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324 Creole,) to the Bishopric of La Puebla, in 1815, proves how willingly it would have retraced its steps. But it was no longer time for conciliation: notwithstanding their privileges, as servants of the altar, a number of priests had sealed, with their blood, their new political creed; others were noted as wavering; others as notoriously disaffected; the passions of all were excited, and it was soon evident that a good understanding between the Crown and the Parochial Clergy was impossible.

The Old System was therefore pursued, and, up to 1820, all benefices were conferred upon Gachupines; a circumstance which not a little facilitated the changes which the following year was destined to produce.

It is a singular fact, that, after taking so prominent a part in the struggle which preceded the Revolution, the Mexican Clergy should be almost the only class of Creoles that has derived, as yet, no advantage from the event. In the Army, the Congress, the Government-offices, and the Law, Natives were substituted at once for the Spaniards, whom the Viceregal Government had employed; but the different tenure by which Ecclesiastical preferments are held, prevented this change from extending to the Church. Nor was this the only difficulty to be surmounted: the separation from Spain had broken the link, by which Mexico was connected with the See of Rome; and the establishment of a direct intercourse, at a moment, when the possession of an