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296 Juarez as the first constitutional governor of their State, and soon after he was chosen chief-justice of the nation. Only a month later, by an overwhelming pressure of public opinion, Comonfort, who was then dictator, was obliged to make him minister of public government. One of the first duties of Juarez in this high position was to ask extraordinary powers for the executive. Congress hesitated, and but for the confidence felt in Juarez as a member of the cabinet the request would have been denied.

The outcome of the reformer's seed-sowing at this time was the suppression of the Jesuits, the confiscation of their property, and liberty for all religious creeds. These radical measures evoked rebellion even in the liberal camp, and Comonfort himself joined the insurgents. The triumph of the "old régime" seemed complete; the capital, the army and the treasury were in their hands. In the near future was a European protectorate.

As early as 1858 the clericals had sent agents to Europe to ask for aid in establishing a monarchy. They represented that peace between the contending parties was impossible, that the liberals would throw the country into the hands of the United States, and that the only hope of warding off annexation was by strengthening the hands of the Church. Mexico was deeply in debt to England, to France and to Spain, and these powers now agreed on a scheme of intervention. The pretext was an act of the Mexican Congress passed in 1860 authorizing a suspension of payment of the public debt for two years. It was a desperate measure and unlike Juarez, who proposed it, but the only thing possible under the circumstances, and as such was unanimously approved by the members.