Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/490

450 MEXICO. little weight with any Government in discussions of this nature. But I cannot refrain from adding that, in the whole course of my residence in Mexico, I have seen nothing on the part of the Government to warrant the supposition, (which those who wish to regard American affairs in the most unfa- vourable Mght, so gratuitously make,) that it would violate all its engagements with Foreigners, merely on the score of their not being natives, or seek to deprive them of the fair fruits of their labours. I believe, on the contrary, that a conviction of the advantages which Mexico derives from her intercourse with Europe, has been gradually taking root during the last four years; that many of the exaggerated ideas entertained in 1824 of the importance of the New World to us, have given way to a belief that this importance is (to say the least) reciprocal ; and that a disposition to cul- tivate a good understanding with the commercial nations of Europe has increased in proportion to the increased wants which Europe is called upon to supply. I have given in the Third Book some instances of the existence of this feeling, as well as of the ameliorations to which it has already led with regard to Trade : why then should its existence be assumed as impossible,, and its operation supposed not to extend to the mines, in which the interests of the Mexican and British Adventurers are much more closely interwoven with each other, than they can be in any other species of international intercourse ? The above observations are merely matters of private opi- nion, but as such I leave them to the consideration of my readers, who will give them as much, or as little importance, as they may seem to deserve. I come now to the probability " of the annual average pro- duce ultimately exceeding the twenty-four millions of dollars, raised from the mines before 1810." This probability depends, in my opinion, in a great mea-