Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/339

Rh for a Military College, and establishing a general depôt of maps and charts. Some of the surveys are very interesting, particularly that of the Isthmus of Tĕhuantĕpēc, by Colonel Ŏbrĕgōsŏ,) which proves the impossibility of opening a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific at that point, and those of parts of Veracruz, executed, principally, by General Tĕrān, and Colonel Ĭbērrĭ. General Mŏrān, (better known, before the abolition of titles, as the Marques de Vibāncŏ, is at the head of the Estado-Mayor, and employs no small portion of his private fortune in promoting useful projects, and giving an impulse to every thing connected with this department.

The total number of officers employed, together with the estimate of the expenses of the War department, for the year ending June, 1828, will be found in the Table of General Expenditure, at the end of the Fourth section.

It amounts to 9,069,633 dollars, or, with the Navy, (both being under the same Ministry,) to 10,378,678 dollars,—about four-fifths of the whole annual expenditure of the Republic.

Nor is this merely a nominal outlay, for on the 1st of January of this year, not one dollar was due to any Regiment in the service:—It is, however, an enormous drain upon the country, and must undoubtedly, if continued, prove a serious obstacle to prosperity.

On the other hand, reduction has already been carried very far, and can now only be very