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THE WORLD IS NOT SO BAD AS IT IS BELIEVED that town to London: Having settled with the

TO BE.*

"house," therefore, we took up a position in front of the " Crown," to be ready to mount the first I VENTURED this observation to my companion coach from Bath. In those days stage-coaches over an excellent breakfast in the travellers' room were in their glory; and several, whose destinaat the Crown Inn, Devizes. He was a veritable tion was the metropolis, changed horses at Devizes "traveller," arrived late the night before; but I daily. But, for a reason which I forget, coach had been such by courtesy only, while making after coach came up, and not a place, outside or in, this inn my head-quarters for some preceding days, could be obtained. My friend bore the arrival and devoted to antiquarian researches in the neighbor-departure of the fully-loaded vehicles with true hood. 66 No," said I, in answer to a remark traveller-like equanimity; but my-yes, I confess which I thought too depreciatory of men in gene-it-my ill-humor grew with every disappointment: ral," the world, in my opinion, is not so bad as it and when the last day-coach was gone, and we is believed to be." were left without another chance until the evening, "The world," replied my new acquaintance, I had so little of the traveller's heart remaining in "I think a very wicked world. It shows its wick-me, as to turn a deaf ear to the suggestion of my edness by its suspicion. It trusts nobody; and brother in misfortune-that the best way to fill up why? Because it knows it is not worthy to be the time would be by "dinner and a bottle." To trusted. And so, as I expect it will place no con- tell the exact truth, I employed the intervening fidence in me, I place no confidence in it. Trust hours in a spiritless inspection of some relics of no man any farther than you can see him;' that's early Norman architecture possessed by the oldest my maxim." church in the place, taking a solitary snack at a I was provoked by this to relate a little "inci- small road-side inn, in preference to a good meal dent of travel," which, occurring to myself not with fair companionship at the "Crown." My above a week before, had proved, to my own satis- conscience smote me for this, when, on returning, faction at any rate, that the world will sometimes I saw my friend already at his post, on the spot we trust those whom it does not know. I had reached had so fruitlessly occupied in the morning I Salisbury after dark, and all the shops were thought too that his greeting was not quite cordial. closed. Notwithstanding, I presumed to knock But almost immediately the evening coach drove at a bookseller's opposite my inn, and beg to be up; it had room for both outside; and as we sat allowed to purchase a "guide" to Old Sarum and together I took an opportunity to say that vexation Stonehenge, as it was my wish to employ an hour at the imagined possibility of being kept another or two in recruiting my knowledge (then wholly night at Devizes, when it was of great consederived from reading) of those interesting antiqui-quence to me to be in London early the next day, ties, the better to enjoy a personal inspection of had rendered me not "i' the vein" for good felthem the next morning. The worthy tradesman lowship. The excuse was accepted; and our talk out of the guide," but would with pleasure was cheerful until we had passed, as daylight was lend me a book—a portly volume, and with plates, failing, the great barrow of Silbury, which my which, he assured me, contained all the informa- restored companion seemed interested to learn was tion I required. Surprised, I stated that I was not, as he had always supposed it to be, a rather only at the naming where the coach had set me considerable natural hill. When informed, howdown-for a night, and should quit in all proba- ever, that this same barrow was a work of the bility soon after daybreak. That," he said, ancient Britons, and might boast an antiquity of at "need make no difference; you can leave it for least two thousand years, he hoped he should be me at the inn." Even my desire to make a pro- allowed to "tell that again with some discount." per compensation for the loan was not acceded to, on the delicate ground that, as the books did not "circulate," he, the bookseller, was ignorant of the proper charge. As I told my story, methought the traveller's eyes opened wider; and when I had done, he was so rude as to give the lowest possible whistle. But, apologizing, “I'll believe you," he said; 66 though it's the strangest way of turning stock, I ever heard of. Not very likely to make fifty per cent. of his money. Well, people are not always awake. But I say still, Trust no man any farther than you can see him."" Long before our conversation had proceeded thus far, we had, I should think, equally arrived at the opinion, that two persons could hardly be more unlike each other, in their whole turn of mind and pursuits, than were my companion and myself; he entirely devoted to business, and I the rather given to literature; he a keen man of the world, and I-an antiquary. But, nevertheless, we got on surprisingly well together; and our discourse, I am persuaded, gave a zest mutually to our breakfast.

was "

66

It appeared that we were going the same road; though he only as far as Reading, and I through

*From a pleasant little volume, entitled Literary Florets, by Dr. Thomas Cromwell, consisting of short pieces in prose and in verse-" the products," according to the author, "of moments calling for no more important employment." London: J. Chapman. 1846.

,

But now a new unpleasantness began to be felt by one of us. It was early summer; and, for a brief week's excursion, I had not thought of an equipment adapted to a night-ride through almost frosty air. My friend observed my deficiency; and remarking that, as a traveller, he was very differently provided for, proposed to invest me with a most capacious box-coat, which, he said, he could perfectly well spare, having another topcoat and a cloak besides. I demurred to the offer, since I should be only the worse off for having accepted it when he got down at Reading. "But my coat need n't get down at Reading," was his reply; "here's a card of our house in town; you can forward it when you arrive." The conversation of the morning flashed through my mind, and I hardly repressed an exclamation of astonishment. What! the traveller, the man of business, and of the world, confide a coat that must have cost seven or eight pounds, and which, as I had seen in the daytime, was still in excellent condition, to a perfect stranger, to one whose name even he did not know, and as to whose whereabouts "in town" he made no inquiry! As I donned with thankfulness the comfortable habiliment, having first deposited my card with its owner, I could not avoid repeating, "Trust no man any farther than you can see him." "Pooh!" said he; "safe as the bank at Salisbury." He shook my hand

heartily when he alighted at his destined hostelry; and a nap I soon afterwards obtained in his coat was forwarded, I made no doubt, by my often murmured repetitions of, "The world is not so bad as it is believed to be."

WHERE SHALL I SPEND ETERNITY?-A lady had written on a card, and placed it on the top of an hour-glass in her garden-house, the following simple verse from the poems of J. Clare. It was when the flowers were in their highest glory.

"To think of summers yet to come, That I am not to see!

To think a weed is yet to bloom

From dust that I shall be !"

The next morning she found the following lines, in pencil, on the back of the same card. Well would it be if all would ponder upon the question -act in view of, and make preparations for an un

known state of existence.

"To think when heaven and earth are fled,
And times and seasons o'er,
When all that CAN die shall be dead,
That I must die no more!

O! where will then my portion be?
Where shall I spend ETERNITY?"

Banner.

EASTER AT CONSTANTINOPLE.-A correspondent of the London Daily News, quoted in the English Churchman of May 14th, concludes a description of the Easter services, in a church at Constantinople, with the following singular picture :

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of the tumult, when they came forth, without any difficulty, and led them off to prison, taking care to pay them off on the way for their rough treatment of the spy."

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Parts of Mr. Walsh's letters from Paris to the National Intel-
ligencer.]
13 April.
PELIGOT, an eminent and very learned chemist,
was delegated by the Paris Chamber of Commerce
to examine the exhibition of manufactures opened
at Vienna on the 15th May last. He has made an
extensive, impartial, and able report. He repre-
sents Austria as possessing all the material ele-
ments of a great industrial power. Within the
last thirty years past she has advanced greatly, the
government having attended to "the development
of production." The Polytechnic Institute of
Vienna is highly extolled. Austria is wedded to
the protective system. On the whole, her fabrics
are sensibly inferior to those of France, according
to M. Peligot.

The volume by Amedée Renée, which completes Sismondi's History of France, continuing it to the convocation of the States-General, in 1789, has won the sanction of competent critics. Sismondi is charged with having pronounced sentence under an unfair republican bias, on the monarchs who had done the most for the grandeur and political unity of France, and yet having dealt too severely with the revolutionary governments. In fact, Sismondi was a rigid moralist-a conscientious inquirer and writer. Hence, he spared neither king nor demagogue. His history does not reach the revolution; his ideas of it are merely conjectured from his moral reflections and judgments, and his essential character. More reliance is to be placed on his narrative than any other, prior or subsequent. The twenty-nine volumes are too much for readers of this day; the plenitude of the work will prove its misfortune.

Dumas, the first of French chemists, has just issued the eighth and last volume of his Chemistry applied to the Arts, and the fourth and last of his Organic Chemistry. Lisfranc's work on La Médecine Operatoire has already been translated into German, English, and Spanish.

The throng was great; yet there was room to move about. I was struck by the picturesque confusion which prevailed among the crowd, the variety of costumes, and the expressions of the wearers. I saw nothing in their deportment which reminded me that I was in a church, except the reverent bearing of the poorer and simpler sort, the rustic pilgrims who had poured from their wild villages, to be present at the solemnities. The citypeople talked about in groups, swaggered up and down, climbed up into pulpits, crowded the pulpitstairs, sat, swinging their legs, sheathed in embroidered greaves in the window-benches, lounged, and stared, and fluttered their fustanels, twirled their mustachios, and fired their pistols. I was The Courrier du Havre discusses the British and prepared for this singular custom; but I cannot French intervention in Rio de la Plata, with facts describe the strange effect which these profane re- and opinions like those of the able writer in your ports had in the midst of all those sacred and sol- Democratic Review. Sir Robert Peel's subterfuges emn symbols of devotion, leaving behind them a are roundly exposed and censured. Due stress is heathenish smell of gunpowder. Now, a fire-arm laid on the danger and insufficiency of the plea would crack off at your ear, now, at a distant cor- that the prolongation of the struggle between Buener of the church. An order had been issued to nos Ayres and Montevideo injured French and prohibit this strange custom. However indecent British trade-as if most wars did not affect comthe practice appears to our notions, it is extremely merce in general. By the same logic, if France ancient, perhaps coeval with the use of gunpowder and England should quarrel and fight, the whole of among the Greeks. They paid accordingly but the rest of the trading nations of the world might comlittle attention to the prohibition. A kavass, how-bine to assail and cripple one or the other, or both. ever, had introduced himself into the church in disguise, and marked with a piece of chalk the jackets of all he found discharging, or armed with pistols. This unfortunate being was detected in making his chalk signs. A dreadful row instantly ensued. He was beaten on the head with pistols, and after getting half killed was kicked out of the church. The doors were closed, and no one was permitted to enter who did not answer to the salutation from within, Christ is arisen.' Neither, indeed, was any force used on the part of the body of kavashes placed outside; but, at the end of the ceremony, they made prisoners of the ringleaders

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La Presse of the 4th instant has a long and interesting private communication from Rio on the intervention. The Brazilian minister of foreign affairs formally denied to the legislature that he had ever contemplated the least coöperation in hostilities on Buenos Ayres, or ever anticipated them. The Anglo-French intervention was so unpopular in Brazil that a French newspaper, established at Rio, barely escaped, through a change of title, "summary execution" by a mob. The correspondent says: For cotton and tobacco, Paraguay is, in the southern hemisphere, what Louisiana and Texas are in the north. Its crops

may even prove the most considerable. Hence, | and Mehemet Ali hardly forgets the dénouement England's projects of colonization in Paraguay, or catastrophe of his reliance on French protecwhich cannot be accomplished unless the naviga- tion before and at the period of the battle. I refer tion of the Parana and its tributaries be free. you to the printed accounts of Ibrahim's imperial What she therefore fears most is competition, either honors and splendid excursions. He eclipses, with political or commercial. You thus may understand his suite, the Moorish magnifico, whose costume her enmity to Rosas, and her measures of violence and retinue delighted the public gaze. Mr. Jomard, to open the interior for her free access. It is a of the Institute, is to accompany me, next week, master stroke to have involved France in the strife on a formal visit to Ibrahim," the Conqueror;" so -to render the odium common to them, though the that I shall be able to describe graphically his fruits of the outrages would not be in anything highness, and the sumptuous hospitality of the like an equal measure." Mr. Brent's protest is government. described as an important document, which had produced a great effect.

25 April.

An official report states the number of political refugees in France, last year, to have been twelve thousand two hundred and three, of whom seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight were supported by the French government. Nearly four thousand Poles are included in the latter description. About a thousand Poles supported themselves. It may be conjectured that the chief business of the great majority was the prosecution of schemes of insurrection in the north. The thousands of Italians and Spaniards were employed in the same way for their respective countries. This is very serious work for the governments north and south, and naturally causes France to be regarded as the revolutionary furnace.

Didot advertises at length Mr. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, translated into French by Amedée Pichot, in three volumes octavo, price eighteen francs: with an account of ancient Mexican civilization and a life of Cortes.

Our exports to Great Britain and her dependencies, observes the Journal des Debats, are double what they were ten years ago. They now amount to one hundred millions of francs, while the consumption, in France, of British products does not exceed twenty millions. The British money directly spent in France is incalculably more than the French spent on the other side of the channel. Our numberless British visiters are not perhaps aware how much of the welcome which they experience even at court is due to the consideration of that kind of shower in which Jupiter descended into the lap of Danaë.

his arm.

2 May.

For a fortnight past our heads have swarmed with princes, pachas, marquises, lords, and right honorables of every notch. Viscount Palmerston left us on Tuesday last, surrendering our capital to Ibrahim Pacha, whom he beat out of Syria. The Viscount made himself the eastern lion, and played his part skilfully. His manners and pretensions ingratiated him with the heads of the government and the dynastic circles. He entered the chamber of peers with the Duchess Decazes, wife of the grand referendary, most complacently leaning on Ibrahim Pacha's journey from the Pyrenees to this capital was an uninterrupted ovation. Here, he enjoys a royal residence, and a royal welcome, and feasting such as might seem due only to the Sublime Porte. The ambassador of the Turk would present himself at the Tuileries simply as the vassal of his master. At the grand dinner with which Marshal Soult regaled him yesterday he gave this toast: "To France, protectress of Egypt. The British government will feel no jealousy nor apprehension. Ibrahim remembers how he was forbidden, on the field of Nezib, by a French express, from marching to Constantinople;

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I have gone through the number of La Revue des Deux Mondes delivered yesterday. The first article, on the kingdom of Lahore and the Sikh war, is from a writer of authority (Count Edward de Warren) on India affairs. He concludes that the fate of the kingdom is sealed by the terms which the British imposed and can enforce. Nothing else in La Revue claims immediate notice, except some advices from Mexico recorded in the political chronicle. Paredes, according to them, was pledged to the support of a monarchy in Mexico. "We have seen," say the chroniclers, "amemorial from Santa Anna to the three courts of France, Spain, and England, in which he offers to put himself at the head of an expeditionary army to plant monarchy on the Mexican soil. He places all his influence and resentments at the disposal and for the service of a foreign dynasty. He has, we know, made overtures to Paredes." You may, I ween, without dread or the least danger, suffer the Mexicans to try a king, and any European dynasty to try the Mexicans. Neither might be envied if the experiment were feasible.

5 May.

the most instructive and impressive information in
On the subject of Ireland, there is abundance of
all the discussions on the Coercion bill, in the let-
ters of the commissioners in Ireland, of the London
Morning Chronicle, and the Daily News. I mar-
gined for quotation several passages of the letters;
but, truly, the details of wretchedness are so har-
rowing that there would be a sort of cruelty in the
act. Distress and Crime, Fever and Famine, placed
at the head, are weak introductory phrases.
present Coercion bill is the eighteenth. The Times
calls it a strait waistcoat for a people raving
from starvation. The best part of Sir Robert
Peel's speech (27th ultimo,) on the measure is this
apostrophe:

The

"I, for my part, think that one of the evilsexcuse me, I know you distrust the feelings of Englishmen on this subject; I can only declare for myself that I lived for six years in that country, and that I left it with every feeling of good will for the people of Ireland-excuse me, therefore, if I say, that one of the evils of the country is, that you rely too much upon the powers of the executive government. [Loud cries of hear, hear.] You always say the government ought to interfere-the legislature ought to pass this measure, or it ought to pass that. Believe me, you have it in your own power; the landlords of Ireland have it in their own power to effect immensely more good than the legislature ever can. my firm belief that if you would meet togetherabsentee as well as resident proprietors-that if you would meet together and consider what are the real evils of the country, and what are the real obligations imposed upon you, the landlords, you would benefit the country more than the legislature could do. I speak of your rights; but when you, armed with the legal powers, turn out the resi

It is

dents on your estates from their houses on a win-independent, her own industry might not have ter night without considering how provision is to prospered; whether she would have blindly immobe made for them under such dreadful circum-lated it to free-trade; whether her cities, once so stances, what can ensue but misery, ruin, and des- busy and flourishing, would be, as they are, a peration? while by the exercise of a little liberal- spectacle of decay and ruin? On this point I am ity you would accomplish more than all the mea- struck with the language of Wilson in his history sures the legislature could adopt." of British India. "The British trade, both export A commentator has well remarked that in this and import, obtained a considerable augmentation text of Sir Robert Peel, fairly amplified, he finds under the new charter of the company, the modifias strong an argument, as distinct an admission, in cation of the monopoly; articles entirely unknown favor of repeal, or the creation of a separate Irish in the annals of Indian imports were exported legislature as has come from any mouth. The thither from Great Britain to an immense amount, landlords could hold counsel efficaciously for the to the extinction of similar products of domestic people only as part of a deliberative assembly labor. This effect was prepared for by an iniquiequally representing the people; and thus restrain- tous abuse of the power of Great Britain in excluded, enlightened, and assisted, they might perceive ing from her own consumption the principal manuand accomplish the salvation and weal of all parties. factures of India, and in opening the ports of India Some time ago, perusing a cogent editorial article to those of Britain free of charge.' of the Morning Chronicle, this paragraph struck

me:

"We, the people of England, are the real criminals. We, by our detestable system of confiscations, and our yet more detestable penal laws, intentionally impoverished and degraded the people of Ireland. We fostered the pride and selfishness of the intruders, whom, after endowing with the land of the country, we upheld in a demoralizing immunity from every check which interest, fear, and sympathy impose on the rich of other countries. We planted the seeds of that system of mutual outrage of which the fruits amaze and shock us. Ours was the guilt; ours is the duty of reparation. Our task it must be to remove the causes of mutual outrage, by placing restraints on the oppressions of one party, and taking away the exciting causes of the other's revenge.

Such a British acknowledgment has, indeed, weight and desert; but is the task practicable by any other than domestic Irish agency?

14 May.

On Saturday last, in the chamber of peers, the bill from the deputies, respecting modifications of the tariff, gave rise to an able and important discussion which finished only yesterday.

The Duke d'Harcourt, a neat orator, fond of epigrammatic turns, delivered a set discourse on the excellence of free trade, the beauty and value of Sir Robert Peel's measures, and the blindness or backwardness of the French ministry. He assailed the minister of commerce in particular for the protectionist speech which I heretofore reported to you. The diplomatic tactics of the minister of foreign affairs rendered it difficult to ascertain his real opinions. Baron Charles Dupin, who best understands the subject, entered the lists on the side of moderate protection. He would rejoice if the Zoll-Verein could acquire great maritime consequence. It was important for France that other continental nations should be directly interested in the liberty of the seas. The Zoll-Verein had a right to complain of the illiberality of Holland. Now that the former had opened a passage and issue through Belgium for German products, the Dutch would be more reasonable concerning the route of the Rhine. He, the baron, would be glad to hear of ocean vessels built at Cologne, and reaching the seas below Rotterdam. The ZollVerein would, ere long, count thirty millions of population. Some weight in the scale of neutral rights. The baron enlarged on the case of India, whose cotton fabrics England long protected, but finally and utterly sacrificed to her own manufactures. He asked whether, if India had remained

You perceive to what the independence of Belgium amounts. If she hold it desirable and proper for her to establish a customs union with France, England and Prussia and Austria peremptorily forbid the bans. If, with the Zoll-Verein, France is resolved, pledged, ready, “not to suffer it;" she keeps a close overweening watch. The truth is, that the French cabinet has allowed Belgium material advantages in the commercial convention; the policy of keeping her detached relatively from the German sirens, and binding her by the friendship of interest to her French cousins, is not the only motive. Her worthy king is the son-in-law to his majesty Louis Philippe; the family alliance must appear to enable Leopold to secure special kindness and benefits for his little realm. In the sitting of the 11th instant of the peers, the Marquis of Gabriac delivered quite an original and a most satisfactory critique of the vulgar notions and clamors respecting foreign literary piracy. It should be translated in extenso, for the instruction of your petitioners and sticklers for international copyright. The marquis contended that the cheap re-printing abroad of French publications was a signal and manifold demonstrable benefit and triumph for France. His details of fact and considerations of argument are curious and conclusive. He exploded the whole delusion of wrong and detriment.

16 May.

At the last two sittings of the deputies the topic of the execution of the law modifying negro slavery in the French West Indies fell under debate. The minister of marine announced perseverance in the plan of emancipating the negroes of the public domain within five years.

I am struck with the annexed language of the London Standard of the 14th of this month: "The United States would seem to be, of all places in the world, the worst adapted for manufacturesabundant land, dear labor, no neighboring market; yet the United States are making rapid progress in manufactures, and it is a remarkable fact-not, we believe, as generally known as it ought to bethat nearly all the recent mechanical contrivances introduced into our factories, for dispensing with human labor, are of American invention; proof that, where money or credit can be had, a dense population is not, as has been supposed, necessary for the advancement of manufactures." American ingenuity is so superior, intrepid, and various that a repressive, and baffling policy, or any other than one of encouragement and scope, would seem against the favor of Providence and the march of destiny.

"

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 113.-11 JULY, 1846.

From the N. Y. Albion.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MEXICO.

GENERAL Waddy Thompson, lately the American plenipotentiary to the republic of Mexico, has just given to the world his recollections of that beautiful and interesting country. It is an octavo volume, published by Messrs. Wiley and Putnam, and issued in London and New York.

We do not know when we have been more interested than while perusing this volume. It is written without effort or pretension, bearing marks of being struck off with true Virginian impulse, rather than finished with elaborate authorship; but its interest is nevertheless kept up through every chapter, and the author has contrived to throw a great deal of popular information into its pages. Nor is this all; Mr. Thompson writes in a free and liberal spirit; gives much credit to the Mexicans as a people, and portrays their magnificent country in favorable colors. He is remarkably proud of his own race, and religiously believes that the Anglo-Saxons are destined to conquer the whole continent with their-civilization. He entered freely into the society of the British merchants he found in the capital of Mexico, and disabused his mind of the pernicious notion that England was anxious to acquire any part of the dominions of that republic. He has wisdom enough to see that England has territory in abundance that her object is to improve what she already possesses, rather than to acquire more. Trade and commerce she cherishes-these are her compass and polar star-and they will assuredly lead her to the haven of prosperity. Like every Virginian gentleman we have ever met with, Mr. Thompson glories in his English ancestry. "I would not sell," he says, "for the seas' worth my share of the glory of my English ancestry-Milton, Shakspeare, and John Hampden, and those noble old barons who met King John at Runnymede." Thus much for the author; and we need not tell our readers how delightful it is to travel over three hundred pages with such a companion.

Mr. T. assumes that the produce of precious metals from the mines are as great, or nearly so, as at any former period. This we did not think was the case. We agree with him, however, in believing that they are far less profitable, owing to the expensive nature of the machinery now employed by the English miners, and also in consequence of the high price of quicksilver. The dearness of this latter article is, as Mr. Thompson describes, owing to the monopoly of the Rothschilds, who rent the mines of Almadin, in old Spain. From the mines of Almadin come nine tenths of all the quicksilver of commerce; and these mines are farmed out by the cabinet of Madrid to the capitalists just named at an enormous rental, which is, of course, put on the selling price of the commodity. Not only does this circumstance add to the cost of producing the gold and silver, but it lessens the quantity prepared for the mint-the less valuable ores being cast aside as not being worth the quicksilver employed to separate the metallic portion of the mass. So long, then, as the necessities or the policy of the Spanish cabinet continue VOL. X. 4

CXIII.

LIVING AGE.

to put such a tax on quicksilver, so long will the precious metals bear a very enhanced cost in producing them. The monopoly then, it is clear, is not strictly with the Rothschilds, but with the Spanish government. Mr. Thompson adduces the following figures.

Baron Humboldt gives the gross produce of the mines of Mexico from 1690 to 1803 as $1,358,452,020, or about twelve millions per annum.

The highest product was in 1796, when the mines yielded $25,644,566.

Mr. Ward states the annual produce for a few years prior to 1810 at per annum $24,000,000. During the revolutionary struggle the produce fell to three millions annually. In 1842 the official custom house returns give $18,500,000.

As there is an export duty of six per cent. on all the precious metals, much is sent out of the country clandestinely, say some three or four millions; thus bringing up the whole amount to, or nearly so, its original standard.

It is gratifying to learn that the Mexicans are not so irretrievably sunk in ignorance as many suppose. Mr. Thompson says that during his residence at the capital he never had a Mexican servant that was not able to read and write. Persons from the country, too, were generally able to read the signs over the shops in the streets of Mexico. The Lancasterian system, it seems, has been very generally introduced, and is working a favorable change in the rising generation. Mr. Thompson attributes the introduction of these schools to the patriotic exertions of Signor Tornel. Let us hope that good fruit will by-and-bye grow from this seed; that the people may become enlightened and duly sensible of their own advantages; that party feuds be superseded by true patriotism, and thus an end be put to those frequent and deadly civil contests that distract the mind and tear the bosom of the country.

We have given among other extracts the entire chapter on California; and Mr. Thompson affirms that such is the value of that country that he would rather have twenty years' war than see England in possession of it! If it be worth twenty years' war to the United States it may be worth twenty years' war to England. Would it not be better, then, that neither should have it, or that it become independent? Or would it not be better still, that both England and the United States make an effort to preserve the country to its proper owner, Mexico; and that Mexico in return for such assistance make all the valuable harbors free ports? This seems to us to be the more rational mode of dealing with such a bone of contention, and we feel pretty confident that the European powers will so consider it. But although Mr. Thompson is thus anxious that California should not pass to another power, he by no means betrays any improper craving for Mexican territory, for he closes his twenty-first chapter with the following honorable and noble-minded paragraph.

"It is risking very little to say that if Mexico was inhabited by our race, that the produce of the mines would be at least five times as great as it now is. There is not a mine which would not be worked, and as many more new ones discovered.

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