Page:The rise and fall of the Emperor Maximilian.djvu/83

Rh domestic matters in Mexico. In the first place, the settlement of the mortmain endowments still remained in suspense. The court of Rome had not yet consented to declare its sentiments, and appeared still less inclined to do so, as the emperor had repudiated the clerical party, to whom he owed his crown. This sudden change of policy had but little inclined the pope to make any concessions. For the Holy See, in assisting an Austrian archduke to place himself on an old Spanish throne, had expected that it would bring back these distant lands into the bosom of the Church. On the other hand, the holders of the clerical property professed that they were anxious for a settlement favourable to their interests, although, to a great extent, their right of property had originated in fraud. They therefore employed every means they could to hurry the steps of the emperor in the path which would lead him to a rupture with the 'Saint-Père.' The organs of the liberal press, especially at Puebla, stirred up with unseasonable violence a question which required all the more caution as the papal nuncio was then expected for the purpose of negotiation.

And there was also the American question, which was just as replete with danger. The late events in the United States, and the threatening movements of the Juarist general Negrete on the northern frontier of the empire, constituted a peril affecting the security of the crown. It was well known that the partisans of Juarez were bestirring themselves, and were only waiting for the cessation of hostilities between the Northern and Southern States in order to bring serious difficulties on Maximilian. Through the intrigues of Romero, the accredited representative of the president of the Mexican republic, public enlistment-offices had been opened in the principal cities of the Union; and