for Farías and Urrea had gone into hiding;[1] the president revealed his lack of confidence by converting his temporary residence, the Augustinian convent, into a military camp bristling with guns and bayonets; and the ministry threatened to resign. As it was, several changes took place,[2] partly owing to the failure of the president to obtain extraordinary powers. The need of a firm government became more apparent to suppress lamentable disorders like the one which had just desolated the capital. The federalists would evidently continue to agitate their cause, and even if they triumphed, the centralists promised to strive in the same manner, to the stagnation of trade and industries, the demoralization of society, and general ruin. It occurred therefore to Gutierrez de Estrada, a former minister possessed of great influence, that the evil might be remedied by establishing a monarchy under a foreign prince, and so suppressing the political aspiration and turmoil which appeared to be the root of disorder. There were still adherents enough of the ideas centred in the plan of Iguala and in the Agustin empire to form a respectable party, strengthened by the passive support at least of a large class, especially of property holders and industrial representatives, who naturally longed for any means to secure peace with its attendant blessings. And so Estrada boldly issued in October a pamphlet advocating the scheme, to be referred to a representative convention. But the howl of indignation which it evoked from the two recognized parties, both attacked in their most ardent hopes and principles, silenced the approval that had timidly prepared to manifest itself. The publication was condemned as seditious, and the writer[3] had to hide himself from the fury of the pub-
- ↑ The arrest of the latter being ordered. Farías was discovered and exiled to the United States.
- ↑ In the interior and foreign department, three men following one another in the former, in course of five months. Méx., Col. Ley. y Dec., 1840, 786, 829, etc.; Méx., Exped., 1-60; Pap. Var., lxxx. pt 5.
- ↑ Even the printer was arrested. Besides the Carta directed to the president, 96 pp., which contains the main scheme, Estrada issued Algunas Reflexiones,
