Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/24

4 warehouses, and for the disposal of the temporalities of the Jesuits, and of the property of the hospitallers and inquisition. Money was borrowed from an English house, which was repaid later out of the proceeds of a loan of $16,000,000 negotiated in London. The government likewise, as a matter of policy, effected a second loan of an equal amount from the house of Barclay and Company in England, believing that the British government, for the protection of these interests, would have to recognize and uphold Mexican independence. The terms of the loans were indeed burdensome, a large part of the second being received in military supplies, such as armament, ships, and clothing, at exorbitant prices. However, the ships proved useful, for with them two years afterward was captured San Juan de Ulúa from the Spaniards. With the specie received the government met its most pressing obligations, such as paying for the Manila conducta, and for the one which had been seized at Perote, and cancelling a number of forced loans.

Another measure of the congress, enacted on the 14th of April, 1823, was the establishment of the na tional coat of arms and flag. The former represented an eagle perched on a nopal growing on a rock rising from the waters of the lake; in his right claw he holds a snake, and is in the attitude of tearing it to pieces with his beak. The flag consists of three vertical bars, respectively green, white, and red, the first color being next to the flag-staff. These colors are symbolical of the three guaranties of the plan of Iguala. White denotes the purity of the Roman catholic religion; the green, independence; and red the union of the Spanish element with the Mexican nation. The bars were originally horizontal, but were changed to vertical by the first congress.

I will now review the political condition of the country. The victorious republicans soon divided