Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/615

Rh the exceptionally trying circumstances under which he was called to power, attempting to bring order out of chaos with insufficient means and against harassing opposition, his administration ranks among the most acceptable, judging by the reforms introduced and the prosperity unfolded, even though several of the leading tasks of reorganization remained unaccomplished. If no positive admiration followed him to his retreat at Tacubaya, neither did ill-will. He lived in a seclusion, forced upon him to some extent by maladies, to which he succumbed in February 1854, leaving an enviable record as one of the most upright and unselfish of rulers.