ing to recover the crown in
1824, he was seized and shot,--a fate of which he could not complain, as
he was a man of bloody hand, and, as a royalist leader, had caused
prisoners to be butchered by the hundred.

The Republicans were now triumphant, but their conduct showed that they
were not much better qualified to rule than were the Imperialists. They
made a Federal Constitution,--that which is commonly known as the
Constitution of 1824,--which was principally modelled on that of the
United States. This imitation would have been ridiculous, if it had not
been mischievous. Between the circumstances of America and those of
Mexico there was no resemblance whatever, and hence the polity which is
good for the one could be good for nothing to the other. One fact alone
ought to have convinced the Mexican Constitutionalists of the absurdity
of their doings. Their Constitution recognized the Catholic religion as
the religion of the state, and absolutely forbade the profession of any
other form of faith! In what part of our Constitution they found
authority for such a provision as this, no man can say. It has been
mentioned, reproachfully, that our Constitution does not even recognize
God; yet on a Constitution modelled upon ours Mexican statesmen could
graft an Established Church, with a monopoly of religion! Just where
imitation would have been more creditable to them than originality, they
became original. It has been said, in their defence, that the Church was
so powerful that they could not choose but admit its claim. This would
be a good defence, had they sought to make a Constitution in accordance
with views admitting the validity of an Ecclesiastical Establishment.
The charge against them is not, that they sanctioned an Establishment,
but that they sought to couple with it a liberal republican
Constitution, and thus to reconcile contradictions,--an end not to be
attained anywhere, and least of all in a country like Mexico.

The factions that arose in Mexico after the establishment of the
Republic were the Federalists and the Centralists, being substantially
the same as those which yet exist there. The Federalists have been the
true liberals throughout the disturbances and troubles of a generation,
and, though not faultless, are better entitled to the name of patriots
than are the men by whom they have been opposed. They have been the foes
of the priesthood, and have often sought to lessen its power and destroy
its influ