56

dents on your estates from their houses on a win-independent, her own industry might not have ter night without considering how provision is to prospered; whether she would have blindly immobe made for them under such dreadful circum-lated it to free-trade; whether her cities, once so stances, what can ensue but misery, ruin, and des- busy and flourishing, would be, as they are, a peration? while by the exercise of a little liberal- spectacle of decay and ruin? On this point I am "The British trade, both export ity you would accomplish more than all the mea- struck with the language of Wilson in his history of British India. sures the legislature could adopt." A commentator has well reinarked that in this and import, obtained a considerable augmentation text of Sir Robert Peel, fairly amplified, he finds under the new charter of the company, the modifias strong an argument, as distinct an admission, in cation of the monopoly; articles entirely unknown favor of repeal, or the creation of a separate Irish in the annals of Indian imports were exported The thither from Great Britain to an immense amount, legislature as has come from any mouth. landlords could hold counsel efficaciously for the to the extinction of similar products of domestic people only as part of a deliberative assembly labor. This effect was prepared for by an iniquiequally representing the people; and thus restrain-tous abuse of the power of Great Britain in excluded, enlightened, and assisted, they might perceive ing from her own consumption the principal manuand accomplish the salvation and weal of all parties. factures of India, and in opening the ports of India Some time ago, perusing a cogent editorial article to those of Britain free of charge.' of the Morning Chronicle, this paragraph struck

me:

"We, the people of England, are the real criminals. We, by our detestable system of confiscations, and our yet more detestable penal laws, intentionally impoverished and degraded the people of Ireland. We fostered the pride and selfishness of the intruders, whom, after endowing with the land of the country, we upheld in a demoralizing immunity from every check which interest, fear, and sympathy impose on the rich of other countries. We planted the seeds of that system of mutual outrage of which the fruits amaze and shock us. Ours was the guilt; ours is the duty of reparation. Our task it must be to remove the causes of mutual outrage, by placing restraints on the oppressions of one party, and taking away the exciting causes of the other's revenge."

You perceive to what the independence of Belgium amounts. If she hold it desirable and proper for her to establish a customs union with France, England and Prussia and Austria peremptorily for"not to suffer it;" she bid the bans. If, with the Zoll-Verein, France is resolved, pledged, ready, keeps a close overweening watch. The truth is, that the French cabinet has allowed Belgium material advantages in the commercial convention; the policy of keeping her detached relatively from the German sirens, and binding her by the friendship of interest to her French cousins, is not the only motive. Her worthy king is the son-in-law to his majesty Louis Philippe; the family alliance must appear to enable Leopold to secure special kindness and benefits for his little realm. In the sitting of the 11th instant of the peers, the Marquis of Gabriac delivered quite an original and a most satisfactory critique of the vulgar notions and clamors respecting foreign literary piracy. It should be translated in extenso, for the instruction of your petitioners and sticklers for international On Saturday last, in the chamber of peers, the copyright. The marquis contended that the cheap bill from the deputies, respecting modifications of re-printing abroad of French publications was a His details of fact and considthe tariff, gave rise to an able and important dis-signal and manifold demonstrable benefit and tricussion which finished only yesterday. erations of argument are curious and conclusive. He exploded the whole delusion of wrong and detriment.

Such a British acknowledgment has, indeed, weight and desert; but is the task practicable by any other than domestic Irish agency?

14 May.

The Duke d'Harcourt, a neat orator, fond of epigrammatic turns, delivered a set discourse on the excellence of free trade, the beauty and value of Sir Robert Peel's measures, and the blindness or backwardness of the French ministry. He assailed the minister of commerce in particular for the protectionist speech which I heretofore reported to you. The diplomatic tactics of the minister of foreign affairs rendered it difficult to ascertain his real opinions. Baron Charles Dupin, who best understands the subject, entered the lists on the side of moderate protection. He would rejoice if the Zoll-Verein could acquire great maritime conIt was important for France that other sequence. continental nations should be directly interested in The Zoll-Verein had a the liberty of the seas. right to complain of the illiberality of Holland. Now that the former had opened a passage and issue through Belgium for German products, the Dutch would be more reasonable concerning the route of the Rhine. He, the baron, would be glad to hear of ocean vessels built at Cologne, and reaching the seas below Rotterdam. The ZollVerein would, ere long, count thirty millions of population. Some weight in the scale of neutral rights. The baron enlarged on the case of India, whose cotton fabrics England long protected, but finally and utterly sacrificed to her own manufactures. He asked whether, if India had remained

umph for France.

16 May.

At the last two sittings of the deputies the topic of the execution of the law modifying negro slavery in the French West Indies fell under debate. The minister of marine announced perseverance in the plan of emancipating the negroes of the public domain within five years.

I am struck with the annexed language of the London Standard of the 14th of this month: "The United States would seem to be, of all places in the world, the worst adapted for manufacturesabundant land, dear labor, no neighboring market; yet the United States are making rapid progress in manufactures, and it is a remarkable fact-not, we believe, as generally known as it ought to bethat nearly all the recent mechanical contrivances introduced into our factories, for dispensing with human labor, are of American invention; proof that, where money or credit can be had, a dense population is not, as has been supposed, necessary for the advancement of manufactures." American ingenuity is so superior, intrepid, and various that a repressive, and baffling policy, or any other than one of encouragement and scope, would seem against the favor of Providence and the march of destiny.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 113.-11 JULY, 1846.

"His balls were very numerously attended. The company was by no means select. In fact I saw there very few of the ladies belonging to the aristocracy; but very many others who had no business there. This, however, is unavoidable in a revolutionary country like Mexico. Every President holds his power by no other tenure than the caprice of the army, and he is forced, therefore, to conciliate it. If a corporal, who has married the daughter of the washerwoman of the regiment, has risen to the highest station in the army, his wife cannot be slighted with safety-and such cases have occurred. I wish that I could in sincerity say that the ladies of Mexico are handsome. They are not, nor yet are they ugly. Their manners, however, are perfect; and in the great attributes of the heart, affection, kindness and benevolence in all their forms, they have no superiors. They are eminently graceful in everything but dancing. That does not come by nature,' as we have the authori

In five years, with such a population, and only of an equal number with that which Mexico now has, I do not hesitate to assert that the mineral and agricultural exports alone would nearly equal all the exports of any other country of the world. The last time I examined the tables upon that subject, the whole exports of the produce of British labor was about two hundred and sixty millions of dollars per annum. Mexico, in the possession of another race, would approach that amount in ten years. Recent manifestations of a rabid, I will not say a rapacious, spirit of acquisition of more territory on the part of our countrymen may well cause a race so inferior in all the elements of power and greatness to tremble for the tenure by which they hold this El Dorado. 'Tis not often, with nations at least, that such temptations are resisted, or that 'danger winks on opportunity.' I trust, however, that our maxim will ever be Noble ends by worthy means attained,' and that we may remember that wealth improperly acquired never ulti-ty of Dogberry that reading and writing do; and mately benefited an individual or a nation."

EXTRACTS.

they are rarely taught to dance, and still more rarely practise it.

“I think that in another, and the most important point in the character of woman, they are very much slandered. I am quite sure that there is no city in Europe of the same size where there is less immorality. Indeed, I cannot see how such a thing is possible. Every house in Mexico has but one outside door, and a porter always at that. The old system of the duenna, and a constant espionage, are observed by every one, and to an extent that would scarcely be believed. I have no doubt, however, that whatever other effects these restraints may have, their moral influence is not a good one. The virtue which they secure is of the sickly nature of hot-house plants, which wither and perish when exposed to the weather. Women, instead of being taught to regard certain acts as impossible to be committed, and therefore not apprehended or guarded against, are brought up with an idea that the temptation of opportunity is one which is never resisted.

"I do not think that the ladies of Mexico are generally very well educated. There are, however, some shining exceptions. Mrs. Almonte, the wife of General Almonte, would be regarded as an accomplished lady in any country. The Mexicans, of either sex, are not a reading people. The ladies read very little.

Kindness and Courtesy-Society of Dinner Partles and Enter tainments-Mexican Ladies wanting in Beauty-Do not dance well-Charity-Routine of daily life-Costliness of Dress-In the streets-Women generally smoke-A day in the Country. "Notwithstanding the general prejudice which existed in Mexico against me when I first went there, I was treated, although somewhat coldly, always and by all classes with the most perfect respect. In this particular the higher classes of all Countries are very much alike, but I doubt whether there is any other country where the middling and lower classes are so generally courteous and polite. There is no country where kindness and courtesy are more certain to meet with a proper return. It may be that three hundred years of vassalage to their Spanish masters may have given the Indian population an habitual deference and respect for a race which they have always regarded as a superior one. No people are by nature more social, none less so in their habits. It is not the fashion to give entertainments of any sort. And what I regarded as a little remarkable, the members of the Mexican cabinet, most of whom were men of fortune and had ample means at hand, not only never gave entertainments, even dinner parties to the members of the diplomatic corps, but never even invited them to "The general routine of female life is to rise their houses when invited to such parties how- late, and spend the larger portion of the day standwer by any of the foreign ministers, they never ing in their open windows, which extend to the ailed to accept the invitation. With any other floor. It would be a safe bet at any hour of the people there would be a seeming meanness in this. day between ten and five o'clock, that you would But such was not the case. No people are more in walking the streets see one or more females liberal in the expenditure of money. General Santa Anna had two very large dinner parties whilst I was in Mexico, and two or three balls; but I heard of nothing else of the kind, except at the houses of the foreign ministers. Santa Anna's dinners were altogether elegant, and he presided at them with great dignity and propriety. On such occasions he was joyous and hilarious. The company, without exception, had the appearance and manners of gentlemen; I sat next to him on these occasions, and his aides-de-camp, who were not seated at the table, would occasionally come to his seat and say some playful thing to him. I was much struck with the style and intercourse between them; marked by an affectionate kindness on his part, and the utmost respect, but at the same time freedom from restraint, on theirs.

standing thus at the windows of more than half the houses. At five they ride on the Paseo, and then go to the theatre, where they remain until twelve o'clock, and the next day, and every day in the year, repeat the same routine. In this dolce far niente their whole lives pass away. But I repeat that in many of the qualities of the heart which make women lovely and loved, they have no superiors.

"The war of independence was illustrated with many instances of female virtue of a romantic character, one of which I will mention. And I again regret that I have forgotten the name of the noble woman whose virtue and love of country were so severely tested. The lady to whom I refer had two sons, each of whom was in command of a detachment of the patriot army. One of them was

made prisoner, and the Spanish general into whose hands he had fallen, sent for his mother and said to her, If you will induce your other son to surrender his army to me, I will spare the life of the one who is my prisoner.' Her instant reply was, 'No! I will not purchase the life of one son with the dishonor of another and the ruin of my country.' This fact is historic, and is more true than history generally is.

to spend the day at Tacubaya, or some other of the neighboring villages, or at some house in the suburbs of the city, where a dinner is prepared, and a band of music sent out; and the day and a large portion of the night spent in dancing. Never have I seen a more joyous and hilarious people than they are on these occasions.

"I shall never forget one of these parties which was given to General Almonte, just before he left "The ladies of Mexico dress with great extrava- Mexico on his mission to this country. It was a gance, and I suppose a greater profusion of pearl genuine, roistering, country frolic. We got into and gold-I will not say more barbaric-than in boats, and with the music playing, were rowed for any other country. I remember that at a ball at some distance by moonlight, in the canal which the President's, Mr. Bocanegra asked me what I terminates in the Lake of Chalco, and then amongst thought of the Mexican ladies; were they as hand-the Chinampas or floating gardens, which are now some as my own countrywomen? I of course nothing more than shaking bogs. The very thin avoided answering the question; I told him, how-stratum of soil which had formed on the water of ever, that they were very graceful, and dressed the lake is made more unsteady, when a small much finer than our ladies. He said he supposed space of an acre or two is surrounded by a canal. so, and then asked me what I thought the material There are now none of the floating gardens deof the dresses of two ladies which he pointed out scribed by the conquerors, which were formed by had cost; and then told me that he had happened artificial means, and moved about from one part of to hear his wife and daughters speaking of them, the lake to another. and that the material of the dresses, blonde, I think, had cost one thousand dollars each. I asked on the same occasion, a friend of mine who was a merchant, what he supposed was the cost of an ornament for the head thickly set with diamonds of the Señora A. G. He told me that he knew very well, for he had imported it for her, and that the price was twenty-five thousand dollars; she wore other diamonds and pearls no doubt of equal value.

"The men who are met in the streets, are almost exclusively officers and soldiers of the army, priests and leporos, the latter quite as useful, and much the least burdensome and pernicious of the three classes. The Mexicans of the better classes generally wear cloth cloaks at all seasons of the year, and the Indian blankets; for ornament, I suppose, for the weather is never cold enough to make either necessary. One thing, however, I could never ac"I have said that there are very rarely anything count for, I did not feel uncomfortably cold in a like evening parties, or tertullias; social meetings, linen coat, nor uncomfortably warm with my cloak or calls to spend an evening are quite as unusual, on. All the physical peculiarities of the Indians except among very near relations, and even then of Mexico are precisely the same as those of our the restraint and espionage are not at all relaxed. own Indians; they are, however, much smaller. Persons who have seen each other, and been at-Their appearance is very much the same in all tached for years, often meet at the altar without respects as those of the straggling Indians who are ever having spent half an hour in each other's com-seen about our cities; nothing of the elastic step pany. Ladies of the better classes never walk the streets except on one day in the year, the day before Good Friday, I believe it is. But they make the most of this their saturnalia; on that day all the fashionable streets are crowded with them, in their best bibs and tuckers,' and glittering in diamonds. "The streets are always, however, swarming with women of the middling and lower classes. The only articles of dress worn by these are a chemise and petticoat, satin slippers, but no stockings, and a rebozo, a long shawl improperly called by our ladies a mantilla. This they wear over the head and wrapped close around the chin, and thrown over the left shoulder. Whatever they may be in private, no people can be more observant of propriety in public; one may walk the streets of Mexico for a year, and he will not see a wanton gesture or look on the part of a female of any description, with the single exception, that if you meet a woman with a fine bust, which they are very apt to have, she finds some occasion to adjust her rebozo, and throws it open for a second. This rebozo answers all the purposes of the shawl, bonnet and frock-body.

"The women of Mexico, I think, generally smoke; it is getting to be regarded as not exactly comme il faut, and therefore they do it privately. As the men generally smoke, they have the advantage which Dean Swift recommends to all who eat onions, to make their sweethearts do so too.

"One of the favorite and most pleasant recreations of the Mexicans is what they call un dio de campo, a day in the country. A party is made up

and proud bearing of our natives of the forest. Such a noble looking fellow as the Seminole Chief, Wild Cat, would create a sensation there; he might possibly get up a pronunciamento-I have no doubt he would attempt it. In a word, I am by no means sure that in exchanging the peculiar civilization which existed in the time of Montezuma for that which the Spaniards gave them, that they have improved the condition of the masses; they have lost little of the former but its virtues, and acquired little of the latter but its vices. I have already remarked that, although there are no political distinctions amongst the various castes of the population of Mexico, that the social distinctions are very marked. At one of those large assemblies at the President's palace, it is very rare to see a lady whose color indicates any impurity of blood. The same remark is, to a great extent, true of the gentlemen, but there are also a good many exceptions.

FRIENDSHIP WITH ENGLISHMEN.

"The generous and honorable sentiment so well expressed by the Englishwoman of Peubla leads me to remark that my residence in Mexico furnished me more evidences than one, of the powerful sympathy of race. Even the revengeful character of the Spaniard yields to it. Notwithstanding the recent termination of the fierce and sanguinary civil war which has raged between Mexico and the mother country, no other people are so favorably regarded by the Mexicans as the Spaniards. And I can say with truth that I never met an Englishman there that I did not feel the full

force of "the white skin and the English language" and I had no cause to believe that the same feeling was not entertained towards me by the English gentlemen in Mexico; and why, in God's name, should it be otherwise? I would not sell" for the seas' worth," my share of the glory of my English ancestry, Milton, Shakspeare, and John Hampden, and those noble old barons who met King John at Runnymede; and on the other hand, Englishmen should have a just pride in the prosperity and greatness of our country. In the beautiful language of a highly-gifted and liberalminded Englishman, Mr. Charles Augustus Murray," whether we view the commercial enterprise of America, or her language, her love of freedom, parochial, legal or civil institutions, she bears indelible marks of her origin; she is and must continue the mighty daughter of a mighty parent, and although emancipated from maternal control, the affinities of race remain unaltered. Her disgrace must dishonor their common ancestry, and her greatness and renown gratify the parental pride of Britain. Accursed be the vile demagogue who would wantonly excite another and fratricidal war between the two greatest and only free countries of the earth!"'

and other foreigners in that department to reenact the scenes of Texas. I had been consulted whether in the event of a revolution in California, and its successful result in a separation from Mexico, our government would consent to surrender their claims to Oregon, and that Oregon and California should constitute an independent republic. I of course had no authority to answer the question, and I would not have done so if I could.

The inhabitants of California are for the most part Indians, a large proportion naked savages, who not only have no sympathies with Mexico but the most decided antipathy.

Mexico has no troops there, and the distance of the department prevents any being sent.

Captain Suter, who was one of Bonaparte's officers, and, I believe, is a Swiss, has for many years had an establishment there, and is the real sovereign of the country if any one is, certainly so de facto if not de jure. The government of Mexico has done none of those things, such as settlement, extending her laws, and affording protection, which alone give to a civilized people a right to the country of a savage one. As to all these, the natives of California are as much indebted to any other nation as to Mexico; they only know the government of Mexico by the exactions and tribute which are levied upon them-it is literally a waif, and belongs to the first occupant. Captain Suter has two forts in California, and about two thousand persons, natives and Europeans, in his employment, all of them armed and regularly drilled. I have no doubt that his force would be more than a match for any Mexican force which will ever be sent against him. He has once or twice been ordered to deliver up his forts, and his laconic reply has been "Come and take them."

I should not satisfy my own feelings if I were not to notice here the circle of English merchants, who reside in Mexico. I have nowhere met a worthier set of gentlemen-enlightened, hospitable and generous. I can with great truth say, that the most pleasant hours which I have spent in Mexico were in their society, and I shall never cease to remember them with kindness and respect. I now and then met with a little of the John Bull jealousy of this country, but I playfully told them that I could pardon that-that it was altogether natural, for that the English flag had waved From all the information which I have received, on every sea and continent on the face of the globe, and I have been inquisitive upon the subject, I am and that for the last thousand years it had rarely, well satisfied that there is not on this continent any if ever, been lowered to an equal force, except in country of the same extent as little desirable as conflicts with us, where its fate had always been Oregon, nor any in the world which combines as to come down. I believe that I may say that their many advantages as California. With the excepgreatest objection to me was, that I was rather too tion of the valley of the Wallamette, there is fond of talking of General Jackson and New Or- scarcely any portion of Oregon which is inhabitaleans. There is no single name which an English-ble except for that most worthless of all-a huntman so little likes to hear as that of General Jack-ing population-and the valley of the Wallamette son, and none so grateful to the ears of an Ameri- is of very small extent. In the south the only port can in a foreign land, only excepting that of is at the Columbia river, and that is no port at all, Washington. I do not doubt that it will be known as the loss of the Peacock, and others of our vesand remembered long after that of every other sels, has proved. To say nothing of other harbors American who has gone before him, except Wash-in California, that of San Francisco is capacious ington and Franklin, is swallowed up in the vortex of oblivion. I have been the political opponent of General Jackson, and should be so now upon the same questions. I believe that he committed some very great errors, but that he did all in honor and patriotism. I have at the same time always had a just admiration for his many great qualities and glorious achievements, and I should pity the American who could hear his name mentioned in a foreign land without feeling his pulse beat higher.

CALIFORNIA.

The California Question—Captain Suter's SettlementValue of the country-Importance to the United States -English influence in Mexico-Annexation of Mexican provinces to the United States-Present relations. I confess that in taking the high ground which I did upon the order expelling our people from California, that I felt some compunctious visitings, for I had been informed that a plot had been arranged and was about being developed by the Americans

enough for the navies of the world, and its shores are covered with enough timber (a species of the live oak) to build those navies. If man were to ask of God a climate he would ask just such an one as that of California, if he had ever been there. There is no portion of our western country which produces all the grains as well; I have been told by more than one person on whom I entirely relied, that they had known whole fields to produce -a quantity so incredible that I will not state it. The whole face of the country is covered with the finest oats growing wild; sugar, rice and cotton, find there their own congenial climate. Besides all these, the richest mines of gold and silver have been discovered there, and the pearl fisheries have always been sources of the largest profits; and more than these, there are the markets of India and China with nothing intervening but the calm and stormless Pacific ocean.

The distance from the head of navigation on the Arkansas and Red rivers to a navigable point of