whether the opera will endure long. Were we going to remain here, I should trust that it might be supported, for with all its faults and drawbacks, it is decidedly the best public exhibition in Mexico. The coup d'œil was exceedingly pretty, as all the boxes were crowded, and the ladies were in full dress.
July 20th.—As we are living in the mint, the directors have called on us; and this morning they came to invite us to descend into the lower regions, to see the silver coined. We went all over this immense establishment, a fine picture of decayed magnificence, built about one hundred and ten years ago by the Spaniards. Dirty, ill-kept, the machinery rude, the workmen discontented; its fine vaulted roofs, that look like the interior of a cathedral, together with that grandiose style which distinguished the buildings of the Spaniards in Mexico, form a strong contrast with the occupants.
We saw the silver bars stretched out, the dollars cut and whitened and stamped; and in one place we saw the machines for coining false money, which have been collected in such numbers that there is hardly room for them! We saw the place where the silver and gold is tested; and the room with the medals, amongst which are some ancient Roman, Persian and English, but especially Spanish, and many of the time of Charles the Third; when we were looking at which, an old gentleman exclaimed, "would to Heaven those days would return!" without doubt the general feeling. This old man had been forty-four years in the Casa de Moneda, and had lived under several viceroys. He could remem-
