20 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



liberty-loving sentiment of the country, bad been signally beaten, its 

 overthrow, as was the case with slavery in the United States, would 

 not seem to have been possible. And even under the circumstances, 

 it ig not a little surprising and difficult of explanation, that a govern- 

 ment could have arisen in Mexico strong enough and bold enough to 

 at once radically overthrow and humiliate a great religious system, 

 which had become so powerful, and had so largely entered into the 

 hearts and become so much a part of the customs and life of its peo- 

 ple ; and that every subsequent national administration and party 

 has now for a period of nearly twenty years unflinchingly maintained 

 and executed this same policy. 



Mr. David H. Strother (" Porte Crayon "), our late consul-general at 

 Mexico, who has studied the matter very carefully, suggests that an ex- 

 planation may be found in the character of the Indian races of Mexico, 

 who constitute the bulk of the population, and " whose native spirit of 

 independence predominates over all other sentiments." He also throws 

 out the opinion that "the aborigines of the country never were com- 

 pletely Christianized ; but, awed by force, or dazzled by showy ceremo- 

 nials, accepted the external forms of the new faith as a sort of compro- 

 mise with the conquerors." And he states that he has himself recently 

 attended " religious festivals where the Indians assisted, clothed and 

 armed as in the days of Montezuma, with a curious intermingling of 

 Christian and pagan emblems, and ceremonies closely resembling some 

 of the sacred dances of the North American tribes." It is also asserted 

 that, on the anniversaries of the ancient Aztec festivals, garlands are 

 hung upon the great stone idol that stands in the court-yard of the 

 National Museum, and that the natives of the mountain villages some- 

 times steal away on such days to the lonely forests or hidden caves, to 

 worship in secret the gods of their ancestors. But, be the explanation 

 what it may, it is greatly to the credit of Mexico, and one of the 

 brightest auguries for her future, that after years of war, and social 

 and political revolutions, in which the adherents both of liberty and 

 absolutism have seemed to vie with each other in outraging humanity, 

 the idea of a constitutional government, based on the broadest repub- 

 lican principles, has lived, and, to as large an extent as has perhaps 

 been possible under the circumstances, practically asserted itself in a 

 national administrative system. 



When the traveler visits the cities of Mexico, and sees the num- 

 ber and extent of the convents, religious houses, and churches, which, 

 having been confiscated, are either in the process of decay or occu- 

 pied for secular purposes ; and, in the country, has pointed out to 

 him the estates which were formerly the property of the Church, he 

 gets some realization of the nature of the work which Juarez had the 

 ability and courage to accomplish. And when he further reflects on 

 the numbers of idle, shiftless, and certainly to some extent profligate 

 people, who tenanted or were supported by these great properties, and 



