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 250 MEXICO. would pay six pounds ten shillings for the honour of a fu- neral, and yet would not be exempt from continuing his con- tributions, although the amount paid in one year, ought more than to cover any fees that could reasonably be claimed by the Church. I do not fear being accused of an uncharitable spirit in these remarks, for I have heard many of the most enlightened of the Mexican Clergy deplore the existence of such a state of things, and admit, that the want of a moral feeling amongst the lower classes, is the natural fruit of a system, under which such abuses have been suffered to prevail. One of the most distinguished members of a Cathedral Chapter, while lamenting, in a conversation with me, the de- based state of the people of his diocese, used this remarkable phrase : " Son mui buenos Catolicos, pero mui malos Chris- tianos (They are very good Catholics, but very bad Chris- tians ;) meaning, (as he afterwards stated,) that it had been but too much the interest of the lower orders of the clergy, to direct the attention of their flocks, rather to a scrupulous observance of the forms of the Catholic Church, than to its moral or spirit, from which their revenues derived but little advantage. The Table No. I., annexed to this Section, presents a general view of the number of the Secular clergy in the dif- ferent Bishoprics in the year 1827. No. II. contains a curious comparison, between the clergy of Old and New Spain, which Mr. Ramos Arizpe, from his long residence in the Peninsula, was well qualified to draw up ; and by which it will be seen, that the number of Pre- bends alone in Spain, exceeds, by nine hundred and ninety- six, the total amount of the whole Mexican Secular Clergy of every degree. Spain has sixty-three Cathedrals, and one hundred and seventeen Collegiate Chapters : Mexico, ten Cathedrals and one Collegiate Chapter : and the church of Saragossa alone, in Spain, contains thirty-three more Canons