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Rh protection of the northern frontier, and an effort was made to establish military colonies for that purpose, the particulars of which are related in the previous volume. The result was a failure; and in April 1868 Juarez issued decrees ordering the establishment of thirty colonies on the northern frontier, composed of 100 men each, and two in Yucatan and Campeche, composed of 500 men each. To carry out the system on so large a scale would have required enormous sums of money, and no steps were ever taken to do so. A commission was appointed to draw up a project for the reform of the law, and new colonial regulations. The report of the commission was handed in April 1871, and suggested two important modifications; namely, that the government was not under the obligation of establishing simultaneously a considerable number of colonies, but successively, at its own discretion, in those states where the necessity seemed to be most urgent, and in a number according to the condition of the treasury. Secondly, that the number of colonists in each settlement should not be arbitrarily fixed at one hundred, but left to the decision of the executive.

Although the commission performed its duty, and drew up a project for new colonial regulations based on those issued in 1868, it pronounced the system as impracticable. Military service and agricultural pursuits combined would never be successful. The former would be inefficient, and the latter fall into neglect. It suggested that the far better plan would be to establish military posts, garrisoned by federal troops, or rural companies, which would be much more economical, and would tend to the growth of pueblos round the fortified posts.