Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/291

MEXICO. 251 and Prebends than there are at present in the whole Mexican Republic. The Table No. III., presents a statement of the number of Convents in Mexico : the Orders and Provinces to which they belong ; the number of individuals contained in each ; (dis- tinguishing those who have professed, during the last five years ;)— the Parishes, and Missions, under their charge, and the amount of their property both in lands and in capitals, lent upon mortgage. No. IV. gives a similar view of the six Colleges, de propa- ganda fide, established in Mexico, Queretaro, Pachiica, Ori- zava, Zacatecas, and Zapopan, with an account of the Indian Missions in the north, in which the members of these Colleges are employed. From the two last of these Tables, some very important inferences may be drawn. In the first place, it appears that in the one hundred and fifty-six Convents and Colleges of Mexico, only two hundred and ninety -four individuals have professed, or taken the vows, during the last five years, out of five hundred and twenty- seven who assumed the habit, probably with an intention of professing ; and that, at the present day, only ninety-two in all are serving their noviciate. This may be regarded as no mean proof of the diminution of that mistaken spirit of religion, by which so many, who might have become useful members of society, were induced to shut themselves up in communities, many of which subsist entirely upon the contributions of the ignorant, or the reli- giously disposed, amongst their countrymen. It serves, like- wise, to indicate that the charity of the former supporters of these Orders is cooling fast. The total amount of the alms received, by all the different Convents, in the year 1826, does not exceed 204,604 dollars ; a sum, which, I am assured, the receipts of the Convent of St. Francisco, in Mexico alone, frequently equalled in former times. The metier is therefore