CHAPTER XXI.
REORGANIZATION UNDER HERRERA,
1849.
Obstacles to Reform — Weakness of the Government — Party Agitation — Opposed by Popular Sentiment — Arrangement with Foreign Creditors — Consolidation of the Interior Debt — Effort to Reduce Expenses — Smuggling and Other Inroads on the Revenue Involved Finances — A Succession of Ministerial Changes — Military Corruption — The Service in Disrepute — Its Reconstruction — New Armament — Reduction of Force — The Navy — Militia System — Efforts at Colonization — Military Colonies on the Frontier, and their Value
Nothing could be more trying than the position of Herrera s government. It was expected to resurrect the country, reorganize departments, aid institutions, and restore prosperity generally; and all this without means, and in face of violent opposition from parties intent only on their own advancement, and ready to plunge the nation into greater troubles by fomenting outbreaks in different quarters. Paredes was still in hiding, and none knew but that he might at any mo ment reappear, and lead his partisans to fresh achieve ments.[1] Although the suspense could not profit the
- ↑ El Universal, the ablest journal of the time at Mexico, advocated strongly the conservative, and less openly the monarchical, systems, and El Tiempo up held the latter without subterfuge; while El Monitor Republicano, although friendly to the prevailing republicanism, freely criticised the weakness of the government, a feature which proved the chief target for La Palanca and other minor sheets. A number of pamphlets appeared to the same end, Baz, for instance, corning out to refute articles of the Palanca, in Defensa, 1-12; Miscel., xii. pt 3. Mier discussed republicanism in Profeca Politica, 1-28; Pap. Var., xii. pt 11; and consolidation principles find support in Méx., Segund. Part. Consolid. Rep., i. 1 et seq. Comments on party strife in Repúb. Mex. Reseña, 1-80, with partisan views.
(557)
