and as, on the 17th of the following month, (October, 1824,) the States entered into possession of all their rights, as such, (in virtue of the Decree of the General Congress, No. 82,) and consequently took charge of their own revenues, the attention of the Supreme Government was thenceforward directed exclusively to the improvement of those branches, which had been set apart to cover the expenses of the Federation. Such were the circumstances under which Mr. Esteva took possession of the Ministry. In some respects, he was well qualified for the situation which he was called upon to fill; for he possessed great bodily and mental activity, and was animated by a sincere desire to introduce order, and regularity, into the chaos by which he was surrounded. But here his recommendations ceased: accustomed to business upon a small scale, he had no great or comprehensive views;—no power of appreciating the effects to be produced upon the internal resources of the country by the political change which it had undergone; or of adapting the new system of Finance to the wants which so different an order of things was calculated to create. He saw nothing at first but a Deficit, the amount of which filled him with apprehensions; and he discovered no means of avoiding this Deficit, but by a return to the old system of monopolies, high duties, and a strict limitation of trade.
A short analysis of the Report of January, 1825,
