Our late minister was furnished with ample powers and instructions for the adjustment of all pending questions with the central Government of Mexico, and he performed his duty with zeal and ability.  The claims of our citizens, some of them arising out of the violation of an express provision of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and others from gross injuries to persons as well as property, have remained unredressed and even unnoticed.  Remonstrances against these grievances have been addressed without effect to that Government.  Meantime in various parts of the Republic instances have been numerous of the murder, imprisonment, and plunder of our citizens by different parties claiming and exercising a local jurisdiction; but the central Government, although repeatedly urged thereto, have made no effort either to punish the authors of these outrages or to prevent their recurrence.  No American citizen can now visit Mexico on lawful business without imminent danger to his person and property.  There is no adequate protection to either, and in this respect our treaty with that Republic is almost a dead letter.

This state of affairs was brought to a crisis in May last by the promulgation of a decree levying a contribution pro rata upon all the capital in the Republic between certain specified amounts, whether held by Mexicans or foreigners.  Mr. Forsyth, regarding this decree in the light of a “forced loan,” formally protested against its application to his countrymen and advised them not to pay the contribution, but to suffer it to be forcibly exacted.  Acting upon this advice, an American citizen refused to pay the contribution, and his property was seized by armed men to satisfy the amount.  Not content with this, the Government proceeded still further and issued a decree banishing him from the country.  Our minister immediately notified them that if this decree should be carried into execution he would feel it to be his duty to adopt “the most decided measures that belong to the powers and obligations of the representative office.”  Notwithstanding this warning, the banishment was enforced, and Mr. Forsyth promptly announced to the Government the suspension of the political relations of his legation with them until the pleasure of his own Government should be ascertained.

This Government did not regard the contribution imposed by the decree of the 15th May last to be in strictness a “forced loan,” and as such prohibited by the tenth article of the treaty of 1826 between Great Britain and Mexico, to the benefits of which American citizens are entitled by treaty; yet the imposition of the contribution upon foreigners was considered an unjust and oppressive measure.  Besides, internal factions in other parts of the Republic were at the same time levying similar exactions upon the property of our citizens and interrupting their commerce.  There had been an entire failure on the part of our minister to secure redress for the wrongs which our