ing out his instructions to reconstitute the cabinet, which he did with the following ministers, namely: Santiago Vidaurri, minister of the treasury and president of the council; Tomás Murphy, of foreign affairs; José María Iribarren, formerly the imperial commissioner in Sinaloa, of government and fomento; Manuel García de Aguirre, of justice and ecclesiastical affairs, and during his absence in Querétaro the portfolio was to be in charge of the under-secretary Pedro Sanchez Castro; General Nicolás de la Portilla, of war; and Cárlos Sanchez Navarro, of the imperial household. Lares and Marin were relieved.[1] Tubera and O'Horan retained their respective offices, the one as general-in-chief of the garrison, and the other as political prefect.
The selection of Marquez, Vidaurri, and Iribarren implied an energetic policy. That of Marquez would hardly call for any comment; it was intended to forward the aims of Maximilian and his supporters, which I have explained elsewhere; that of Vidaurri presaged that there would be no half-way measures in financial affairs, and as for Iribarren, he had shown himself in difficult positions to be a man of indomitable energy, and seemed to be a proper person to coöperate with the others.
Marquez found the condition of affairs not so favorable as he expected on leaving Querétaro. Events soon proved that it was a change of measures as well as men that had recently taken place. Vidaurri summoned to his presence the chief merchants and property owners, and demanded from them a prompt contribution of funds to enable the government to resume military operations. And in order to avoid
- ↑ They were restored to their former positions; Lares to the presidency of the supreme court, and Marin to that of the superior court of the valley of Mexico. Maximilian wrote each of them a letter of thanks for services in the cabinet, accompanying to the former the cross of grand officer in the order of the Águila Mexicana, and to the latter that of commander in the same order. Zamacois, Hist. Méj., xviii. 1177-8. Lares died in Mexico in Jan. 1870. He was held to be a man of large information and a distinguished jurist. El Derecho, iv. 97-8.
