whose management the confusion in the finances was greater than ever. That change caused the resignations of Diez de Bonilla, Larrainzar, and Marin. They were succeeded July 7th by Octaviano Muñoz Ledo, minister of fomento, who assumed ad interim the portfolio of relations; Isidro Diaz became minister of justice; and Antonio Corona, who had succeeded Castillo in the war department, took temporary charge of that of government.[1]
Miramon issued a manifesto on the need of reforms, claiming that his motto was to go forward, for not to advance was retrogression. He spoke of wise measures and not bloody victories as the means of extricating the country; expressed himself liberally in regard to the press, and used other fine platitudes; but failed to present any well-defined plan of administration.[2]
An effort was made at this time to arrive at an understanding between the belligerents on some matters of general interest, such as guaranteeing the safety of the mails; but all such projects were abandoned on the publication by Juarez, July 12, 1859, of a law to confiscate and nationalize the property of the clergy, and of his decree of the next day regulating the mode of carrying it into effect.[3]
- ↑ Diario de Avisos, July 12, 1859; Méx., Mem. Hacienda, 1870, 1059.
- ↑ This document was issued at Chapultepec on the 12th of July, and published in Mexico on the same day and the 13th. Diario de Avisos, July 13, 19, 20, 1859.
- ↑ It was passed with the unanimous approval of the ministers, all of whom countersigned it. In the preamble the clergy are accused of being the promoters of the war; of their open rebellion against the legitimate authority representing the national sovereignty; and also of their wasting away the funds intrusted to their care for pious purposes in supporting the fratricidal strife, and all for the sole purpose of rendering themselves independent of the civil authority. The law confiscates all ecclesiastical property, excepting churches and their contents. All convents of friars, and religious brotherhoods or congregations, are suppressed, and no new ones are to be established. Existing nunneries are allowed to continue, but all under the exclusive jurisdiction of the respective diocesan. Nuns quitting their convents to return to secular life are to be reimbursed at once the money they took with them as dower to the convents. Those who took no dower are to be paid $500, and to cover such claims and the requirements of public worship, four million dollars are appropriated from the general fund. Archivo Mex., Col. Ley., iv. 82-114; Méx., Cód. Reforma, 145-60; Diaz, Datos Biog., MS., 432.
