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The principles of the system, some account of which has been given in the preceding pages, are too generally understood to require comment.

It is certainly well adapted, by the subdivision of the governing powers, to a country of such vast extent as to render the transmission of orders, from any central point, difficult, and uncertain: and thus, although in other respects Monarchical institutions might have been better suited to the habits, and previous education of the Mexicans, I am inclined to think that, both in the institution of local governments, and in the advantages which these Governments have derived from the immediate example of the United States, the adoption of the Federal system will be found to have been productive of many good effects. It has given to Mexico the benefit of our own experience in the science of government, as well as of that of the Americans, and substituted at once good practical securities for the liberty of the subject, in lieu of vague theories, and still more vague discussions, upon his abstract rights.

Most of the Articles of the Federal Act are transcripts of corresponding articles in the Constitution of the United States. There is, however, an occasional mixture of the old Spanish leaven, which displays itself more particularly in the establishment of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic faith "to the