Every discontented captain, colonel, or general who
chanced to be in command of a district, there held sway as a dictator;
so demeaning himself that martial and military rule had become
established as the living law of the land. The civic authorities rarely
possessed more than the semblance of power; and where they did it was
wielded in the most flagitious manner. Arbitrary arts were constantly
committed, under the pretext of patriotism or duty. No man's life was
safe who fell under the displeasure of the ruling military chieftain;
and woman's honour was held in equally slight respect.

In the northern frontier provinces of the republic this irresponsible
power of the soldiery was peculiarly despotic and harassing. There, two
causes contributed to establish and keep it in the ascendency. One of
these was the revolutionary condition of the country, which, as
elsewhere, had become chronic. The contest between the party of the
priests and that of the true patriots, begun in the first days of
Mexico's independence, has been continued ever since; now one, now the
other, in the ascendant. The monstrous usurpation of Maximilian,
supported by Napoleon the Third, and backed by a soldier whom all
Mexicans term the "Bandit Bazaine," was solely due to the hierarchy;
while Mexico owes its existing Republican government to the patriot
party--happily, for the time, triumphant.

The province of New Mexico, notwithstanding its remoteness from the
nation's capital, was always affected by, and followed, its political
fortunes. When the _parti pretre_ was in power at the capital, its
adherents became the rulers in the distant States for the time being;
and when the Patriots, or Liberals, gained the upper hand this _role_
was reversed.

It is but just to say that, whenever the latter were the "ins," things
for the time went well. Corruption, though not cured, was to some
extent checked; and good government would begin to extend itself over
the land. But such could only last for a brief period. The
monarchical, dictatorial, or imperial party--by whatever name it may be
known--was always the party of the Church; and this, owning
three-fourths of the real estate, both in town and country, backed by
ancient ecclesiastical privileges, and armed with another powerful
engine--the gross superstition it had been instrumental in fostering--
was always able to control events; so that no Government, not despotic,
could stand against it f