Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/292

 252 MEXICO. becoming a bad one; and the nvimber of noviciates will, of course, decrease in the same ratio as the inducements to enter upon a Monastic life. It appears, farther, that the total amount of the capital possessed by the Regular Clergy of New Spain, computing the value of their lands, {Jincas urbanas y rusticas) and of their capitals, by the annual produce as given by the table, (428,764 dollars) * at five per cent interest, and adding the value of their consolidated fund, (649,735 dollars), does not exceed 9,225,015 dollars ; a very moderate sum when com- pared with the immense wealth of the Monastic Orders in some parts of Europe, and particularly in Old Spain. For this advantage, Mexico, according to Mr. Ramos Arizpe, is indebted to the circumstance of never having re- ceived into her territory the Orders of the Basilians, and the Carthusians, or the Monks of St. Bernard, and St. Geronimo, who are all great proprietors in the Peninsula, and hold there, with immense estates, all the privileges of temporal jurisdic- • tion. The only Orders established in New Spain are the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Augustins, the Unshod Carmelites, and the Mercedarians, all of whom are prevented by the rules of their institutions from holding lordships with seigneurial rights, or acquiring property to any great extent ; and consequently are much better calculated to become useful members of a Christian community. {Vide Ecclesiastical Report of 1826.) Having taken a general view, in the preceding pages, of the situation of the Church of Mexico in 1827, it only re- mains for me to point out, a little more in detail, the effects produced by the Revolution. Of property in the country - _ . 129,723 Interest of capitals - - - - 83,039 Total 428,764
 * Produce of houses in towns - . _ 216^002 dollars.