require, in time of peace, so large a numerical force under arms as that which has always been supported in it; yet the military presidents, at once, sought to establish an army of officers, and by the enlistment of a body of commanders, entirely disproportionate to the number of rank and file, they immediately created a military order upon whose support they could rely so long as they possessed the means of patronage. The officers thus became armed and paid politicians, whilst the common soldiers formed a military police;—the one an element of all political revolutions, the other a tool by which those revolutions were effected. The great practical idea of government, it will be perceived, was derived from compulsory force. The church wielded the spiritual power, whilst the army held the physical; and, between the two, the people,—composed of merchants, professional men, farmers, proprietors, and artisans,—were refused all participation in authority, or progress in civil order which might have placed Mexico among the foremost nations of the world. In this manner a central despot has always found means and instruments to suppress federalism;—for whilst near thirty revolutions have occurred in Mexico since her independence, every one of her presidents has been a military chieftain.[17]

Macaulay, in his essay on the life of Lord Bacon describes the condition of England when she was governed by warriors whose rude courage was neither guided by science nor softened by humanity, and by priests whose learning and abilities were habitually devoted to the defence of power. The description of that age in England is by no means inapplicable to Mexico in the nineteenth century. "On the one side," says he, "the Hotspurs, the Nevilles, the Cliffords, rough illiterate and unreflecting, brought to the council-board the fierce and impetuous despotism which they had acquired amid the tumult of predatory war or in the gloomy repose of the garrisoned and moated castle. On the other side was the calm and placid prelate, versed in all that was considered as learning; trained in the schools to manage words, and, in the Confessional, to manage hearts;—seldom superstitious, but skilful in practising on the superstitions of others; false as it was natural for a man to be whose profession imposed on all who were not saints the necessity of being hypocrites;—selfish as it was natural that a man should be who could form no domestic ties and cherish no hope of legitimate posterity;—more attached to his order than to his country, and guiding the politics of England with a constant side glance to Rome."[18]

And so it was in Mexico. The sojourner in her capital is continually warned of this double dominion over the soul and body of the people. The drum and the bell resound in his ears from morning to night fall. Priests and soldiers throng the streets; and, whilst the former enjoy the comfortable revenues which are derived from the one hundred millions of property owned by the church, the latter live upon the labor of the people, whom they are paid to control and transfer from one military despot to another.

The Mexican revolution,—like the revolutions of England, but unlike that of France,—was political rather than social. The great foundations of society were therefore undisturbed, and the priest and soldier took the ranks of the ancient privileged classes, whilst the mixed people and the native Indians remained what they had ever been—the subjects of government.

Of all the officers who have commanded the army and enjoyed the presidency, Santa Anna has occupied the most distinguished position since the death of Iturbidé, and it is with him and the nation thus described, that we shall deal in the following pages.

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