Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/660

640 manifested a strange scruple, considering that he had been all along violating personal guarantees, judicial sanctity, amnesties, and constitutional bases. Instead of taking the easy method of unceremoniously ignoring objections, he had recourse to the circuitous form of letting his emissaries stir up a pronunciamiento in that hot-bed, Guadalajara, on November 17th, condemning the limited term assigned by former plans for reconstructing the government and restoring order. In truth, the Guadalupe order alone, with its newly created aristocracy, so indispensable to an aspiring country, demanded deep consideration of new liveries and fresh rules of precedence, lest a mere knight should peradventure throw the social structure out of gear, and disturb equanimities by taking the pas before a commander. Hence it was declared that the term should be prolonged at the pleasure of the present illustrious chief.

Moreover, it had been the custom to address the president as 'excelentísimo'; but while this was doubtless good enough for Santa Anna's predecessors, it seemed outrageous presumption to place such a man on the same level, and he a self-created grand master. Most serene highness' was, therefore, suggested as more fitting. Certain loyal wise-heads of Puebla thought this insufficient, and wished to add 'mariscal general,' 'grand admiral,' 'grand elector,' and other grand things, to which others chimed in, 'for life.' In its despair at being thus forestalled, the army wildly proclaimed him 'savior of Mexico,' although to many this savored rather of the remote and airy celestial than of the tangible and imposing mundane. The capital atoned for its lack of promptness by indorsing all and everything, and the rabble, that a few days before heaped ridicule upon the grand master, now filled the streets with their 'vivas,' with special intonation of the prestige-wreathed title of captain-general.

The climax was capped, however, by a few scattered