Page:Mexico of the Mexicans.djvu/39

 Rh will probably render the Canal more popular. On the whole, the outlook appeared one of unexampled prosperity, and the Mexicans might be excused if at this season of jubilee they looked forward with confidence to the future.

But prior to this there had been visible signs of deep unrest. At the end of June, 1910, electoral rioting in the North-Western Provinces seemed to portend the first break in the long and unexampled tranquillity which had been the lot of the Republic under the Presidency of Porfirio Diaz. There was reason to believe that the Government was apprehensive of an outbreak on the day on which the elections were to take place, as was shown by the somewhat feverish haste with which the troops were dispatched to the affected area.

The Presidential election, which was the occasion of the unrest, is held every six years, when the head of the constitution is elected by popular suffrage. In 1887 the original constitution was so reformed as to permit of the election of a President for consecutive terms. This departure from previous practice had been taken advantage of by the Mexican electors to send Porfirio Diaz back to power on no less than seven occasions. The last of these terms of office expired on 30th November, 1910.

So extended and so ostensibly successful had been Diaz's régime, that real political division in Mexico might virtually be described as non-existent at the period we write of. At the same time, the Opposition had been extremely active, and had selected the North-Western Provinces of the Republic as the most suitable theatre for their purposes. This they had done for obvious reasons. These provinces are most distantly situated from the seat of central government. The unrest had been greatly heightened by the knowledge that considerable quantities of rifles, ammunition, and other contraband of war found their way over these frontiers into the hands of the rebellious party in the North.

But although the situation was one to cause some alarm, a reassuring parallel might have been drawn between the