GOYEENMENT OF MEXICO. 187 



tain the precise number of children attending schools, owing to the carelessness of 

 provincial governors in forwarding the yearly reports to the federal administration. 

 It is certain, however, that from decade to decade great progress is being made, 

 and the attendance at schools already represents a twentieth of the whole popu- 

 lation, the proportion being highest in the States of Queretaro, Guanajuato, 

 and Chiapas. But much still remains to be done in the remote districts, and 

 especially for the Indian pojDulations. Ignorance and superstition are still so 

 prevalent amongst the natives that so recently as 1874, two " sorcerers," a mother 

 and her son, were burnt alive in a village in the State of Vera Cruz for having 

 caused the death of a young man by incantations. On the other hand brigandage 

 has rapidly disappeared with the development of the railway and telegraph ser- 

 vices, and most of the highwaymen have taken to more legitimate pursuits. The 

 time has passed when travellers were warned by placards posted at the cross- 

 roads of the capital to provide themselves with money under the threat of being 

 beaten, or losing nose or ears. 



A taste for reading is not yet very widespread ; hence libraries are few and 

 poorly equipped, although scientific literature has alread}^ acquired a certain 

 value. It comprises some standard works on a level with the admirable carto- 

 graphic undertaking, superior to similar works in the United States, which when 

 finished will contain the whole topography of Mexico in thousands of well-executed 

 sheets. Popular literature consists mainly in journals, of which at the end of 1888 

 as many as 120 were issued in the federal district alone, and 385 in the whole 

 state. In 1852, all publications taken together comprised only 60 journals. 

 Mexico is one of the Hispano- American countries which cLiim to speak the best 

 Castillan. 



V. — Government and Administration. 



Constituted on the model of the Anglo-Saxon federation, the republic of 

 Mexico consists of a certain number of independent or sovereign federal states 

 united together according to the compact of 1857. Each state is, so to say, a 

 miniature of the confederation, with its chambers and governor, its laws and local 

 finance. But its deliberations and jurisdiction are confined within certain limits 

 laid down by the general constitution of the republic. It can neither declare war 

 nor conclude peace, and all its relations with foreign powers have to be conducted 

 by the central government. 



But independently of all constitutional formulas, there can be no dcubt that 

 at present the populations of the various states, formerly without cohesion or any 

 sense of national unity, now form a somewhat compact political body. In 1846, 

 during the war with the United States, no popular movement was made against 

 the invaders, and the two States of Vera Cruz and Zacatecas even refused, in 

 virtue of their autonomous rights, to take any part in the war against the North 

 American republic. But the national sentiment assumed a far more active cha- 

 racter at the time of the French invasion and the assumption of the imperial title 

 by Maximilian. When Mexico at last issued triumphant from this formidable 



