A TRIP TO MEXICO. 291 



the merest farce. In most places no one goes to the polls to vote ; 

 but whichever party has military control of a district, makes a 

 list, or a pretended list, of the voters in it, and reports them as 

 having voted to a man for its candidates. So an administration, 

 if unopposed by armed force, has it in its power to perpetuate 

 itself indefinitely. I do not think there were any principles in- 

 volved in the contest that was then waging. Both leaders were 

 Catholics, and neither professed or promulgated any ideas of 

 reform or economy or schemes of public welfare. Porfirio Diaz, 

 the instigator of the revolt, is an Indian, and perhaps carried the 

 sympathies of the lower classes. While Lerdo, the President of 

 the Republic, being of Spanish descent and a man of wealth, had 

 a greater insight and interest in government affairs. 



The Mexican Congress assembled while I was there, and was 

 opened by a speech from President Lerdo. He had been solicited 

 by all the members to declare in his opening that he would not 

 be a candidate for re-election. It was regarded that this would 

 put an end to the revolution and pacify the country. But Lerdo 

 disappointed any such expectations. He claimed to be able to 

 put down all opposition, that the revolters were nothing but the 

 old bands of robbers and offenders against the peace and order of 

 the country, and that he should not yield to them. I heard it 

 said on that occasion that his obstinacy had made him a doomed 

 man. Mexico has already had, since her independence in 1821, 

 thirty-six successful revolutions. And now we may count the 

 number increased by one more ; for to-day the proud and weal- 

 thy Lerdo is an exile ; and Diaz, the soldier of fortune, is 

 exacting the tribute of his success on tax ridden Mexico. 



Our nearest neighbor, the Mexican Republic, is notoriously the 

 poorest of nations. With all her wealth of mines and silver 

 veins, with her untold capacity for the production of every com- 

 modity of commerce, she could not to-day sell her bonds for ten 

 cents on the dollar. She has no gold, no exchange, no credit. 

 Her wealthy men can no longer get their wealth out of the 

 country. There is absolutely nothing into which they can turn 

 it, to make it available in London or New York. A few words 

 on the causes which have led to this anomalous state of things 

 may not be uninteresting. 



