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DOCUMENTARY PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

12.

It will not be without interest to add this letter written by General Prim; it needs no comment.

To M. José Gonzalez Echavarria, Mexico.

Madrid, May 11, 1863.

My most esteemed Uncle and Friend,—I have received your letter of January, and am thinking over the state of things in your country, deplorable enough no doubt, but yet tending to acquaint the world that Mexico is still a nation, and its sons are not the objectless and degraded race that some try to make them out. You are certainly the worthy sons of those who have astonished the universe by their exploits. What will that humbug M. Billault say to justify his words:—'that the perjured government of Juarez will fall before the breath of France?' In France, there is an unutterable anxiety and uneasiness caused by the war in Mexico, and to those who ask me anything about it, I reply, that the war in Mexico will become a catastrophe for France; and it is nothing but the truth. Only imagine, if Forey's army should break down before Puebla! Ave Maria Sanctissima! God only knows what would happen then.

We are impatiently waiting for the couriers, to get news of you and of the country. I see that Mr. Wyke, the English minister, has left for Europe, and I am afraid he went away before the courier arrived by whom, through his medium, I wrote to you as well as to my uncle Michel, and sent to you and others some copies of my speech in the Senate. This speech will be approved of, I have no doubt, not only in your country, but over all the continent of America.