All military resistance to the French in Mexico appears to
have ceased, the State of Guanaruato having submitted, and it is reported that the voting for the Emperor Maximilian is going on very favourably. Meanwhile the Church party, who brought in the French, are, as might have been expected, quarrelling with their allies. The Regency recently guaranteed the purchasers of Church lands, but the Archbishop informed the Supreme Court that he was
preparing a decree, and the judges, being Ultramontanes, refused to allow of transfers till the decree had appeared. The General pointed out the principles upon which it had been resolved to pro- ceed, but the Archbishop and Bishops actually fulminated a decree of excommunication against all concerned in secularizing the property of the Church. The judges declared they should act in accordance with this sentence, and the Regency consequently removed the whole of them. Imagine an Archbishop who thinks to frighten Frenchmen out of maintaining the rights of the State by a curse in Latin occupying twenty-seven sheets of parchment !
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