Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/477

Rh that freedom of the press would be a powerful agent to spread the insurrection, availed himself of a petty circumstance, the death of one of the members appointed to form the board, to postpone its installation till there was a full board. No appointment was made to fill the vacancy in seven or eight months. Meantime all the authorities in Mexico, civil, military, and ecclesiastic, were consulted, and with the exception of one bishop, expatiated on the dangers of having a free press under the existing circumstances. However, Arizpe pressing the subject and the córtes acceding to his demands, the fiscales of the audiencia in Mexico reported that the publication of the law could no longer be delayed. It was accordingly made public on the 5th of October, 1812, and the board, or 'junta de censura,' was formally constituted and qualified, with Archdeacon Beristain for its president, and José M. Fagoaga vice-president. It is not necessary to recapitulate here the restrictions and formalities that the printing and publishing of books and periodicals had been subjected to. Of the almost unlimited freedom now granted, writers scarcely knew how to make avail, it was all so new and strange. After all, it was but a fleeting blessing, as we shall see.

The reader doubtless remembers what has been said in an earlier volume of this work on the jealous care the government took under the old legislation of the Indies, to prevent all popular assemblages, unless they were approved of by the superior representative of the king's authority, and presided over by an official of his appointment. The constitution purposed