Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/614

594 interfered with the proposed annual renewal of the enterprise.

The preceding observations apply especially to the central provinces, comprising the greater part of the population, yet the north and south are not altogether an exception, although here the war of races on the one side, and the devastating ravages of wild Indians on the other, spread a great blight. There were also the common afflictions attending the inroad of cholera in 1850, and the agitation of parties blind to everything but their own ambitious purposes. Their dissension and strife extended to the congress itself, obstructing, neutralizing, defeating every effort to aid the government in its all-important task of reorganization and reform. Against such indifference and opposition, even the best of men could not have succeeded, much less the somewhat incongruous and experimental body under Herrera, varied during a period of two years and a half by sixteen different changes in the finance ministry, and eight in those of relations and justice. Herrera was a man of proverbial honor and rectitude, well meaning, and full of beneficent projects; but he lacked energy and firmness to carry them out, and not having sufficient discernment to select and retain the most fitting advisers, he yielded too readily to more positive minds like Arista's, which were intent rather on their own aims, or unable to cope with the task undertaken. Nevertheless, when we