five years many thousands have died from starvation and the bad sanitary conditions that have resulted from the poor government, or lack of government, of the centres of population.
So numerous and so great are the accumulated evils resulting from the contests for power and pelf, which various leaders have waged for eight years, that it is no exaggeration to say that the closing years of the first century of Mexico's experiment in self-government finds the masses of her people more hopelessly wretched than they have ever been during that long period, while the country is now under the control of elements which give no promise of future betterment.
The contemplation of such a failure of a people, during nearly one hundred years, to achieve any real progress in self-government, suggests that some factor, or factors, must exist which have worked with uncontrollable power against the good, and in favour of the bad. The cause most often cited as being responsible for the failure of popular government in Mexico, and especially for the wretched condition of the labouring classes, comprising 80 per cent. of the population, is agrarian, caused by the holding of the lands in great bodies by a small number of persons and the denial to the masses of the opportunity to secure an interest in the land. Promises to amend this condition have been made by almost every one of
