By this time, all the people who took any interest in politics had divided into two parties. The liberals insisted on universal suffrage, the separation of Church and State, the granting the provinces the fullest autonomy, the division of the greater portion of the national revenue among the provincial governments, and even opposed the theoretical right of any government to impose its will on the individual citizen. The conservatives believed in respecting the clergy, in continuing the old system of education under priestly control, and resisted any further emasculation of the national government. Herran recalled the Jesuits, and under his direction a conservative convention framed a more centralising Constitution than that of 1832. Bolivar's ashes were delivered to the Venezuelan government with impressive solemnities, and his memory apotheosised as the father of the nation and the apostle of centralisation. Herran was succeeded by his father-in-law, Tomas Mosquera. During his administration, which lasted until 1849, steam navigation was introduced on the Magdalena, the Panama railway was begun, the finances were brought into some sort of order, the army was further reduced, and the post-office system was improved. [Illustration: CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN 1850.] The liberals and federalists were constantly becoming more powerful and more discontented. Disturbances broke out from time to time and when Mosquera's term expired, the attempt to elect a successor in an orderly and constitutional manner utterly failed. Riots and bloodshed followed, and it was officially announced that no candidate had received a majority of the popular vote. The duty of making a choice fell upon congress, and Lopez, a general of the war of independence who had taken part in the overthrow of Bolivar, was installed. This meant a resumption of the march toward complete decentralisation, temporarily checked during Herran's and Mosquera's administrations. The Constitution was reformed so as to reduce the power of the national executive and guarantee greater privileges to the provinces. The latter were divided and subdivided to suit the exigencies of local politicians until their number reached thirty-five. Lopez had been a revolutionist himself and did not know when he might be one again, and his abolishment of the death penalty for political crimes met with the hearty approval of the large number of Granadan politicians who were in the same case. The central government transferred a large part of its revenues to the provinces, and gave up to them the control of judicial administration, of education, and of transportation. The tide of liberal legislation also swept over the privileges of the clergy. Laws were voted suppressing of tithes, giving the nomination of parish priests to the civil authorities, taking control of education out of their hands, separating Church and State, and establishing civil marriage. But it was