RELATIONS WITH MEXICO—PAPERS MOVED FOR. (Hansard, 29 July 1864)

MR. KINGLAKE

, in rising to submit the Motion of which he had given notice relative to Mexico, observed that the papers for which he should move were necessary, in justification of the very important decision which had been come to by Government. He thought this country could not sufficiently congratulate itself on the fact that, thanks to the spirit and sagacity of Sir Charles Wyke, it was happily disentangled from the invasion the French were carrying on in Mexico. He was glad to find that the information of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the extent of that invasion was even more favourable to the views which he entertained on this question, than was the information which had come to himself. They now knew the extent of territory into which 2200 that invasion had penetrated. The Archduke's Government, it was stated, was occupying Tampico; but, in order to free that statement from deception, it must be also stated that there was no land communication between Mexico and Tampico, and the latter had only been occupied because the French had a naval communication with that port, and the result was that the French invasion occupied a wedge-like piece of territory only one-tenth of the extent of Mexico, hemmed in by 39,000 regular troops, and by an amount of guerilla troops which it was not easily to compute. It was quite clear, therefore, that there was no justification, in point of fact, for the proposed recognition of the Archduke's Government; but it must rest upon policy. It was quite possible there might be a policy to justify us in recognizing a ruler notwithstanding that he had not succeeded in possessing himself of the country. The way in which matters stood was this. If, in point of fact, the ruler was in possession of the country, there could be nothing offensive in acknowledging a fact so established; but if the fact did not correspond with the claims— if he who professed to be Emperor of all Mexico occupied only a small portion of it, the acknowledgment of his pretensions was an expression of preference—an intimation that he would be warranted in proceeding by fire and sword to subjugate an independent people. That seemed a very strong proposition to maintain. No doubt wherever the French army had penetrated it would be easy to find persons called "Notables" to offer a crown to an Archduke, but he believed he was warranted in saying that beyond the reach of the French armies no one had expressed the slightest inclination for the introduction of the monarchical system into that part of the world. He held in his hand the copy of a very interesting letter from General Prim to the Emperor Napoleon, which he would have read to the House, but from the very uncertain term of the present sitting. General Prim stated in that letter that the experiment of a Mexican Monarchy had been tried, and persons had been made to understand that they should express their opinions. That state of things had continued for two months, but notwithstanding every intrigue and. every opportunity given to encourage the expression of opinion in favour of the monarchical system, nothing of the kind had occurred. The General, therefore, coun- 2201 selled the Emperor to withdraw from the experiment, which was altogether inapplicable to the state of the country. How did it, then, consist with the principle which this country had always held, to be siding with the invader against the invaded? He had always thought that one of the great objects which England aimed at was the independence of nations, and yet we were here showing a preference for invaders, who came without a Mexican in their camp, except some priests who had made themselves hateful to their country, and who would not venture to remain there but for the support of the French. True, General Marquez was amongst the exiled faction, but he was a man whom he would not say had robbed, but had removed by force the sum of £132,000 from the British Legation. That man was now the foremost soldier in the service of the Archduke Maximilian, and had received the decoration of the Legion of Honour. That was the man who was engaged with the Archduke Maximilian in his attempt to subdue the country; an attempt to which we had given our sanction, he was going to say recognition, but it could hardly be termed recognition, because we had not yet recognized the Archduke as Sovereign of that country, though for some reason hitherto unexplained it seemed that we had entered into an engagement to do so at some future period. There might, possibly, be some reason for such a course which the papers for which he asked would disclose, but he could not but regard the course which we had pursued as one which differed from the ordinary practice of English statesmen. Over and over again English statesmen had been asked to say what they would do in the case of some future contingency, and their answer had always been that it did not become them to say, because the Government of this country was a Parliamentary Government, and their duty, therefore, was to avoid as much as possible doing anything which would tend to fetter the hands of their successors. But Her Majesty's Government seemed to have departed from that wholesome principle, and to have promised the French Government that they would recognize this invasion. As far as he was able to gather from the official papers of the French themselves, he believed that the invasion of the French by fire and sword was not only directed against the people of the country who were in arms, but also 2202 against peaceful villagers. A colonel in the French army had threatened a village with destruction, not because the inhabitants had resisted the French, but because they had fled to the mountains on their approach, and their only alternative was to furnish supplies to the enemies of their country. That was the kind of cause with which we were associated. If the invasion were in itself politic and just, then he freely admitted that the fact of the recognition being gratifying to a neighbouring potentate would only be an extra inducement for us to adopt that course; and if the Archduke were really in the occupation of these territories, he would recommend our following the policy of Mr. Canning, or even going still further, and saying that notwithstanding the invasion might be an iniquitous one, we were content, since the Archduke had succeeded in making himself Emperor, to acknowledge himself as such. That argument however could not apply when the Archduke Maximilian was only in possession of one-tenth of those vast territories. Under these circumstances, he trusted that the papers would be produced, so that they might have the means of examining fully into the grounds upon which the Government had proceeded in holding out a promise of support to the Archduke's Government.

VISCOUNT TALMERSTON

said, the course which Her Majesty's Government intend to pursue in this case does not differ in principle from the course which the Government has invariably pursued in similar cases. It has been our practice to acknowledge established Governments. Without going into minute questions as to the origin of the Government—whether it be a republic or a monarchy—when we find a Government established we enter into friendly relations with that Government. My hon. Friend says that we have promised prematurely to acknowledge the Emperor of Mexico before that empire has practically and really been established. I do not think our engagements have gone to that extent. Before the Archduke left Europe we were asked to acknowledge him as the future Emperor of Mexico. 2203 We were not inclined to do that, and we said it would be entirely at variance with our practice and our principles; but that if on his arrival in Mexico he should be well received by the people and his Government regularly established, our wish was that Mexico should have a stable Government. The great cause of the dissatisfaction which we have had for a long time in respect to that country is that Mexico has been governed successively by a number of military chiefs, who one after another obtained power, and one after another availed themselves of that power to plunder and murder English subjects, for they treated them no better than the people of any other country, but rather worse. It was, therefore, a great object with us to see established in Mexico a Government with which friendly relations could be maintained; and from which we might expect justice for British subjects resident in or engaged in commerce with Mexico. My hon. Friend says that as far as his information goes the portion of Mexico occupied by Trench troops is very limited. That may be so; but it does not follow that in other parts of the country not occupied by French troops the people may not be inclined to support the Government of the Emperor. And we have information —we may be misled, but our information is to the effect that the Indian population, who form a large portion of the total number of the people, are very well disposed to the establishment of an empire. It is said that they have historical traditions which dispose them to this course, as they have no particular regard or fancy for the mixed Spanish race, by whom they have never been over-well treated. For these reasons it is thought that they would be glad to see the Government of the Emperor established in Mexico, and that they would willingly submit to the rule of that Government. No doubt, there is still a number of troops commanded by Native leaders in opposition to the French army, but we are told that the French Government are employing transports to bring back a number of their soldiers, which 2204 fact implies that the disposition on the part of the people of Mexico to acquiesce in the rule of the Emperor is considerably greater than my hon. Friend has been informed it is. All I can say is that our course will depend on what we hear as to the manner in which the authority of the Emperor is established. If we find there is a prospect of a permanent Government being established, we shall be very glad to acknowledge it, because we think that would be a very great good not only to the people of Mexico but also to all Europe. If, on the other hand, we find matters still uncertain, and a war still going on, which may result one way or the other, we shall say the Government is not of a kind that would justify us in acknowledging the Archduke as Emperor of Mexico—