Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/585

Rh in great cities, and with independent governments, and not nomadic in their character, but holding the soil of their ancestors, it is not surprising that the change from the ancient civilization of the aboriginal races to the modern has been slow, and that governmental disturbances have been frequent. No race that was fixed has been over suddenly induced to adopt the laws, customs and religion of its conquerors; and the tardy progress of Mexico has been largely due to the restraining influences and prejudices of the original inhabitants, who slowly discard the habits of their ancestors for the teachings of modern civilization. It takes centuries to work such a transformation. Then, too, the immutable doctrines of the Church, with its unvarying teachings and ceremonies, serve in a measure to influence the people to receive with caution and by slow degrees anything that would change their social and political condition. These remarks, of course, apply particularly to the original races that occupy Mexico—remnants of the ancient tribes. Mexico has progressed as rapidly as could be expected, when the large number of her aboriginal inhabitants is compared with the feebler bands of European strangers that mastered the government, and engaged in the attempt to indoctrinate the people with a new religion, new government, and strange customs.

The English in North America had none of these difficulties, because they met a nomadic people, and there was no decided attempt to assimilate the Indians with the Europeans; hence the seeming advance in the United States and Canadas. There were no fetters on progress, and the new world kept pace with the old in North America, while Mexico, Central and South America were held retarded by the almost invincible customs of the aborigines.

With races mixed, revolutions are inevitable for a time. The situation of the country, and the remarkable dissimilarities of the people, render a strong central government impossible. Rival parties with interests dissimilar, headed by bold leaders, are the natural concomitants of an unstable government; and they multiply and more frequently collide where government is in a transition state,