Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/381

Rh the political conditions of these countries and the respective characters of the inhabitants; at the same time he collected the documents — 4,000 in number, as he says — which he has made use of in his work. During Maximilian's government he was director of the cabinet press and chaplain of the army. He speaks of many of the events narrated as an eye-witness. His language is plain, and his statements well and clearly expressed. The author claims he is impartial, and has reasonably succeeded in his endeavors to be so.

E. Lefêvre, Le Mexique et L'Intervention Européenne. Mex., 1862. 8°, 479 pp. This work is divided into two parts; the first relates to events that preceded the European intervention in Mexico, the second to the acts of the intervention, concluding with a series of documents issued during the first two months after the rupture of the London convention and withdrawal of the Spaniards and English, the whole comprising the period from 1857 to 1862. The main object of the author — evidently a French republican — was to expose the trickery of certain men who held positions as French ministers accredited near the Mexican government, and to prove that President Juarez and his cabinet constituted the legitimate and constitutional government of Mexico.

''E. Lefêvre, Documentos Oficiales recogidos en la secretaría privada de Maximiliano. Historia de la Intervencion Francese en Méjico. Brusselas y Londres,'' 1869. 8, 2 vol., 1st, 464 pr., 2d, 454 pp. This is another work, but in the Spanish language, by the same author, who was chief editor of La Tribune in Mexico. In the first volume, after a brief review of Mexican affairs, explaining, among other things, the conduct of French ministers accredited to the republic, the difficulties the liberal government had to surmount in order to restore peace and order, and the manner in which the debts of Mexico [sic]orginated, the author enters fully upon the question of European intervention, policy of the French, English, Spanish, and American governments, invasion of Mexico by the armed forces of the powers to the tripartite convention, and subsequent events till the occupation of the Mexican capital by the French army, and organization of a usurping government under the protection of that army, followed by the arrangements entered into in Europe under which Archduke Maximilian was forced upon Mexico as its emperor, and afterward recognized as such by the monarchical governments of Europe. The 2d vol. treats of Maximilian's administration, including his relations with the pope and Napoleon III., till the evacuation of the country by the French army, together with the subsequent events that ended with Maximilian's capture and execution. The author assures us that he has been careful not to assert too much on the intrigues which originated the empire; that with the permission of the government of Juarez he made a search among the papers left behind by Maximilian, for documents to clear up those intrigues, without success; but he well knew that such documents existed, some in the hands of the pope, others in those of the imperial family of Austria, and still others, perhaps, in London. Referring to the Journal de Paris as his authority, he declares that in one of the clauses of Maximilian's last will he bequeathed to Prince Salm-Salm all his papers, including those taken to Europe by his wife, Princess Charlotte, and entrusted to him the task of pcblishing the secret negotiations that preceded his departure from Miramare, his general plans, and the causes beyond his control by which they were made to fail. This clause of Maximilian's will, he asserts upon the same authority, was withheld from publication by the enıperor of Austria, who claimed the right as head of the family, and Maximilian's brother and sovereign. The papers were accordingly not delivered to Salm-Salm, but subsequently transferred from Miramare to the archives of the Lorraine family. The pope also returned a refusal to Salm-Salm's demand. Consult Salm-Salm, My Diary, i., Pref. v.-xi. It will be well to state here that Lefêvre in every line of his work disapproves the conduct of France toward Mexico, and shows himself to be a confirmed republican. The Mexican congress, appreciating the sources from which the author derived his material, authorized the government, by decree of Apr. 20, 1868, to purchase 1,000 copies of the work.