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CHAPTER IV.

 The French invasion of Mexico — Benito Juarez — Maximilian and his empire — Relation of the Church to the French invasion and the empire — Nationalization of the Mexican Church—Confiscation of its property — Momentous character and influence of this measure — Evidences of the perpetuation of the Aztec religion by the Mexican Indians — Foreign (Protestant) missions in Mexico.

1861, Louis Napoleon, taking advantage of the war of the rebellion in the United States, and regarding (in common with most of the statesmen of Europe) the disruption of the Great Republic as prospectively certain, made the suspension by Mexico of payment upon all her public obligations, a great part of which were held in Europe, a pretext for the formation of a tripartite alliance of France, England, and Spain, for interfering in the government of the country; and in December, 1861, under the auspices of such alliance, an Anglo-French-Spanish military force landed and took possession of Vera Cruz. From this alliance the English and Spanish forces early withdrew; but the French remained, and soon made no secret of their intent to conquer the country. The national forces,

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 10 foolish? Was mankind ever insane? one is asked. Certainly not; he had always the germ of the scientific habit, was always eager rerum cognoscere causas, but he was ignorant, indolent, and easily satisfied with a theory. How did he come to believe in ghosts? people inquire, and why did he not believe in some other kind of ghost? Really, except on the hypothesis that there is a ghost, or something very like one, I don't know. I can only repose on facts. People were not all mad two hundred years ago, but they believed as firmly in witchcraft as a Solomon islander does to-day, and the English witch's spells were even as those of the Solomon islander. The belief rested on false analogies, the theory of sympathies, and the credence in disembodied spirits. The facts are absolutely undeniable, and the frame of mind to which witchcraft seemed credible and omens were things to be averted everywhere survives. You will never make mankind scientific, and even men of science, like Ixion, have embraced agreeable shadows and disembodied mediums. We have conceived these follies because "it is our nature to", as the hymn says. Further explanation belongs to the psychologist, not to the Folk-lorist. If ignorance, conjecture, and credulity be insanity in the persons of our ancestors, deliravimus omnes.

The unity, the harmony of the human beliefs, and even the close resemblances of popular myths and stories among all peoples, are among the most curious discoveries of folk-lore. Now, as to custom and belief, we may expect to find them nearly identical in essentials everywhere, because they spring from similar needs, occasions, and a past of similar mental conditions. But, as to the resemblances of myths and stories, from the Cape to Baffin's Bay, from Peru to the Soudan, we shall doubtless have the matter discussed at later meetings. I myself am inclined to attribute the resemblances, partly to identity of ideas and beliefs, partly to transmission, either modern, or in the course of pre-historic war and commerce.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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 Rh A story could wander as far as mankind wanders, even before Ouida was read from Tangiers to Tobolsk. All this, however, is likely to be discussed. Folk-lorists who think that we neglect ethnology, that we take mankind to be, essentially, too much of the same pattern everywhere, will also have their say. I do not myself believe that some one centre of ideas and myths, India or Central Asia, can be discovered, do not believe that some one gifted people carried everywhere the seeds of all knowledge, of all institutions, and even the plots of all stories. The germs have been everywhere, I fancy, and everywhere alike, the speciality of Race contributes the final form. All peoples, for example, have a myth (or memory) of a Deluge, only the Jewish race gives it the final monotheistic form in which we know it best. Many peoples, as the Chinese, have the tale of the Returned Husband and the Faithful Wife, only the Greek race gave it the final shape, in the Odyssey. Many peoples, from the Turks to the Iroquois, have the story of the Dead Wife Restored, only Greece shaped the given matter into the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Many races have carved images, only Greece freed Art, and brought her to perfection. In perfecting, not in inventing, lies the special gift of special races, or so it seems to myself.

Let me say a final word for the attraction and charm of our study. Call it Anthropology, call it Folk-lore, the science of Man in his institutions and beliefs is full of lessons and of enjoyment. We stand on a height and look backwards on the movement of the Race, we see the wilderness whence it comes, the few straggling paths, that wander, that converge, that are lost in the oA, or in the bush, or meet to become the road, and the beaten highway, and the railway track. We see the path go by caves and rude shelters, by desolate regions and inhospitable, by kraal and village and city. Verily, we may say, "He led us by a path which we knew not." The world


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 almost, yet not quite, human must needs suggest fays, elves, elementals, and all their company. I loved the sound. If not quite music, it was most softly harmonious, and always, from first to last, brought into my mind with strange insistency, those lines in the Tempest:

Then, of course, I was on Prospero's island, though, heaven knows, this bleak northern one was little like it. Thus can some poor bird that we murder, by an association merely, or called-up image, as well as by actual song,

It was some little time before I could be quite sure to what bird this strange note belonged. It seemed too poetical for a duck, though, indeed, an eider-duck is the poetry of the family. Also, it was difficult to locate, seeming to bear but little relation to the place or distance at which it was uttered. But I soon found that whenever there were eider-ducks I heard the note, whereas I never did when they were nowhere about. At last—quite close in a little bay, as though they had come there to show me—I "tore out the heart of their mystery." It was a lovely sight. Even the female eider-duck, sober brown though she be, has a most

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 12 has been taught and trained, but not as we would have trained it. Ends have been won, which were never foreseen, but not by the means which we would have chosen. The path is partly clear behind us; it is dark as a wolf's mouth in front of our feet. But we must follow, and, as the Stoic says, if we turn cowards, and refuse to follow, we must follow still.

Mr. said he was struck very favourably with the extremely catholic and liberal tone of the address. As their association grew larger various opinions would be developed with regard to folk-lore, and some allowance must be always made for differences of opinion. It was in consequence of not taking cognizance of that fact that the Oriental Congress, of which he was a member, came to grief The great object of folk-lore was to come to the truth and to get at the inner life of history. Folk-lore was to history what colour was to design. They had to bring out of the past not merely the history of battles, but the story of the inner life that illuminated and coloured history. They must, however, during the course of these congresses, mutually consider each other's failings and weakness. He proposed a vote of thanks to the President for his admirable address.

Mr., of Paris, seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation.

Mr. acknowledged the compliment in appropriate terms.


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CHAPTER VI.

 Occupations of the people of Mexico — Drawbacks to the pursuits of agriculture — Land-titles in Mexico — Mining laws — Scant agricultural resources of Northern Mexico — Origin and original home of the "cowboy" — Resources of the Tierras Calientes — Agriculture on the plateau of Mexico — Deficiency of roads and methods of transportation — Comparative agricultural production of the United States and Mexico.

Agriculture. — Although the main business of the country is agriculture, this branch of industry is carried on under exceptionally disadvantageous circumstances.

One of its greatest drawbacks is, that the whole country is divided up into immense haciendas or landed estates, small farms being rarely known; and, out of a population of ten million or more, the title to the soil (apart from the lands held by the Indian communities) is said to vest in not more than five or six thousand persons. Some of these estates comprise square leagues instead of square acres in extent, and are said to have irrigating ditches from forty to fifty miles in length. Most

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 FOLK-TALE SECTION.

— E. SIDNEY HARTLAND, Esq., F S.A.

OCTOBER 5th, 1891.


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CHAPTER VII.

 Manufacturing in Mexico — Restricted use of labor-saving machinery — Scarcity of fuel and water — Extent of Mexican handicrafts — Number of factories using power — Manufacture of pottery and leather — Restriction of employments for women — The pauper-labor argument as applied to Mexico — Rates of wages — Fallacy of abstract statements in respect to wages — Scarcity of labor in Mexico — Retail prices of commodities — The point of lowest wages in the United States — Analysis of a leading Mexican cotton-factory — Free trade and protection not matters of general interest in Mexico — Characteristics of the Mexican tariff system — Mines and mining — The United States, not Mexico, the great silver-producing country — Popular ideas about old Spanish mines without foundation.

Manufactures. — Apart from handicrafts there is very little of manufacturing, in the sense of using labor-saving machinery, in Mexico; and, in a country so destitute of water and fuel, it is difficult to see how there ever can be. In very many cases where the employment of machinery is indispensable, mule or donkey power seems to be the only resource; as is the case in the majority of the mines and silver-reducing works of the country — not a pound of ore, for example, being crushed through the agency of any other power,

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Rh have suffered the loss of an ardent bird student,—one whose whole-souled admiration for the varied charms of Nature was outwardly reflected in his generous and impulsive disposition, and be it further

Resolved that these resolutions be enrolled in the minutes of this meeting and a copy transmitted to the family of our deceased member.

Thus has another naturalist joined the "innumerable caravan" which, let us hope, leads to a keener perception of these mysteries of nature which we would all attain.

Nesting Observations on the Black Phoebe.

BY F. B. JEWETT

[Read before the Southern Division of the Cooper Orn. Club, Jan. 8, 1898.]

Y observations have been confined to one pair of birds which have nested on my barn for some eight years past. While I cannot state positively that it has been the same pair during the entire term I am led to believe that such is the case. During the first two or three years the birds changed the site of their nest frequently, probably owing to some disturbance, for afterwards when I guarded them against interference they chose a site which they have occupied ever since. The nest they now occupy is situated on the north side of the barn-under the ridge-pole, almost inaccessible except with a long ladder. On account of this, my observations of the inside of the nest have been by means of a mirror attached above.

Both birds assisted in the construction of the nest, one working while the other kept watch. Both also incubated, dividing the work equally, as nearly as I could judge. In most cases the eggs were laid on consecutive days, incubation commencing immediately after the laying of the last egg. The young grew at a great rate and kept the old birds busy from morning to night bringing food. They remained in the nest on an average about two weeks, or until it was too small for them. After leaving the nest the old birds continued to feed them for some time. It was a ludicrous sight to see five fluffy youngsters ranged one after the other on the rose-bush stakes, with quivering, outstretched wings and constant plaintive cries waiting their turn to be fed by the parents. The old birds took them one after another, never seeming to make a mistake as to whose turn it was next.

The youngsters were voracious little things; watch as long as I would I never saw one satiated. After feeding them as long as they thought advisable, the old birds abandoned the young and started a new brood. In this way three broods were generally reared in each year, the first and second usually consisting of five, and the last of four birds. The youngsters never remained long after they had been turned adrift, usually disappearing on the third day.

The birds have used the same nest for four years, tearing out the old lining and replacing it with new at the beginning of each season and mending places that had been broken. In 1896 eggs were laid April 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and hatched on April 21, 22 and 23. Young birds left the nest May 9 and were abandoned by the old birds on May 27. One of them became entangled in the horse-hair lining of the nest, fell over the side, and was strangled to death; his remains are still hanging there as a reminder of the fate of a too precocious Black Phoebe. In 1897, by March 29, the old birds were busy tearing out the old lining and replacing with the new. Eggs were laid April 7, 8, 10 and 12; incubation began April 15, the eggs hatched on May 1 and the young left the nest May 15. I am under the impression that this brood fell victims to cats as they disappeared suddenly before they were able to take care of themselves.

Mr., of San Luis Obispo, will present through the Club a paper on the nesting habits of the Black Oyster-catcher, as observed on the coast of San Luis Obispo County. He remarks the tameness of the birds and hopes to secure some interesting photographs of them next season.

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CHAPTER VIII.

 Taxation in Mexico — Each State and town its own custom-houses — Practical illustrations of the effect of the system — Cost of importing a stove from St. Louis — Export taxes — Mexican taxation a relic of European mediævalism — The excise or internal tax system of Mexico — A continuation of the old "alcavala" tax of Spain — Effect of taxation upon general trade — The method of remedy most difficult — Parallel experience of other countries — Greatest obstacle to tax reform in Mexico.

all the economic features of Mexico there is no one more novel, interesting, and instructive, and withal more antagonistic in its influence to the development of the country, than the system by which the Government — Federal, State, and municipal — raises the revenue essential to defray its necessary expenditures.

The general characteristics of the Mexican tariff, or system of taxing imports, have been already noticed. But one altogether anomalous and absurd feature of it remains to be pointed out. In all commercial countries, save those which permit the levy by certain municipalities of the

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CHAPTER IX.

 The Federal budget — Receipts and expenditures — Principal sources of national revenue — Foreign commerce — Coinage of the Mexican mints — Imports and exports — The United States the largest customer for Mexican products — Silver monometallism in Mexico — Its inconveniences and abandonment — Introduction of paper money — Sanitary conditions of Mexico — Terrible mortality of the cities of Mexico and Vera Cruz.

Federal budget, in respect to expenditures for the fiscal year 1886-'87, as reported by President Diaz to the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, was as follows:

The estimates of receipts were uncertain. It was hoped, if business recovered, that they would reach $33,000,000; and the Government promised

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CHAPTER X.

 Political relations, present and prospective, of the United States and Mexico — The border population — Their interests, opinions, and influence — The bearing of the Monroe doctrine — The United States no friends on the American Continent — Opinions of other nations in respect to the United States — Adverse sentiments in Mexico — Enlightened policy of the present Mexican Government — Religious toleration — Recent general progress — Claims of Mexico on the kindly sympathies of the United States — Public debt of Mexico — Interoceanic transit and traffic.

relations of the United States to Mexico naturally group themselves under two heads — political and commercial.

The political relations of the United States with Mexico, whether the people or the Government of the former wish it or not, are going to be intimate and complex in the future. The United States is geographically married to Mexico, and there can be no divorce between the parties. Intercommunication between the two countries, which a few years ago was very difficult, is now comparatively easy, and facilities for the same are rapidly increasing. And with the rapid increase of population in the United States,

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CHAPTER XI.

 The American railroad system in Mexico — Its influence in promoting internal order and good government — Remarkable illustration of the influence of the railroad in developing domestic industry — The kerosene-lamp a germ of civilization — Commercial supremacy of the Germans in Mexico — Mexican credit system — Trade advantages on the part of the United States — Inaptitude of Americans for cultivating foreign trade — American products most in demand in Mexico — Weakness of argument in opposition to the ratification of a commercial treaty — Adverse action of Congress — Reasons offered by the Committee of Ways and Means — Interest of the Protestant Church of the United States in the treaty — Conclusion.

commercial relations of the United States with Mexico are, to all intents and purposes, comprised in and identical with the system of railroads which American capital and enterprise have introduced into the latter country. Their introduction has constituted the last and the greatest revolution that Mexico has experienced since the achievement of her independence; for, with the means which they have for the first time afforded the central Government for quick and ready communication between the remote portions of the republic, a stable government and a discontinuance of internal revolts and disturbances have for the first

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text: The Condor/Volume 1/Number 1/Spring Migration of 1896 in the San Gabriel Valley


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Rh talons; also a few White-fronted Geese, some Blue-winged Teal, and some Cormorants, but none with the head, neck, and breast pure white, as the one I saw two days ago. The strength of the current seemed to increase; in some places our boat merely kept her own, and in one instance fell back nearly half a mile to where we had taken in wood. At about ten this evening we came into such strong water that nothing could be done against it; we laid up for the night at the lower end of a willow island, and then cleaned the boilers and took in 200 fence-rails, which the French Canadians call "perches." Now a perche in French means a pole; therefore this must be patois.

29th. We were off at five this rainy morning, and at 9 A. M. reached Booneville, distant from St. Louis about 204 miles. We bought at this place an axe, a saw, three files, and some wafers; also some chickens, at one dollar a dozen. We found here some of the Santa Fe traders with whom we had crossed the Alleghanies. They were awaiting the arrival of their goods, and then would immediately start. I saw a Rabbit sitting under the shelf of a rock, and also a Gray Squirrel. It appears to me that Sciurus macrourus of Say relishes the bottom lands in

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460 preference to the hilly or rocky portions which alternately present themselves along these shores. On looking along the banks of the river, one cannot help observing the half-drowned young willows, and cotton trees of the same age, trembling and shaking sideways against the current; and methought, as I gazed upon them, of the danger they were in of being immersed over their very tops and thus dying, not through the influence of fire, the natural enemy of wood, but from the force of the mighty stream on the margin of which they grew, and which appeared as if in its wrath it was determined to overwhelm, and undo all that the Creator in His bountifulness had granted us to enjoy. The banks themselves, along with perhaps millions of trees, are ever tumbling, falling, and washing away from the spots where they may have stood and grown for centuries past. If this be not an awful exemplification of the real course of Nature's intention, that all should and must live and die, then, indeed, the philosophy of our learned men cannot be much relied upon! This afternoon the steamer "John Auld" came up near us, but stopped to put off passengers. She had troops on board and a good number of travellers. We passed the city of Glasgow without stopping there, and the blackguards on shore were so greatly disappointed that they actually fired at us with rifles; but whether with balls or not, they did us no harm, for the current proved so strong that we had to make over to the opposite side of the river.

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User:Cush

CUSH

Go to the user page on the English Wikipedia by clicking here.

title: User:Cush


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User talk:Cush

cygnis insignis 22:09, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

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Page:Audubon and His Journals.djvu/569

Rh brought on board, most of the men being too lazy, or too far off, to cut out even the tongues of the others; and thus it is that thousands multiplied by thousands of Buffaloes are murdered in senseless play, and their enormous carcasses are suffered to be the prey of the Wolf, the Raven and the Buzzard. However, the hunters all returned safely to the boat, and we took them in, some tired enough, among whom was friend Squires. He had worn out his moccasins, and his feet were sore, blistered, and swollen; he was thirsty enough too, for in taking a drink he had gone to a beautiful clear spring that unfortunately proved to be one of magnesia, which is common enough in this part of our country, and this much increased his thirst. He drank four tumblers of water first, then a glass of grog, ate somewhat of a breakfast, and went to bed, whence I called him a few minutes before dinner. However, he saw some Buffaloes, and had hopes of shooting one, also about twenty Antelopes. Michaux saw two very large White Wolves. At the place where we decided to take the fatigued party in, we stopped to cut down a few dead cedars, and Harris shot a common Rabbit and one Lark Finch. Bell and Sprague saw several Meadow-larks, which I trust will prove new, as these birds have quite different notes and songs from those of our eastern birds. They brought a curious cactus, some handsome well-scented dwarf peas, and several other plants unknown to me. On the island I found abundance of dwarf wild-cherry bushes in full blossom, and we have placed all these plants in press. We had the misfortune to get aground whilst at dinner, and are now fast till to-morrow morning; for all our efforts to get the boat off, and they have been many, have proved ineffectual. It is a bad spot, for we are nearly halfway from either shore. I continued my long letter for home, and wrote the greatest portion of another long one to John Bachman. I intend to write till a late hour

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Rh saw their tracks all along both shores; where they have landed and are unable to get up the steep cliffs, they follow along the margin till they reach a ravine, and then make their way to the hills, and again to the valleys; they also have roads to return to the river to drink. They appear at this season more on the west side of the Missouri. The Elks, on the contrary, are found on the islands and low bottoms, well covered with timber; the common Deer is found indifferently everywhere. All the Antelopes we have seen were on the west side. After we had left our first landing-place a few miles, we observed some seven or eight Indians looking at us, and again retiring to the woods, as if to cover themselves; when we came nearly opposite them, however, they all came to the shore, and made signs to induce us to land. The boat did not stop for their pleasure, and after we had fairly passed them they began firing at us, not with blank cartridges, but with well-directed rifle-balls, several of which struck the "Omega" in different places. I was standing at that moment by one of the chimneys, and saw a ball strike the water a few feet beyond our bows; and Michaux, the hunter, heard its passing within a few inches of his head. A Scotchman, who was asleep below, was awakened and greatly frightened by hearing a ball pass through the partition, cutting the lower part of his pantaloons, and deadening itself against a trunk. Fortunately no one was hurt. Those rascals were attached to a war party, and belong to the Santee tribes which range across the country from the Mississippi to the Missouri. I will make no comment upon their conduct, but I have two of the balls that struck our boat; it seems to be a wonder that not one person was injured, standing on deck as we were to the number of a hundred or more. We have not seen Parrakeets or Squirrels for several days; Partridges have also deserted us, as well as Rabbits; we have seen Barn Swallows, but no more Rough-winged. We have

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506 drawn without much difficulty; this is quite white; the exterior is a dirty, dark brown. The roots are woody. The flowers were not in bloom, but I perceived that the leaves are ovate, and attached in fives. This plant is collected in great quantities by the Indians at this season and during the whole summer, and put to dry, which renders it as hard as wood; it is then pounded fine, and makes an excellent kind of mush, upon which the Indians feed greedily. I will take some home. We found pieces of crystallized gypsum; we saw Meadow Larks whose songs and single notes are quite different from those of the Eastern States; we have not yet been able to kill one to decide if new or not. We have seen the Arkansas Flycatcher, Sparrow-hawks, Geese, etc. The country grows poorer as we ascend; the bluffs exhibit oxide of iron, sulphur, and also magnesia. We have made a good day's run, though the wind blew rather fresh from the northwest. Harris shot a Marsh Hawk, Sprague a Night-hawk, and some small birds, and I saw Martins breeding in Woodpeckers' holes in high and large cotton-trees. We passed the "Grand Town" very early this morning; I did not see it, however. Could we have remained on shore at several places that we passed, we should have made havoc with the Buffaloes, no doubt; but we shall have enough of that sport ere long. They all look extremely poor and shabby; we see them sporting among themselves, butting and tearing up the earth, and when at a gallop they throw up the dust behind them. We

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The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fichte, Johann Gottlieb

FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb, German philosopher: b. at Rammenau in Lusatia, 19 May 1762; d. Berlin, 27 Jan. 1814. He came of healthy peasant stock which had lived in the region for many generations. A tradition in the family was to the effect that a Swedish sergeant, left wounded in the village during the wars of Gustavus Adolphus, had recovered and later married the daughter of his kindly benefactor. From this marriage sprang the

Fichtes, a family noted in the neighborhood for its probity and piety. Christian Fichte, Johann Gottlieb's father, married somewhat above his station. It has been suggested that a certain impatience which Fichte himself displayed throughout his life was an inheritance from his mother.

Young Fichte received the rudiments of his education from his father. He early showed remarkable ability, and it was owing to his reputation among the villagers that he gained the opportunity for a better education than he otherwise would have received. The story runs that Freiherr von Militz, a country landowner, arrived too late to hear the local pastor preach. He was, however, informed that a lad in the neighborhood would be able to repeat the sermon practically verbatim. The upshot of the affair was that the lad was taken under Von Militz's protection. He was placed in the family of Pastor Krebel at Niederau near Meissen and there received thorough grounding in the classics. The kindly home of the good pastor must have made the parting from his parents less severe than it would otherwise have been. From this time onward, Fichte saw little of his parents. In October of the year 1774, we find him at the celebrated foundation-school at Pforta near Naumberg. This famous school is associated with the names of Novalis, the Schlegels, Fichte and Nietzsche. The spirit of the institution was semi-monastic and, while the education given was excellent in its way, it is doubtful whether there was enough social life and contact with the world for a pupil of Fichte's temperament and antecedents. Perhaps his education strengthened a tendency toward introspection and independence, characteristics which appear strongly in his doctrines and writings. In 1780, he enrolled himself in the theological faculty at Jena. How far his heart was given to the career for which this was an opening it is impossible to say. His mother desired it, and it was the path of least resistance for a poor boy of pietistic heritage. It is well to bear in mind that Schelling and Hegel, two other leaders of German romantic idealism, entered philosophy from theology, a fact not without bearing upon the drift of their thinking. Fichte seems to have supported himself at this period of bitter poverty and hard struggle, years which surely had their effect upon his spirit. He now became a tutor and spent two of the happiest years of his life at Zürich in Switzerland. Here he met Johanna Rahn who was afterward to be his wife.

Thus far, Fichte had not discovered his vocation. He had already become acquainted with the philosophy of Spinoza and shown a tendency to adapt its monism to the problems of theology. This influence of Spinoza remained with him throughout his life and affected his interpretation of Kant. It was not until about 1790, however, that he studied the Kantian philosophy. In it, he at last found what he had been seeking, a satisfactory way of approach to speculative problems; a way of approach, moreover, which did justice to those moral demands which were such a dominant part of his nature. He now occupied himself with the task of thinking through the implications of the Kantian position and of perfecting it. But while he was assimilating

the Kantian philosophy and preparing to develop it, fate gave him another blow. Financial reverses were suffered by the Rahn family, and the impending marriage had to be postponed. He went as a tutor to Warsaw, but was soon released. Now came his chance to see Kant at Königsberg. After a disappointing first interview, he shut himself in his lodgings and threw all his energies into the composition of an essay which would compel Kant's attention and interest. This essay, completed in five weeks, was the ‘Versuch einer Kritik aller Offenbarung’ (‘Essay toward a Critique of all Revelation’). Kant's interest was awakened and led to the publication of the essay. Fichte's name having been omitted from the title-page by accident, it was taken by reviewers for Kant's own production. Fichte's reputation was thus made as the best interpreter of the critical philosophy. In October 1793, he was married at Zürich, where he remained the rest of the year. Stirred by the events and principles of the French Revolution, he wrote and published anonymously two pamphlets which mark him as a devoted defender of liberty of thought and action and an advocate of political changes. In December of the same year, he received an invitation to fill the position of extraordinary professor of philosophy at Jena. He accepted and began his lectures in May of the next year. His success was immediate. He seems to have excelled as a lecturer because of the earnestness and force of his personality. These lectures were later published under the title ‘The Vocation of the Scholar.’ He gave himself up to intense production, and a succession of works soon appeared. Among these are his chief work, ‘Foundation of the whole Theory of Science’ (1789); ‘Theory of Morals’ (1798), and several ‘Introductions’ to his system. It is generally admitted that his theoretical philosophy reflects his practical philosophy. The primacy of the moral will is his starting-point. After weathering a couple of academic storms, he was finally dismissed as a result of a charge of atheism (1799). The whole affair was unfortunate, to say the least. For Fichte, God should be conceived primarily in moral terms. To many this seemed to rob Him of personality. Since all the German states except Prussia had joined in the cry against him, he was forced to go to Berlin. Here he associated himself with the Schlegels, Schleiermacher, Schelling and Tieck. The disaster at Jena in which Napoleon completely crushed the Prussian army drove him abroad for a time, but he returned the next year (1807) and continued his literary activity. The deplorable situation of Germany stirred him to the depths and led him to deliver the famous ‘Addresses to the German Nation’ (1808) which guided the uprising against Napoleon. He became a professor of the new university at Berlin founded in 1809, and its rector in the succeeding year. But, once more, his impetuosity and reforming zeal led to friction, and he resigned in 1812. The campaign against Napoleon began, and the hospitals at Berlin were soon full of patients. Fichte's wife devoted herself to nursing and caught a virulent fever. Just as she was recovering, he, himself, was stricken down. He did not have the force to recover and died 27

Fichte's philosophy was a speculative development of certain aspects of Kant's doctrines. It can best be understood when considered an audacious attempt to simplify the ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ in the light of the ‘Critique of Practical Reason.’ Fichte's genius was ethical, as we have already pointed out, and he instinctively took the active ego of the second Critique as his point of departure. For a proper appreciation of the importance of this remodeling and speculative interpretation of Kantianism, a brief analysis of the structure of the latter philosophy is necessary. Kant began his constructive thinking in an attempt to meet Hume's atomistic sensationalism. His problem was to determine how an assumed manifold of sense could be organized into the world of law and order with which science is acquainted. Only, Kant argued by the agency of a synthetic ego working through a priori forms such as space, time, substance, causality, etc., which are contributed by the mind. These forms were painstakingly enumerated and grouped together by him, but he was unable to deduce them from the ego or relate them to it in a satisfactory way. Moreover, he granted the existence of things-in-themselves, outside of experience and unknown, yet productive of the manifold of sense which the mind had to weave into an ordered phenomenal realm. Fichte believed that Kant had not been critical enough of his assumptions and had consequently failed to produce the harmonious system which a deeper insight could yield. His double clue was to reject the thing-in-itself and so to interpret the active ego as to make it the source of the structure of experience. The result of this double reform was the speculative type of ethical idealism which appears in the ‘Wissenschaftslehre.’

The fundamental principle of his theory of knowledge is, that there can be nothing in the ego which is not a product of the activity of the ego. Kant had accepted a manifold of sense foreign to the ego. Fichte rejects this as pure dogmatism. If the ego alone is active, it is impossible to account for the origin of our ideas by means of a non-ego, for this would be passive and incapable of originating anything. The careful reader who is acquainted with the history of philosophy will realize that we have here the same motive which led Berkeley to reject matter and Leibnitz to substitute monads for Descartes' extended substance. Having chosen idealism, Fichte proceeds to deduce the general character of experience from the laws of the ego's activity. The ego is the veritable essence of our nature and, in moments of carefully prepared intuition its free, spiritual energy can be glimpsed welling up within us. Such an intuition requires effort and a character distinguished by self-reliance. The reader should again note a parallel. M. Henri Bergson's philosophy stresses just such a prepared effort of intuition. The first act of the ego is to posit itself. But there is much in experience besides the ego, much which we are not aware of producing. Hence, another principle is necessary. The ego posits a non-ego. But analysis of consciousness shows that the empirical ego is a limited ego in relation with a limited non-ego. We are thus led to a third principle: The ego posits a limited ego in opposition to a limited non-ego. These three principles are

fundamental for Fichte and constitute together an example of his antithetical method.

In order to bring out the speculative, or aprioristic, tone of his thinking, it may be well to give an example of that deduction of the forms of the mind which he put in the place of Kant's scholastic enumeration. The form of time arises when the different acts of the ego occur in such a manner as to be dependent on each other in a definite order. As Höffding points out, Fichte did not have a rich enough psychology at his disposal and he was tempted into arbitrary applications of his principles and method.

Two questions of extreme significance for the interpretation of Fichte's philosophy remain: What is the relation of the limited empirical ego to the infinite ego? Why does the ego posit a non-ego? In answer to the first question it is best to admit that Fichte assumes an infinite ego which works within us and which is more than we are. Had he a right to call this something an ego? It seems that, in his later years, mysticism more and more triumphed and he drifted toward Spinoza, the inspirer of his earliest thinking. The answer to the second question brings the ethical bias of his system into relief. The ego limits itself by the non-ego in order that it may have a field of opposition against which it may struggle and so develop itself. We may connect with this idea the ethical law which he formulates somewhat as follows: Every particular action must form a part of a series which leads me to complete spiritual freedom.

Fichte's ethics may be characterized as a vitalizing of the rather formal teaching of Kant. Duty is grounded upon the capacity for self-reliant freedom which man possesses; it is never rightly that which is urged upon the individual by authority and so from the outside. True freedom is an achievement which creates or realizes itself. Fichte succeeds in giving this outlook a social setting which looks to the coöperation of personalities as the goal. In this connection, it is of interest to note that his book ‘Der geschlossene Handelsstaat’ ( ‘ The Exclusive Industrial State’) is one of the first in which what is now called state socialism was advocated. No international trade is to be permitted in order that the internal growth of each nation may take a natural course. The aim of the state should be to assign to every individual the means to culture and genuine freedom.

Bibliography. — ‘Sammtliche Werke,’ edited by his son J. H. Fichte (8 vols., Berlin 1845-46); also ‘Nachgelassene Werke’ (3 vols., Bonn 1834-35); Fichte‘s ’Popular Works' (tr. by W. Smith, 4th ed., London 1889); Kroeger, A. F., ‘The Science of Knowledge’ (translations of the ‘Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre’; ‘Grundriss des Eigenthumlichen der Wissenschaftslehre,’ etc., London 1889); ‘The Science of Rights’ (id. 1889). The following are important critical works: Adamson, ‘Fichte’ (London 1881); Everett, C. C, ‘Fichte's Science of Knowledge’ (Chicago 1884); Weber, M., ‘Fichtes Sozialismus und sein Verhaltnis zur Marx'schen Doctrin’ (1900). Consult also Höffding, ‘History of Modern Philosophy.’

JOHANN GOTTLIEB FICHTE


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Rh in the latitude of 42° (Boston or New York) would have given the country an almost Arctic character; but under the Tropic of Cancer, or in latitudes 18° to 25° north, the climate at these high elevations is almost that of perpetual spring. At these high elevations of the Mexican plateau furthermore, the atmosphere is so lacking in moisture, that meat, bread, or cheese, never molds or putrefies, but only spoils by drying up. Perspiration, even when walking briskly in the middle of the day, does not gather or remain upon the forehead or other exposed portions of the body; and it is through this peculiarity only of the atmosphere that the city of Mexico, with its large population, and its soil reeking with filth through lack of any good and sufficient drainage, has not long ago been desolated with pestilence.

The border States of Mexico on the north are Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. Sonora is larger than the States of Ohio and Indiana combined; Chihuahua is nearly as large as New York and Pennsylvania: Coahuila is larger than New York; and Tamaulipas is nearly as large as Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts combined.

The surface of the great Mexican plateau, or table-land, although embracing extensive areas of comparatively level surface, which are often

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48, is nevertheless largely broken up by ranges of mountains, or detached peaks—some of which, like Popocatepetl, Orizaba, and Toluca, rise to great elevations—a circumstance which it is important to remember, and will be again referred to, in considering the possible future material development of the country.

Again, if we except certain navigable channels which make up for short distances from the sea into the low, narrow strips of coast-lands, there is not a navigable river in all Mexico; or, indeed, any stream, south of the Rio Grande, that in the United States, east of the Mississippi, would be regarded as of any special importance. Wells, except a few "artesian," are also so scarce on the plateau of Mexico that their very existence has been denied.

In respect, therefore, to this element of commercial prosperity, Mexico has been characterized as less favored than any considerable country except Arabia; the name of which last, as is well known, stands almost as a synonym for aridity.

No one accurately knows the total population of Mexico, as no undeniably accurate census has ever been taken; and there is no immediate prospect that any will be: certainly not so long as a majority of the people have a fear of giving any information in respect to their number, as is represented, and a not inconsiderable part of the

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Rh, as has already been pointed out, has never yet been brought under the rule of civil authority. A census, however, taken in 1879 and officially published in the "Annales del Ministerio de Fomento" reported the population as 9,908,011;* but by some

* Table showing the Population and Area in Square Miles of each of the States of Mexico, according to the Census of 1879.

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Rh on these matters, the writer would here mention, that a statement has come to him from a gentleman who has been long connected and thoroughly acquainted with the "Vera Cruz and City of Mexico Railroad," which runs through the best sugar and coffee territory of the country, that not a single acre of land more is now under cultivation along its line than there was at the time the road was completed, thirteen years ago. Added to which, export taxes, in some of the sugar-producing States—notably that of Vera Cruz—have been imposed to such an extent as to actually prevent the starting of sugar-plantations.

The cotton-plant is supposed to be indigenous to Mexico, as Cortes on his first landing found the natives clothed in cotton fabrics of their own manufacture. Its culture has continued to the present day, but with very little improvement on the methods which existed at the time of the conquest.

The fiber of Mexican cotton is larger than and not so soft and lustrous as American, but cotton production in some sections of the country possesses this signal advantage, that for several succeeding seasons the plants continue to bear profitable crops, while in the United States the soil must each year be enriched with fertilizers and the seed renewed.

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532 as follows [omitted]. We saw one Goose with a gosling, several Coots, Grebes, Blue Herons, Doves, Magpies, Red- shafted Woodpeckers, etc. On a sand-bar Bell counted ten Wolves feeding on some carcass. We also saw three young whelps. This morning we saw a large number of Black-headed Gulls feeding on a dead Buffalo with some Ravens; the Gulls probably were feeding on the worms, or other insects about the carcass. We saw four Elks, and a large gang of Buffaloes. One Wolf was seen crossing the river towards our boat; being fired at, it wheeled round, but turned towards us again, again wheeled round, and returned to where it had started. We ran this evening till our wood was exhausted, and I do not know how we will manage to-morrow. Good-night. God bless you all.

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52 implements, the use of which is somewhat doubtful, that the Aztecs ever had any knowledge and made any use of metal tools; and in only a comparatively few instances have fabrications of copper, of unquestionable antique origin, ever been discovered in connection with Aztec remains in Mexico.In 1873 a workman, employed in making a reconnaissance of a vein of copper in the State of Guerrero, uncovered an excavation some eleven feet long by five deep and three and a half wide, at the bottom of which was found *a vein of copper from one and a half to four inches thick. Examination showed that the vein had been worked, and that, while there was no sign of the use of iron or powder, the walls and the floor presented traces of fire. At first no tools were discovered; but on a careful search among the débris there were found one hundred and forty-two masses of stone of various sizes, different from any of the rocks constituting the mountain, shaped like hammers and wedges, and the edges of which were worn and broken off. Here, then, was evidently a vein of copper which had been worked to a limited extent by the native races in earlier times; and their method of mining was also clearly shown to be by the rude process of rendering the rock friable by heating and rapidly cooling, and then pounding off metal by means of stone hammers and wedges.

Cortes, in one of his letters to Charles V, states that, in addition to the tribute of maize, honey, and cloth which was paid to the Mexican kings before the downfall of their empire by certain subject tribes, the furnishing of a number of hatchets of copper was required. But what sort of hatchets these were indicated by the circumstance, that some years ago an earthen pot was uncovered by the plow in a field near Oaxaca, which contained no less than two hundred and seventy-six of them; all very thin, three or four inches in length, and shaped somewhat in the form of the letter T. And as this description answers to other so-called hatchets, which have been discovered at other times and places, the idea has been suggested that the articles in question were not tools, but ornaments, or possibly coins. According to Señor Mendoza, the director of the National Museum at Mexico, there are in this And of the pottery and stone-work in

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Rh the shape of idols, small and big, masks, and vases, and of which there are many specimens in the museum and throughout the country, it is sufficient to say that it is all of the rudest kind, and derives its chief attraction and interest from its hideousness and almost entire lack of anything which indicates either artistic taste or skill on the part of its fabricators. Take any fair collection of what purports to be the products of Aztec skill and workmanship, and place the same side by side with a similar collection made in any of the most civilized of the islands of the Pacific—the Feejees, the Marquesas, or the Sandwich Islands, or from the tribes that live on Vancouver's Sound—and the superiority of the latter would be at once most evident and

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54 questionable. In all fairness, therefore, all controversy with the writer's position, if there is any, ought to be considered as settled; for there is no more infallible test and criterion of the civilization and social condition of either a man or a nation than the tools which he or it works with; and stone hatchets and stone arrow-heads are the accompaniments of the stone age and all that pertains thereto, and their use is not compatible with any high degree of civilization or social refinement.

But this is not all. It is now generally conceded that the Aztec tribes, that have become famed in history, did not number as many as two hundred and fifty thousand, and that the area of territory to which their rule was mainly confined did not much exceed in area the State of Rhode Island. The first sight of a horse threw them into a panic, and they had no cattle, sheep, swine, dogs, or other domestic animals—save the turkey—of any account. They had no written language, unless the term can be properly applied to rude drawings of a kind similar to those with which the North American Indian ornaments his skins or scratches upon the rocks. It is very doubtful if they had anything which would be regarded as money; and in the absence of beasts of burden, of any system of roads and of wheeled vehicles, or, indeed, of any methods of transportation other than through the

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Rh muscular power and backs of men, they could have had but little internal trade or commerce.

All authorities, furthermore, agree that human sacrifices constituted an essential part of their religion, and that, as a nation, they were addicted to cannibalism, and probably forced the adoption of its practice among the contiguous nations whom they invaded and possibly subjugated. But "cannibalism," as M. Charney remarks, "had its rise among tribes having no cattle, no hunting-grounds, and having for their maintenance only vegetable food, or an insufficiency of food; and, if the phenomenon is observed among civilized nations, it is exceptional, as in famine, or as in cities reduced to extremities by a protracted siege."

Prescott assigns to the Aztec city of Mexico a population of three hundred thousand, and sixty

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56 thousand houses, and abundant fountains and reservoirs of water; but a very brief reflection would seem to make it evident that no such population could have been regularly supported, mainly with bulky agricultural food transported on the backs of men, or in light canoes through canals from the neighboring small salt lakes; or supplied with water sufficient for fountains, drinking, and domestic purposes, through an earthen pipe "of the size of a man's body," brought some miles "from Chapultepec," the water adjacent to the city being then, as now, salt and unfit for use. What their manufactures could have been, with stone tools and the most primitive machinery, it is not difficult to conjecture. Probably not materially different from what the traveler may yet see at the present day in the case of the Indian woman, who, seated by the wayside, with a bundle of wool under her arm and a spindle consisting of a stem of wood, one end resting in a cup formed from the shell of a gourd, dexterously and rapidly draws out and spins a coarse but not uneven thread. If any higher degree of manufacturing industry had ever been attained by this people, it probably would not have been utterly forgotten in later days; and the fact is that, "even at the present time, the greater proportion of the domestic utensils, laborers' tools and implements, and articles of clothing in common

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Rh use in Mexico, are said to be of Indian manufacture, and differing very little, if at all, from those used before the conquest." Even in the capital of the republic, says Mr. Consul Strother, where European ideas and habits most generally prevail, a large proportion of the population now use no other bed than the traditional Indian mat, and find their principal food in the Indian corn, ground by hand on the metate a hollow stone, identical in form and character with those used four centuries ago by the wives of the Indian emperors to prepare the corn and the chocolate for their august lords; and in the capital, also, as throughout the republic, the kitchens are furnished with cookery-vessels of Indian manufacture, spoons, bowls and platters of horn, wood, calebasa baskets, and trays of woven rushes and palm-leaves, unchanged in form and character from those described in the earliest histories of the country.

What Aztec architecture was may be inferred from the circumstance that Cortes, with his little band of less than five hundred Spaniards, leveled to the ground three quarters of the city of Tenochtitlan in the seventeen days of his siege; while of the old city of Mexico, with its reported palaces and temples, there is absolutely nothing left which is indicative of having formed a part of any grand or permanent structure.

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58 That there was, antecedent to the Aztecs, in this country of Mexico and Central America, a superior race to which the name of Toltecs or Mayas has been applied, who built the elaborate stone structures of Yucatan and of other portions of Central America, and who, it would seem, must have been acquainted with the use of metals, can not be doubted. At a town called Tula, about fifty miles from Mexico, on the line of the Mexican Central, where the Toltecs are reported to have first settled, the traveler will see on the plaza the lower half—i. e., from the feet to the waist—of two colossal and rude sitting figures; also, several perfect cylindrical sections of columns, which were very curiously arranged to fit into and support each other by means of a tenon and mortise, all of stone. The material of which these objects of un-questionably great antiquity are composed, and which all archæologists who have seen them agree are not Mexican or Aztec in their origin, is a very peculiar basalt, so hard that a steel tool hardly makes an impression upon it. When the same traveler arrives in the city of Mexico, and is shown the three greatest archaeological treasures of American origin—namely, the great idol, "Huitzilopochtli," the "Sacrificial Stone," and the so-called "Calendar" stone, now built into one of the outer walls of the cathedral—he might remark that the

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Rh of which they are all constructed is the same hard, black stone which constitutes the relics at Tula, and that neither in the large collections of

the Museum of Mexico, nor anywhere else, are there any articles, of assumed Aztec origin, composed of like material. Hence an apparently legitimate inference that the latter have a common origin with the constructions at Tula, and are relics of the Toltecs or older nations, and not of the Aztecs.

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60 Again, while much speculation has been had in respect to the origin and use of the mounds of our Western and Southwestern States, it seems to have been overlooked that almost the exact counterparts of these mounds exist to-day in the earth-pyramid of Cholula, near Puebla, and the two pyramids at Teotihuacan, about fifty miles east of the city of Mexico; and that those structures were in use for religious rites and purposes—i. e., "mound-worship"—at the time of the invasion of the country by the Spaniards under Cortes. It seems difficult, therefore, to avoid also this further inference, that there is an intimate connection as to origin and use between all these North American mound-structures, and that they are all the work of substantially one and the same people, who found their last development and, perhaps, origin in Mexico or Central America. In calling attention to these circumstances, and in venturing opinions concerning them, the writer makes no pretension to archaeological knowledge, but he simply offers what seem to him the simple, common-sense conclusions which every observer must come to, who does not bring to his eye a capacity for seeing what has been limited by some preconceived theories.

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Rh were, first, to collect and pay into the royal treasury the largest possible amount of annual revenue; second, to extend and magnify the authority and work of the established Church; third, to protect home (i. e., Spanish) industries.

Starting with the assumption that the country, with all its people and resources, was the absolute property of the crown in virtue of conquest, the accomplishment of the first result was sought through the practical enslavement of the whole native population, and the appropriation of the largest amount of all production that was compatible with the continued existence of productive industries. With the civil power at the command of the Church, the attainment of the second result was from the outset most successful; for, with a profession of belief and the acceptance of baptism, on the one hand, and the vigilance of the Inquisition and a menace of the fires of the auto-da-fe on the other, the number of those who wanted to exemplify in themselves the supremacy of conscience or the freedom of the will was very soon reduced to a minimum. And, finally, the correctness or expediency of the principle of protection to home (Spanish) industry having been once accepted, it was practically carried out, with such a logical exactness and absence of all subterfuge, as to be worthy of admiration, and without parallel in all

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64 economic history. For, in the first instance, with a view of laying the axe directly at the root of the tree of commercial freedom, all foreign trade or commercial intercourse with any country other than Spain was prohibited under pain of death; and this ordinance is believed to have been kept in force until within the present century. No schools or educational institutions save those of an ecclesiastical nature were allowed, and in these, instruction in almost every branch of useful learning was prohibited. Certain portions of Mexico were admirably adapted, as they yet are, to the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mulberry, and of fiber-yielding plants, and also for the keeping and breeding of sheep; but, as a colonial supply of wine, oil, silk, hemp, and wool might interfere with the interests of home producers, the production of any or all of these articles was strictly

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Rh ; neither was any manufacture whatever allowed which could by any possibility interfere with any similar industry of Old Spain, When Hidalgo, a patriotic Catholic priest, about the year 1810, with a desire to diversify the industries of his country and benefit his countrymen, introduced the silk-worm and promoted the planting of vineyards, the authorities destroyed the one and uprooted the other; and through these acts first instigated the rebellion that ultimately overthrew the government and expelled the Spaniards from Mexico. All official posts in the country, furthermore, were filled by Spaniards, and the colonial offices were regularly sold in Madrid to the highest bidder.

In the National Museum in the city of Mexico is a nearly or quite complete collection of the portraits of the fifty-seven Spanish viceroys who successively governed the country, and were endowed with royal prerogatives. The series commences with a portrait of Cortes, which is said to be an original; and, according to Mr. Prescott (who prefixed an engraved copy of it to the third volume of his "Conquest of Mexico") has been endorsed by one of the best Spanish authorities. Don Antonio Uguina, as the "best portrait" of the conqueror that was ever executed. It is an exceedingly striking face, full of character, and more quiet, contemplative, and intellectual than might have been

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Rh viceroy born in America (Peru), and the Count de Revilla-Gigedo (1789-1794), both of whom were unquestionably rulers of great ability, and who might also well be represented in the national galleries of the United States; and the portraits of occasional ecclesiastical viceroys—bishops or archbishops—conspicuous among their neighbors by reason of their more somber vestments. The faces of these latter are not devoid of intellectuality, or indications of mental ability; but they are—one and all—stern, unimpassioned, and with an expression of grim malevolence and bigotry, which as much as says, "Woe betide any heretic, or contemner of Church supremacy, who dares to question my authority!" To which may be properly added that, during nearly all the long period of Spanish rule in Mexico, the Inquisition, or "Holy Office," wielded a power as baleful and as despotic as it ever did in Old Spain, and held its last auto-da-fe and burned its last conspicuous victim—General José Morelos—in the Plaza of the city of Mexico, as late as November, 1815!

In 1810, Mexico, under the lead of Hidalgo—whom the modern Mexicans regard as a second Washington—revolted against its Spanish rulers, and, after many and varying vicissitudes, finally attained its complete independence, and proclaimed itself, in 1822, first an empire, and two years later,

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Rh soldiers of Mexico, General Mariano Arista" (the general who commanded the Mexican troops at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma), "elected President of the Republic in 185 1, was deposed and banished in 1853, and died in exile in 1855. His remains were brought home at the public expense, in a ship of war furnished by Spain, and a special decree commemorative of his services was declared by Congress. The next is General So-and-so, who also, after rendering most distinguished services, was shot"; and so on, until it seems as if there was not one of their conspicuous men whom the Mexicans of to-day unite in honoring for his patriotism and good service, but who experienced a full measure of the ingratitude of his country in the form of exile or public execution. In the same gallery is also a good full-length portrait of Washington, but, very appropriately, it is far removed from all the other pictures, and occupies a place by itself at the extreme end of the apartment.

Since the establishment of her independence in 1821, Mexico, down to the year 1884—a period of sixty-three years—has had fifty-five presidents, two emperors, and one regency, and, with some three or four exceptions, there was a violent change of the government with every new administration. The year 1848 is noted in Mexican annals as the first

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Rh among nations; and that the contrasts as seen to-day between the life, energy, and fierce development of much of that part of Old Mexico that became American—California, Texas, and Colorado—and the stagnant, poverty-stricken condition of the contiguous territory—Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila—that remained Mexican, are a proof of the truth of the proverb that "the tools rightfully belong to those who can use them."

But, nevertheless, when one stands beside the monument erected at the foot of Chapultepec, to the memory of the young cadets of the Mexican Military School—mere boys—who, in opposing the assault of the American columns, were faithful unto death to their flag and their country, and notes the sternly simple inscription, "Who fell in the North American invasion"; and when we also recall the comparative advantages of the contending forces—the Americans audacious, inspirited with continuous successes, equipped with an abundance of the most improved material of war, commanded by most skilled officers, and backed with an overflowing treasury; the Mexicans poorly clothed, poorly fed, poorly armed, unpaid, and generally led by un-educated and often incompetent commanders; and remember the real valor with which, under such circumstances, the latter, who had received so little from their country, resisted the invasion and

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72 of that country; and that in no battles of modern times have the losses been as great comparatively as were sustained by the Mexican forces—there is certainly not much of pleasure or satisfaction that a sober-minded, justice-loving citizen of the United States can or ought to find in this part of his country's history. And, if we are the great, magnanimous, and Christian nation that we claim to be, no time ought to be lost in proving to history and the world our right to the claim, by providing, by act of Congress, that all those cannon which lie scattered over the plains at West Point, bearing the inscriptions "Vera Cruz," "Contreras," "Chapultepec," "Molino del Rey," and "City of Mexico," and some of which have older insignia, showing that they were originally captured by Mexican patriots from Spain in their struggles for liberty, together with every captured banner or other trophy preserved in our national museums and collections, be gathered up and respectfully returned to the Mexican people. For, to longer retain them and pride ourselves on their possession is as unworthy and contemptible as it would be for a strong man to go into the street and whip the first small but plucky and pugnacious boy he encounters, and then, hanging up the valued treasures he has deprived him of in the hall of his residence, say complaisantly, as he views

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Rh them, "See what a great and valiant man I am, and how I desire that my children should imitate my example!" If it is peace and amity and political influence, and extended trade and markets, and a maintenance of the Monroe doctrine on the American Continent that we are after, such an act would do more to win the hearts and dispel the fears and suspicions of the people of Mexico, and of all the states of Central and South America, than reams of diplomatic correspondence, and endless traveling trade commissioners and formal international resolutions. Society is said to be bound by laws that always bring vengeance upon it for wrong-doing—"the vengeance of the gods, whose mills grind slow, but grind exceeding small." What penalty is to be exacted of the great North American Republic for its harsh treatment and spoliation of poor, down-trodden, ignorant, superstitious, debt-ridden Mexico, time alone can reveal. Perhaps, as this great wrong was committed at the promptings or demand of the then dominant slave-power, the penalty has been already exacted and included in the general and bloody atonement which the country has made on account of slavery. Perhaps, under the impelling force of the so-called "manifest destiny," a further penalty is to come, in the form of an equal and integral incorporation of Mexico and her foreign people into the Federal

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74 Union. But, if this is to be so, the intelligent and patriotic citizens of both countries may and should earnestly pray that God, in his great mercy, may yet spare them.

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76 under the leadership of undoubtedly the greatest and noblest character that Mexico has produced, Benito Juarez, reported to be of pure Indian parentage, offered a not inglorious resistance; and in at least one instance undoubtedly inflicted a severe defeat upon the French army. But with the almost universal defection of the clergy and the wealthier classes, and with the country weakened by more than forty years of civil strife and an impoverished exchequer, they were finally obliged to succumb; and after a period of military operations extending over about sixteen months, or in June, 1863, the French entered the city of Mexico in triumph and nominally took possession of the whole country. A month later, a so-called "assemblage of notables," appointed by the French general-in-chief, met at the capital, and with great unanimity declared the will of the Mexican people to be the establishment of an empire in the person of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, "or such other prince as the Emperor Napoleon should designate"; and in pursuance of this act the crown was formally offered to Maximilian at his palace in Austria in October, 1863, and definitely accepted by him in April, 1864. Viewed in the light of

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Rh events, the point of greatest interest and importance in this scheme on the part of Louis Napoleon for the conquest of Mexico and its conversion into a French dependency, to the humiliation of whatever political organizations might be left after the war to represent the former Federal Union, and to the utter discomfiture of the "Monroe doctrine"—a scheme which Napoleon designed should constitute the most brilliant feature of his reign—was the connection of the Church of Mexico and its adherents with the movement. If not, indeed, as is often suspected, the instigators of it in the first instance, they were undoubtedly in full sympathy with it from its inception—and with good reason. For, as far back as 1856, Juarez, when a member of the Cabinet of Alvarez, had been instrumental in the adoption of a political Constitution which was based on the broadest republican principles, and which provided for free schools, a free press, a complete subjugation of the ecclesiastical and military to the civil authority, the abolition of the whole system of class legislation, and universal religious toleration—a Constitution which, with some later amendments, is still the

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78 law of Mexico. Such a reform could not, and at the time did not, triumph over the privileged classes, the Church, the aristocracy, and the military leaders, and, although embodied in the form of law, remained in abeyance.

But the Church and the aristocracy at the same time did not fail to recognize that, if Juarez and his party ever attained political ascendency, their property and privileges would be alike imperiled.

The subversion of the so-called Republic of Mexico, with its unstable government and frequent revolutions, and its replacement with an empire, backed by the then apparently invincible arms of France, and with one of the Catholic princes of Europe on the throne, were, therefore, most acceptable to the Mexican Church and its adherents; and in Maximilian of Austria they thought they had found a man after their own heart. He was a man of elegant presence, winning manners, and of much refinement and culture; and these qualities, with undoubted personal courage, contributed to give him a certain amount of personal popularity and sympathy. But he was,

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Rh, in all matters of government, always a representative of the highest type of absolutism or imperialism, and in devotion to the Catholic Church an extremist, even almost to the point of fanaticism. The first of these assertions finds illustration in his establishment of a court, with orders of nobility, decorations, and minute ceremonials; the construction and use of an absurd state carriage—modeled after the style of Louis XIV—and still shown in the National Museum; and worse, by the proclamation and execution of an order (which subsequently cost Maximilian his own life), that all republican officers taken prisoners in battle by the imperialists should be summarily executed as bandits; and, second, by his walking barefoot, on a day of pilgrimage, all the way over some two or three miles of dusty, disagreeable road, from the city of Mexico to the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

When the attitude and demand of the United States, on the termination of the rebellion, induced the withdrawal of the French forces from Mexico,

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80 Maximilian, at the suggestion of Louis Napoleon, prepared to abdicate; and, in October, 1866, even commenced his journey to Vera Cruz, with the intention of embarking on a French vessel of war and leaving the country. Unfortunately for himself, however, he was persuaded by the Church party, under assurances of their ability to support him, to return to the city of Mexico and resume his government. But the attempt was hopeless, and culminated some six months later in his capture and execution by the republican forces; and with the downfall of the "Maximilian" or the "imperial" government, Juarez became the undisputed, and also, to all intents and purposes, the absolute, ruler of the country. This portion of the more recent history of Mexico has been detailed somewhat minutely, because the series of events embraced in it led up to and culminated in an act of greater importance than anything which has happened in the country since the achievement of its independence from Spanish domination. For no sooner had Juarez obtained an indorsement of his authority as President, by a general election, than he practically carried out with the co-operation of Congress, and with an apparent spirit of vindictiveness (engendered, it has been surmised, by the memory of the oppressions to which his race had been subjected),

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Rh the provisions of the Constitution which he had been instrumental in having adopted in 1857. The entire property of the Mexican Church was at once "nationalized" (a synonym for confiscation) for the use of the state. Every convent, monastic institution, or religious house was closed up and devoted to secular purposes; and the members of every religious society, from the Jesuits to the Sisters of Charity, who served in the hospitals or taught in the schools, were banished and summarily sent out of the country. And so vigorously and severely is the policy of subjugating the ecclesiastical to the civil authority, which Juarez inaugurated in 1867, still carried out, that no convent or monastery now openly exists in Mexico; and no priest or sister, or any ecclesiastic, can walk the streets in any distinctive costume, or take part in any religious parade or procession; and this in towns and cities where, twenty years ago or less, the life of a foreigner or skeptic who did not promptly kneel in the streets at the "procession of the host" was imperiled. Again, while Catholic worship is still permitted in the cathedrals and in a sufficient number of other churches, it is clearly understood that all of these structures, and the land upon which they stand, are absolutely the property of the Government, liable to be sold and converted to other uses at any time, and that the officiating clergy are only "tenants at

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Rh "orders" and houses. The national Government, however, does not appear to have derived any great fiscal advantage from the confiscation of the Church property, or to have availed itself of the resources which thus came to it for effecting any marked reduction of the national debt Good Catholics would not buy "God's property" and take titles from the state; and so large tracts of land and blocks of city buildings passed, at a very low figure, into the possession of those who were indifferent to the Church, and had command of ready money; and in this way individuals, rather than the state and the great body of the people, have been benefited.

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90

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Rh

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Rh country can be effected. Whatever may be its aggregate—ten or twelve millions—it is generally agreed that about one third of the whole number are pure Indians, the descendants of the proprietors of the soil at the time of its conquest by the Spaniards; a people yet living in a great degree by themselves, though freely mingling in the streets and public places with the other races, and speaking, it is said, about one hundred and twenty different languages or dialects. Next, one half of the whole population are of mixed blood—the mestizos—of whose origin nothing, in general, can be positively affirmed, further than that their maternal ancestors were Indian women, and their fathers descendants of the Caucasian stock. They constitute the dominant race of the Mexico of to-day—the rancheros, farmers, muleteers, servants, and soldiers—the only native foundation on which it would seem that any improved structure of humanity can be reared. Where the infusion of white blood has been large, the mestizos are often represented by men of fine ability, who take naturally to the profession of arms and the law, and distinguish themselves. But, on the other hand, no small proportion of this race—the so-called leperos—are acknowledged by the Mexicans themselves to be among the lowest and vilest specimens of humanity in existence; a class exhibiting every vice, with hardly

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94 the possession of a single virtue. The remaining sixth of the population of Mexico are Europeans by birth or their immediate descendants, the Spanish element predominating. The national language also is Spanish—a language not well fitted for the uses and progress of a commercial nation; and which will inevitably constitute a very serious obstacle in the way of indoctrinating the Mexican people with the ideas and methods of overcoming obstacles and doing things which characterize their great Anglo-Saxon neighbors. It should also be borne in mind that a language is one of the most difficult things to supplant in the life of a nation through a foreign influence. The Norman conquest of England, although it modified the Saxon language, could not substitute French; neither could the Moors make Arabic the language of Spain, although they held possession of a great part of the country for a period of more than seven centuries. It seems certain, therefore, that Spanish will continue to be the dominant language of Mexico until the present population is outnumbered by the Americans—a result which may occur before a very long time in the northern States of Mexico, where the population at present is very thin, but which is certainly a very far-off contingency in the case of Central Mexico. Of the present population of Mexico, probably

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Rh three quarters, and possibly a larger proportion—for in respect to this matter there is no certain information—can not read or write, possess little or no property, and have no intelligent ideas about civil as contradistinguished from military authority, of political liberty, or of constitutional government. The mass of all those engaged in the prosecution of agriculture and the performance of other manual labor are also divided into classes, as separate and distinct from each other as it is possible to imagine a people to be who occupy a common country and acknowledge the same government, and in this respect they greatly resemble the natives of British India. It is difficult, in fact, to express in words, to those who have not had an opportunity of judging for themselves, the degraded condition of the mass of the laboring-classes of Mexico. The veil of the picturesque, which often suffices to soften the hard lines of human existence, can not here hide the ugliness and even hideousness of the picture which humanity exhibits in its material coarseness, and intellectual, or spiritual poverty. The late consul-general Strother, who, as a citizen of one of our former slave-holding States, is well qualified to judge, expresses the opinion, in a late official report (1885), that the scale of living of the

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96 of Mexico "is decidedly inferior in comfort and neatness to that of the negroes of the Southern (United) States when in a state of slavery. Their dwellings in the cities are generally wanting in all the requirements of health and comfort—mostly rooms on the ground-floor, without proper light or ventilation; often with but a single opening (that for entrance), dirt floors, and no drainage. In the suburbs and in the country, the dwellings in the cold regions are adobe, and in the temperate or warm regions mere huts of cane, or of stakes wattled with twigs, and roofed with corn-stalks, plantain-leaves, or brush." In such houses of the common people there is rarely anything answering to the civilized idea of a bed, the occupants sleeping on a mat, skin, or blanket on the dirt floor. There are no chairs, tables, fireplace, or chimney; few or no changes of raiment; no washing apparatus or soap, and in fact no furniture whatever, except a flat stone with a stone roller to grind their corn, and a variety of earthen vessels to hold their food and drink, and for cooking (which last is generally performed over a small fire, within a circle of stones outside, and in front, of the main entrance to the dwelling). The principal, food of all these people is Indian corn, in the form of the so-called tortilla, which is prepared by placing a quantity of corn in a jar of hot water and lime (when it can be

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Rh got) to soak overnight; the use of the lime being to soften the corn. When it is desired to use it, the grain is taken out and ground by hand on the stone and by the roller before mentioned, into a kind of paste, and then slightly dried or baked on an earthen tray or pan over a small fire. Everybody in Mexico is said to eat tortillas and their preparation, which is always assigned to the women, seems to employ their whole time, "to the exclusion of any care of the dwelling, their children, or themselves." Foreigners, especially Americans, find them detestable. Another standard article of Mexican diet is boiled beans (frijoles). Meat is rarely used by the laborers, but, when it is obtainable, every part of the animal is eaten. Peppers, both green and red, mixed with the corn-meal or beans, are regarded as almost indispensable for every meal, and, when condensed by cooking, are described by one, who obviously speaks from experience, as forming "a red-hot mixture whose savage intensity is almost inconceivable to an American.… A child of six or seven years old will eat more of this at a meal than most adult Americans could in a week—eating it, too, without meat or grease of any kind; merely folding up the tortilla of wheat or corn-meal, dipping up a spoonful of the terrible compound with it, and hastily biting off the end, for fear some of the precious stuff should escape.

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98 Should one be fortunate enough to have anything else to eat, these tortillas serve as plates, after which service the plates are eaten." With all this, the agricultural laborers of Mexico, both Indians and mixed bloods, are almost universally spoken of as an industrious, easily managed, and contented people. By reason of the general mildness of the climate, the necessary requirements for living are fewer than among people inhabiting the temperate and more northern latitudes, and consequently poverty with them does not imply extreme suffering from either cold or starvation. When their simple wants are satisfied, money with them has little value, and quickly finds its way into the pockets of the almost omnipresent pulque or "lottery-ticket" sellers, or the priest. "If they are too ready to take a hand against the Government at the call of some discontented leader, it is not because they are Indian or Mexican, but because they are poor and ignorant." Considering the great achievements of Juarez, and the precedent which his success in administration established, it is curious to note how rarely one sees faces of the Indian type in any important or public positions. The rank and file of the army seem to be unmistakably Indian, or of evident Indian descent, while the officers, almost without an exception, are white. The bands have white

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Rh leaders, though the sweetest players are understood to be pure Indians; and so also in the case if the police—the force is mainly Indian, while the superintendent and his staff are likely to be white. One also, it is said, rarely sees faces tinged with Indian blood among members of the Mexican Congress, the clergy, the teachers, the superintendents of the haciendas or the students of the universities. At the same time it is understood that Indian blood is no bar to entrance into good society, or to office, if the person is otherwise qualified; and the Indian is not anywhere abused in Mexico, or ejected from the lands which his ancestors have tilled from time immemorial, as has often been the case in the United States. The majority of the Mexican Indians have lost all traces of their once wild life, and have recognized that their living must now be gained by work, even if it be but rude and imperfect; and, except in the case of the Apaches and Yaquis and of some of the tribes of Southern Mexico, have long since exchanged the blanket for the serape, the bow for the ox-goad, and scalp-lifting for the monte-table, the cock-pit, or the bull-ring. Another interesting feature of the life of the independent or free Indians in Mexico—that is, Indians not attached to any of the great estates—is, that it is eminently communistic; and more characteristic of the type of the agricultural village

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100 communities of the early ages, on the Eastern Continent, than is exhibited by the more northern tribes of North America, Thus, the inhabitants of each village—living in adobe- or cane-built huts—own and cultivate all the lands under their control, in common with all the other members of the tribe or community, "divide the proceeds according to laws which antedate the Spanish conquest, and use the same primitive tools and methods of irrigation that were used by their ancestors in the days of the Montezumas." One noticeable peculiarity of the Mexican laborer is the strength of his local attachments, and it is in rare instances only that he voluntarily emigrates from the place of his nativity. This circumstance found a curious illustration in the experience of the recent railroad constructions in Mexico, where the builders found that they could rely only upon the labor in the immediate neighborhood of their line of construction; and that, generally, neither money nor persuasion would induce any great numbers of these people to follow their work at a distance from their native fields and villages. In those instances where temporary emigration was effected, the laborers insisted on carrying their families with them. The Government also recognizes to a certain extent this peculiarity in their army movements; and, whenever a company or

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Rh regiment moves, the number of women—wives of the soldiers—accompanying seems almost absurdly numerous. They, however, represent, and to some extent supply, the place of the army commissariat.

It is, however, gratifying to be able to state, that at last the leading men of Mexico have come to recognize the importance of popular education; and it is safe to say that more good, practical work has been done in this direction within the last ten years than in all of the preceding three hundred and fifty. At all of the important centers of population, free schools, under the auspices of the national Government, and free from all Church supervision, are reported as established; while the Catholic Church itself, stimulated, as it were, by its misfortunes, and apparently unwilling to longer rest under the imputation of having neglected education, is also giving much attention to the subject; and is said to be acting upon the principle of immediately establishing two schools wherever, in a given locality, the Government, or any of the Protestant denominations, establish one. In several of the national free schools visited by the author, the scholars, mainly girls, appeared bright and intelligent, the teachers (females) competent, and the

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102 text-books modern. The language of instruction was, of course, Spanish, but a greater desire than ever before to learn English is reported, and it is now (contrary to former custom) generally taught in preference to French. Industrial schools, to which boys are appointed from different sections of the country, analogous to the system of appointments in the United States for West Point and Annapolis, have also been established by the Government. One of the most interesting of these, and for the promotion of which the "Mexican Central Railroad" corporation have co-operated, exists at Guadalupe, about five miles from the city of Zacatecas. Here, in a large and well-preserved convent structure, confiscated by the Government and appropriated for school purposes, some two or three hundred Mexican boys are gathered, and practically taught the arts of spinning and weaving, printing, carpentering, instrumental music, leather-work, and various other handicrafts; while, in close contiguity, and in striking contrast with the poverty of the surrounding country, the ecclesiastical authorities are expending a large amount of money—the proceeds of a legacy of a rich Mexican mine-proprietor—in reconstructing and decorating in a most elaborate manner the church, which was formerly a part of the convent, and which has been left in their possession.

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Rh The Federal Government maintains a well-organized National School of Agriculture, and has purchased and distributed during recent years large quantities of grape-cuttings of the finest varieties, and also graftings and seeds of the finest fruit-trees and plants obtainable in Mexico and in foreign countries. There are also national schools, at the capital, of medicine, law, and engineering; a Conservatory of Music, an Academy of Fine Arts, a National Museum, and a National Library; together with institutions for the blind, deaf and dumb, the insane, for the reformation of young criminals, and such other systematic charities as are common in enlightened communities. Most of these institutions are located in old and spacious ecclesiastical edifices which have been "nationalized"; and the means for their support seem to be always provided, although the Mexican treasury is rarely or never in a flourishing condition. At the same time it is almost certain that all these laudable efforts on the part of the Government to promote education and culture, have thus far worked down and affected to a very slight extent the great mass of the people. But it is, nevertheless, a beginning.

As the stability, however, of any form of government and the maintenance of domestic tranquillity with such a population as exists in Mexico are obviously contingent on the maintenance of a strong,

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104 well-organized, and disciplined army, the first care of the central Government is naturally to promote military rather than secular education; and, accordingly, the National Military School, located at Chapultepec, and modeled after the best military schools of Europe, is in the highest state of efficiency. The system of instruction and the text-books used are French; and the personnel of the school, both officers and cadets, will compare favorably with anything that can be seen at West Point. The army maintained by Mexico on a peace basis is forty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-three, or nearly double that of the United States; and, on a war-footing, was officially reported in 1883 as embracing an effective fighting force of one hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and sixty-three. That the Mexican people possess all the physical qualities essential for the making of good soldiers can not also be questioned. At the, same time, it is manifest that, upon the patriotism and intelligence of the officers in command of the army, the immediate future and prosperity of Mexico are dependent. The single fact, however, that the present Government and the most intelligent and influential people of Mexico have recognized the necessity of educating the masses of the people, and that probably the best that can be done under existing circumstances is being done,

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Rh constitutes the most hopeful and encouraging augury for the future of the republic.

As might be expected from the existing conditions, the Government of Mexico—both Federal and State—although nominally constitutional and democratic, is not, and from the very nature of things can not be, other than personal, and is often in the highest degree arbitrary and despotic; in short, a military despotism under the form of a republic. For example, under date of February 15, 1886, the telegraph reports that the people of Coahuila are rejoicing over the fact that, after a term of a year and a half of military rule, the civil authorities are to resume control of the local government; but to this is added the following significant statement: "The policy of the civil government, however, will probably be identical with that pursued by the military, as the Governor-elect is a strong supporter of the Administration, and will accede to all the demands of the Federal Government."

No such thing as a popular assemblage, to discuss public questions of any kind, ever takes place in Mexico; and when, in the fall of 1884, a young member of the national Congress from Vera Cruz

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