Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/489

Rh now Stands, which is twenty-five geographical miles to the northward of the Antigua, the latter is still a favourite place of resort: the congress of the state is held in it, and it has seldom a population of less than from 12 to 18,000 inhabitants. The present capital is frequently subjected to the shock of earthquakes, but being so far from the volcano, the inhabitants begin to lose all apprehension concerning them

The policy which Old Spain has adopted towards Guatemala has been accompanied with effects of unintentional kindness in as far as regards the financial relations of their republic. With resources of an almost boundless nature, she has been taught to exist within a scale of very circumscribed economy. Being a captainship, and not a viceroyalty like Mexico, it was still less favoiwed than that country by the parent State, and was never allowed to export more of its native productions than were sufficient to pay for