272 MEXICO. 
It is to be hoped that with the " regeneration of the Republic," this 
branch of tasteful science will be properly encouraged, and the remark, 
ably acute and imilaiive talents of the natives subjected to a discipline, 
that cannot fail to rank. the Mexicans high in the grade of distinguished art. 
The old Spanish government supplied this Institution with a revenu* 
of near twenty-five thousand dollars a year ; and, at an expense of forty 
thousand dollars, safely transported to Mexico over the rough mountain 
roads and passes, a beautiful collection of casts of the most renowned sta- 
tues and groups of antiquity. These, I am glad to say, are altogether 
uninjured, and still adorn the lonely halls of the neglected Academy, 
I asked for the pictures of the former scholars, and a few were shown 
me, bad in coloring and worse in outline. I asked for the drawings; and 
the answer was, that there were none but a few sketches hung along 
the walls, bearing the date of long passed years. Among them, how- 
ever, I could not avoid noticing a drawing in ink by one of the pupils, 
which, had it been executed on copper, would have ranked him high in 
the list of the engravers of the period. 
PRIVATE CABINETS. 
The private collections of Mexico are not very numerous. Don Jose 
Gomez, ex-Conde de la Cortina, has a rare collection of offensive and 
defensive arms, ancient and modern, chronologically arranged. In addi- 
tion to this, he has gathered a number of interesting memorials of his own 
country, together with some original pictures, and copies of the most dis- 
tinguished artists of the Dutch, French, Flemish, Spanish and Italian 
schools. Among the painters are Murillo, Morales, Julio Romano, Paul 
Veronese, Salvator, Watteau, Mignard, David, and Laflond. 
PENASCO'S COLLECTION. 
The Museum of Don Jose Mariano Sanchez y Mora, ex-Conde del 
Peiiasco, is comprised in four branches :— Antiquities, natural history, 
paintings, and instruments of the physical sciences. His collection of 
coins is extremely valuable, consisung of upward of three thousand speci- 
mens ; and his mineralogical cabinet is unquestionably the rarest in the 
Republic. The ores — amethysts, emeralds, and diamonds, would, alone, 
almost make the fortune of an European collector. 
Don Jose was kind enough to permit me frequently to examine his 
Museum of Mexican Antiquities, and to present me with some rare and 
interesting idols. He possesses several Indian manuscripts in the ancient 
picture-writing, and a collection of dii penates, talismans, amulets, and 
musical instruments made of serpentine, basalt and clay. 
