Respect for the constituted powers is unknown in Colombia. All "dynamic mechanism" should have a governor, that is, a counterpoise to the predominant {210} impulse. Nuñez writes: "Monarchies need liberal accessory institutions, and republics restrictive or conservative institutions, without which the former degenerate into autocracies and the latter into anarchies, which announce the approach of despotism." In default of the principle of authority, so necessary and generally so feeble in democracies, Rafael Nuñez sought for "elements of order in the moral domain." He became a conservator; he protected religion, like Portales, in order to give a disorganised nation the firm unity of a law. The ex-radical ordered the teaching of religion in the schools. "Traitor!" cried his former supporters, but if he renounced his former dogmas it was in his intellectual prime, before the lamentable spectacle of an unstable republic. "Fanaticism," he wrote, "is not religion any more than demagogy is liberty; but between religion and morality there is an indissoluble bond." Colombia had need of a stable internal law, of a morality. To obtain order Dr. Nuñez desired a Catholic unity; he abandoned his radical convictions, and put his trust in authority, religion, and moderate centralisation. But were not the articles of his new programme the result of a free examination of reality and of history? The leaders of the independents were inaugurating an experimental politics. He accepted neither abstract principles nor theories imported from other continents. Free trade obtained in Colombia: it is the English economic dogma. "With us," explained the statesman, "free mercantile exchange simply transforms the artisan into a mere proletarian working man, into food for powder or a demagogue, for free trade practically leaves only two industries vigorous--commerce and agriculture--to which those who lack capital and credit cannot as a rule devote themselves." This _caudillo_ wished to see a real autonomy based on a moderate protectionism: {211} as President he fostered industries and condemned the bureaucracy; he knew that the latter favoured revolutions, and that men seldom fight in civil conflicts except to obtain public employment. "The motives for disturbing the peace," said he, "will be less and less powerful as the official system ceases to monopolise the opportunities of work." Dr. Nuñez was a sociologist; he had studied Comte and Spencer; he wrote of society and its laws, starting from the liberalism of Lamartine to arrive at the British prudence of Guizot. An eminent Colombian, Don Miguel Antonio Caro, called him "the providential and necessary man," and demanded recognition of his political infallibility.