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Rh gallantry kept up, although intermingled, at times, with a good deal of that freedom of speech, which, under the name of "franqueza," has so much changed the tone of society in the Peninsula. It must be recollected, however, that this licence, however repugnant to the feelings of Northern nations, prevails more or less throughout the whole of the South of Europe; and that in Italy, as well as in Spain and Portugal, allusions are constantly made to subjects, which would be proscribed amongst ourselves, without any idea of their inspiring that disgust, with which they must always be listened to by a really delicate mind. It is not just, therefore, to blame the Mexicans for doing that of which they had no reason until lately to suspect the impropriety. We ought rather to hope that they may find amongst their new friends better models to follow; in which case, I have little doubt, from the improvements which I have myself witnessed, that in a very few years, a complete reform will be effected.

As to morality, it is a subject upon which it is no business of mine to touch. There is, perhaps, not less vice in Mexico, but there is certainly not more than in many other countries which bear a fair character in the world; and there are many points upon which, as wives and mothers, the ladies of New Spain give an excellent example. I know few countries where, in as far as the means are within their reach, greater pains are taken with the rising