growing louder from day to day. This unsatisfactory state of affairs determined Arce to dissolve congress. Still he was loath to use violent means, and in fact, there was no need of it. One of the clauses of the constitution allowed the admission of substitutes for the deputies to congress in certain cases, and both parties had taken advantage of it without opposition. However, when the question of calling the president to account arose, the serviles protested against the presence of the liberal substitutes which gave to that party the majority.[V-20] On the 2d of June the deputies from Salvador, under instructions from their government, which was friendly to Arce, abandoned their seats, their example being followed by those from Costa Rica and most of the serviles, thus leaving the chamber without a quorum.[V-21] The session was reopened, however, ten days later, upon the liberals pledging themselves not to introduce any motion against the president or the serviles, and thenceforth the discussions were confined to matters of a general character till the 30th of June, when the session was closed; but the deputies of Salvador and Costa Rica had not resumed their seats. [Sidenote: STATE AND NATION.] It was now evident that a collision was unavoidable. The state government, controlled by the liberals, became fearful that the serviles, in their endeavor to support the president, might also attack the authorities of Guatemala, and under the pretext of an invasion threatening from Chiapas, secretly began to make military preparations. Salvador and Costa Rica, on the other hand, offered aid of troops to the federal government. Both parties precipitated the crisis: the liberals by their heedless attacks on the clergy,[V-22] and specially by ridiculing its members; the serviles by fanning, jointly with the clericals, ill feeling among the low, ignorant classes, whom it was easy to persuade that the liberal party aimed at the destruction of their religion. This had now become a matter of greater ease, owing to the irritation already existing, caused by the forced loans and recruiting for the army decreed by the state government. Strange though it may appear, the serviles had no suspicion that the federal authorities were aware of their intrigues. The clash came in May 1826, when Raoul, without having fulfilled his commission on the northern coast, tendered his resignation, accompanied with a number of invectives against the executive, which he subsequently repeated in a second letter.[V-23] He was arrested on the 17th of July, and subjected to the action of a court-martial for disrespect and insubordination. This raised a storm of fury in the local legislature, where Raoul's arrest was considered as an encroachment on the state's authority. An order of arrest was issued against Captain Espínola, the officer who had carried out the commands of the federal executive, and the jefe, or chief of the state, Juan Barrundia, was authorized to raise