Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/268

230 MEXICO. tion of the most important points, laying the foundation for a Mihtary College, and establishing a general depot of maps and charts. Some of the surveys are very interesting, par- ticularly that of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, by Colonel Orbegoso,) which proves the impossibility of opening a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific at that point, and those of parts of Veracruz, executed, principally, by General Teran, and Colonel Iberri. General Moran, (better known, before the abolition of titles, as the Marques de Vibanco, is at the head of the Estado-Mayor, and employs no small por- tion of his private fortune in promoting useful projects, and giving an impulse to every thing connected with this depart- ment. The total number of officers employed, together with the estimate of the expenses of the War department, for the year ending June, 1828, will be found in the Table of General Ex- penditure, at the end of the Fourth Section. It amounts to 9,069,633 dollars, or, with the Navy, (both being under the same Ministry,) to 10,378,678 dollars, — about four-fifths of the whole annual expenditure of the Re- public. Nor is this merely a nominal outlay, for on the 1st of January 1827 not one dollar was due to any Regiment in the service : — It is, however, an enormous drain upon the country, and must undoubtedly, if continued, prove a serious obstacle to prosperity. On the other hand, reduction has already been carried very far, and can now only be very gradually effected. The Esti- mates for the year 1825, amounted to nearly nineteen millions of dollars, (18,916,524 dollars) ; in 1826, they were reduced to 13,587,083 dollars; and in 1827, (as I have just stated,) to 10,378,678 dollars. From this again the Minister conceives that one fourth may be deducted, without too much weaken- ing the national means of defence ; thus reducing the total expense of the army in 1829, to 7,784,000 : and he expresses