270 MEXICO. 
exhibition deadens the felon's shame, and because it cannot become an 
actual punishment under any circumstances of a lepero's life. Indeed, 
what object in existence can the lepero propose to himself? His day is 
one of precarious labor and income ; he thieves ; he has no regular home, 
or if he has, it is some miserable hovel of earth and mud, where his wife 
and children crawl about with scarce the instinct of beavers His food 
and clothing are scant and miserable. He is without education, or pros- 
pect of improvement. He belongs to a class that does not rise. He dulls 
his sense of present misery by intoxicating drinks. His quick temper 
stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep is heavy and unrefreshing, and he 
only rises to a day of similar uncertainty and wickedness. What, then, is 
the value of life to him, or to one like him ? Why toil ? Why not steal? 
What shame has he ? Is the prison, with certainty of food — more punish- 
ment than the free air, with uncertainty ? On the contrary, it is a lighter 
punishment; and as for the degradation, he knows not how to estimate it. 
Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long as its prison 
is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home to so large a portion 
of its outcast population.* 
I have collected some statistical information on these subjects, which I 
think will be interesting in connection with Mexican prisons, and prove 
how necessary it is, in the first place, to alter their whole system of 
coercive discipline ; and, in the second, to strike immediately at the root 
of the evil, by improving the condition of the people — by educating, and 
proposing advantages to them, in the cultivation of the extensive tracts 
of country that now lie barren over their immense territory. 
IMPRISONMENTS IN MEXICO FOR 1842. 
During the first six months of 1842, there were imprisoned in the City of 
Mexico, 3,197 men. 
1,427 women. 
During the second six months, . . - - 2,858 men. 
1,379 women. 
Total of both sexes for 1842, 8,861 
Without specifying each of the several crimes, for which these pereons 
were committed to prison, or being able, from all the accounts furnished 
me, to state the exact number of those who were finally convicted, I will 
* As an evidence of the little value these leperos place upon their lives,— an old resident in Mexico told me, 
that he had once been the witness of a street-fight between two women, which resulted in the use of knives, and 
the ripping of one's belly, so that her bowels were exposed. The wound was not fatal, and as soon as she had 
slightly recovered from the loss of blood, while the attendants were preparing a litter, she drew forth a ciffarritt 
fiom her bosom, obtained a light from a bystander, and was borne oif to the hospital, smoking os conlentedly as 
if preparing for a siesta ! 
