Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell. - (Received April 28) Orizaba, March 10, 1862 My Lord, On the 26th ultimo Admiral Jurien de la Gravičre left Vera Cruz with the French troops en route for the town of Tehuacan, leaving M. de Saligny to represent France at any further Conferences that might take place before the departure of the Commissioners for the interior. On the morning of the 5th General Prim left with the Spanish troops for the towns of Cordova and Orizaba, and on the 7th I also left Vera Cruz for this place, which I reached on the afternoon of the 10th. Commodore Dunlop and M. de Saligny are still at the port, where they will remain until after the arrival of the mail from England, when they will come up here to attend the Conferences with the Mexican Plenipotentiaries, which will begin on the 15th proximo. (Signed) C. LENNOX WYKE Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell. - (Received April 28) Orizaba, March 27, 1862 My Lord, In my despatch of the 6th instant I informed your Lordship that at the last Conference held before leaving Vera Cruz, it was resolved not to return the Vera Cruz Custom-house to the Mexican authorities so long as the Government continued to attempt levying the obnoxious tax on capital. Since that time I have corresponded privately with Seņor Doblado on this subject, the result of which correspondence was his sending down here the Ministers of Finance and Justice to confer with General Prim and myself on a matter which threatened to bring about an open rupture between ourselves and the Government if they continued a line of conduct so detrimental to the interests of our respective fellow subjects. After various conversations with the two Ministers, in which they obstinately maintained the right of their Government to levy whatever taxes they chose to impose, they finally gave way, and agreed no longer to persist in carrying out a measure to which we were so unanimously opposed. As soon as our colleagues come up from Vera Cruz, this decision will be officially communicated to them, in order that our original resolution with respect to the Customs-house may be carried into effect, as our retaining it any longer than is absolutely necessary only results in the most serious inconvenience to the whole commercial body. (Signed) C. LENNOX WYKE Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 8, Mexico 1861-67 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com