The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-02 00:00:00

The French in Mexico.

Diplomatic agents of the Emperor Maximilian
accredited to certain European Courts complain of
the interception of letters sent to them from Mexico.
Despatches known to have been put on board
packets in Mexican ports have never reached their
destination. It must of course be a matter of con-
jecture where, by whom, and with what objects this
foul play has been perpetrated. It is thus that au-
thentic information of what has lately passed in
Mexico is rendered almost impossible. A few
letters have escaped, and extracts of them are sub-
joined. They proceed from Imperialist sources, but
their writers are of high respectability, and the facts
they contain may be accepted as undoubtedly cor-
rect. The first in date was written at Mexico, No-
vember 17. It contains the following passage :
" The French are going, but they have not said
so here officially, nor do they leave the Government
any liberty to act at this moment of supreme diffi-
culty, when action might perchance be the salvation
of the country. The situation of affairs is extremely
difficult by reason of the attitude of the French, in
open collision with the Government, which must
perforce keep up an appearance of harmony, and in
decided rupture with the Emperor, whom they are
endeavouring to drive out of the country in a man-
ner greatly resembling violence. Meanwhile we are
upon hot coals, seeing one place after another fall-
ing into the power of the enemy merely because the
French would not allow us to form a national army,
while they themselves do absolutely nothing. Na-
poleon will not run counter to the United States,
and we it is who must pay for the inconceivable
errors that have been committed in this unhappy
expedition. The disorderly and fatal policy adopted
has had our ruin for its result."

The following extract is from a letter dated Vera
Cruz, November 21. :
" The country is in a state of fever, brought on
by the unfortunate position in which we find our-
selves. The French want to carry out the fatal
convention of July 30, authorising them to take 50
per cent. of the proceeds of the maritime custom-
houses. When this shall be done, the part remain-
ing to the Government will be only one or two per
cent. of those proceeds, with which it is not possible
for it to exist. Everything here is paralysed by the
want of resources of our own and by the of
the French. We have been obliged to suspend mili-
tary operations, and the enemy daily gains ground.
The French beheld with shouldered arms, entirely
unmoved, the surrender of Oaxaca with all its mili-
tary materials and stores. The Austrian garrison
of Jalapa surrendered, leaving to the enemy its arms
and the park of ammunition. Our complete inac-
tion encourages the Juarists. Alas! for poor Mexico.
Generals Marquez and Miramon are now with the
Emperor, and both of them hope and feel confident
that the state of affairs may change greatly for the
better. But the French insist on appropriating the
receipts of the custom-house, the only important
branch of revenue in the country, and this aggra-
vates the evil. No money can be sent by this steamer
to Yucatan for the troops who are there bravely
fighting against the Indian barbarians. You will
have seen by the papers the atrocities committed by
the Juarists at Atsam, where they destroyed the
railway (constructing with English capital) between
Mexico and Puebla, burnt the carriages, sacked the
houses, violated the women, and carried off the
daughters of the first families in the place, after kill-
ing their fathers and brothers who defended them .
One of these unhappy girls contrived to escape and
hid in some bushes. ller savage captors probed her
hiding-place with their sabres, and drove her out to
die covered with wounds. You will perhaps als
have read the murders committed by the Liberals o
Guaymas on the per,ons of Fanori, Almada, and
other officers. After the disaster of Ures they em-
barked with their families for California. The Libe-
rals sent an armed vessel in pursuit, which over-
took them and brought them back to Guaymas,
where they were all shot—men, women, and child-
ren, down to the very infants at the breast. The
corpses were dragged through the streets, mutilated
and burnt. The immaculate Juarez and his com-
manders upon the frontier are dividing and sharing
among themselves the estates and property of the
Imperialists. They confiscate everything, and
whithersoever they carry the liberty they bring
the traces of profound ravages remain. This is
what Jules Favre and his friends applaud as pa-
triotism and liberalism. Such are the Republicans
and patriots protected by the Washington Govern-
ment."

A third letter is from Merida, Yucatan, and is
dated November 27. Its writer says :
" Pablo Garcia, with the assistance of Tabasco,
has now invaded the territory of the Carmen, oc-
cupied Palizada, and summoned the Laguna to sur-
render. The French steamer anchored in the port
will not assist in the defence of the place, its com-
mander having orders not to do so. . . Apropos
of the manner in which Mexican affairs are judged
in Europe, I am induced to refer to an article pub-
lished in the Revue des Deux illondes for September
15, under the title of Le illexique et les Chances de
Saint du Nouvel Empire, by M. de Keratry. What
is there said concerning the Emperor's journey to
Yucatan is false and absurd. Every one here knows
that no member of the Gutierrez family accom-
panied him, and that his journey, far from being a
failure, was a continual and spontaneous ovation,
such as few Sovereigns have ever received."
The force to which the Austrian garrison referred
to in the letter from Vera Cruz surrounded at dis-
cretion consisted of a few Indians and half-castes,
the cowardly mongrel breed of which thousands have
been wont to fly before a mere handful of horsemen.
The Imperialists declare Mexico on the eve of a
saturnalia of atrocities unparalleled even in her
blood-stained annals, and they bitterly denounce
what they call the treachery of the French Govern-
ment, which they say has abandoned them to
the mercy of their enemies. They expect whole-
sale executions and confiscations to redouble as
the Juarists advance. Mexican diplomatists in
Europe positively contradict the report lately spread
that the Emperor Maximilian bad been held pri-
soner by Marshal Bazaine, but they admit that a
very strong pressure was put upon him to induce
him to quit the country; and they point with parti-
cular indignation to the fact that the French are
actually treating with Juarez in the presence of the
Prince whom they lured from his own country to a
foreign throne only to desert him iu the hour of his
greatest need.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

(BY TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Jail. 2.
Arrived—Rose Eliza, steamer, from Dieppe ; Holland,
steamer, from Ostend.
DEAL, Jan. 2.
Passed, Jan. I.—Dovana, from London, for Port Phillip.