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104 sacred institutions, on feeble women and defenceless prisoners; and reminded that as the Spanish armies had been driven from the soil, so could the less numerous French forces — already humbled by their inglorious defeat at Puebla.

Among the first acts of the regency was to appoint a commission under the presidency of José María Gutierrez de Estrada, to convey to Maximilian the resolution of the assembly, and offer him the crown. This was formally done at Miramare, on October 3, 1863; the archduke replying that, flattered as he felt by the predilection of the Mexicans for his house, descended from Charles V., yet he recognized that "the monarchy can be reëstablished on a legitimate and solid basis only by a confirmatory vote of the entire nation freely expressed. On the result of this general vote of the country must therefore depend the acceptance of the proffered throne. . .In case the election of the noble Mexican people, as a whole, falls upon my name, I shall be ready, with consent of the august chief of my family, and with reliance on the aid of the Almighty, to accept the crown."