Napoleon had said that he had no candidate of his family. Mexico would not for a moment think of a British protestant prince. As for Spain, a large portion of the Mexican people would look on the selection of a Spanish prince as a reconquest of their country. Moreover, the three allied powers, it was decided, should be left out of any combination by which either of them would have an undue advantage in Mexico. Maximilian was then selected and accepted by France and England. Hidalgo has it that Gutierrez de Estrada had ascertained, early in October 1861, that the archduke would accept the throne on two conditions: 1st, that Mexico should spontaneously ask for him; 2d, that the support of France and England should be given him. It was on these conditions that Maximilian, on the 8th of December, in a letter to Gutierrez de Estrada, answering one dated October 30th from several Mexicans, gave in his acceptance of the crown.[1] The question would remain unsolved but for certain circumstances that throw light upon it, showing that the treaty of peace at Villafranca between France and Austria might be mixed with Mexican affairs.
An article in the Italian journal Nuova Italia said that one of its friends had seen in the office of Count Cavour, Piedmontese minister of foreign affairs, an Italian map wherein the island of Sardinia and Liguria were indicated as possessions to be ceded to France, the former in compensation for the abandonment of Gaeta and the recognition of the new kingdom of Italy, and the latter in exchange for the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.[2] The latter exchange
- ↑ Maximilian's letter was forwarded by Gutierrez to Ignacio Aguilar for the benefit of their accomplices. Gutierrez de Estrada, Méx. y el Archid., 13; Domenech, Hist. du Mex., ii. 364-9. The subject occupied the attention of the Spanish ministry and congress. Córtes, Diario Senado, ii., ap. no. 85, 84-8; Id., Congreso, ii., no. 45, 747-55, iii., no. 54, 953; vi., ap., i., no. 133, 53, 84-8, no. 139, 2772-5, no. 140, 2789-91, no. 141, 2813-17, no. 142, 2838-9.
- ↑ The first part of the programme, it is said, failed, owing to British agencies.
ment of Mexico put an end to Collantes' schemes. Arrangoiz, Méj., iii. 7-8, 17, 82-4; Hilalgo, Apuntes, 50, 71-4, 86, 94.
