Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/427



T are in Mexico but two important classes of people, without any numerous and distinctive body of enlightened lawyers or merchants, who, together with the educated and respectable mechanics and agriculturists, would counterbalance the influence of the church and the army.

Almost every respectable man you meet on the streets, bears some military insignia upon his person; and when the troops are abroad, you will frequently find them commanded by beardless urchins of not more than fifteen or sixteen years. In this manner, important families and extensive connections are secured by a patronage which amounted, in the year 1841, (as we have seen,) to the enormous sum of eight millions of dollars.

The other important class (but with diminished power,) is composed of the clergy, who,—you will remember from the statistics already recorded in these letters,—have accumulated a large share of the real property of the Republic, in addition to the immense personal wealth that swells their coffers.

Thus, between the army and the church, (one by the direct influence of authority and force, and the other by as dreaded spiritual weapons) the whole nation is surrendered to but two influences, while the body of the people is too ignorant and disunited, and the men of wealth and education are too supine or peaceful, to interfere in behalf of the democratic progress of their country. You are warned of this double dominion by the constant sound of the drum and the bell, which ring in your ears from morn to midnight and drown the sounds of industry and labor.

It will be at once perceived, that, in such a state of society, there are none either to express a disinterested public opinion in favor of really free institutions, or to sustain them with manly energy.

I confess, that I have studied the history of her civil commotions without satisfaction, in seeking for the causes of this political condition of Mexico. They have always appeared to me (as I before said,) to be entirely objectless, and rather momentary disorders than well devised revolutions. They have been utterly unprogressive, and never enforced or decided a principle.

The result is, that in such a bungling system of strife, the people have had neither peace nor advancement, while incessant commotion