Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/717

Rh made addresses to the nation, and the new constitution was duly promulgated by the latter on the 12th of February, to take effect on the following 16th of September. On that date the executive issued the electoral law in 67 articles, that had been decreed by the congress on the 3d. 1861, i. pt ii. 201; ''Jovar, Hist. Parl''., iv. 924-36; Archivo Mer., Col. Ley., iii. 11-25, 26-66; ''Gallardo, Guia Cong. Constituy., 5-65; Diario de Avisos, Apr. 18, 1857; Rivera, Hist. Jalapa'', iv. 733, 736-45, 756-61, 763-8; ''Id., Gob. de Méx''., ii. 504; ''Martinez, Sinóp. Hist. Recol. Alex''., i. 175-6.

Zarco, Francisco, Historia del Congreso Estraordinario Constituyente de 1856 y 1857. Mex., 1837, 4°, 2 vol., 876 and 1031 pp., respectively. The author of this work was a deputy from the state of Durango, and took quite a prominent part in the labors of the distinguished convention that issued the İiberal reform constitution of Mexico in 1857. His work is a daily record, exact and impartial to all appearances, of the sessions. He tells us that he could not at the time take the liberty of passing judgment upon the acts of the congress, or upon the course of its most notable members, without awakening party discussions, which might easily degenerate into personal animosities. He therefore contented himself with giving the facts, and the speakers' own words, and left to the judgment of their fellow-citizens the convention's work and the action of all and each of its members. In the performance of his task he pursued a chronological order, abstaining as a rule from comments, though he did not fail to show the impression left in his mind by some of the debates. In order to make his work more complete, the author has added the text of the principal parliamentary documents of that period, and of several governmental acts that prompted debate in the chamber. He claims as an evidence of his faithfulness that none of his extracts have been found fault with by the speakers, and that the few corrections he was called on to make were upon unimportant points. At the end of the first volume Zarco promised to furnish in the next a table of contents; but he afterward changed his mind, deeming it unnecessary, the marginal notes on each page indicating the subjects that engaged congressional attention from day to day. Zarco has contributed to the press considerable other matter on the political affairs of his country. He was editor of one of the leading newspapers of Mexico, El Siglo XIX., and later a minister of state; he was a man of a high order of talent, and rendered great service to the liberal cause. At his death, congress on the 24th of Dec., 1860, decreed honors to his memory; he was declared benemérito de la patria; $30,000 were voted to his widow and children; and it was also decreed that the latter should be educated at the national institutes. Dublan  and ''Lozano, Leg. Mex''., x. 776-7.

''Gallardo, Basilio Perez. La Constitucion de 1857. Guía para consultar la Historia del Congreso Constituyente'' de 1856-7. Mex., 1878, 12mo, 65 pp. This work serves to fill the hiatus left by the absence of an index in Zarco's history. The compiler was a member of the constituent congress, a representative from Zacatecas. He lays before the reader the fundamental law, and the respective days on which its several articles were discussed, giving in italics the additions, amendments, and suppressions they were subjected to, and also the votes cast for and against each clause. The date set at the head of each article will suffice to enable one to find without difficulty its discussion in Zarco's work, or any other treating in detail of the labors of the aforesaid congress.