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 an examination of a document which exhibits an expenditure of $8,000,000 (in a time of peace with all the rest of the world,) for a War Department, the active officers of which receive $357,397 a year, while the retired are paid more than double that amount; at the same time that the whole Civil Administration of the country costs but about four millions! This statement would appear to indicate a degree of necessary coercion and corruption, which are but slender promises of the growth of peace, glory, and prosperity. The feeble support given to public instruction by direct contributions of the Government I have already alluded to, and the reader may, at a glance, see how much is expended for punishment, and how little for instruction and benevolence. The army is constantly the fondling of the rulers of the day. By it they are elevated to power; by it they are sustained or defeated, and, relying on its bayonets rather than the hearts and intellects of the great masses of their countrymen, they are obliged to pay both well and promptly the masters they pretend to rule.

The cost of this branch of the service must have greatly increased in 1842 and 1843, in consequence of the meditated attack upon Texas and the actual conflict with Yucatan. I regret that I have no data upon these subjects; but it may fairly be calculated, that if the expenses were $8,000,000 in 1840, in a period of comparative tranquillity, (with the exception of a short revolution in the Capital,) they must have been swelled in 1842 and the present year, by the purchase of steamers and munitions of war, to near 10 or $12,000,000.

In regard to the numbers of the, I am equally without information since 1840; but I may state that the forces have been considerably augmented, and in all probability amount to 40,000 men. In 1840, the Mexican army was composed of