Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/198

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194
MEXICO — POLITICAL

the legislature. The justices of the higher courts are elected for a term of six years, and associated with them are an attorney-general and a public prosecutor, similarly selected. The State governments copy the constitution of the federal government so far as their relative position permits. The president is commander-in-chief of the army and navy. The former is composed of three sections, — the active army, nominally sixty- eight thousand men, actually at present less than half that number; the reserve, twenty-four thousand men; and the general reserve, seventy thousand. The cavalry arm is well equipped, and there is a small artillery branch. The national military school at Chapultepec is one of the best institutions of the kind existing, and receives its students after the example of West Point. The navy is limited to three or four small vessels, incapable of other than coast patrol service. The national sentiment which the government seeks to promote is indicated by the national festivals, — Feb. 5, adoption of the federal constitution in 1857; May 5, victory over the French in 1862; May 8, birthday of the patriot priest Hidalgo; May 15, capture of Maxi-