the country. The rural police had been increased for the suppression of brigandage; initiatory steps had been taken to effect reforms in the courts of justice; improvements had been begun for the advancement of public instruction; and attention had been given to the development of telegraphic and railroad systems. He then spoke of the lamentable condition of the treasury, and informed congress that the minister of that department would lay before it the budget for the ensuing financial year, in which efforts had been made to reduce expenditures to the ordinary income of the federal government without burdening the nation with fresh imposts. The president of the congress in his reply congratulated Diaz on the success of the revolution, and the nation on the prospects of peace and progress held out by his programme. Congress, he said, would accept the circular of February 16th as a part of the programme of the government, setting forth, as it did, the spirit and principles of the revolution.
It was not till May 2d that congress was able to declare the result of the presidential elections, and on that day it pronounced Diaz elected constitutional president. His election had been almost unanimous, 10,500 votes out of 10,878, cast in 181 districts, being in his favor. On the 5th he made the necessary protestation. His term of office was to expire November 30, 1880.
Porfirio Diaz, whose previous public career is already before the reader, was born September 15, 1830, in the city of Oajaca, and was educated in the clerical and scientific institutes established there. He began a course of studies for the bar, which, after long interruption, he completed later in the city of Mexico. From early youth his career was a military one, having, while still quite young, joined the movement against Santa Anna. In 1857 he gave in his adherence to the reform party, and fought bravely during the ensuing war. Throughout the French
