Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/822

802 ; worthy judges like Peña y Peña and Ceballos; the financier Echeverrí; instruments of the army in Canalizo and Lombardini; brilliant soldiers like Miramon, Bravo, and Anaya; the hot-headed Paredes; the reformed conservative Arista, and the converted democrat Almonte. The most conspicu ous personage of the period, however, is Santa Anna, arch-intriguer, political juggler, brazen blusterer. A worshipper of success, to which he sacrifices honor and true patriotism; using men and institutions as means for his own ends; prostituting an ability which, com bined with energy, raises him to the category of a genius, while lack of principle and firmness lower him to abject baseness. Ever dissimulating and obedient alone to the political barometer, he stands ready to desert a cause or patron at the first indication of fail ure; to parade now as a reformer w r ith dazzling promises and scanty fulfilment, anon as a despot with iron heel and regal pomp. In diplomacy, an unsustained Talleyrand; in war, a sorry Napoleon.

He it is whose ambition tends to revive at inter vals the centralist idea of the conservatives, that relic of colonial days and of Iturbide, only to strengthen opposition to it by abuses and oppression, and foster appreciation of and fitness for the federal system. One more bloody ordeal is required, one more purify ing patriotic struggle, ere the people are permitted to establish full liberty in the dear-bought constitution of 1857, under which a Juarez and a Diaz are unable to loosen the still binding fetter and inaugurate the era of advancement.

 First among the most indefatigable of Mexican writers and zealous col lectors of historical material is Cárlos Maria Bustamante, who was born in Oajaca, Nov. 4, 1774. His father, José Antonio Sanchez de Bustamante, was a Spaniard by birth, and his mother, Geronimo Merecilla y Osorio, was the second of four wives with whom Sanchez de Bustamante intermarried. The rigid manner in which religious duties were observed in the family im planted in Cárlos María's mind a tone of deep piety, which was never after eradicated. Having received the rudiments of education, at the age of 15 he entered the seminario conciliar at Oajaca to study philosophy, The first year he failed in his examination. This stimulated him to increased exertion, and the following year he passed with marked approbation of the examiners.