CHAPTER VIII.

Public Characters of Mexico-M. Bocanegra-Triqueros-Tornel-Paredes -Valencia-Count Cortina-Bustamente-Gomez Farrias-AlmonteCuevas, the Archbishop of Mexico.

MR. BOCANEGRA, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was a distinguished lawyer, and was also one of the judges of the Supreme Court. He left the Bench in 1841, to enter the Cabinet of General Santa Anna. Everybody in Mexico speaks of him as an eminent and virtuous judge. I presume that there are more questions and involving a greater variety of principles of international law, which are thrown upon the American legation in Mexico, than on any other of our foreign missions. I had, therefore, much to do with Mr. Bocanegra; and besides this, I negotiated with him two important conventions, and I can say in all sincerity, that whilst I found him always faithful to his own country, and tenacious of her interests, that he was uniformly courteous and fair; and never sought any of those small advantages which many erroneously suppose to be the duty of a diplomatist. As a companion, he was eminently joyous and convivial. I entertained for Mr. Bocanegra great respect, and a very sincere regard. That Mexico may find a man who will conduct the business of the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs with more ability and success, is, I think, little to be expected.

Mr. Triqueros, the Minister of Finance, whilst I was in Mexico, is not more, I should think, than forty years of age. He was a successful merchant in Vera Cruz, and I thought

success.

managed the finances of the country with signal ability and He found the business of his department in a state of utter confusion, with a large public debt, and a civil list, which it must be impossible for the country to pay for any long period. It seemed a miracle that funds could be found to sustain the government even for a year. It had been the habit of the government to issue a government paper, receivable at the custom-houses, in the payment of duties. The market value of this paper has for a long time never been higher than from thirty to forty cents in the dollar. At this rate the government issued it and redeemed it at par. Besides this enormous loss, it was impossible for the head of the Department to make any calculation upon the accruing and available revenues, as it could not be anticipated how much of the import duties would be paid in this depreciated government paper. Mr. Triqueros at once set to work to remedy the evil, which he did in the only way by which it was practicable-by funding the whole debt, and setting apart a portion of the revenue from duties on imports for the payment of the interest on the debt thus funded. Most of the foreign creditors were dissatisfied with this arrangement, although I foresaw and told them that it would be advantageous to them, as they afterwards found that it was. Their earnest remonstrances on this and other matters connected with the public debt, induced the Diplomatic Representatives of other countries to hold a meeting for the purpose of remonstrating against it. I was invited to the meeting, but I did not attend it, nor any other similar meeting of the Diplomatic corps. It looked rather too much like an alliance, and I found no disinclination on the part of Mexico to accede to all proper demands which I made upon her, and, therefore, did not need any aid in protecting my countrymen, and maintain

ing their rights. I went farther than this. I told my colleagues of the Diplomatic corps, that they had no right to interfere in the matter, that it was only in cases of torts and not of contract that a nation was bound, or had the right to interfere for the protection of citizens or subjects. That if the citizen or subject of one nation made a contract with the government of another, his only reliance for the performance of that contract was upon the good faith of the government contracted with. No principle of the law of nations is better settled than this, nor upon more substantial reasons.

At this particular juncture, it would not be very graceful, at least, for our government to demand of other governments the punctual performance of contracts made with our citizens.

He

General Tornel, the Secretary of War, is a remarkably fine looking, and in every respect, a striking man. would be regarded as an accomplished man in any country. He is a very elegant, sometimes an able writer.* If what I sometimes heard in Mexico is true, there is another and less favorable side of the picture. But of all the cities in the world, Mexico is the most gossipping, and I should be restrained from saying anything disparaging of General Tornel, from the consideration that there was a pretty violent collision between us a few days after my arrival in Mexico, and that our relations were for some time of a very unfriendly character, and never very cordial.

General Paredes, the author of the revolution, which terminated in the overthrow and banishment of Santa Anna,

* He well deserves the title of" The patron of Learning in Mexico," and has entitled himself to the lasting gratitude of his country, for his continued and successful efforts, for the establishment of schools and colleges, and the diffusion of learning among his countrymen.

But some

is a man of talents and acquirements in his profession, and all speak of him as a gentleman and a patriot. how or other, no one looks to him for the Presidency. I do not know how this happens, unless it is that he is opposed to the Federal party, and Santa Anna was at the head of the other party. And besides that, Paredes, Valencia, and Tornel, were the three most prominent men in Mexico. But there was a tripartite jealousy and hatred between them which always secured the combination of two of them against the other.

Paredes, Valencia, and Canalizo, were the three Generals in the most important commands under Bustamente. Paredes and Valencia went over to Santa Anna, and thereby consummated the overthrow of Bustamente's government. Canalizo adhered with a noble fidelity to the fortunes of his chief, and after Bustamente was vanquished, Canalizo held out for a long time at the head of only three hundred men, and by his remarkable gallantry obtained the sobriquet of the "Lion of Mexico." As soon as Santa Anna was firmly seated in power, he showered favors of all sorts upon Canalizo; amongst other things, appointing him President ad interim during his own absence from Mexico. He very soon quarrelled with Valencia and Paredes. The former gave up his command, and the latter was arrested and imprisoned in the little town of Tula, thirty miles from Mexico. Paredes resides in the city of Guadalajara, where he is greatly beloved and respected. The department of Guadalajara is in every respect the finest in Mexico, with more intelligence, and of course, virtue, better farms, a better population, and sounder political principles than any other. I knew, when I left Mexico, that Paredes was only waiting for the proper moment to strike, and that his friends in Guadalajara were perfectly organized, held regularly secret

meetings, and were also only waiting for the moment of advantageous opportunity. This, unfortunately for himself, Santa Anna gave them. Reposing in the false security which his flatterers had made him believe that he enjoyed, and no longer apprehending any danger from Paredes, he appointed him governor of Sonora, a department upon the Pacific ocean. On his way to his department, Paredes passed through Guadalajara, and his arrival there was the signal for the pronunciamento which resulted in the defeat and overthrow of Santa Anna.

General Valencia is an officer who has risen from the ranks to his present high position, a fact conclusive of talents and courage, whilst it is at the same time an excuse for his want of education and manners, which very strongly mark the parvenu.

General, Count Cortina, as he is commonly called in Mexico, is a very different sort of person. He is a fine specimen of the Castilian gentleman; brave, accomplished, cordial, generous, and punctiliously honorable. He has filled many high offices in Mexico, and during my residence there commanded a fine regiment of grenadiers.

He possesses a very large fortune, and lives in a style of princely magnificence. I doubt if there is on this continent so fine a collection of paintings and statuary as is to be seen at his house. There are five or six large rooms, the walls of which are covered from the floor to the ceiling with paintings of the old masters: many of them by Murillo.

I did not know General Bustamente personally. He was banished shortly before I went to Mexico, and did not return until after the overthrow of Santa Anna. It was a somewhat singular fact, that three Mexican Presidents were in a state of banishment at the same time-Gomez Farrias,