THE FRENCH IN MEXICO.

Otago Witness, Issue 658, 9 July 1864, Page 17

THE FRENCH IN MEXICO.

(From the " Times " Correspondent.)

Mexico, 18th March. A most courteous letter has been addressed to Vidaurri by General Bazaine, in which he says : —

" In order to save the State of Nuevo Leon from all the horrors of war, I appeal to your patriotism— l appeal to those sentiments you have manifested on different, occasions, and which have always led you to consult the best interests of your country, and I send you this summons in the cause of humanity and the real desire I have to see order re-established throughout the country.

"In a few days my troops will be in movement, the State of Nuevo Leon will be invaded, and it will then be more difficult for me to listen to the voice of conciliation. There is yet time to avoid the evils of a conflict. With one hand I offer you peace, with the other war. It depends upon you who have governed the State with such wisdom to consolidate peace with all its advantages by adhering frankly to the intervention of the Government established in Mexico."

In reply to this letter Vidaurri stated that deriving his power from the people he could not take upon himself to decide upon so important a question, but that he would submit it to the opinion of the inhabitants generally.

On the 2nd inst. a decree, signed by Vidaurri at Monterey, invites the inhabitants of the States of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila to unite in their different municipalities, and to register their votes in books to be opened for that purpose in favour of " peace" or " war." Those who cannot write will deliver their opinions to the •'Syndics" who will inscribe their names in the books. The books are to be kept open for six days, when the votes will be subjected to the scrutiny of the Supreme Court. By the end of the month the result of the scrutiny will be known, and if any reliance can be placed upon private information it seems perfectly certain that the great majority will declare in favour of " peace" and consequently adhesion to the Empire. On the Bth General Niejia was still at Matehuala ; he had pushed on his cavalry as far as Salado, Canelo, and Jesus Maria to watch the movements of Doblado, who was still in the neighborhood of Saltillo with some 1500 men ; the latter was supposed to be waiting reinforcements from Patorie and Gonzales Ortega, with a view of masing some kind of demonstration against Tidaurri, by whom, of late, he has been so cavalierly treated. Vidaurri, however, was on his guard, and in his last bulletin warns the Juarists that, whenever they show themselves with a hostile intention, they will be at once crushed and put down. Experience, they say, " makes fools wise." 'Such, however, is not the case with Benito Juarez, whose desperate obstinacy seems to cloud, if not extinguish what little sense he ever possessed. Not having sufficient enemies already upon his hands, he on the 27th ult M issued a decree, declaring the State of Coahuila separate from the State of Nuevo Leon, with which it had for years been incorporated, and depriving Vidaurri of his Governorship. Even in the most palmy days of the Juarez Government Vidaurri could afford to laugh at its threats, and now that the ex-President is merely supported by some 1,500 men under the command" of Doblado, whose fidelity cannot be relied upon for six hours together, it ia not likely that much attention will be paid to them. To make a decree and enforce it is one thing, to make a decree and be laughed at is another.

On the 27th Santa Anna arrived off Vera Cruz in the British packet. Before landing he signed an act of adhesion to the intervantion and the Empire, and entered into a formal engagement riot to issue any manifesto that might lead his countrymen to believe that he returned to Mexico otherwise than as a private citizen. On the following day, in open violation of this engagement he addressed a proclamation to the Mexican nation, in which he styles himsell the conqueror of Tampico, boasts of having been the principal instrument in achieving the independence of his country, and alludes to the time when he presided over the destinies of the country aa the golden age of the Mexican Repuhlic. The proclania ion is too long, too bombastic, and too absurd to be entitled to a plac*i in your columns ; suffice it tosay that the Regency considered it as a direct appeal to the passiona of the people, and very properly ordered the gallant General back to the Havammh, whither he was conveyed in the French corvette the CVibert, never, it is hoped, again to set his foot on Mexican soil. Few men have contributed more to the ruin of his country than Santa Anna. Possessed at one time of considerable influence, he turned it to the disadvantage instead of the advantage of the people over whom he had been appointed to rule. Greedy of wealth and unscrupulous of the means of attaining it, the most that caa be said

even by hia own friends in his favour is " that he checked robbery 'and plunder \n others merely because it encroached upon what he considered to be his own peculiar prerogative."

> A French squadron has at length made its appearance in the Pacific. Acapulco has been blockaded, and we are informed that Mazatlan, San Blag, Manzanillo, and Guymaa are to be occupied. If the expedition of the Commander-inChief had been supported on the coast by the occupation of the ports, the pacification of the West would before thia have been accomplished. Mazatlan has long carried on a considerable trade with California and China, and is likely to become a port of very great importance. A French journal, the Estafe.tte, well informed upon such matters, states "that the Customhouse properly administered would yield an annual revenue of between 4,000 000 dols and 5,000,000 dols." This, to a co'uutry supposed by many to be in a hopeless state of insolvency, is worthy of some little consideration.

The Commander -in-Chief is actively employed in organizing a foreign legion, to number, it is said, some 10,000 or 12,000 men, and enable the French to return all the sooner to France. The men are to take service for ten years, and then to be allowed to retire upon the full pay of their rank, calculated according to the French scale. All nationalities are to be admitted, even Mexicans. Many are of opinion that it would have been better to have confined this corp. 3 exclusively to foreigners. Whether the inducements offered will prove sufficient to attract French troops and foreigners of respectability generally may be doubted ; and in a country like Mexico, where free lands exist to such extent that the only difficulty is to know how to get them inhabited, it may be worthy of some consideration whether the members of the Foreign Legion, or some portion of them at leagt, might not after their time of service is expired be turned into useful colonists by giving them either individually or collectively grants of lands in the different States ; thus securing the benefit of their military organisation in years to come.

Accounts from the interior all concur in stating that the utmost tranquility and contentment reign in all the towns occupied by the French. General Douay has been received in Guadalajara with every demonstration of joy. and M. de Montholon and his family, by their conciliatory manner, are fast rubbing down the asperities of all classes of the community. What we require is the presence of the Archduke. The sooner he comes the easier will be his task ; and no stronger testimony could be adduced than the simple fact that both Doblado and Juarez have sent their families for safety to San Luiz, a town in possession of those very invaders against whom they recently declaimed with such vehemence and acrimony.