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plomatique," which was considered the semiofficial organ of the Government of Napoleon III, the laborious historian Cesar Cantú has asserted, in his last work, that the Government of Don Benito Juarez demanded from the Emperor of Austria, brother of the Emperor Maximilian, a sum of money for the delivery of the body of the latter to the distinguished person who had been sent for the remains of the deceased monarch. Not only in the newspapers, however, but also in certain works written by various foreigners who had formed part of the French army of intervention did this historian see the same statement. Among these works is the "Memoirs of Queretaro and Maximilian," written by the Prince Felix de Salm-Salm, who was taken prisoner at Queretaro. He states that "the body of the Emperor was held by the Republican Government for a base speculation." Cesar Cantú had no motives for doubting the report written by persons who had been in the service of Maximilian, nor that which had been circulated by the whole European press, and he asserted an error which justice and impartiality demand should be rectified out of deference to historical truth.[1] Desirous, as we are, to give to every one that which belongs to him, we copy what Niceto de Zamacois says in his General History of Mexico, when denying the false
- ↑ We do not agree with the Voz de Mexico in what it says for the purpose of excusing Cesar Cantú. However extensive may have been the circulation in Europe of Saldapenna's journal, and of Salm-Salm's book; however much the European press may have repeated the calumny against Juarez, it was the duty, and a sacred one, of the Italian historian, in all preference, to first consult before, writing, the official documents published here, and which would have opened to him a way to reach the truth whithout difficulty. The Diario Ofi-
