62 MEXICO. 
I must confess, that I can regard these festivals but with a feeling of 
unqualified disgust, both at the scene, itself, and at the gradual destruc- 
tion of the finer sentiments which such exhibitions, frequently repeated 
before all classes, must inevitably produce. 
When the Romans had exhausted the whole round of natural amuse- 
ments, they invented those of the circus ; and, not contented with the civi- 
lized butchery of the brute creation, in process of time they matched man 
against beast, and man against man. It was the extreme of refinement — 
the height of expensive luxury — the termination of that vicious circle of 
society, where civilization merges into barbarism. It was an omen of 
the speedy decline of that mighty empire. 
The exhibition of the slaughter-house, as a sport, can tend alone to 
foster a brutal passion for blood. Death becomes familiarized as a play- 
thing to the multitude. They make a clown of the grim monster. They 
put him as a joker on the arena for Sabbath sports ; and the day that is 
assigned as a period of repose, thankfulness, love, and remembrance of 
the blessed God, is converted into a school-time of the worst passions that 
can afflict and excite the human heart. 
It may be said, that this is not true of all classes. I grant it, and reply 
that although all classes visit the circus, yet the majority of the spec- 
tators is doubtless composed of the lowest ranks, requiring most moral in- 
struction, and least addicted to reasoning. With such a population as that 
of the leperos of Mexico, (men scarcely a remove from the beasts whose 
slaughter they gloat on,) these scenes of murder, in which bulls, matadors 
and picadors, are often indiscriminately slain, can only serve to nourish 
the most wicked passions, and to nerve the ignorant and vile to deeds of 
most daring criminality. 
It will be a matter of sincere congratulation for Mexican patriots, when 
this remnant of barbarism is abolished in their country, and the thousands 
which are annually expended in bull-fights throughout the Republic, are 
devoted to the education or rational amusement of the people. 
