Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/413

Rh rich lands, and a climate which the world cannot excel; but she must have other inducements than these alone, to offer to immigration. The time is not far distant, if peace continues, when she will have such inducements; but at present she must "learn to labor and to wait."

Now this may look like a discouraging view of the conditions and prospects of the Republic, but I do not so regard it. There are enough of willing laborers now unemployed, or but partially employed in the country, to develop a large trade along the line of any railroad yet projected, and ten or twenty years of peace would immensely increase the available laboring population of the country, without any addition from immigration. If the Government can hold its own against factions and disorganizers, and the people can learn to restrain their natural impatience, and refuse to listen to the appeal of demagogues and unprincipled political charlatans, for that time, all will be well with Mexico, and she will then care little whether immigration comes, or stays away. Her institutions, and the patriotism of her people are now being tried to the utmost, and a year or two more will tell the story, and decide the fate of the country for good or ill, for centuries to come.

Despite the poverty of the Mexican Treasury, the depression of trade and manufacturing interests, and the frequent abortive attempts at revolution in the various States, the administration is quietly and steadily carrying out an extended system of internal improvements which, when completed, will prove of immense benefit to the country, and the grand effects of which are already felt to some extent. The railroad from the City of Vera Cruz is now a fixed fact one hundred and