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 532 business marked the period of Manuel Gonzalez, tenure of office, and open rebellion was nipped in the bud only by prompt detection and by the imprisonment of the conspirators. The treasury was exhausted, the customs heavily mortgaged, the salaries of the government officials in arrear, the floating debt increased, and the President was openly accused of flagrant breaches of executive trust. While the exact amount has never been definitely ascertained, Griffin is authority for the statement that Gonzalez accumulated nearly $10,000,000 during his public career, a sum representing a poll-tax of a dollar per head on the population.

The prospect, however, of the reaccession of Diaz to the presidency inspired a renewal of confidence. Great Britain who had withdrawn her representative at the time of French intervention was willing to renew diplomatic relations and a commercial treaty between the two nations was concluded in August. Though a run on the Monte de Piedad bank had resulted in the suspension of that institution and had alarmed the mercantile classes it did not interrupt the negotiations carried on by the new Consolidated National Bank for the floating of a European loan of $20,000,000. The arrangement though was dependent on the issue of £17,000,000 of new Mexican bonds, £14,448,000 of which was to be applied to the cancellation of the old outstanding debts of 185 1 and 1837. When Congress, however, found that the charges for conversion were placed at £2,792,000, the discrepant amount was considered outrageous, and the bill was rejected.

Before the close of the year, direct railway communication was established with the United States. Thirty