DECLINING PRODUCE CHAP. xxv. 



some with sixty or seventy thousand dollars. 

 Thus the country suffered a loss which none of 

 the successive governments upon the republican 

 plan were enabled to repair, because no con- 

 fidence could be placed on the stability of any 

 laws that were enacted, or on that of the in- 

 dividuals to whom the execution of them were 

 committed^ 



Whilst Mexico and the continental Spanish 

 settlements in America have been injured by 

 the flight of the capitalists, who were, generally 

 speaking, the most intelligent, honest, and active 

 part of the community, the Island of Cuba, and 

 the southern part of Spain itself, and, in a less 

 degree, the south of France, have been much 

 benefited by the accession of capital which the 

 refugees have transferred to those districts, 

 though it was only the remnant of their former 

 fortunes. 



Mr. Ward, in his valuable work on Mexico, 

 has communicated several facts relating to the 

 defalcation in the mines during the fifteen years 

 of the civil wars, which serve to show the most 

 prominent districts where the diminution was felt. 

 " In Guanaxuato," he says, " the amount of the 

 precious metals diminished from eight million 

 eight hundred and fifty-two thousand four hun- 

 dred and seventy-two marcs of silver, and twenty- 

 seven thousand eight hundred and ten marcs of 

 gold (the produce of the fifteen years preceding 



