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718 generation. The children of almost every respectable family are learning music, French, and drawing; and although there is a sad want of masters, such good desires cannot fail, in a little time, to be productive of a happy effect.

This anxiety on the part of the parents to secure to their offspring advantages, which have, in many instances, been denied to themselves, is a part of that revolution which the last few years have wrought in the feelings and wishes of the Creole race.

After three centuries of implicit obedience, and uninterrupted mortifications, they have sought, in an entire change of system, that relief, which might have been afforded by a simple modification of the old institutions, had such a concession been compatible with the principles upon which the Colonial policy of Spain was founded during the days of her power.

It is difficult to conceive any country less prepared than Mexico was in 1824 for the transition from despotism to democracy. The principles upon which the present Government is formed, were at first neither duly appreciated, nor generally understood; yet from the mere force of circumstances they have taken root, and have already struck too deeply into the soil to be easily shaken.

Their hold upon the country is founded neither in a general diffusion of knowledge, nor in what might be termed theoretical patriotism; it rests