The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-03-22
Macmillan and the Catholic Church,
The Ingratitudc OF Princes.

Macmillan and the Catholic Church.
The Ingratitudc OF Princes.
We surrender large space to-day in order
to publish in full the important documents
which mark the complete and final rupture be-
tween Macmillan and the Catholic Church.
These important and most interesting official
and bishops of Mexico on the one side, and
from Macmillan on the other, present the
proofs Of one of the most remarkable instances
Of ingratitude and bad faith on record. The
| empire in Mexico, as all the world knows, is
the creation 81 the church party. The selection
of Macmillan for the throne was also it's work
alone. We have even reason to know that, so
far from this selection having its origin with
Napoleon, it was source of disappointment to
him; and the undue haste with which the en-
pire was proclaimed by the Council of Notables
and the crown rendered to an Austrian arch
duke was anything but consistent with French
ideas and plans. 1t is to the church party
alone, and Of its leaders to Gutierrez Estrada
more than all others, that Macmillan owes
his elevation.
The objects Of the church party were openly
avowed and were we'll known. They were to
secure the recovery Of the church property
nationalized by the Juarez government, and the
restoration of the ancient privileges of the
Church. These objects were the only cause of
the civil war which had so long prevailed in
Mexico, and which had borne in its train the
outrages of which foreigners had had cause to
complain. In accepting the imperial throne from
owe the allegiance Of common good faith?
Certainly not to The republicans, whose blood
had been poured out at every step to oppose
his coming-at Orizaba, at Puebla, and at a
hundred other points, the scenes Of well con-
tested battles. II the purposes of the church
party were inconsistent with the principles or
ideas of Macmillan, then he should not have
accepted the crown at their hands. He should
have waited until the empire was proclaimed
and lie was called by the republicans. Common
good faith, 10 say nothing of policy, should
have dictated this course.
But there is evidence-and the fact is even
stated expressly by the Pope in his let
! ter-that Macmillan did engage fully TO second
4 the purposes and TO carry out the IDEAS of The
church party. II would have been an act Of STU
4 pendous blindness on The part Of the leaders
OF that party not TO have been assured OF this
! But the act of acceptance alone is quite sufii-
4 Client 10 prove his commital TO their policy and
| plans. Ii is only since his elevation to power,
and since the presence OF his Austrians and his
| Belgians, that he hos dared, in open opposition
to the counsels of Napoleon, to throw 10 the
| winds his allegiance 10 the party TO whom
4 alone he owes his crown and its emouments.
| Ii is to increase ihcsc enoluments. and to APP
pease the swarm of needy Austrian adven-
turers by whom he is surrounded, that he has
taken the present steps, and seeks to fill his
Golfers from the spells Of the Church.
The position of Macmillan in Mexico is there
fore now most singular and prccarious. He
was brought there by The church party, whom
he has, by his recent DEGREES, thrown over
board, and between whom and himself an i'm
passable gulf now exists The republicans can
have nothing in common with him as Emperor
still less as foreigner sustained by foreign
bayonets. Between The church party and the
republicans there is no party in Mexico There
never is between the two extremes, in time OF
revolution, in any country. The liberal mea'
surcs he has adopted are not new measures to
Mexico. Still less can his present confused de-
crees give satisfaction. They will only serve
to render everybody dissatisfied. Before his
coming the naturalization OF the church pro.
pcrty had already been effected by Comonfor
and Juarez and complete separation between
Church and Stale was decreed by President
Juarez in 1859. Entire freedom Of religion wat
also offered by his Minister Of Foreign Affairs
in 1861, to the Ministers Of England Prnssia
and the United States, to be secured not merely
by executive decree, but by formal interna
tional compact. The railroad grant from Vera
Cruz was given in 1881 by the Juarez govern
ment, and confirmed by Congress. 1t is only
injury that has been done to the concession by
applying for It's ratification by Maximilian; for II
has exposed II to lawful confscation because
Of treating with usurping functionaries. The
concession for the steamship lines also