The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-09 00:00:00

and convenience of the inhabitants than the

Republic did in half a century.

The d cul t

thing here, as in all other matters, was to find men

of integrity to carry out the Emperor's designs..
This difficulty was all the greater, as there were

customs to uproot and privileges to break down. In
Mexico the officials, being inadequately remunerated,
had been long in the habit of turning their position
to profitable advantage. Thus the Municipal

Council adjudicated the paving, lighting, and all
other public works, either to the councillors them-

selves or their friends, or to those who bribed them
most largely. The contractor on his side took care
to repay himself for what he had to disburse with-
out at all prejudicing the benefits realised by the
contract. The lamps were not lit when the moon
shone, they were consequently often_ not lit when
the moon did not shine.

The Plaza Mayor, one of the finest squares in
he world, was also being embellished by the Em-

peror. The National Palace, which constitutes;
after the Cathedral, one of the most striking edi-
fices, has also been repaired, and Maximilian dwelt
there when not at the Alcazar of Chapultepec. So

also of the Alemeda. The Empress took the latter
under her personal charge, and converted it, at her
private expense, into a delightful promenade. It
was, indeed, high time that an energetic and intel-
..

ligent hand should come to Mexico to assume the
reins of Government. The country was indebted
to the Spaniards for all that it possesses in the
shape of monuments and public edifices, and since
they have been in the hands of the Mexicans they
have been allowed to fall into decay and go to
ruin. Ancient customs and ancient monuments
alike have gradually disappeared before modern
civilisation, as it is called, but in Mexico nothing
takes the place of what is destroyed ; for in that
unfortunate country there is no time to rebuild.
Men have done nothing but bleed and ruin the

country under the name of civilisation and liberty.
'the accounts given by Monsieur Domenech of the
population would be amusing, were they not pain-
ful to read. The lower classes, leperos or peones,
are, he says, brutalised, ignorant, superstitious, and
idle, indifferent to everything save luxury and
gambling. Of the citizens he says little, except that
they live in a certain degree of comfort by industry,
or by other means more or less honest. As to the
colonels, generals, official prefects, governors, and
ministers, they profit by revolutions, and speculate
upon their position to acquire wealth. The aris-
tocracy is solely composed of Creoles, that is to say
of half-caste European and Indian blood. The
men who are marked by talent, patriotism, or high
social qualifications, belong to this class. The
Metes, or descendants of Mexicans and Indians,
have all the vices of both races, without having any
of their good qualities. The same thing is indeed
said of them throughout South America. In
Mexico they are, according to M. Domenech, " en-
vious, greedy, proud, vulgar, and cowardly." The
Indians have many faults, but whatever energy or
good is to be found in the lower classes it is met
with among them. They are kind, polite, laborious,
and less vicious than the Mexicans. When they
have arms they defend their villages against the
bandits called Liberals in Mexico, but for the most
part they are enrolled and forced to fight under the
flag of some successful insurgent. Hence they were
naturally to a man, in favour of the Imperial Go-
vernment, which held out promises of stability and
protection. The Emperor on his side interested
hiMself very much in ameliorating the social condi-
tion of this badly-used class. They are sometimes
ill treated by Europeans as well as by Mexicans. A
savant who went to collect skulls met an Indian
with a remarkable head, and shot him to add his
skull to his collection. This story is probably bor-
rowed from the Maori legend, when that race ta-
tooed themselves, and a trade was driven in pre-
served heads. One, remarkably well tatooed, was
sold by a chief to a collector, though on the
shoulders of its owner, who was despatched at
once to deliver the article purchased. The
Mexicans are said to dislike European 4 because
they feel morally inferior in their presence ; but
the ladies prefer Europeans for this reason, and
because they are better informed, less demoralised,
more courageous, and less envious. Mexico is
a land of robbers. Santa Anna had his ink-
stand purloined at a Council of Ministers,
and the room was darkened to enable the
thief to return it undetected. The chapels and
altars are all protected by iron railings. A French
marshal was robbed of the decorations on his breast
at a military mess. At court balls there was a
general scrimmage for gloves—shoes, fans, brace-
lets, brooches, and other trifles, and anything that
is laid by or that falls is at once pounced upon. At
a ball given by the French officers, tile guests cut
the gold embroidery from off the curtains of the
room. If a Mexican has no pockets, he finds it
natural to put his hands in his neighbour's ; if he
has pockets, he likes to fill them with other peoples'
simply from the horror of a vacuum. A
mounting the scaffold with a malefactor,
priest, property,
left his hat in the hands of a spectator, who at
once went off with it to a pawnbroker's, leaving
his reverence to go home bareheaded.
Mexico is overrun with swarms of priestly drones.
The property of the Church was estimated at
179,163,000 piastres, of which 149,132,000 piastres
were productive capital; that is to say, invested in land
and houses, farmed or rented, and 30,038,000 piastres
were unproductive, comprising churches, convents,
plates, &C.
Between the rival factions this wealth has been
dissipated. The clerical-conservative element in
Mexico is, according to M. Domenech, nineteen-
twentieths of the population. Mexico is essentially
a, clerico-reonastic country. • The clergy held, under
the Spanish Government, about three-fourths of the
territory. The population, poor and idle, sought
admission into the convents or the priesthood. The
Indians were at once their scholars and their chil-
dren, and they, as well as all the women, belong to
the same party. The majority of the conser-
vative party ought, hence, to have been over-
whelming in Mexico. • These Roman Catholic
priests marry I and many have large families, who
receive from the bishops, on their pastoral rounds,
blessings, much to the disgust of M. Domenech,
who says that the clergy are ignorant and cor-
rupt ; adding that. religion in Mexico is a singular
mixture of powerless devotions, shameful igno-
rance, unwholesome superstitions, and hideous
views. The Indians go to mass with their dogs and
poultry ; the glu-glu of turkeys, the ki-ki of cocks,
the barking of dogs, the mewing of cats, the shrieks
of birds which nestle in the roofs, and the biting of
fleas, put all attempts to pray out of the question.
In Southern Mexico to receive the last sacrament is
equivalent to a condemnation to death ; for if the
patient shows signs of recovery, he or she is put out
of the way, so that they can no longer offend the
Creator.

Grown-up people are buried in Mexico like dogs,
but children are dressed up with wings of geese to re-
present " angelitos," and their bodies are let out to
dealers in pulque —the in toxica. inn drink of the coup -
try—to attract customers. As to church decorations,
the less said of them the better. The Saviour is
in Mexico mostly adorned with a crinoline Saint
Gabriel and Saint Michael arc dressed in white satin
bodies and short petticoats.
The late Emperor is described as being lofty in
stature, well-made, and wiih features expressive of
mildness. His manners were exceedingly winning
and conciliatory. He is said to have wanted
energy at first, but this has not extended to late
events. The Empress Charlotte was formerly the
soul of the Court and the prop of the Throne.,
Dignified, yet kind and generous, she used on an
average to spend ten thousand francs a week on
charities. She founded no end of public charities._
things which were before her time unknown in
Mexico. The difficulties she met in Mexico over-
taxed her brain, and the malady inflicted a fatal
blow on the Empire.
Juarez is an Indian. He had been servant at a
lawyer's, who gave him some education. Hence it
was that he became a judge, then vice-president of
the Republic after the flight of Commonfort in 1858,
and finally President. Ile is said to be a man of

1,, ,•••

talent, intelligent, and firm, or, rather, obstinate,
but having neither political nor administrative
abilities. His courage is as little to be depended
upon as. his capacities as a statesman. Juarez is
now a myth, a flag of opposition. Individually he
has no influence. lie is scarcely even consulted,
nor has he any partisans. Ile is a mere tool in
the hands of Escobedo, Diaz, Corona, Alonrez,
and others who find their profit in anarchy and dis-
order. Ortega, the last legal President of the
Republic, before he became General and Governor
of Tyuntas, was an obscure " chevalier dinthistrie."

Fle made his debut by exhibiting learned monkeys
on the highway. But even at that time he gave him-

self up to such 'flagrant highway robberies that it was
found necessary to put him into. prison. The future
general made the acquaiatance, when in gaol, of a
number of bad characters, who afterwards helped
him to make his fortune. Thanks to forced loans,
contributions, exactions, and robberies of churches,
Ortega has the reputation of still being very
wealthy.

Mexico is very rich, yet the people are very poor.
For half a century the country has been torn by
revolutions, and the antagonist bands have alike
ravaged the land. Had it not been rich there would
not now have been an inhabitant or a piastre left.
But while the mineral wealth is unbounded, and the
soil of inexhaustible fertility, there is little or no
commerce, and hence the people are excasively
poor. The Emperor devoted his attention to
ameliorating and cheapening the means of trans-
port. Great efforts have been made to restore the
old Spanish roads and to keep them in repair. But
in a tropical country, where it pours for six months
in the year, this is often found to be beyond the
actual means of Government. Railways offer the
best guarantee of success, but for a time they will
not be remunerative ; for even the chief line—that
from Vera Cruz to Mexico—the transport does not
exceed 20,000 tons in the year. For some time the
American system of railways, with light teams
drawn by horses, would have been best adapted to
the difficulties of the country and its financial re-
sources. Thb Emperor had organised an Imperial
Mexican company to carry out railways in the
provinces of Queretaro, Guanoxuato, Aguas Cali-
entes, San Luis Potosi, Zacateras, Nayarit, Jalisco,
Michoacan, and Matehuala. The capital was fixed
at 20,000,000 of piastres,- which, though divided
into shares, was in reality sought to be raised by a
tax peculiar to the country.
What Mexico wanted were colonists, to cultivate
land, develope the mines, and build houses. But
while Brazil was encouraging emigration, Mexico
was unfortunately setting its face against it. Under
the Spaniards California was as unproductive as the
northern province of Mexico remains in the present
day. Under the Americans it has become in ten
years one of the most nrosperous and commercial
countries in the world. So would it be with the
northern provinces of Mexico colonised by the Ame-
ricans. A territory which produces nothing isof no
use to its proprietor, to the commonwealth, or to the
State. The sooner, then, according to our author.,
the Americans take the country the better; for If
the benefit would be so great from their colonising
it, it follows that it would be greater when the Go-
vernment and country alike fell into their hands.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

COLCHESTER-JULY G.

Tile supply of ivbeat was again barely sufficient for con-
sumptive demand. Prices were firm, and in some caseS
is per qr advance was obtained. Iu spring corn notbiug
doing.
Wheat, white. Ms 74s Beans, Mazagan......3ls 3 S
red C43 ;8s Middle and 5ma11...443 489
Barley •• •• -• • l2s 433 Peas, white. 38s 4.:
Oats ... 8 s grey ...Us 42$

CHELMSFORD—JULY 5.
This market was very poorly supplied with wheat, and
little business was done. Last week's prices were fullY,
made. Spring corn of all descriptions generally brougbb
the prices of last week.

Whest, old white 52s 67s
new bas 71s
old red its 618
new. 53s 639
Barley.... 26s 339
Chevalier its 538
Griud.ug •_6s 328
Malt.. 669 748
Chevalier 688 78a
Oats

Peas, Partridge 40s 426
White ..34s
B Bing.. ...... 36s 409
Dun....
ditto, new....--s
Beans, Tick, 01d......40s 4,,"
,
new....39s 10,
Harrow tieks.423
409
nne7. o
....tiss
49
mazaga 430

ABERDEE:

1-JULY 5.