Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/764

744 most important points occupied by the constitutionalists.

After the first shock caused by the reactionary victories had passed away, the constitutionalists felt more encouraged, and their numbers increased. Juarez' administration at first suffered much from lack of resources, but soon became convinced that it could sustain itself for an indefinite time in the port of Vera Cruz in spite of everything its opponents might do. The reactionists had one armed vessel at their disposal, the Guerrero, but with her could not establish a blockade, much less as the liberal government had the Demócrata and some gun-boats.

The time came at last when Zuloaga's government could get no more money from the clergy; so it resorted to an extraordinary tax levy, against which the British and American ministers protested. The decrees repealing the ley Lerdo, the orders on loans, and the double payment of duties demanded from foreign trade, which only by special permits from Zuloaga could affect imports, brought on further complications.

Circumstances made it evident that the assembling of a congress, pursuant to the plan of Tacubaya, to constitute the nation "in the manner most adequate to its needs," was an impossibility, and Zuloaga's cabinet had to frame an estatuto orgánico to serve provisionally as a fundamental law, which could neither satisfy any one nor guarantee order or regularity in