Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/177

Rh addition to the half, which I suppose to be absorbed by the expences, one moiety of the remaining half will go to the Mexican proprietor, and consequently remain in the country, until it is exchanged there for the produce of European industry.

Upon the amount of that produce consumed, the most important branch of the Revenue depends; and it is to the increase or diminution of the Revenue again, that the creditors of Mexico must look for regularity in the payment of the interest due upon the loans contracted in this country.

Of the ability of Mexico to meet her engagements, under moderately good management, I entertain no doubt; nor would any temporary fluctuations in her receipts or commerce, affect my opinion of her resources. It would be melancholy, certainly, were the bountiful intentions of Nature to be frustrated, by civil dissensions, or by injudicious legislative interference; a little tendency to which will, probably, long remain in all the countries formerly subject to Spain; but my visit to the Interior of Mexico taught me to believe, that the party spirit, which rages occasionally in the capital, ought not to be taken as a criterion of the general feelings of the inhabitants; and to hope, that few causes in fact exist, by which the general tranquillity of the country is likely to be again disturbed. Of those causes, in a work of this nature, I am not at liberty to speak; I shall, therefore, proceed at once to what I must term, in the usual phrase of the day, my Personal