with their personnel and property, and even the ringing of the church bells was regulated by law.
The civil law was upheld in every particular, even in prescribing all those holy sacraments which the Church has always held as sacredly her own.
It registers births, performs the marriage ceremony, and buries the dead. While the Church ceremony is not prohibited when desired, it is legally superfluous, and without the civil law null and void.
But with all this curtailment of power, the Church has reached a higher moral plane, and one of greater dignity. It has been purified by fire. It required the blood of a pure Indian to bring to terms this great power. It was unquestionably a bold stroke to have been made by one man, with only at first a few adherents.
The government still watches closely the movements of the Church party, which is represented by the cathedral, while the National Palace is the domicile of the liberal party.
The soldiers marching to and fro in front of the latter furnish a solemn warning that not even a bell may be rung in those grand towers, if any attempt be made to override the civil authority.
It should be, and no doubt is, the earnest desire of every Catholic that the Church in Mexico be placed on the same footing as that in the United States. At present there are many indications pointing to this end.
The November feasts, beginning with All Saints' Day, were the first of interest that I witnessed, and the brilliant capital never saw a finer inauguration of these festivities. The rainy season was ended, the atmosphere was bracing, as is always the case at that time of the year, and these happy effects harmonized with the smiling faces of the multitude, as they moved back and forth, bearing in their hands flowers as lovely and delicately tinted as though blushing from the kisses of angels.
Strains of delightful music were wafted to my ears upon the early morning air from organ and choir, and the stronger and more martial notes of stringed and brass instruments. Hundreds, even thousands,
