496 



METEIC SYSTEM. 



MEXICO. 



timeters, or one-twentieth of a meter. Its di- 

 visions show what is the exact length of the 

 centimeter. 



2. The Square Meter. This, as the figure 

 demonstrates, contains one hundred square deci- 

 meters, each side being one meter or ten de- 



cimeters in length, and each square decimeter, 

 if subdivided, would be found to contain one 

 hundred square centimeters. 



3. The Cubic Meter. Each of the six faces 

 of the cubic meter is a square meter, and it 

 consequently contains one thousand cubic de- 

 cimeters, and each cubic decimeter one thousand 

 cubic centimeters, as the figure demonstrates. 



The metric system is already in use in some 

 arts and trades in this country, and is especially 

 adapted to the wants of others. Some of the 

 measures are already manufactured at Bangor, 

 Me., to meet an existing demand at home and 



/ / 7 / / / / / 



I & 3 4. 



7 8 9 10 



abroad. The manufacturers of the Fairbanks 

 scales say that for several years they have had a 

 large export demand for their scales with the 

 French weights, and that the demand and sale 

 are constantly increasing.. For the uses of the 

 chemist, the apothecary, the manufacturer 

 jeweller, and all artisans engaged in the finer 

 descriptions of work, and for all scientific pur- 

 poses, this system is greatly preferable to that 

 hitherto in vogue. Since the passage of the act 

 of Congress, the chambers of commerce in sev- 

 eral of our larger cities have taken up the mat- 

 ter, and reported favorably on the more general 

 introduction of the system in the weighing and 

 measuring of commodities for sale or export. 



MEXICO. The opening of the year found 

 the condition of affairs in Mexico as deplorable 

 as the most determined enemy of Imperial rule 

 could desire. Wherever the authority of Maxi- 

 milian was sustained by an imposing military 

 force, there was, at least, a semblance of order 

 and established government ; but in those parts 

 of the country and they were many where 

 the military arm could not be felt, rapine, mur- 

 der, and outrages too horrible to relate, were of 

 daily occurrence. The organized armies of the 

 Eepublic had long ceased to exist, and in place 

 of them scattered bands of guerillas and irregu- 

 lar soldiery, commanded by leaders of more or 

 less notoriety and daring, kept the northern and 

 southern States of the country in continual dis- 

 order. The Imperialists controlled but a small 

 portion of the entire territory, although that 

 portion, it must be admitted, comprised the 

 richest and most populous States of Mexico, 

 constituting the real seat of the Mexican nation. 

 This was the central table-land, upon which, 

 from a period long anterior to the Spanish Con- 

 quest, the population seems to have concen- 

 trated itself, and to have dominated more or 

 less over the adjoining regions lying between it 

 and the coast. Central Mexico, with its 

 wings on the Gulf and the Pacific, with a 

 population of six and a half millions within 

 an area of 240,000 square miles, was practi- 

 cally and substantially in the hands of the 

 Imperialists. It included the great table-land 

 of Anahuac from Puebla to San Luis Potosi, 

 the healthier portions of the valleys of the 

 three principal Mexican rivers, the Panuoo, 

 Santiago, and Mescala, all the great mining 

 districts, and almost every town containing 

 over 30,000 inhabitants. The rich and flour- 

 ishing cities of Mexico, Puebla, Guanajuato, 

 Leon, Queretaro, Guadajalara, Morelia, Jal- 

 apa, Vera Cruz, and San Luis Potosi, with 

 the principal manufacturing establishments 

 of the country, were all within its limits. 

 7 Though comprising not more than one-third 

 of the entire area of the country, this dis- 

 trict contained nearly four-fifths of the whole 

 population and a much greater proportion of 

 the wealth. North of it lay a vast region con- 

 taining 450,000 square miles, but less than 

 1,200,000 inhabitants, -which, with the excep- 

 tion of small portions precariously held by the 



