of Christian and pagan emblems, and ceremonies closely resembling some of the sacred dances of the North American tribes.' It is also asserted that on the anniversaries of the ancient Aztec festivals garlands are hung upon the great stone idol that stands in the court-yard of the National Museum, and that the natives of the mountain-villages sometimes steal away on such days to the lonely forests or hidden caves to worship in secret the gods of their ancestors. But, be the explanation what it may, it is greatly to the credit of Mexico, and one of the brightest auguries for her future, that after years of war and social and political revolutions, in which the adherents both of liberty and absolutism have seemed to vie with each other in outraging humanity, the idea of a constitutional government based on the broadest republican principles has lived, and to as large an extent as has perhaps been possible under the circumstances practically asserted itself in a national administrative system.
"When the traveler visits the cities of Mexico and sees the number and extent of the convents, religious houses and churches which, having been confiscated, are either in the process of decay or occupied for secular purposes, and in the country has pointed out to him the estates which were formerly the property of the Church, he gets some realization of the nature of the work which Juarez had the ability and the courage to accomplish. And when he further reflects on the numbers of idle, shiftless, and certainly to some extent profligate, people who tenanted or were supported by these great properties, and who, producing nothing and consuming everything, virtually lived on the superstitious fears of their countrymen—which they at the same time did their best to create and perpetuate—he no longer wonders that Mexico and her people are poor and degraded, but rather that they are not poorer and more degraded than they are.
"What amount of property was owned by the Mexican Church and clergy previous to its secularization is not cer-
