Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/201

Rh Santa Anna. Then followed a grand pronunciamiento of the federalists under Urrea, in 1840; which was suppressed hy Valencia. In 1841 succeeded a whole possé of pronunciamientos a civil war, a bombardment of the capital, conflicts among the soldiery, the downfall of Bustamente, the elevation of Santa Anna, and the "Plan of Tacubaya"; and in 1843, as I have said—after several attempts to reconcile conflicting systems—the basis of political organization, nearly as it now stands, was declared by Santa Anna and his junta.

Since that period, Santa Anna has been banished, as everybody knows; pronunciamientos and insurrections have again flourished; a war with the United States has been begun and ended; Texas has been annexed; and other presidents have been elected, upon the principles which I have, on the best authority, endeavoured to describe in these few pages.