and these, with that of San Fernando de Villacata, founded by the Franciscans in May, 1769, were all the Missions of Lower California. At this time the interior of Upper California was unexplored and its eastern and northern boundaries uncertain. The outline of the coast had been mapped with more or less accuracy, by naval exploring expeditions fitted out by the Crown, and by the commanders or pilots of the Phillipine galleons, which, on their return voyages to Acapulco, took a wide sweep to the north, and sighted the leading headlands from as far north as the "Cabo blanco de San Sebastian," down to Cape San Lucas. The whole coast, as far north as Spain claimed, was called by the name of California." The terms Upper and Lower California, only came into use after the division and distribution of the Missions between the Dominicans and Franciscans, hereafter noted. The pious fund continued to be managed by the Jesuits, and its income applied in conformity to the will of its founders, and the Missions of California remained under their charge down to 1768, in which year they were expelled from Mexico in pursuance of the order of the Crown, or Pragmatic Sanction of February 27, 1767. Their missions in California were directed by the Viceroy to be placed in the charge of the Franciscan Order. Subsequently a royal cédula of April 8, 1770, was issued, directing that one-half of these Missions should be confided to the Dominican Friars; in pursuance of which, and a "concordato" of April 7, 1772, between the authorities of the two Orders, sanctioned by the Viceroy," the Missions of Lower California, and the whole spiritual charge of that peninsula, were confided to the Dominicans, and those of Upper California to the Franciscans. The income and product of the pious fund was thereafter appropriated to the missions of both Orders. The Church, when first established in Upper California, was purely missionary in its character. Its foundation dates from the year 1769; in July of which year, Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar, and his companions, reached the port of San Diego, overland, from the frontier Mission of Lower California, and there founded the first Christian mission, and first settlement of civilized men, within the territory now comprised in the State of California. Their object was to convert to Christianity and civilize the wretched native inhabitants, sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance and barbarism. In pursuit of this object, they exposed themselves to all the perils and privations of a journey of forty-five days across an unexplored wilderness, and a residence remote from all the conveniences and necessaries of civilized life, in the midst of a hostile and barbarous population, who requited the charity of the Christian missionary, with the crown of Christian martyrdom. Father Junipero and his followers established Missions among these barbarous people, from San Diego as far north as Sonoma, at each of which the neighboring tribes of Indians were assembled and instructed in the truths of the Christian religion and the rudiments of The Missions of Upper California, and the the arts of civilized life. dates of their foundation, were as follows: San Diego, 1769 San Luis Rey, 1798 San Juan Capistrano, 1776 San Gabriel, 1771 San Antonio, 1771 Santa Ynes, 1802 Greenhow, Oregon, etc., pp. 9, 105, etc. For the details of the early Missionary efforts in Upper California, San Miguel, 1797 San Buenaventura, 1782 San Luis Obispo, 1772 San Juan Bautista, 1797 San José, 1797 San Francisco de Assis, 1776 La Solidad, 1791 San Rafael 1817 San Francisco Solano, 1823 The Missions were designed, when the population should be sufficiently instructed, to be converted into parish churches, and maintained as such, as had already been done in other parts of the Viceroyalty of New Spain; but in the mean time, and while their missionary character continued, they were under the ecclesiastical government of a President of the Missions. Father Serra was the first who occupied this office, and the missions were governed and directed by him and his successors as such, down to the year 1836, when this officer was superseded in his authority by the appointment of a bishop, and the erection of the Californias into an episcopate or diocese. Francisco Garcia Diego, the last President of these Missions, was also the first bishop of the new diocese. The text of the decree or pragmatic sanction expelling the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions, is very brief. The only provision on the subject of property contained in it, is in the words y que se ocupen todas las temporalidades de la compañia en mis dominios. " a Under this provision, the Crown took all the estates of the Order into its possession, including those of the "pious fund"; but these latter constituting a trust estate, were of course taken cum onere, and charged with the trust. This was fully recognized by the Crown, and the properties of the "pious fund" so held in trust, were thereafter managed in its name by officers appointed for the purpose, called a "junta directiva". The income and product continued to be devoted, through the instrumentality of the Ecclesiastical authorities, to the religious uses for which they were dedicated by the donors. On the declaration of Mexican independence, Mexico succeeded to the crown of Spain as trustee of the "pious fund," and it continued to be managed, and its income applied as before, down to September 19, 1836, when the condition of the Church and of the Missionary establishments in California seemed to render desirable the erection of the country into a diocese or bishopric, and the selection of a bishop for its government. The Catholic religion being the established religion of Mexico, and it being a known rule of the Holy See not to consent to the erection of new bishoprics in countries acknowledging the Catholic faith, without an endowment from some source adequate to the decent support of the bishopric, the law of the Mexican Congress of Sep. 19, 1836, was passed," which attached an endowment of 6,000 dollars per year to the mitre to be founded, and conceded to the incumbent when selected, the administration and disposal of the "pious fund." As it formed the support of the Church in his diocese, and the Missionaries and their flocks were all his spiritual subjects, and his only ones, this under the Canon law was a natural result, and its expression merely serves to mark clearly the recognized destination of the fund. Lafuente, "Historia general de Espana," vol. XX, pp. 175 and 176; Madrid, 1858. b De Mofras, "Exploration," &c., vol. I, p. 270. Arrellaga, "Leyes de Mexico," 1836, p. 107. In pursuance of the invitation held out in this enactment, the two Californias, Upper and Lower, were erected by His Holiness, Pope Gregory XVI, into an episcopal diocese, and Francisco Garcia Diego, who had until that time been president of the Missions of Upper California, was made bishop of the newly constituted see; as such he became entitled to the administration, management and investment of the "pious fund" as trustee, as well as to the application of its income and proceeds to the purposes of its foundation, and for the benefit of his flock. On February 8th, 1842, so much of the law of Sep. 19, 1836, as confided the management, investment, etc., of the fund to the bishop, was abrogated by a decree of Santa Anna, then the President of the Republic, and the trust was again devolved on the State:" but that decree did not purport in any way to impugn, impair, or alter the rights of the cestuis que trust; on the contrary it merely devolved on certain government officers the investment and management of the property belonging to the fund, for the purpose of carrying out the trust established by its donors and founders. On October 24th, 1842, another decree was made by the same provisional president," reciting the inconvenience and unnecessary expense attending the management of the various properties belonging to the "pious fund," through the medium of public officers, and thereupon directing that the property belonging to it should be sold for the sum represented by its income, (capitalized on the basis of six per cent. per annum), that the proceeds of the sale as well as the cash investments of the fund should be paid into the public treasury, and recognized an obligation on the part of the government to pay six per cent. per annum on the capital thereof thenceforth. In none of these acts, as will be perceived from their language, was there any attempt to destroy or confiscate the property or impair the trust or the rights of the ultimate beneficiaries. On the contrary the object was distinctly expressed to be more completely and economically to carry out the benevolent intentions of the founders and donors. The property of the "pious fund" at the time of that decree of October 24th, 1842, consisted of real estate urban and rural, demands on the public treasury for loans theretofore made to the State; moneys invested on mortgage and other security and the like. A list of these several items, so far as known to the claimants, will be herewith filed as an exhibit. The greater part of the property was sold in pursuance of the last mentioned decree for a sum of about two millions of dollars of Mexican money, being the equivalent of that sum in gold coin of the United States; the names of the purchasers are not known to the claimants, but are stated by Mr. Duflot de Mofras in his "Exploration du territoire de l'Oregon et des Californies," &c., to have been the house of Baraio and Messrs. Rubio Brothers. In the above mentioned sale of the properties of the "pious fund," the demands existing in its favor on the public treasurer for loans to the government were not included; the items of the capital of those loans due at that time, so far as they are known to the claimants, will be set forth in the said exhibit. Some of these had preceded the severance of Mexico from "Arrellaga, "Coleccion de Decretos y Ordenes, etc., que dictó el Gobierno Provisional en virtud de las bases de Tacubaya," vol. I, p. 334; Mexico, 1830. Arrellaga, “Coleccion," etc., supra, vol. II, p. 150. b Duflot de Mofras, vol. I, p. 268. the dominions of Spain, but being debts of the viceroyalty of New Spain, were assumed and recognized as debts of the Mexican Republic, as well by the law of June 28th. 1824, as by art. VII of the treaty of December 28, 1836, between Mexico and Spain." The interest on this capital must therefore be added to that on the proceeds of the sale, in ascertaining the arrears of interest due by Mexico to the "pious fund." 66 Whether money debts due by individuals and private corporations to the pious fund", (investments on mortgage and the like), were included in the aforesaid sale, or in the sum of two million of dollars above given as its proceeds, the claimants do not certainly know, but are informed and believe, and therefore charge that they were not, but that those sums were collected by the Mexican Government, they are stated so far as known to the claimants, in said exhibit. The interest on these sums should also be added in ascertaining the arrears of interest now due said fund; all the sums of money mentioned in said exhibit are in Mexican money, and equivalent to the like sums in gold coin of the United States. The Bishop of California remonstrated earnestly against the decree of October 24th, 1842, as a violation of his rights and of the terms of the above law of 1836, those terms were a fundamental condition on which the Holy See had consented to the erection of the bishopric, and therefore had the sacredness of a contract; and on the 3d of April, 1845, the General Congress passed the Act of that date, restoring to him and his successors, for the purposes of the trust, the properties of the fund yet remaining unsold. MEXICO AND HER FINANCIAL QUESTIONS WITH ENGLAND, SPAIN AND FRANCE REPORT LOS BY ORDER OF THE SUPREME CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC BY MANUEL PAYNO.-MEXICO.-PRINTED BY IGNACIO CUMPLIDO, CALLE DE REBELDES N. 2.-1862. Being commissioned by the Supreme Government to make a Report upon and adjust the debt contracted in London, the Diplomatic Conventions, and some other financial affairs which should be arranged by the treaty about to be made between the Republic and the Commissioners of the three Allied Powers, I have endeavored, in the short space of time at my disposal, scrupulously to examine the records and books of the public offices with the object of treating every affair separately, by forming a concise historical extract of each, and giving at the end a statement of what the Treasury owes up to date. The method and clearness afforded by arithmetical operations will explain,without the necessity of commentaries, the nature of each transaction, and the greater or less force and justice of the respective claims which may be made against the Republic, thereby greatly facilitating the elucidation of the questions, without the necessity of examining "Derecho Internacional Mexicano-Coleccion de Tratados con las naciones estranjeras, Leyes, etc., que forman el Derecho Internacional Mexicano;" p.516; Mexico, 1854. Coleccion de Leyes y Decretos publicados desde 1o de Enero 1844 - Edicion del 'Constitucional', No. 20," p. 101; Mexico, 1851. voluminous records; gathering perhaps, from the recapitulations which will be formed at the end of this Report, the means which may be most adequate for arriving at a solid arrangement and reestablishing the credit of Mexico; thus demonstrating at the same time, a full and manifest proof of the good faith which animates the Government in acceding to whatever may be in conformity with justice and the sacred obligations which a civilized nation has to fulfill. I relate the transactions in the manner in which they have transpired. To use the words of a celebrated author,-Truth is the best diplomacy, and on this occasion, more than on any other, the truth, which always succeeds in making its way in the world, has already been, and will be in the course of time, the best and most certain defence of the Republic. The disorder produced in the public archives, occasioned by the revolution, and the continual changes of the employes, has rendered this work extremely difficult, and prevents its being presented in so complete a form as might be desired; but I can positively assert that its bases are supported by official documents (which will be printed in an Appendix), and that with the greatest care and most scrupulous efforts, I have endeavored to render myself worthy of the confidence shown me by the Constitutional President of the Republic, Don Benito Juarez, and the Minister of Foreign Relations, Don Manuel Doblado, on intrusting me with such an important and delicate commission. LIST of the sums, according to the journals of the General Treasury, that were therein received on account of the property bequeathed by Doña Josefa de P. Arguelles, to the Missionaries of the Philippine Islands. WHICH LIST is formed in virtue of the Supreme Order of the 1st. of the present month of May, Number 191, and in conformity with the agreement entered into between the Supreme Government, and the agent of those Missionaries, which was communicated to the General Treasury on the 24th of December 1845; it being observed that the present list shall serve for no other purpose than as evidence to the Spanish Legation, for which object it is remitted to the Finance Department, in compliance with the said Supreme Order. As appears by the entry of the 2nd. of August 1803, up to that date there had been delivered on account of the property of Doña Josefa de P. Arguelles, the sum of $544,951 10, of which 10,000 dollars corresponded to the children of the Carro, and of the remainder, one quarter part to the heirs, and the residue in equal parts betwen the Californian and Philippine missions, consequently, to these latter.... $200, 606 5 4 On the 9th. of February 1804, the sum of 18,000 dollars was delivered, of which there corresponded to the missions, in the same terms as the anterior Forward 6,750 0 0 207,356 5 4 On the 20th. January 1809, delivered by Doña Maria Josefa Gonzalez Guerra, the sum of 80,000 dollars, of which there corresponded to the mission.. 30,000 0 0 |