leader of men has, in the eyes of history, a right to be deceived either
by men or by appearances; and granting that Napoleon might at first have
been misled, he had timely warning, and the opportunity to withdraw, as
did the Spaniards and the English, without shame, if without glory.

After Mexico, led by the patriots Hidalgo and Morelos, had thrown off
the Spanish yoke, it became for forty years the scene of a series of
struggles between contending factions which reduced the country to a
state of anarchy. Once rid of their Spanish viceroys, the Mexicans found
themselves little better off than they had been under their rule. For
centuries the Mexican church had played upon the piety of the devout for
the furtherance of its own temporal interests, until one third of the
whole wealth of the nation had found its way into its hands. It was
against the clergy, and against the retrogressive policy for which it
stood, that in 1856 a wide-spread revolutionary movement was
successfully organized, as a result of which, in 1857, a liberal
constitution was drawn up and accepted by the people.

The clerical or reactionary party, although it counted among its
adherents many of the best old Spanish families composing Mexico's
aristocracy, would probably soon have ceased to be a serious practical
obstacle in the way of reform had it not been for the wealth of a
corrupt clergy, by means of which its armies were kept in the field. Be
this as it may, the reign of constitutional order represented by
President Comonfort in 1856 was shortlived, General Comonfort abdicated
in 1858. Benito Juarez, by virtue of his rank of president of the
Supreme Court, then became constitutional president ad interim.

By a pronunciamiento General Zuloaga, with the help of the army, took
possession of the government and of the capital, while Juarez maintained