Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/498

478 will not permit the higher officials to steal to any great extent, so that the more extensive robberies are committed by the smaller officials, local boards, legislators, and other tools of the millionaires and monopolists, while in Mexico the chief rulers have not been in the habit of leaving much for their subordinates and inferiors. Indeed, it is the customary thing, and wholly to be expected, not only to take all there is to take, but to anticipate future revenue, to draw wealth, without much concealment or reproach, both from the inside and the outside.

"I will give you five thousand dollars to pass this measure for me, and hold the transaction a strict secret between ourselves," said a New Yorker, who prided himself in his skill in the art of bribery, to a Mexican governor. "Make it ten thousand," replied the governor, "and you may tell all the world."

This state of affairs applies more to former days, however, when, for instance between 1841 and 1844, about 12,000 military commissions alone appear to have been issued to please adherents and win opponents. It was this extreme abuse that gave the pretext for most revolutions, for greed and jealousy were ever the prominent characteristics of statesmen.

The great official centre in the city of Mexico is the palace, formerly occupied by viceroys and presidents, now surrendered almost entirely to the administrative departments, to archives, treasury, post-office, scientific institutions, council and reception halls, some furnished in rich style, others bare.