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240 of two gentlemen, (Mr. Ruperti, of the house of Green and Hartley, and Mr. Staples,) who had formed establishments in the city of Mexico, a few months before the arrival of the Commission. Trade was in a state of absolute stagnation; for most of the old Spanish capitalists had withdrawn from the country, and no new channel of communication with Europe had been opened to supply their place. The Mines were in like manner abandoned, and all the numberless individuals who depended upon these two great sources of national prosperity for their subsistence, were reduced to absolute want.

The effects of such a state of things were felt by every class of society, for a great depreciation in the value of agricultural produce was the consequence of the general distress; and many landed proprietors, whose incomes, in better times, exceeded fifty and sixty thousand dollars, were compelled to reside entirely upon their estates, from the impossibility of keeping up an establishment in the Capital. The seeds of future prosperity were, however, in existence, and it was evident that time and tranquillity were alone requisite in order to bring them to maturity. All our inquiries tended to give us a higher opinion of the resources of the country; and next to Independence, the general, and most anxious wish of the population seemed to be for peace. I, therefore, quitted the Capital, where my stay did not exceed three weeks, with a conviction that if it should be my fate to revisit it, I should find things