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154 repudiating an obligation which it looked upon as sacred. Another reason is that when they have become possessed of the silver and gold, they must then buy the new money, which is in reality no more valuable, and pay five times as much that they may buy food or do business.

This is the situation as it appears to the public, but from the Government point of view it is somewhat different as to cause and remedy. The recent pronouncement of Señor Don Luis Cabrera on the condition of Mexican finance is so important in this respect, that we briefly discuss it: Don Luis Cabrera appears to possess Liberal sentiments, for he commences his review of the financial situation by saying that the old régime, after having been conquered in the military and the political spheres defends itself in that of economics; but the people at large are being ground between the upper and nether millstones of commercialism and the revolution. They listen to merchants and bankers who attempt to make them believe that the Government is responsible for the situation. The revolutionary Government, it is claimed, have paid all their expenses with paper money and have eschewed borrowing, as they feared that it might impede the realisation of their ideals: 700,000,000 pesos of the old paper-money still exists, and this was issued by the revolutionary Government, and represents what the Revolution has cost the country down to the present time. This paper-money has been constantly dropping in value for lack of guarantees and because of the widespread manufacture of counterfeit currency, so it was proposed to substitute for it a new paper currency with a guarantee: 500,000,000 pesos worth of this paper was printed to be issued as occasion required; and, in order to guarantee the value of this, the Government created a fund in gold which it intends to augment from time to time, and it guarantees the new paper with a value of 20 cents national gold for each peso. It will issue no more paper than it is able to guarantee. Senor Cabrera exclaims against the public