Political roanisation. 99 



manent or temporary disability of the President, not caused by 

 resignation or by leave, the Secretary of State, and after him the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, shall exercise that office until Congress elects a 

 President pro tempore. In case of resignation, Congress, accepting it, 

 elects a President pro tempore, and in case of leave the President re- 

 commends to Congress the person to fill that office. 



The Federal Judiciary is composed of a Supreme Court, consisting 

 of eleven Judges, four substitutes, one Attorney- General, and one Fis- 

 cal, chosen for six years; three Circuit and thirty- two District Courts. 



The States are independent in their domestic affairs, and their 

 governments are similarly divided into three branches : the Governor, 

 the Legislature, and the State Judiciary. 



As we adopted the federal system rather to follow the example of 

 the United States than to suit the conditions of Mexico, that system 

 did not work with us so easily or so satisfactorily as it works here ; 

 and the tendency is rather to centralization and to the increasing of 

 the powers given by the Constitution to the Federal Government. . In 

 the article above mentioned published in the North American Review, 

 for January, 1896, entitled, "The Philosophy of the Mexican Revo- 

 lutions," 1 I dwelt particularly on the results of our having copied al- 

 most literally the political institutions of the United States, and gave a 

 general idea of our political condition. 



Political Division. When the federal system was established in 

 Mexico, in 1824, each of the old provinces under the Spanish rule was 

 organized as a State, and our Constitution of October 4, 1824, enumer- 

 ated nineteen States. After the war with the United States we lost 

 Texas, New Mexico, and California ; but since then as I stated in 

 the chapter on population some of the larger States have been divided 

 into two, or even three States, as was the case with the old State of 

 Mexico, out of which were formed the three present States of Mexico, 

 Hidalgo, and Morelos. Our present Constitution, of February 5, 1857, 

 enumerates twenty-four States ; but we now have twenty-seven. 



The tabular statement published above, under the head of " Popu- 

 lation," shows the number of States which form the Mexican Con- 

 federation, their area, population, and capital cities. 



Army and Navy. During our civil wars, and for some time later, 

 we had to keep a very large standing army, and our army acquired re- 

 cently a very high degree of discipline and efficiency. The Liberal party 

 always favored the reduction of the army, while the Church party 

 favored a large army, as our old regular army, on the whole, took sides 

 with the Church. Soon after the restoration of the Republic, in 1867, 

 the Mexican army consisted of : Infantry, 22,964 ; engineers, 766 ; ar- 



1 This article will appear in this volume under the head of " Historical Notes on 

 Mexico." 



