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366 suspended altogether; and that, in the Provinces, it must be reduced from the total want of resources."

In a defence of his conduct before the Congress, (3d September, 1823,) the same Minister added: "That his orders for the collection of the necessary data for the formation of a new plan of Finance, had not been complied with; and that he regarded it as extremely difficult to enforce obedience to them, because their execution depended upon a multitude of men, some too ignorant to give the information required,—others interested in suppressing it, in order to perpetuate abuses; and all full of that languor, to which they had been accustomed by the routine of the old system."

This statement was fully confirmed by Mr. Arillaga, who succeeded Medina, in the Ministry, in 1823, and who characterized, as "frightful the abuses which prevailed in the administration of the Revenue; and affirmed, "that there was nothing but plunder and corruption in all its branches." As late as November, 1823, he added, in his Report of that date, that "no ordinary measures, or threats, were sufficient to awaken the inferior officers of Government from their culpable apathy: others of a more serious nature must be resorted to."

It is probable that these menaces, however strong, would have produced but little effect, had they not derived importance from the conclusion of the loan