258 MEXICO. Abolition by any sweeping act, such as that which pro- duced such fatal effects in Spain, is not, I think, to be appre- hended ;* but the present state of the Convents affords great facilities for moderate reforms, only forty-seven Convents, out of a hundred and fifty, containing more than twelve friars, and thirty-nine being already reduced to less than five. It is much to be desired that the Congress may persevere in the prudent course, which it has hitherto pursued ; for, in the States, unfortunately, the cause of reform has fallen into the hands of men, who, irritated at the abuses which have been committed under the cloak of religion, are inclined to attribute to the creed the faults of those who professed to teach it, and wish to fly, at once, from superstition to atheism. Throughout the Bishoprics on the Western coast this feeling is very prevalent, and in Jalisco especially, it is a favourite axiom of the liberal party, that, until the present Church system be radically changed, the new institutions can never take a firm root. Nothing can be more mistaken, in my opinion, than this idea, or less suited to the habits, and feelings of the people. It is by pruning, and weeding, and not by destroying both root and branch, that salutary reforms may be effected. For these, as I have already stated, there is ample room ; but, if the changes proposed, do not exceed the establishment of a necessary degree of independence in the Mexican Church, — the eqvialization (or more equal distribution) of its revenues, and the diminution of those excessive Church, or Surplice fees, now exacted by the Parochial clergy ; — Mexican clergy-
- No one who has followed the course of events in the Peninsula during
the years 1820, 1821, and 1822, will deny that the feeling of hostility to- wards the Constitution, which always existed, increased, in a tenfold ratio, from the day that the Cortes turned forty thousand monks and friars loose upon the country, on a badly-paid pension, to propagate their opinions amongst the lower classes, as the only means of avoiding starvation.
