PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR 291 regarding his fidelity, he pretended to place himself at the head of the reforms immediately upon his return to-the Capital. "Gentlemen," he said to the members of Congress, "now that we have triumphed over those Zurgates"-speaking of the Clergy- "we should avail ourselves of the occasion to put an end to them." All of the ecclesiastical re- forms which were made or considered in that epoch were advised and approved by him. He was consulted about the law against the forced payment of the tithes, a thing which retarded the civil activities for the monastic votes, which took away the property of the dukes of Monte Leon and was to make the immense monarchical properties national- all of which received his approbation, although at the same moment he was secretly conspiring with Congress, and a short time afterward made these same measures the basis of a declaration against that body. This hypocrisy on the part of the traitor deceived many; but it never deceived Farias, because this honest man could always penetrate his designs and never failed to work against them. Santa Anna had been in the Capital but a short time when he ob- tained permission to retire to :M:ango de Olava under the pretext of regaining his broken health, but in reality to establish another con- spiracy against Congress more formidable than the first. Before ask- ing permission he renounced the extraordinary powers which Congress had granted him in order that Farias might not be able to discharge them during his absence. On the evening of our hero's departure he stripped the presidential palace of its furniture and robbed the Execu- tive's office of an inkwell. The circumstances were these. Before leav- ing Mango de Olava the first time for the .purpose of taking possession of the presidency he wrote to Bocanegra, Minister of the Treasury, to obtain the apportionment of 10,000 pesos from Congress foi; furnishing the palace. That body voted the amount and Santa Anna used it to adorn the palace with the most expensive and luxurious furniture. Having obtained permission to be absent from the Capital, he ordered all of the household furniture to be sold at a private sale and pocketed the money without accounting to _the Government. He also took with him a large silver inkwell belonging to the executive department, which had been there since the time of Victoria and which was considered a sacred relic by all of the administrations. Valuable things excited the rapacity of the Mexican Napoleon, and he could not resist the desire to remove them and take them to Mango de Clava from which place they never returned. Meanwhile, Congress continued its salutary reforms by rooting out many of the ancient abuses of despotism, and was considering various important . laws, not only those pertaining to the clergy, which we have mentioned, but also others of equal benefit, such as the reduc- tion of the permanent army, the organization of a national militia, the colonization of unsettled lands, the abolition of the old system of edu- catioµ by replacing it with a better and more republican system, the destruction of the general offices which are incompatible with the i:iov- ereigncy of the States, and others of a similar nature with a tendency toward the progress and betterment of the country and leading to the happiness of the people. The perfidious President of the Republic, in retirement at his hacienda, prepares the destruction not only of these reforms, but also of their authors.
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