must
rule or perish. Hence the victory of the Conservatives would be the
signal for the opening of a new warfare, and the clergy would seek to
found their power solidly on the bodies of the men whom they had used to
destroy the Liberals. They have pursued one course for thirty-eight
years, and will not be moved from it by any appeals that shall be made
to them in the name of order and of law, appeals to which they have been
utterly insensible when made by Liberals. Indeed, they will not be able
to see any difference between the two parties, but will hate the
Conservatives with most bitterness, because standing more immediately in
their way. A combat would be inevitable, with the chance that the
American Eagle would descend upon the combatants and swoop them away.

If anarchy were a reason for the formation of a league in Mexico,
composed of all the conservative men of the country, it ought to have
been formed long ago. Anarchy was organized there with the Republic, and
was made much more permanent than Carnot made victory. Unequivocal
evidences of its existence became visible before the Constitution was in
a condition to be violated; and when that instrument was accepted, it
appeared to have been set up in order that politicians and parties might
have something definite to disregard. The first President was Guadalupe
Victoria, an honest Republican, whose name has become somewhat dimmed by
time. With him was associated Nicolas Bravo, as Vice-President. It was
while Victoria was President that the masonic parties appeared, known as
the Scotch masons and the York masons, or _Escoceses_ and _Yorkinos_,
which were nothing but clubs of the Centralists and the Federalists. The
President was of the _Yorkinos_ or Federalists, and the Vice-President
was of the other lodge. Bravo and his party were for such changes as
should substitute a constitutional monarchy, with a Spanish prince at
its head, for the Constitution of 1824. Bravo "pronounced" openly
against Victoria,--a proceeding of which the reader can form some idea
by supposing Mr. Breckinridge heading a rabble force to expel Mr.
Buchanan from Washington, for the purpose of calling in some member of
the English royal family to sit on an American throne. Through the aid
of Guerrero, a man of ability and integrity, and very popular, the
Liberals triumphed in the field; but Congress elected his competitor,
Pedraza, President, though the people were mostly for Guerrero. This was