Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/52

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32
FOREIGN INTERVENTION.

it intended to give the country a good government.[1] In much the larger portions of the several states the sentiment of nationality was strong, and manifested itself in their contributions of men and other resources for defence. Oajaca sent a brigade to reënforce the eastern army, and offered more. Most of the states behaved generously and patriotically. Not so Puebla and Tamaulipas.[2]

After the signing of the convention, the allied powers agreed that the expeditionary land forces should consist of about 6,000 Spaniards and 3,000 French.[3] England was to contribute with a strong naval division, namely, two line-of-battle ships, four frigates, several smaller vessels, and about 700 marines to land on the coast when necessary. The plenipotentiaries appointed were: Sir Charles L. Wyke and Commodore Dunlop, on the part of_England; Dubois de Saligny and Rear Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, on the part of France; and General Juan Prim, conde de Reus and marqués de los Castillejos, was to represent Spain, both as diplomatist and commander of her forces. The larger contingent placed under his command, the prestige surrounding his name, and the esteem manifested toward him by Napoleon III., were naturally to give him a marked influence in the conferences of the plenipotentiaries. The others, though not his subordinates, had been recommended to show him special deference.[4] The

  1. 'Un gobierno justo y equitativo,' he termed it.
  2. Rivera, Hist. Jalapa, v. 482-5. On the 21st of Dec. was begun the publication of an interventionist organ, under the name of Crónica del ejército expedicionario. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xv. 831-2. Another journal, also upholding the intervention, existed before, called La Unidad Católica, which never uttered a patriotic sentiment.
  3. One regiment of marines, one battalion of zouaves, one of naval fusileers, one squad of chasseurs d'Afrique, artillery, engineers, etc. Niox, Exped. du Mex., 733.
  4. Prim had married a Mexican heiress, Señorita Agüero, a niece of Gonzalez Echeverria, Juarez' minister of the treasury. He was a man of great ambition, swayed by liberal ideas, restless, inconsistent. In 1858, when Spain wanted to declare war against Mexico, he advocated in the senate conciliatory measures. Niox, Expid. du Mex., 41. The same authority refers to the judgment formed of Prim by a German officer, who made his acquaintance in Turkey in 1853-4, and in Morocco in 1860 — Spanisch und marokanisch Krieg,