296 MEXICO. • 
of vast importance to us. England acts the part of an editor for the United 
States. She collects the news, the literature, the progressive inven- 
tions, and the genius of the old world, with unparalleled activity ; — 
and we are always, at farthest, but twelve days behind her in diffusing 
these results among the seventeen millions of our own people. But it 
may be feared, that it will be long before Mexico imitates our example. 
Spain is not an England, in intellectual energy or advancement ; and the 
day has not yet arrived in Mexico when a work in two volumes can be 
printed, bound, and distributed to her chief cities within twenty-four hours 
after its reception from Europe. 
I am afraid the tendency of our sister Republic is too much toward the 
opposite extreme. She has not disenthralled herself from the Spanish big- 
otry which inculcated the idea that a nation must do all for herself, without 
a commercial marine of her own to carry on a well-regulated commerce. 
This seems to me to be a churlish policy, and is as likely to make boors 
of the people who practice it, as seclusion is calculated to make ascetics 
of those whorefusetomingle with the world, and improve their spirits by 
a free interchange of opinions and feelings. It is well to live where you 
feel the beatings of the great pulse of society ; and it is time that man 
should remember he is not a mere machine, whose account with time is a 
balance-sheet between such productive manual powers as God has given 
him, and certain fearful columns of dollars and cents. 
In the summary I have endeavored to present you, of the Mexican 
character, I must not be charged with inconsistency by those who think I 
am contradicting what I have previously stated, either about supersti- 
tious customs, or the vices that consign so many to the prison, and make 
others so reckless of life and fortune. These are evils begotten by the 
times and want of resources. At present, I treat neither of political 
nor social gamblers ; neither of female frailties, nor that crafty duplicity 
which leads to high places in the state ; neither of genteel vagrancy, 
nor the outcast leperos and ignorant Indians who form so large a por- 
tion of the population of the country. All these are numerous enough 
and bad enough. But it has been my task — amid the desolation and ruin 
of the country — amid the dust and ashes to which a great nation has been 
reduced by civil war — to seek for some living embers, and to discover 
sufficient elements of a sound and healthful society, from which the re- 
generation of the country may be expected. With domestic virtue, 
genius, and patriotism, no people need despair; and it must be the prayer 
of every republican that enough of these still remain in Mexico to recon- 
struct their government and their society. 
I will not venture, however, upon any conjectures in regard to these 
matters, until I speak of the political prospects of the country. 
