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Rh. This arrived at a time when his relations at court were again amicable, and he replied accordingly, without pretending to understand the hint to return, for his connections with the country by marriage and business affairs made it inconvenient to depart. Changes being made in the plan for evacuation, it was finally thought best to allow the marshal to remain in command.

There was no objection to his conduct as commander-in-chief, but he did not show himself sufficiently pliable to the wishes of Napoleon in carrying out the political programme, and it was resolved to send out an agent in the person of General Castelnau, with full power to give effect to it. The pecuniary interests of France, which had now become the main consideration, demanded above all a firm government in Mexico. The conservatives seemed to offer little prospect for its formation, owing to the attitude of the United States and the strength and growth of the Juarists; and furthermore their clerico-financial principles were unfavorable to those interests. The only hope for success appeared to lie with the liberals. Maximilian had failed to win them over, and it was unlikely that any other foreign prince would do better. The head of the new government must therefore be sought among the liberals themselves. An arrangement with the tenacious Juarez was unpromising as well as humiliating, and Diaz, Ortega, Lerdo de Tejada, and Ruiz were assumed to be preferable.