Washington telegraph., 1856-11-19
PRESIDENT COMONFoRT.

dant evidence OF the accommodating exIGen
cies that surround President Comoniort il
the rule of Mexico. From all appearance.
he will, In the next four months, be sub
iected to tests such as no common man cal
successfully meet He has dared to d,
what no other ruler of that country ha:
dared, unless we except the futile effort o
Gomez i'arias, who, when Vice Presiden
to Santa Anna, some years since, made al
attempt upon the possessions of the church
In that attempt-which was an experiment
of S nta Anna's, but performed by proxy
the result was such that the brave Die
t,tor drew back in alarm, and disclaimed
aud revoked all the acts OF the Vice Pres
ident, whom he had purposely left in charge
for short season. Bolder than Santa
Anna, Gen. Cononfort has had the cour-
age to propose to Congress the passage, aud
then to execute the law when passed, ex-
propriating to the State the vast posses
sons of the Mexican church.
That this was a necessary measure, eve
ry student of the affairs of that country
will allow. The vast accumulation of real
estate and landed property by the clergy
was pressing like an incubus upon the ma
terial welfare of the people. Its aggrega-
tion continually threatened to swallow up
the land, and convert the population into
servile retainers of the priests, or else to
drive it to the obtainance of miserable
subsistence from the thin and more sterile
soils. A theoeracy with subsidized Die
tator as its nominal head, or a revolution
that should overthrow the existing organi-
zation of the church, and make it spiri-
tual, and not a temporal corporation, were
the only alternatives for the country
Gen. Comonfort has recognized the true
difficulty, and has adopted a solution that
many deem the only possible one He has
struck at the root of the evil, and is carry
ing out his work apparently in manner
calculated to give him a widespread pop
ular support, and to confer upon his coun-
try great benefits. While the sales of the
possessions of the church are bringing in
abundant resources to the national treasury;
The possession of which will give him grea-
ter power to resist the Vaccinations of the
enemies of the law; the adoption of tho
principle of preference in the sales in favor
of those who hold possession, leases, or
claims for Improvement of urban and IAN
ded estates, has an air of popular Justice
that is emlnently beneficial to the cause he
represents. This course is creating LARGE
class among the people directly interested
in the support of the new policy. and in
any other country would be looked upon as
one OF the guarantees Of its permancnce.
" hat the result may be among the anon
alous race that peoples Spain and its for
sner colonies, no one can judge.
The opposition of the clergy to tie law
of appropriation, is taking violent and
active form in all parts of the Republic
and in our view the greatest danger to Gen.
Comonfort in resisting and suppressing it.
is to be found in the known want OF preb
ity among the Mexican leaders and public
men. There are few there, in the army
or in civil service, that have not been ia
nus-taced and Protcan-sided in the course
of the last fifteen years. In addition to the
clergy, in their opposition to the Govern
ment, there is large portion OF the old
officers OF the army, which Gen. Comon-
fort has in part endeavored to break up, as
being inimical to popular freedom. These
men, who have passed large portion OF
their lives in the camp or in the barrack,
are untitled to return to the walks of civil
life, and finding their only means ofliveli-
hood in military employment, and a chance
to pillage, are ready topronounce, in tayol
OF anything. or anybody.
In the measures adopted to support the
new policy of the Government, Gen. Com
nonfort has adopted course somewhat
/ fi,-,%.
The press is not relied upon to defend him
from unjust accusation, but is kept under
strict censorship, that it may not contri-
butte to popular excitement, while his own
partisans are busily employed in vitupera-
ting all the Opposers of the Government as
thieves and robbers. Public banquets, too
are given to the lower orders, at which the
President makes grandiloquent speeches,
and distributes aims, and branches of flo
raj ornaments hung with gold coin. The
cry of anarchy and spoliation of the mid
die classes, is family echoed as being the
aim of the enemies of the Government,
and an. effort is evidently made to get up a
popular scare. 0 Fr....a .'-..-
| All of these things are producing their
natural effects in Mexico, and in some pla-
ees the movement against the Government
seem founded in logical reasons, as, for in
stance, some of those alleged by Gen. Vi
daurri in New Leon. His cry is almost
an echo of that of the old Mexican State
of Texas against the despotism of Santa
Anna. Vidaurri says he resists the cen
tralist policy of Gen. Comonfort- We are
only told by the press of Mexico that the
cry of the Insurgents throughout the inte
rior is ''Relijion y Fueros" (Religion and
the rights of the people.) Whether Gen
Comonfort is capable of resisting all the ad
verse movements now on foot we shall soor
see. To do SO successfully will require
we believe, genius and practicability of ;
high order--N. o. Picayune.