favourable to their prosperity. Great dislike is evinced in Mexico to adventure in new branches of industry. Had the ancestors of the people worked on cotton plantations, the employment would be contentedly continued; but it is difficult to train the labourer to the new cultivation. Signal failures have occurred on this account, proprietors having been obliged to abandon their establishments after a considerable outlay of money in land and implements.
The cotton crop of Mexico has been very variable in value. At Tepic, on the west coast it has been as low as fifteen dollars the quintal; at Vera Cruz on the east coast twenty-two dollars and thirty-four dollars; while at Puebla and in the capital it has risen to forty dollars and even forty-eight dollars.
In spite of all the efforts of English capitalists and diplomacy the government has steadily persevered in fostering the manufactures of the republic excepting by the occasional allowance of the importation of twist. The administration of Santa Anna was energetic in its opposition to the introduction of this article, as well as in its efforts to suppress
