Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/121

 to Mexico. These instructions are in direct contradiction to the friendly intentions and the very policy of the emperor.

Is there any remedy for this state of things? Certainly, there is one, and it is not of my suggestion; it is M. Langlais who has mentioned it—he who possessed the full confidence of France, and most assuredly well deserved it.

What, then, is this remedy? It consists of a new financial system by which the expenses will be diminished and the revenue increased. The scheme of this system is already decided on, and is almost drawn up; it is also to some extent put in practice.

All the expenses have been reduced to the lowest possible figure, commencing with the emperor's civil list; his majesty is content with only a third of the amount assigned to the Emperor Iturbide, nearly half a century ago. As your excellency is well aware, we are arranging the new system which is to prevail with regard to the public revenue, from which system we expect a considerable augmentation of our resources, and we are preparing the new taxes, a portion of which is already put in force, as, for example, in the maritime customs.

But it is not in man's power either to delay or hasten the march of time, and this is a principal element in every kind of useful progress. If they are to produce their effect, the new plans, which I have every confidence will not delude our hopes, inevitably need a certain space of time for putting them in practice.

During this period of transition, what are we to depend upon? We cannot trust, for a time, to our own new resources, and it is necessary that France should provide what is immediately required. This also is a truth which was admitted and acted on by M. Langlais.

After his much regretted death, this material help was for a time interrupted, and the government had to submit to the dictation of the capitalists to whom it was compelled to apply. Your excellency is not ignorant of what took place; transactions which were ruinous in every way, made, as they were, under the pressure of necessity, put the government in possession of resources which lasted eight days, and discredited it for a much longer time, by obliging it to employ for