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, that American interest in that country had become slight; but when that interest was quickened by transatlantic officiousness, there was aroused a latent feeling of sympathy, possibly the outcome of traditionary policy as much as from personal regard. As early as 1862 the complication of affairs had become a cause of serious concern to the American government, and, in the spring of that year, Mr. Corwin, United States Minister to Mexico, negotiated a treaty in which was stipulated a loan of eleven million dollars to that country, upon the security of her public lands. Looking upon it in the light of subsequent events, then impossible to foresee, it is evident that a ratification and carrying out of at least that clause in the treaty would have spared the world a sad spectacle of prolonged strife and bloodshed, and would have saved many an anxious hour in diplomatic circles. But the instrument was reported upon adversely by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the fatal Jecker bonds, issued by Miramon, while temporarily invested with the executive power, still remained as a firebrand between Mexico and England, France, and Spain.

The panorama of events glided swiftly along:— the signing of the convention of London; the landing of the French, English, and Spanish expeditions; the preliminary convention of La Soledad; the withdrawal of the English and Spanish forces;