case can prevent our losing our gravity on being informed that the negro is created with little love for wife and children, but much affection for his master, so that separation from the former for the pecuniary profit of the latter is not the trial that is generally supposed; or more startling still, that the nervous sensibility so wonderfully developed in the European hand, rendering it a fitting instrument for the exercise of mechanical skill, is located not so much in the hand as over the whole person of the negro, with the manifest final cause of making him feel acutely when he is whipped. After this we exclaim that there is really no use to proceed farther, and beg the "reasoner" to accept our assurance, that he has not so much fallen short in his argument as made it only too complete. The "Address of the Ministers of the Confederate States met in Richmond to Christians throughout the World," cannot be perused without suggesting the most mournful thoughts. The fathers and brothers of these men have freely given their lives on the battle field, after exploits which have made the world stand amazed. They solicit our sympathy with them in their heroic struggles for a cause which they deem holy. They would have us to look complacently on the slavery which they believe essential to their wellbeing. But unless we are prepared to cease regard for the eternal law of righteousness, we cannot-we dare not, return the reply they wish us to give. Our answer to them must be, that we acknowledge the heroic spirit they have shewn, the sacrifices they have made, and the victories they have won. It is beyond our province to indicate any opinion on the political part of their struggle. But in regard to the slavery for which they plead, writing with the Bible before us, we implore them to cast the deep-dyed sin from them at once and for ever, as they value the blessing of the infinitely righteous God. One of the most prominent members of their confederacy has ventured to apply to negro bondage the sublime language of the 118th Psalm, to which we have the authority of the divine Redeemer himself for attaching a very different meaning. He and they seem at open variance on the point. They can never prosper till their minds become in unison with his regarding the rights of the slave. Let them, like him, proclaim "deliverance to the captives," "set at liberty them that are bruised," and preach "the acceptable year of the Lord." And let them see in him, and not in the system of negro slavery, the stone set at nought of the builders which became the headstone of the corner. H. ART. VIII.-Mexico. Le Mexique Ancien et Moderne, par MICHEL CHEVALIER, Membre de THE French expedition to Mexico has at length been crowned with success, and the ever-changing and disorderly republican government of that magnificent country has been supplanted by the empire of Maximilian of Austria. It is to be hoped that, under his rule, order, and peace, and prosperity, may ultimately succeed the anarchy that has afflicted Mexico during her existence as an independent State; but, in the mean time, we fear that the strength and stability of his government, and the obedience of his subjects, are principally dependent on the presence of the French army of occupation. The Mexicans have been so demoralised by the effect of nearly half-a-century of anarchy and foreign and domestic strife, that they are incapable of understanding the advantages of peace and good order. They have become enamoured of misrule, and a long period must necessarily elapse before they can be brought to appreciate the benefits of a permanent and well-organised government, or become reconciled to a social and political state better adapted to the necessities of their country, and more in conformity with the requirements of modern civilisation, than that in which they have been living ever since their emancipation from the dominion of Spain. The volume which we have prefixed to the present article, affords a thorough insight into the state of Mexico during the Spanish colonial system, the war of emancipation, the period of independence, and the earlier stages of the French expedition. The success of that expedition, and its consequences, are anticipated, and the Archduke Maximilian is held forth as the prince best fitted for the throne of Mexico, and the difficult and complicated task of restoring her to order and prosperity. No book, probably, could be better timed, and no man, certainly, could be better qualified for writing it than M. Chevalier. Northern and Central America are no new objects of study to him. So far back as 1832, he was sent by M. Thiers to examine and report upon the various means of communication in the United States, and especially upon their railways. He was two years absent, and the result of his mission was the publication of the admirable letters which first appeared in the Journal des Débats, and were subsequently reprinted, in a separate form, under the title of "Lettres sur l'Amerique du Nord."* He * Baron Humboldt wrote of this work, that it might be considered “ Comme un traité de la civilisation des peuples de l'occident;" and another accomplished critic affirmed that it was "le tableau le plus graphique et le plus vrai de l'état social de l'Amerique.” also published an elaborate work, useful alike to the engineer and the statesman, entitled, “Histoire et la description des voies de communication aux Etats-Unis, et des travaux qui en dependent." During his absence from France, M. Chevalier visited Cuba, Mexico, and other parts of Spanish America, and composed Lettres sur l'Amerique Espagnole," fragments of which appeared in the columns of the Journal des Débûts, but which have not hitherto been published in a separate form. We have no doubt, however, that they have been largely drawn upon in the composition of the present volume. It will thus be seen that M. Chevalier has the advantage of being acquainted with the position and resources of Mexico from personal observation; and his profound knowledge of political economy and the industrial sciences generally, his eminence as an engineer, his clearness of thought and felicity of expression as a writer, combine to render him admirably fitted for the task he has undertaken. His book is divided into eight parts: the first two treating of the Aztec empire, and its conquest by Cortes; the third, of Mexico under the colonial rule of Spain; the fourth, of the war of emancipation; the fifth, of Mexico as an independent State; the sixth, of the resources and future of the country; the seventh, of the motives for a European intervention, or of an intervention by France alone, in the affairs of Mexico, and of its chances of success; the eighth and last, of the attempt to regenerate Mexico viewed in connection with the present attitude of the court of Rome towards modern civilisation. The first and second of these divisions have been rendered familiar to most English readers by the delightful narrative of Prescott, from whom M. Chevalier chiefly derives his information. We shall, therefore, pass them over, and proceed to consider the condition of Mexico as a Spanish colony. The Spanish colonial system, at the period of the Mexican conquest, like that of all the other European nations who then possessed colonies, was of a narrow and despotic character, arising from the false and imperfect notions which were generally prevalent with regard to the relations which ought to subsist between parent states and their colonial possessions. Mexico was viewed, not as a great country with unrivalled natural advantages of soil, climate, and mineral wealth, which ought to be developed to the best advantage, but as a mere dependency of Spain, which afforded to the favoured inhabitants of that peninsula a rapid and easy means of acquiring wealth. The colony, in short, was sacrificed to the mother country. Her commerce was crippled by injudicious restrictions, which entirely prevented its development, except in the direction and for the benefit of Spain. The press was subjected to a strict censorship, the Inquisition was established, the original inhabitants were purposely kept in ignorance and degradation, and the descendants even of Spaniards who came to settle in Mexico were systematically excluded from all important offices, both in church and state, which were bestowed only upon natives of Spain. And thus it happened that a numerous and powerful class gradually arose, whose interest it was to throw off the Spanish yoke, because, under that yoke, they were deprived of all share in the government of their country, and of all active and serious political life. Another evil of the Spanish colonial regime was, that the wealth and possessions of the church were allowed to become so exorbitant, that, according to the statement of M. Alaman, a distinguished Mexican writer of the present century, its property was equal in value to half the territory of the state. Some of the prelates belonging to this wealthy ecclesiastical corporation had enormous revenues. The Archbishop of Mexico, for example, had £28,000 a year, and the Bishop of Valladolid £22,000. All these high offices, however, in the Mexican hierarchy, were conferred upon natives of Spain, and the whites of Spanish descent born in Mexico were only admitted to the curacies, which were seldom worth more than from £20 to £50 a year; and it is deserving of notice, that it was one of these poorly paid and despised priests, Miguel Hidalgo, curate of the little village of Dolorès, who first raised the standard of revolt in the Mexican war of independence. In fact, the chief cause of the Mexican revolution was the foolish policy, so long and obstinately persevered in by the mother country, of keeping the Creoles, or whites born in Mexico-in whose veins flowed Spanish blood without a taint-in a state of complete political nullity. The success of the North American colonies in compelling Great Britain to acknowledge their independence, and the ideas spread abroad by the French Revolution of 1789, produced a powerful effect in Mexico very unfavourable to the stability of the Spanish government. Yet that effect might have been easily counteracted, if the Court of Spain had been wise in time, and had granted to the Mexican Creoles equal political privileges with the natives of Spain settled in the country. It refused to do so, and left, as before, two distinct and hostile classes, the privileged Spaniards, who engrossed all political power and influence, and the despised Creoles, who were permitted to acquire wealth, and were diverted with titles of nobility and commissions in the militia, but were sedulously excluded from all share in the government of their country. Some of the wisest statesmen of Spain foresaw, indeed, the folly and danger of such a course, and warned the Spanish cabinet of the inevitable result of the policy it was pursuing. In particular, the Count of Aranda, who, as ambassador from the court of Madrid, had taken part in the treaty of Paris, which, in 1783, recognised the independence of the United States, addressed a letter to King Charles the Third, in which he predicted, with remarkable clearness and sagacity, the great future reserved for the United States, and the encroachments which they would make upon the territories of Mexico. He also adverted to the effect which the new ideas of the rights of the people would have upon the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies, and pointed out how advisable it was, if not to prevent the growth and spread of these ideas, at least to lessen their consequences. With this view, he proposed to King Charles that the Spanish crown should retain, in North America, only the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, and in South America, a dependency as conveniently situated with regard to them as possible. He further proposed that three independent kingdoms should be erected, each governed by a Spanish prince, one in Mexico, one in Peru, and the third in the Costa-firma; that the king of Spain should assume the title of Emperor, and should bind these three kingdoms to him by all possible ties, in a strict offensive and defensive alliance, strengthened by commercial arrangements on a footing of entire reciprocity, and cemented by marriages between the royal families. In requital for the independence thus granted, Mexico was to pay to Spain an annual tribute in bars of silver, Peru in ingots of gold, and the Costa-firma in its most valuable productions, particularly in tobacco. This scheme of Count Aranda was not listened to, and probably, even if it had been carried out, it would not have been as successful as he anticipated; but it is interesting, as shewing that at least one Spanish statesman of last century was gifted with remarkable political sagacity and foresight, and was thoroughly aware of the evils of the Spanish colonial system, and of the necessity of applying to them prompt and powerful remedies. Yet with all the evils of the Spanish colonial system, Mexico enjoyed under it far greater prosperity than she has since done under the stormy and anarchical period of national independence. Several magnificent public works were undertaken and completed, such as the vast canal of Huehuetoca for the drainage of the lakes of the table-land around Mexico, and the protection of that city from inundations. This truly great work was begun in 1607, and only finished in 1789, and was unrivalled, even in Europe, until the days of railways. science and in the fine arts also, considerable progress was made. "The government of Charles III.," says M. Chevalier, "shewed itself favourable to the sciences; they began to cultivate them with success in Mexico, even in the highest branches, such as VOL. XII.-NO. XLVI. 3 H In |