Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/129

Rh as a privileged caste, and to regard their own existence as intimately connected with that of the system, of which they were the principal support. In return for their supposed devotion to the crown, all the offices of government were theirs; and, by a regular scale of promotion, they rose in dignity and rank, the opportunities of enriching themselves increasing at every step, until they were enabled, at last, to retire in affluence to the Peninsula. Nor was it to government officers alone that this preference was confined. The superior advantages enjoyed by Europeans, threw the whole trade of the country into their hands, for the good understanding which they were enabled to cultivate with their countrymen in the custom-houses on the coast, and the facility with which they obtained licenses from the Viceroy for the introduction of prohibited articles, rendered competition impossible.

It is difficult to conceive any thing more universal than the corruption which prevailed throughout the revenue department of the colonies: the Viceroys themselves gave a splendid example, for both in Peru and Mexico, with a nominal salary of only 60,000 dollars, they kept up all the pageant of a court, and, after distinguishing themselves, for some years, by their magnificence, as the Representatives of Royalty, they returned to their native country with a fortune of a million, or a million and a half of dollars, the whole of which, it was notorious that they must have derived from