II. PHILOSOPHY OF THE MEXICAN REVOLUTIONS.

It is always difficult for the outside world to understand fully, and to form a correct opinion in regard to the real condition of things existing in a country, especially so when that country is in an abnormal state, that is, when it is passing through a period of serious disturbances. This is particularly difficult in the case of Mexico, whose peculiar conditions make it so different from all other countries, that even educated Mexicans cannot always clearly understand the real situation of affairs in their country, unless they have made a special study of such matters. In this way I account for the general impression prevailing in the outside world that because Mexico has been disturbed by a long series of civil wars, which lasted for over half a century, we were constitutionally disposed to fight, and did so without any plausible cause or reason; but such a view is a very mistaken one, and the following remarks will, I hope, explain the philosophy of our civil wars.

In the first edition of this paper I passed very briefly on the war of independence in Mexico, because I intended to write an article as short as possible without sacrificing the end in view; but, having been obliged to enter into some details of the war of independence of the South American Republics, I thought I could not afford to say less about the same war in Mexico. In the paper entitled "Genesis of Mexican Independence" I dealt at length on the war of independence in Mexico, and to avoid repetitions I will omit here the incidents and views there expressed.

To treat this subject methodically, I will divide this paper into three parts: the first embracing the war of independence, from 1810 to 1821, the second the revolutionary period from 1821 to 1855, and the third the war of reform and French intervention from 1856 to the present time.

WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

During the Spanish rule in Mexico, which lasted exactly three centuries, from 1521 to 1821, there were three controlling privileged

classes, the people counting for absolutely nothing. The first was the clergy, who, by obtaining bequests from persons who were about to die, and in various other ways had accumulated very large fortunes, owning directly or through mortgages over two thirds of the whole real estate of the country, and so absorbed the principal financial business. Their power was based not only upon their immense wealth, but also upon the religious influence which they exercised, and on the fact of their being the only educated class, for although they knew but little, they knew a great deal more than the other classes did, who were kept in ignorance. Their thorough discipline assisted the clergy very materially in wielding great influence. They were so powerful during the Spanish rule that a Viceroy once attempted to enforce his authority over a recalcitrant archbishop of the City of Mexico by arresting him and sending him to Spain. The Viceroy succeeded in making the arrest, but when it became known that the archbishop was on his way to Veracruz, so violent was the excitement of the people that he was speedily brought back to the City of Mexico, and the Viceroy was obliged to leave the country.

The Spanish Colonial Government of Mexico was an autotheocratic one, the civil and ecclesiastical administrations being as closely united as it was possible for them to be. Among the long list of Spanish Viceroys who ruled Mexico during the three hundred years of the colonial period, ten out of sixty-two, or over seventeen per cent.,' were archbishops of Mexico, the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries in the colony; and the archbishop was, in fact, the ex-officio Viceroy, as whenever a Viceroy died, or was removed and left the country before his successor arrived, generally the archbishop took his place.

The second privileged class were the Spaniards by birth, who formed a kind of aristocracy, a few of them having titles; and being the only one holding offices of trust, responsibility, or emolument in the country, and monopolizing the principal commercial business, they were also a wealthy class. They were so jealous of the native Mexicans that even the children of Spaniards born in Mexico of a Mexican mother were not considered on the same footing as the Spaniards; they were called creoles, had no rights whatever, and could not fill any public office or hold any position of importance. But few Spanish women ever went to Mexico. The men generally went there while very young, grew up in the country, and married Mexican women, occasionally pure-blooded Indians, but generally the daughters of Spaniards by Mexican mothers born in Mexico. From these unions came the creoles.

The third class was the army, which was comparatively small, but 1A nominal list of Viceroys in Mexico during the colonial period, stating the time that they remained in office, will be found at the end of this paper.

Native Mexicans

was a very important element in the country. usually held very subordinate positions, only in a few cases being admitted among the commissioned officers.

These three classes were, of course, devotedly attached to the Spanish rule, because under it they prospered and had all the wealth and power they could possibly desire, while any change would only endanger their position and welfare. The higher clergy were, of course, heartily loyal to Spain, while a few members of the lower clergy, Mexicans by birth-the Church being almost the only career open to the natives-having on the other hand some patriotic feeling, were the only ones who could appreciate the condition of things, and longed for a change.

However much may be said against the Spanish colonial rule in Mexico, it must be borne in mind that it was only a necessary consequence of the ideas and conditions of things prevailing at that time, and although it was selfish and greedy, the Spaniards did nothing more than it was thought proper at the time to do; and it cannot be denied that the Madrid Government had a kindly feeling towards the natives, which was, however, not always shared by the authorities, and that, notwithstanding all the sufferings and degradation to which they were subjected they were not exterminated, as was the unhappy fate of those living in the northern part of the New World, settled by the AngloSaxon race.

Spain gave Mexico all she had-her religion, her language, her laws, her civilization, her genius; and not for the exclusive benefit of her subjects of Spanish descent; the conquered race also shared these advantages, and produced many men of note as lawyers, priests, mathematicians, astronomers, literary men and artists. The centralization of power and the common language began the work of assimilation, which although far from being wholly accomplished, yet had its beginning during the time of the Spanish conquest.

Opposition of Privileged Classes to Independence.-The opposition of the clergy to independence from Spain, and the alarm with which they viewed the movement in that direction were so great that its leaders were excommunicated by all the bishops of the country the moment the insurrection broke out. The Inquisition commenced proceedings against them, and several members of the higher clergy took up arms against the cause of independence. The Bishop of Oaxaca, forgetting the teachings of the founder of his religion, organized his clergy into a regiment to fight against the insurgents; but the martial prelate had no occasion to come into conflict with them, for he fled from the city, when Morelos approached it in 1812.

Something similar happened in Colombia, where the Bishop of Popayan, Jimenez de Padilla, incited the natives in favor of the

Spaniards by his preaching and fought the patriots with his sword, until the royalists capitulated to Bolivar, on June 8, 1822, after eleven years of hard fighting, for which it has been called the Colombian. Vendée, comparing it with the resistance that the French Revolutionists met in that province.

The higher Catholic clergy in Peru took the same attitude. In Argentina a capitulation was signed, on February 20, 1813, by General Belgrano, commanding the Argentine troops, with General Tristan, commander of the Spanish army, by which the latter bound himself under oath not to take up arms during the war against the Argentine Government within the limits of the Viceroyalty of La Plata, and the Archbishop of Charcas in Argentina, and the Bishop of La Paz in Upper Peru, released the Spanish officer from his oath, under the plea that God did not consider binding treaties made with insurgents.

The example of the United States, and even that of Spain-where the people rebelled against the Government established by Napoleon in 1808, under his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, notwithstanding that it had the sanction of King Ferdinand VII., who had abdicated in favor of the French Emperor-could not but affect the Spanish colonies in America, and most of them proclaimed their independence in 1810.

In the preceding paper on "The Genesis of Mexican Independence," I dwelt upon the causes of the same, and upon the remarkable coincidence that it was proclaimed almost simultaneously in all the American colonies of Spain, and I therefore do not say here any more upon the subject.

Proclamation of Independence.—Independence was proclaimed in Mexico on September 16, 1810, in Dolores, an Indian village in the State of Guanajuato, by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the aged curate of the town, with the co-operation of Allende, Aldama, and Abasolo, three inferior officers of the Mexican militia, born in Mexico. His undertaking had from the beginning all the leading classes of Mexico arrayed against it. He collected a very large number of Indians and peasants, and two or three regiments of the militia followed his lead. To enlist public sympathy on his side, he had put his cause under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who was supposed to have miraculously appeared two hundred years before to an humble Indian, as the patroness of his race, near the City of Mexico, and who was greatly reverenced throughout the country. His men were disorganized, without arms or ammunition, and undisciplined, and although he captured the important towns of Celaya, Guanajuato, Valladolid, and Toluca, and under good military leadership might have accomplished a great deal more, availing himself of the popular enthusiasm for independence and of the surprise and discomfiture of the Spaniards, he did not know how to make use of those advantages.