Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/289

Rh arranged that the custom-house at Vera Cruz should be restored to the Mexicans for a monthly payment of $50,000, a proposed pittance on behalf of the scattered Gallic treasures, whereof more than three hundred million francs had disappeared in expenses paid by the government of France, and other hundreds of millions had been paid by deluded subscribers to Mexican bonds, not to mention the millions of unrecognized claims and of losses to trade.

On reaching the capital in January 1867, Maximilian held another council to determine whether the empire should be sustained. Nearly two-score persons attended, including ministers, councillors, ecclesiastics, and army men. Bazaine, strange to say, had thought it best to respond in person, representing the futility of continuing with insufficient men and means the struggle against the republicans, whose armies occupied the greater part of the country, and whose cause was sustained by most of the people. But his objections were overruled. The minister of war spoke alluringly of 26,000 men at his command, and after a glib enumeration of provinces still declared to be under imperial control, he of the finance department gave the assurance that a revenue of eleven millions could be counted upon, a sum which might be doubled twice or three times by the recovery of a few other provinces. This glowing picture failed to produce any great