* Ibid., p. 36. The Spanish corps, under General Prim, numbered seven
thousand. England, besides a contingent of one hundred men, furnished a
fleet under Commodore Dunlap, which was to support the joint expedition.

This ended all prospect of concerted action on the part of the combined
forces. The landing of these troops, which brought the French contingent
to a figure far exceeding that originally agreed upon, gave umbrage to
the allies* and proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that,
notwithstanding the most explicit assurances given by the French
minister of foreign affairs to the British ambassador in Paris,** it was
the intention of the French government to carry out its policy at all
hazards. Moreover, the new military commander did not possess the tact
and wisdom of the French admiral, whose policy had not been approved in
Prance, where his signing of the convention of La Soledad had been
received with dismay and disapproval.

* Compare General Prim's letter to Napoleon III, foot-note to pp. 25-27.

** "No government shall be imposed upon the Mexican people" (despatch
of Lord Cowley to Lord Russell, May 2, 1862). See "L'Empereur
Maximilien," etc., par le Comte Emile de Keratry, p. 11 (Leipsic, 1867).
Another time the minister, M. de Thouvenel, assured Lord Cowley that
negotiations had been opened by the Mexicans alone, who had gone to
Vienna for the purpose (ibid.).

General de Lorencez came as the representative of the most aggressive
policy, with orders to march without delay upon the capital; and there
is no doubt that a worse man could not have been chosen to take the
leading part in an enterprise where cool judgment was the most important
requisite. Hotheaded, brave to rashness, and, if one may judge by his