Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/231

Rh six and a half days' journey. With the exception of the portion of the national debt which may have been unjustly assumed by the republic, every dollar of the revenue of Mexico is now applied to the development of the country. Progress is visible everywhere; and in every thing that enters into it, moral, political, and industrial, the influence of neighborhood is manifest.

It is true that the British bondholder is more successful in collecting interest on Mexican obligations than on Southern Confederacy paper, which he did so much to float for the sake of the interest; and it is true also that the capital invested in banking and in a considerable share of the mining enterprises of Mexico is English. But every day brings the sister republics closer. Every year effaces more of the old antagonism. English is supplanting French in the schools. In time it will make its way through the mountains with Spanish. It is certain that the war with Mexico was fought on a misunderstanding which the calmer sense of a later and more humane period would not repeat. The instincts of national self-interest prompt a policy of kindness and sincerity; a policy which shall respect the worthy