vate individuals. Beginning with 1808 the years are printed on the margin of each page. As a rule, after 1809, each chapter includes the history of a single year, but otherwise there is much confusion, repetition, and want of connection. Public documents are not given, excepting in one or two instances, although the more important ones, as the constitutions of 1824 and 1857, etc., and the numerous plans and acts, are supplied in a condensed form. The author s style is concise and generally clear. In the first part of the work the general history is very much condensed, receiving more attention from the revolution of Morelos to that of Juarez of 1858-00, but gradually becoming condensed again in recording the latter events of the French intervention. The state and local history of Jalapa is given with the same degree of fulness throughout the first four vols, but in the fifth is more brief.
Juan Suarez y Navarro, Informe sobre las Causas y Carácter de los Frecuentes Cambios Políticos Ocurridos en el Estado de Yucatan, etc. Mexico, 1801, 4to, pp. 193. A report of General Suarez on the condition of Yucatan, drawn up by order of the Mexican government. The three subjects especially dealt with are the division of the peninsula into two states; the cause and character of the frequent political changes; and the sale of Indians as slaves to Cuban planters. This report contains much valuable information, more than 100 pages being occupied by official documents. Attention is first called to the comparative independence of Yucatan under the viceroys, the decline of the power of the priesthood, and consequent loss of property. Then follows a political and historical sketch of events during the period from 1829 to 1801, supported by documentary evidence. No details of battles are given, general mention of them only being made. As regards the question of Indians being sold as slaves, the fact appears fully established; as late as 1859 even captured Mexican soldiers were sold. Notice is, moreover, made of the condition of the highways, of the army, of education, agriculture, and the judicial courts. A brief historical sketch of Belize is added, with remarks upon its. detrimental effect upon Yucatan by the introduction of contraband goods. Campeche is regarded as affording an asylum to Cuban slave-ships. Suggestions are made for the amelioration of affairs. The same author previously published, in 1850, Historia de México y del General . . . Santa Anna. It is stated on the title-page that events included in the period from 1821 to 1848 are narrated, but as they are only carried down to 1833 the book may be regarded as incomplete. The writer seeks to defend Santa Anna.
Luis Manuel del Rivero, Mejico en 1842, Madrid, 1844, sm. Svo, pp. 321, is the production of an unprejudiced Spaniard. Though it would appear from the title-page that the work is a description of Mexico in 1842, the author gives a philosophical review of her history from the time of the conquest, portraying the^ social and political positions of the monarch, the Spanish aristocracy in Mexico, the church, and the native population; the gradual production of a great monarchical power, but at the same the development of a society democratic in its latent principles; the slowly increasing hatred of immigrant Spaniards by the Creoles, and the ultimate result, the independence of the colony. The war of independence is cursorily but critically discussed; and then all branches of the community are in turn submitted to the same analysis. The intellectual and political faculties of the people are examined, their conditions detected and placed before the reader in a fair light.
Emil Karl Heinrich Freiherr von Richthofen, Die Äusseren und Inneren Polítischen Zustände der Republik von Mexico, etc. Berlin, 1854, 8vo, pp. 499. An account of the internal and external political condition of Mexico since the independence down to the year of date, by an ex-Prussian envoy and minister resident to the republic. The imprint seems to indicate that its publication was the work of the Prussian government, and apparently intended as a hand-book to modern Mexico. The title, gauged by the contents, is a little misleading, as the author devotes no space to the many events which make up the political history of the republic during the years covered by his volume, except, indeed, a list in chronological order of the administrations since
