Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/691

Rh of the law, he desired that the question on ecclesiastical fuero should be submitted to the pope, which was not assented to by the government. From that moment the motto of the reactionary opposition was ʻreligion y fueros,' the clergy senselessly promoting revolution with the aid of the discontented military, whose mutinous acts were equally inexcusable. The liberals, on their side, made hostile demonstrations against the conservatives, whose apparent chiefs Santa Anna and Blanco were dropped from the rolls of the army as deserters. Degollado, Moreno, and others who rendered important services in the last revolution, were now commissioned as generals.

The ministerial crisis still continuing, because Comonfort insisted on throwing up the portfolio of war and retaining only the office of general-in-chief, the president saw at once that his administration could make no progress without a fixed policy. Wherefore he directed the secretaries to lay before him the course each had concluded to adopt for developing in his departıment the plan of Ayutla, with the view of discussing the various plans, and of drawing from them the line of policy to be pursued by the government. He also directed the council to make the draught of the estatuto orgánico. Meantime the enemies of the administration found a powerful auxiliary in the division of the liberal party. It caused no little surprise to see the conservative party begin to favor Comonfort, as if they had entirely forgotten his agency in their overthrow.

Álvarez realized that he must leave a position so unsuited to his taste, and then chose for his successor