Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/317

 M EX ICO. which the produce of the most flourishing period of the Vice- regal government was taken as the standard of that of a pe- riod of comparative disorder and distress,) and the narrow policy by which a return to the beaten path ( la senda ya tril- lada ) of the old Spanish prohibitive system was recommended as the only road to salvation, did not escape the penetration of the Congress. The Committee appointed to analyze the Minister^'s Report, animadverted with great severity upon his confined and antisocial views, (proyectos mezquinos y antiso- ciales;) they demonstrated the absurdity of supposing that the Contraband trade could be reduced by reducing the num- ber of open ports ; (as if harbours did not remain harbours, whether the Government kept up an establishment there or not ;) and the illiberality of recommending an increase in the Mining duties, (which even the Government of Spain had found it necessary to reduce,) " merely because the disadvan- tages of the change would fall principally upon Foreigners, who had engaged in Mining speculations, upon the faith of a public act of the Legislature." Finally, they observed upon the omission of any mention of the Public Debt, and pointed out the mode in which, by proper reductions in the Army, and a due attention to those branches of the Revenue, which were likely to reap most immediate benefit from the new-born liberty of the country, the Receipts might be made to cover the Expenditure, without crippling for ever the resources of the State, by striking, as Mr. Esteva proposed to do, at the very roots of its prosperity. This Analysis, the argumentative parts of which Mr. Esteva in vain attempted to refute, was adopted almost in totohj the Congress. The Chambers refused to make any change in the revenue of Tobacco, or to close a single port or to increase in any way the duties payable upon the precious metals, a proposal to which eff'ect was brought forward by Mr. Esteva, and thrown out by a large majority, although supported by all his influence.