Scientific Reviews. 187 
of wealth, yet living in the extreme of poverty,—occasionally burst- 
ing into the heart-stirring feeling of an unanswerable claim to inde- 
pendence, and yet possessed of all those remnants of fanaticism, 
superstition, and pride, which have so long been a cloak to the vices 
and ignorance of their ancestors. Mexico appears to be still what 
it ever was, a most beautiful city, with filthy environs,—apart- 
ments (originally intended to be occupied by coaches) filled with 
women more than half naked, and men sprawling on the floor from 
the effects of inebriation. Numbers of people are passed on the 
streets wearing neither shoes nor stockings, and many even without 
shirts, with a sort of dirty blanket carelessly thrown over their 
shoulders. | 
Our traveller, while in Mexico, fell in with a member of the 
“« Junta de Californias,’ who had drawn up some most extensive 
schemes, and, among others, one for colonizing Upper California 
by native as well as foreign settlers, and for converting it into a 
general depot for China tea, India silks, &c. combining the united 
interests of Asia, America, and Europe, and embracing the greater 
part: of the maritime commerce of these quarters of the globe, 
including in its mighty grasp the Californian pearl fishery, trade of 
cattle, hides and tallow, and spermaceti whale-fishery. This plan 
was approved of by the Junta at California, and recommended by 
its members to the government. Its reception by the minister was 
so favourable, that they ordered it to be printed, and a copy to be 
sent to each of the deputies of the General Congress, that they 
might be prepared to discuss its merits so soon as the ordinary ses- 
sions should open. Mr. Hardy makes some remarks upon this 
subject, which were undoubtedly suggested by the present condi- 
tion of the Mexicans, and which are at the same time applicable 
to more civilized nations in the old world. <‘ It is (he says) an in- 
herent failing in an uneducated people, to give credence to the 
marvellous, and to cling to all those absurdities which they deem 
to be axioms in “ Legislation,” ‘ Freedom,” and “ Political Eco- 
nomy,” words which are ever in their mouths, but to which they 
affix no precise meaning, and which so peculiarly designate a mor- 
bid'state of feeling, an imbecile mind, anda true picture of na- 
tional poverty, parsimony, and low ambition.” 
On leaving Mexico and Guadalaxara for the interior, our tra- 
veller appears to have been struck with that great beauty of sce- 
nery with which De Humboldt, Bullock, and others, had already 
made us acquainted. Indeed, “‘ this confusion (he says) of moun 
tain precipice and valley, affords no indifferent idea of the appear 
ance of the world when it was yet ‘ without form,'—a perfect 
chaos!) 9. | : : 
On the side of the road were maize plantations, and near the 
populous town of Teguilla, the sugar-cane grew luxuriantly, “ as 
there are both warmth and water, two very essential requisites for 
its maturation.” The scenery in other parts is entirely composed 
of a succession of precipices, covered, except where they were abso-= 
