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Rh test of those practical difficulties, with which Companies have to contend in the New World; and many a scheme, the issue of which, upon paper, seemed infallible, has proved utterly inapplicable to the American Continent, as soon as the attempt to reduce theory to practice was made upon the opposite side of the Atlantic. It is true that there is nowhere in Mexico that physical impossibility of success, which, at Upsallata, (in Chili,) appears to have put an end to the hopes of the adventurers at once; but still, the want of a previous knowledge of the country has been severely felt in all the operations of the Companies; and, in more than one instance, has, at least, delayed a result, of which the character of the Mines themselves seems to afford the fairest promise. Upon this point, (the excellence of the Mines,) no doubt can be entertained; for if ever Mining was reduced to a certainty, it was so in Mexico, before the Revolution. There might be fluctuations, indeed, in particular Districts; and capital, if invested without judgment, might then, as now, be lost. But the general produce of the country was the same, during a long series of years; or, if it varied, the variation originated not in the Mines, but in causes totally unconnected with them, which rendered the supply of quicksilver, and other indispensable articles, more or less precarious.

England, even while unconnected with Mexico, always exercised a direct influence upon the produce