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rescript and command was issued from Santa Clara.
Santa Clara was the court and capital of this Franciscan Commonwealth.
The brethren of St. Francis failed to establish a sacred Commonwealth in Upper California, and their work has passed into other and stronger hands.
They failed, as the English church failed in Ireland, as the Sept-Insular Republic failed in Greece, from lack of nationality.
Even at the best their rule was alien, and supported from without.
They had no root in the soil.
Yet who can say, with justice.
of the Franciscan brethren, that they failed so signally as to deserve no record of their work, no pity in their fall.
Some of the brethren may have been imperfect in their lives.
Being flesh and blood, they must have caught some virus from the soil.
They were not always meek.
A bad friar may have loved strong waters, and indulged in pleasures contrary to his vows.
Too many were puffed out with pride.
At times their rule was so heavy as to lead a stranger, like Vancouver, to declare that he could see no difference between the treatment of a Franciscan's convert and a planter's slave.
No doubt, again, their method laid them open to
1875.
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