98 (Beoarapbical motes on 



in the Sunday-schools, 18,000 communicants and a Protestant commu- 

 nity of over 60,000 souls. Ten small publishing-houses are turning out 

 millions of pages each year, and their church property is valued at 

 nearly a million and a quarter dollars in silver. 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 



Mexico was the largest and richest American colony of Spain, and 

 for this reason it was called New Spain. The City of Mexico grew 

 during the Spanish rule to be larger than Madrid, the capital of the 

 Spanish Kingdom, the population of the country being estimated in 

 1810, just before the independence movement began, at 6,122,354- 

 while the public revenue of the whole colony amounted to the very 

 large sum of $20,000,000 yearly, the only exports of the country 

 being silver and gold, and commodities of great value in small volume 

 and weight, such as cochineal, vanilla, indigo, and a few others. 



Mexico, accomplished her independence in 1821, and since then 

 has had two Federal Constitutions, both modelled after the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States ; two Central Constitutions, which organized 

 the country into a centralized republic, and two ephemeral empires, 

 one under Iturbide, lasting ten months, from 1822 to 1823, and the 

 other under Maximilian, established by French intervention, lasting 

 from 1864 to 1867. 



Mexico is now organized, under the Constitution of the 5th of 

 February, 1857, with its several amendments, into a Federal Republic, 

 composed of twenty-seven states, two territories, and a federal district, 

 and the political organization is almost identical with that of this 

 country. The powers of the Federal Government are divided into 

 three branches Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The Legislative 

 is composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate ; the mem- 

 bers of the House are elected for two years and the senators for four, 

 the Senate being renewed by half every two years. Representatives 

 are elected by the suffrage of all male aduks, at the rate of one mem- 

 ber for every 40,000 inhabitants. The qualifications requisite are to 

 be at least twenty-five years of age and a resident of the State ; and for 

 senators thirty years. 



The Executive is exercised by a President elected by the electors 

 popularly chosen, who holds his office for four years, without any 

 provision forbidding his re-election. He has a cabinet of seven mem- 

 bers, namely : Secretary of Foreign Affairs, of the Interior, of Justice 

 and Public Instruction, of Fomento, which means promotion of Pub- 

 lic Improvements, and includes public lands, patents, and coloniza- 

 tion ; of Communications and Public Works, of the Treasury, and 

 of War and Navy. No Vice-President IK elected, but by an amend- 

 ment to our Constitution, promulgated April 24, 1896, in the per- 



