Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/625

Rh hospitals, by decree of February 2, 1861, in accordance with the anti-clerical constitution of 1857, the government taking charge of their management, as well as estates, by a board of officers subject to the secretary of the interior. A politically created body could hardly enter into the spirit of benevolence, like those who gave their lives to it, and consequently the aims of an institution were often misdirected, and the wishes of donors neglected; yet a certain gain accrued from a united administration, guided by advice from the managers of the establishments concerned. Of still greater importance was the government protection which now interposed against the loss and neglect occasioned by political and other disorders. Previous to this new régime, we find laments from all directions about the decline or abandonment of charities. Few of the minor asylums, which churchmen had ever made it a duty to sustain, remained. Now and then, an appeal obtained aid from private or public source, toward reëstablishing some institution, perhaps only temporarily.

The capital has suffered less than many other towns, owing to the concentration there of wealth and prodigality; and yet of hospitals alone seven have disappeared with their vast estates, a few being merged in the seven more poorly endowed houses that now exist. One of