Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/145

 

Many of the causes of disaffection which I have pointed out as existing generally throughout the Spanish Colonies,

did not extend to Mexico by any means in the same degree as to the rest. Her superior population gave her importance, while her mineral treasures, and her vicinity to the Peninsula, ensured to her a constant supply of European manufactures. The very process too, by which these treasures were drawn from the bosom of the earth, gave value to the landed property of the Interior, from the intimate connexion that must always subsist between mining and agriculture; and this concurrence of favourable circumstances diffused a degree of prosperity throughout the country, which few Colonies have ever attained, none, certainly, exceeded.

This prosperity, however, was due to the natural resources of the country alone; the government could not check, but did little to encourage it: for the abuses inherent in the Spanish system,—the monopoly of the Mother country, the preference given to Europeans for all public employments, and the corruption which prevailed, both in the administration of justice, and in the collection of the revenue,—existed to as great an extent as in any other part of South America; and were perhaps only felt the more, because Mexico had already