ing capital at twenty millions of dollars; nor is there any reason to suppose that it at all exceeds this amount.
In the present state of the country, the Clergy derive but little additional income from this capital; for the estates upon which it is secured have not yet sufficiently recovered from the effects of the Revolution to pay the interest upon capitals formerly advanced to their proprietors. Many have required, on the contrary, additional advances in order to resume their labours at all; and all have refused to admit the claim of the Bishoprics to the arrears due during the Civil war.
Upon this point the Clergy have, in most parts of the country, come to a sort of compromise with the proprietors; but in others, where, (as in La Puebla,) they have insisted upon the full extent of their dues, a great deal of bad feeling has arisen. The landowners have refused to attempt to bring land again into cultivation, from which they could expect to derive no benefit; and the Clergy have been compelled, at last, to yield, by a threat of interference on the part of the Legislature.
Of the Tithes, nothing certain is yet known: they vary, of course, every year, as the agriculture of the country revives; but they do not yet produce any thing like their former amount; nor is it probable that they will. In the Bishoprics, upon the Western coast, (Durango, Guadalajara, and Valladolid,) I found a general falling off in the amount of the
