Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/154

134 administration and carrying out reforms. The Mexican imperialists clung, above all, to the conservative principles, and the liberal ideas, as exhibited in church questions and other respects, were generally due to French compulsion. To the same source Juarists ascribe the popular adhesion to the empire. There is no doubt that the largest proportion of the people in the occupied provinces, including the steady artisan, the settled farmer, the trader, and property holder, the substantial people of the country, gave in their allegiance, or allowed the local authorities to do so in their name, mainly for the sake of peace, admitting probably that this appeared to be best insured under a strong central government, like the empire, upheld by such powerful elements as French armies. But many had suffered so severely from unprincipled guerrillas as to abhor the term Juarist; others saw in the federal republic only a faction-torn illusion; and a still larger party was influenced wholly by the clergy, to whom the empire promised wealth and power.

Knowing as we do the national characteristics of indolence and improvidence, impetuosity and vanity, we can readily understand how the one might, in certain cases, influence submission, while the others would prompt to patriotic efforts, regardless of personal comfort or prospects. The fact that French armies piloted the new government was enough to modify every success, as instanced by the constant effort, of land-holders at least, to tender neutrality instead of submission, and the repeated springing-up