and honest man, and if not the social equal by right of birth with the descendants of the older aristocracy, he was at least regarded by the grandees as loyal to the republic and ambitious for her prosperity.
The Pompeian apartments at Chapultepec were restored, and there, together with his handsome wife—the daughter of Manuel Romero Rubio—and in spite of the tragic associations that yet cling to the place, owing to Carlotta's and Maximilian's ill-timed occupancy, the President took up his residence.
[A. D. 1885.] To the trained mind of Diaz it was quickly evident that the time had come for heroic treatment and drastic reforms. The national debt, which now amounted to $125,000,000 imposed an annual charge upon the treasury of $4,500,000 for interest, and as the financial embarrassment was daily increasing, the President issued a decree, making the cash payment of taxes compulsory, and forbidding the acceptance of custom house certificates, in order to make the withdrawal from circulation of notes and bills possible, and which liability constituted the floating debt. The treasury also was authorized to issue $35,000,000 six per cent, bonds, payable in twenty-five years, and the debt of about $65,000,000 owing to the English bondholders was now admitted. By an act passed in December, the privilege of purchasing government land en bloc was extended. The limit for any one individual was placed at 6,177 acres, legal age was made a necessary qualification, but the payment of the purchase money could be made in ten annual instalments. Free grants of 247 acres were also offered to resident colonists conditionally upon the cul-
