1^0. 216.] 551 



%y the fact that we have had wisdom and foresight enough to protect 

 in some degree, the home industry of the country, and purchase from 

 our own people those things ^?^hich Mexico has to look for from 

 -abroad. 



While the earnings of the Mexican, who ventures to buy a manu- 

 factured article, go to fill the pockets, or improve the land, or deco- 

 rate the country seat of some foreign resident, without any return to 

 him, the expenditure of their surplus by our farmers, goes to the 

 benefit of some fellow countrymen, who in his turn becomes a cus- 

 tomer and purchaser of theirs. In this way we help one another — 

 we elevate and enrich our country — we become sufficient for our- 

 selves — we grow independent and comuianding, 



"Whole as the marble, founded as the rock. 

 As broad and general as the casing air." 



The value of things depends on the labor bestowed on them. The 

 ^diamond itself, buried in the mine, is valueless; it is in a great de- 

 :gree the labor of finding it, the skill in polishing it, the grace in 

 •setting it, which make it so priceless a gem. 



How valuable is a grain of wheat in a farmer's stack! It is the 

 'taking it ot;t and planting it, the reaping it, the threshing it, the 

 grinding it, the packing it, the transporting it, the making it into 

 bread fit for man's use, which lend its value. The fruitful and be- 

 nignant Earth, smiled on by favoring Heaven, cannot bestow on man 

 ■such wealth as he can by his own hand force and wring from the 

 most sterile soil and unaccommodating clime. It is not the natural 

 growth of plants, not the gifts of the soil, however great they may 

 be, which make a people wealthy. Nature nowhere does more for 

 man than in India. All vegetable treasures of the forest and field, 

 all mineral treasures of the mine and of the sea are hers, and yet 

 iiow poor are her people! — -how poor the -country itself ! A single 

 county of England is actually worth more in money than a whole 

 India province. There is more real wealth and worth in Yorkshire 

 than in the greatest presidency in Bombay. 



The products of agriculture lie dead and cold and cumber the 

 ground, until they are seized on by manufacture and commerce. The 

 one manipulates and transforms them into the various fashions best 

 adapted for use, adding a value by every touch, and the other bears 

 them awaj, by land and sea, and distributes them over the earth. 



