168 



MEXICO 



and can be re-elected for a second term ; the 

 senator* (two for each state) and n-|.n-.-iii.iii\< - 

 (one for even- 4O,000 inlialiitanlM receive a salary 

 of SOOOdols. a year; the judicial s\-tem occupies the 

 ante position* as that of the I niied States ; and 

 the several states have elective go\rrnors and k 

 latures. It must be added, howeier. that neither 

 government nor op|Msition is conducted on any 

 principle : the government is u |M-rsonal, ami often 

 a tyrannical one: ami the opposition also is |HT- 

 sonal it rises and falls with it leader, and in the 

 past has found its favourite and safest expression 

 in revolution, which either lifts the pretender into 

 power or leaves him liefore a tiring party. Kither 

 c\ent dissolves the op|Misition. for no principle has 

 been involved. A strong government, in these 

 circumstances, in most necessary in Mexico, and 

 the c<t of the army (27,0(10 men) swallows up 

 one-third of the annual receipts. As for the 

 navy, it consist* of some revenue cutters, a 

 steam -tug, and a training ship (liuilt 1890), and 

 costs 75,000 a year. The receipts of the Mexican 

 government felfin 1890-95 from 67,360,753 dollars 

 to 43,945,700 dollars: about five-eighths of this is 

 derived from customs. Within the same period 

 the expenditure was reduced in an almost corre- 

 sponding degree. Both in the republic and abroad, 

 however, it is recognised that the government U 

 training every nerve to meet its obligations, and 

 the general confidence has increased of late years; 

 while the individual states, as a whole, succeed in 

 keeping their ex|>cnditure within their income. 

 The interest on the national debt has lieeii putn-tn- 

 ally |>aid since 1KX, in which year an arrangement 

 was come to Iietween the Mexican government and 

 the English bondboldw*. ninler which the various 

 debts \\ere convened and redeemed (in 1889) at 40 

 per cent. The entire foreign debt of Mexico was 

 in 1890 returned at 10,500,000. In the same year 

 banking facilities were greatly extended, charters 

 being granted for banks of issue and others in 

 various towns; whereas previously banking hail 

 been routined almost entirely to two large banks 

 at the capital, and their branches. In iv.m there 

 were 32,437 miles of telegraphs and 4349 of tele- 

 phone* in operation in the republic. 



Social Aspect*. Nearly half of the population 

 of Mexico are mestizo*, who are the farmers and 

 rancheros, the muleteers and servants. Many of 

 them are intelligent and skilful, but the lower 

 order* among them the so-called Iftiena are 

 h|M-lessly idle and vicious. The Imfians, who 

 constitute over one third of the imputation, lead a 

 life of their own, mingling but not mixing with 

 the other races. From them chielly are drawn the 

 peons, or agricultural labourers, who, through a 

 system that keeps them permanently in debt, 

 today are scarcely less slave* than were their 

 ancestors under the Spaniards. On every hacienda 

 there is a tirmln, or stoic ; there everything must 

 be purchased by the employes, whose wages (9d. 

 to Is. a day) are sometimes paid in 'tallies' on 

 it. The Indian is a poor workman and unreliable, 

 though as a rule tractable if well treated, and 

 easy to manage ; his wants are few, and his small 

 surplus earnings usually tind their way in a few 

 hours into the |p<>ckcts of the priest, the pulque 

 sellers, or the proprietors of the bull-ring, cock- 

 pit, or iniiiilf table. He has no idea of honesty, 

 however ; he does not steal on a large scale, but 

 tools, saddlery, and crops must !* constantly 

 watched. The Indians who are not cmplo\.-d 

 on the estates usually live in rmniimnities resem- 

 bling the old village communitii-* of Europe. 

 Little has Ix-en done to ameliorate the degraded 

 condition of the labouring classes. The staple fixid 

 everywhere i mni/e. either in the form of a moist 

 pule or as thin cakes (tortillui), with black beans 



(friinlt*) and red and green peppers. The houses 

 in Mexico an- mostly of </<;/ (sun-dried brirks i, 

 one story high. Education, as might be expected, 

 is in a very liackwaid condition: only 9j>er cent, 

 of the |ipulatii>ii can read and \uite. However, 

 elfoits are being made to remove this reproach. 

 There are national free schools in CMM consider- 

 able town, a school of agriculture near the capital, 

 and an ellicient military school at Cliapultepi .-. 

 besides the institutions mentioned under Mexico 

 city. Even the priests have opened a number of 

 schools, generally as rivals to the national schools. 

 The great mass of the people are Itoman Catholics, 

 but there is no established church. In 1M>7 the 

 church property was confiscated : convents and 

 religious houses were suppressed, ami now no longer 

 o|ienly exist; nor are religious processions per- 

 mitted. Civil marriage alone is valid, though the 

 church ceremony in addition is not prohibited. 

 IJesides the 1'rotestant missionary churches, some 

 of which have made considerable progress, there is 

 a Mexican branch of the Church Catliolic of .! 

 Christ, which was founded here in ls.til.aml within 

 twenty years had tifty congregations established, 

 and main schools, orphanages, and seminaries. 

 Among some of the Indians pagan emblems ami 

 ceremonies still survive; and in l.ss'.l Lieutenant 

 Schwa! ka found in Chihuahua dill'- and cave- 

 dwellers who were sun-worshippers. 



History of Mexico. The history of ancient 

 Mexico exhibits two distinct and widely diliering 

 periods that of the Toltecs and that of the 

 A/tecs, lioth were Naliua nations, speaking a 

 language which survives in Mexico to this OM . 

 The 8th century is the traditional date when the 

 Toltecs arc' related to have come from the north, 

 from some limit-lined locality, bringing to Anahuac 

 its oldest and its highest native civilisation. Their 

 capital they established at Tula, north of the 

 Mexican valley. Their laws and usages stamp 

 them as a people of mild and peaceful instincts, 

 industrious, adive, and enterprising. They culti- 

 vated the land, introduced mui/.e and cotton, made 

 roads, erected monuments of colossal dimensions, 

 and built temples and cities, w hose ruins in various 

 paitsof New Spain still attest their skill in archi- 

 tecture, and sufficiently explain why the name 

 Toltec should have passed into a synonym for 

 architect. They knew how to fuse metals, cut 

 and polish the hardest stones, manufacture earthen- 

 ware, and weave various fabrics; ami to their 

 invention are assigned the Mexican Hieroglyphics 

 (q.v.) and calendar. It is related that a severe 

 famine and pestilent-call but .destroyed the Toltec 

 people in the llth century, and drove the survivors 

 southward to Guatemala and Yucatan, carrying 

 their aits of civilisation with them ; and near the 

 end of the next centurr, after their place had 

 l>een taken by the rude Chichimcrs, a fresh migra- 

 tion brought, among other kindred nations, the 

 Aztecs into the land. Within two centuries and 

 a half this last people had liecomc predominant. 

 Hut their rule was, in a great degree, a reversion 

 to savagery. They were a ferocious race, with a 

 religion gloomy and cruel, and they grafted upon 

 the institutions of their predcee-sors many fierce 

 and sanguinary practices. Thus they produced an 

 anomalous form of civilisation, which astonished 

 the Spaniards by its mingled character of mildness 

 and ferocity. After wandering from place to place, 

 the Aztecs founded about 13:25 the city of Tenoch- 

 liilan. or Mexico; a hundred years later they had 

 extended their sway bevond their plateau-valley, 

 and on the arrival of the Spaniards their empire 

 was found to stretch from ocean to ocean. 



Their government was an elective empire, the 

 deceased prince being usually succeeded by a 

 brother or nephew, who must 'be a tried warrior ; 



