templated when I undertook the task of preparing my notes upon Mexico for publication. I trust, however, that I shall not solicit their indulgence in vain for a few concluding reflections.
The want of distinguished men, or rather, of some one man so distinguished as to exercise, like Bolivar, an universal influence, has been much commented upon in Europe as disadvantageous to New Spain.
In one sense, it may, perhaps, be so, for it undoubtedly retards the progress of those parts of the country, which might be pushed forward in the career of civilization by that impulse, which power, concentrated in the hands of an individual, can alone give; but it secures, in return, the stability of the present institutions, by rendering innovations difficult; and whether those institutions be good or bad, it is not by any sudden or violent change that they, can be amended.
It is likewise favourable to the gradual developement of the resources of the country, by removing those checks upon the activity of individuals, which the preponderance of any one man is generally found to create. In a territory so vast, and, as yet, so little explored, no central government, whatever its energy, or however beneficent its intentions, could possess sufficient local knowledge to do the good which it might desire to effect. Under the present system the whole internal arrangements of the States are left to their own care; and with some few restrictions with regard to foreign trade, they are
