very high. In the Mining districts, each miner pays weekly to the Church, half a real (a medio), in order to provide for the expenses of his funeral; and on the day of the Raya (the weekly payment), an agent of the Cura is always present to receive it. Thus twenty-six reals, or three dollars and two reals (thirteen shillings English money), are paid annually, by each mining labourer, in full health and employment, in order to secure the privilege of a mass being read over his body upon his decease. An Indian, who lives ten years under such a system, would pay six pounds ten shillings for the honour of a funeral; and yet would not be exempt from continuing his contributions, although the amount paid in one year, ought more than to cover any fees that could reasonably be claimed by the Church.
I do not fear being accused of an uncharitable spirit in these remarks, for I have heard many of the most enlightened of the Mexican Clergy deplore the existence of such a state of things, and admit, that the want of a moral feeling amongst the lower classes, is the natural fruit of a system, under which such abuses have been suffered to prevail.
One of the most distinguished members of a Cathedral Chapter, while lamenting, in a conversation with me, the debased state of the people of his diocese, used this remarkable phrase: "Son mui buenos Catolicos, pero mui malos Christianos;" (They are very good Catholics, but very bad Christians;) meaning, (as he afterwards stated,) that it had been
