118 



MEXICO. 



ity of the English consul general, had neither been for- 

 gotten nor forgiven by the people and present govern- 

 ment. 



The transportation of criminals to the presidios of So- 

 nora and California, was known to be a perfect farce ; 

 as, however they might set out, they were never known 

 to arrive there — unless they chose. Assassinations were 

 frequent in the city ; and to meet a bleeding body 

 carried dangling from a litter, was no unusual event. A 

 murder took place in the very house where we lodged. 

 Thousands of drunken and gambling leperos lay about the 

 churches and piazzas of the city. 



Safety to person or property on the public roads — that 

 was most doubtful. Many were robbed within a stone- 

 cast of the gates ; and the diligence from Vera Cruz 

 was, for a number of weeks successively, pillaged, as a 

 matter of course, in the Pinal between Pueblo and Mex- 

 ico, or near Perote. 



After the defeat of Canalizza, the villages were hardly 

 safe, such was the number of lawless ruffians dispersed 

 about the country to the eastward : and all this was 

 winked at by the government. What a blessing a Bona- 

 parte would be for Mexico ! 



In matters of religion, nothing could be more bigoted 

 and intolerant than the reform government of the coun- 

 try. The Roman Catholic religion in its blindest and 

 most revolting form, was the only one tolerated by law ; 

 and whatever there may be in other Roman Catholic 

 countries, here there would seem to be no medium be- 

 tween the grossest and most debasing superstition and 

 idolatry, and skepticism and infidelity.* The few Protes- 

 tant residents are not permitted to have a place of wor- 

 ship ; and were it not stipulated by the treaty with Great 

 Britain, they would not be allowed a place of sepulture 

 for their dead. 



* It is said that there are five hundred and fifty secular, and sixteen 

 hundred and forty-six regular clergy in the capital ; that in twenty-three 

 monasteries there are twelve hundred individuals : and in fifteen con- 

 vents, about two thousand souls, of which nine hundred are professed 

 nuns. See " Notes on Mexico." 



