has given us so spirited, and so faithful a picture. I desire no better proof of this than the contrast, which exists, at the present day, in every part of New Spain, between the degraded situation of the husbandman, or small landed proprietor, in any district without an outlet, and that of a proprietor, (however small,) in the vicinity of the mines. The one, is without wants, and almost without an idea of civilized life; clothed in a leather dress, or in the coarsest kind of home-made woollen manufactures;—living in primitive simplicity perhaps, but in primitive ignorance, and brutality too;—sunk in sloth, and incapable of exertion, unless stimulated by some momentary excitement: while the other, acquires wants daily, with the means of gratifying them; and grows industrious, in proportion as the advantages which he derives from the fruits of his labour increase; his mind opens to the advantages of European arts; he seeks for his offspring, at least, that education which had been denied to himself;[1] and becomes, gradually, with a taste for the delights of civilization, a more important member, himself, of the civilized world! Who can see this, as I have seen it, without feeling, as I have felt, the importance, not only to Mexico, but to Europe, of a branch of
- ↑ Amongst the young Mexicans who have been sent to England, or the United States, for their education,, I could mention several from the Mining districts, as the sons of Don Narciso Anitua, at Sombrerete, and those of the principal Agent of Count Regla, at Real del Monte.
