| that Juarez should have thought it necessary that the sentence of | | the court-martial should be carried out. The French troops, upon | | whom the stability of the empire depended, had been withdrawn, | | and the success of the National party was assured. An act of | | forbearance upon this occasion would have met with approval, and | | have been acknowledged as a wise exercise of superior authority. | | It was however otherwise determined, and the Emperor was shot | | outside the walls of Querétaro. | | | | In the American official book upon Mexican affairs, there is a | | memorandum of the conversation between Mr. Seward, the Foreign | | Secretary, and Señor Matias Romero, the Mexican Minister, at | | Washington. Mr. Seward stated, that England, France and Austria, | | had desired the United States to use their good offices for | | Maximilian, and further observed, that “Mr. Seward does not fear | | any contingency possible in virtue whereof any European power may | | attempt to invade or interfere in future in Mexico, or in any | | other Republican nation on this continent. For this reason he does | | not think that Mexico need fear any attempt at reprisals on the | | part of any European powers, as a consequence of any extreme | | decision which the Mexican Government may take; but at the same | | time, Mr. Seward also believes that a feeling universally | | favourable, conciliatory and friendly towards the Republic of | | Mexico and the other American Republics, would probably be the | | result of the act of clemency and magnanimity, which the United | | States have thought proper to recommend.” | | | | Clemency is not a quality that naturally exists in the mind of a | | North or Central American Indian. | | | | [76] It recalled to my memory an old Spanish picture belonging to | | Dr. Pusey, which always held the principal place upon the walls of | | his library in Christ Church, Oxford. | | | | [77] The method of building their huts varies amongst different | | tribes, but the general principles are much the same. I have | | passed many hours of the day and night within them, and noticed | | their practical convenience in tropical climates; and although, | | according to civilised ideas of comfort, there is much that is | | wanting, yet for the purposes of the simple and solitary lives of | | these shy and inoffensive Indians, it would be difficult to |