of their leader.

According to Maximilian's advisers, then, the only means of safety is a national army of 40,000 men at the absolute disposal of the emperor. A new plan was laid out: instead of hunting the dissidents wherever they were to be found, a centre was to be formed, and a line from Acapulco to Matamoras was to be held, without caring for the immense northern regions. Now, this army could only be formed by the aid of France, and in two ways: the French army was to remain in Mexico till the commencement of 1868, within a few months of the time fixed for the complete evacuation. At the same time France was to furnish Maximilian one hundred millions of francs, to be paid monthly within two years, to pay for the organization of the national army. On such conditions the imperial government of Mexico could afford to let the French troops leave, and could guarantee the French interests in Mexico. If this indispensable aid was refused, the empress of Mexico was to quit Paris for Miramar, where her husband was soon to join her.

We are not in the secret of the Mexican embassy, and we hesitate in publishing rumors about it that appear well founded; but, whatever may be the determination of the court of Mexico, there is no doubt but it is a fearful crisis, and that the demands carried by the empress Charlotte is an ultimatum, which, if refused, will be followed by the certain abdication of Maximilian.

We are sorry to grieve those who yet believe in the security of the Mexican empire, but our duty is to tell them that nobody in France believes in it. The Mexican question is dead, and its friends in France are mourning for it. The government announced that the troops would be withdrawn from Mexico by the end of November, in three instalments, and that our expenses would decrease in the same proportion. The Corps Legislatif welcomed this promise, and was comforted. The cause of war with the United States was removed, and the world rejoiced.