51 
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 Vendoine 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, ’vyhere the atmosphere is of a 
deep blue, prodaces 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. 
Ihe 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 thoiiglit 
E 2 
