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the academy of the fine arts at Mexico. We 

 know not which most to admire, the talents of 

 this artist, or the courage and perseverance 

 which he displayed in a country where every 

 thing was to be created, and numberless ob- 

 stacles to be surmounted. This capital work 

 succeeded on the first cast. The statue weighs 

 nearly twenty-three thousand kilogrammes, and 

 it is two decimetres higher than the equestrian 

 statue of Lewis the fourteenth, which stood in 

 the place Vendome at Paris. The artist had 

 the good taste not to gild the horse, which is 

 simply coated with a brownish olive varnish. 

 As the buildings around the square are in ge- 

 neral not lofty, the sky forms the back ground to 

 the statue ; a circumstance which, on the ridge 

 of the Cordilleras, where the atmosphere is of a 

 deep blue, produces a very picturesque effect. I 

 was at Mexico when this enormous mass was re- 

 moved from the foundery to the Plaza Mayor, a 

 distance of about sixteen hundred metres, which 

 it took five days to accomplish. The means em- 

 ployed by Mr. Tolsa to raise it on a pedestal of a 

 beautiful Mexican marble were very ingenious, 

 and would deserve a minute description. 



The great square of Mexico is at present of 

 an irregular form, since that which contains the 

 shops of the Parian has been built within it, con- 

 trary to the plan of Cortez. To correct the ap- 

 pearance of this irregularity, it has been thought 



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