Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 2/Concluding Chapter

 

 

CONCLUDING CHAPTER.

 

Striking; features of the country.—Motives for exposition of facts.—Physical weakness of the people.—Want of mental energy.—Isolation and prohibitory duties.—House and land rents.—Financial difficulties.—Various classes.—State of the fine arts.—The army, trade, law, and medicine.—Social qualities.—Literature, language, and education.—Political future.

The intelligent reader will most likely conclude on perusal of this work that the principal features of the country of Mexico—whether it be the wild beauty and variety of its natural scenery, the indolence and abject poverty of its chief population, or the splendour and influence of its church establishment—are all marked by redundancy and excess. This is the fact; and it may not be amiss to give, in the form of a summary, what appear to be the causes of the present state of the republic, together with the existing grounds for hope and promise in the future. The Author would wish to observe that he has been totally uninfluenced by party bias or feeling, in his remarks on the Mexican priesthood and their usages in Chapters VIII., IX., and X., of Volume I. Any reader in a position to judge impartially of the subject, must own, on examination, that nothing but the truth has been told. The priests in Mexico are less prepared by education for their holy office, than are the humblest of their class in Europe; in a partially civilized country like the one in question, they have little accountability, and are under few restraints; and, under such circumstances, greater temptations both to rapacity and licentiousness, are held out to them. In the chapters alluded to, it was the writer's object, honestly and truthfully to expose the workings of a system, in a land where nefarious "priestly doings" need assume no disguise; and therefore any attempt to conceal the injurious nature of such an ecclesiastical policy, or the vice and ignorance of its ministers, would have been criminal: for to them is undeniably attributable much of the suffering and degradation pressing so heavily upon the whole community. The facts adduced are their own best interpreters and need no comment.

There is doubtless a great affinity between the races of Mexican Indians (the native Aztecs) and the Arabian tribes; there yet remains much of the Eastern type in the aspect of the people—their diminutive figures, their aversion to labour, their fiery irritable tempers, and their flowing and often poetical redundancy of language. The physical weakness of the modern Mexicans is extreme; insomuch that the Indian men are not personally stronger on the average, than the women of many climes: in the war with America the feebleness of the Mexicans was so apparent that their enemies often vanquished them at the rate of one against four or five.

Their want of mental energy also corresponds with their bodily weakness: they are totally unfit for enterprise of any sort; and are; also deficient in courage and perseverance. New kinds of employment whether manufacturing or agricultural, are regarded with suspicion and shunned as innovations; even new implements of labour are rejected as hazardous and unnecessary; while the luxurious climate and fertility of soil, by lessening the demand for labour, tend still further to enervate the population. To this mental and physical debility is owing much of the backward and unprosperous state of commerce and agriculture.

I have before alluded to the unfortunate geographical isolation of the country; not content with being divided from the rest of the world by seas, mountains, and deserts, however, the Mexicans have further increased these barriers, by continually adopting an oppressive and injuriously restrictive commercial policy. The prohibitory tariff preceding this chapter, will shew how miserably confined are the notions of successive Mexican legislatures, on this subject. If foreign goods are landed at all on the shores of the republic, it is under every possible discouragement and disadvantage; and thus less capital is circulated throughout the nation, fewer profitable investments are presented to the wealthy, and the prices paid by the poor population for necessary articles are ruinous and exorbitant.

In addition to the want of capital and labour, rents of houses and land in the cities of Mexico are enormously high; insomuch that none but the very wealthy can reside in good houses and decent neighbourhoods. This tends still further to increase the separation of rich and poor: the respectable "middle class" has scarcely any influential existence in this republic.

The financial difficulties of the government have frequently been most urgent; and it is a long period since the state exchequer was in a flourishing or satisfactory state. So heavily have these embarrassments weighed upon the presidents and legislature of the country, that even the most upright and vigorous ruler has possessed comparatively little power for good; and there is at present but slight probability of increased prosperity.

It has been seen in the course of the foregoing chapters, that the number of mendicants and robbers in the republic is very great, and that their solicitations are most obtrusive and audacious; that the annual statistics of crime and imprisonment are alarming, considering the somewhat scanty population; that there are no poor-houses or asylums for the reception of the destitute and incapable poor; and that the laws are frequently of little avail for the protection of life and property, or for the prevention of smuggling on the sea-coasts.

The condition of Indian labourers, both at the mines and farming haciendas—the little encouragement they have to labour, and the severe treatment they receive at the hands of their employers—have also been alluded to: and the Author would be gratified could his remarks prove serviceable to them by attracting attention to the subject; for there is a very wide field for exertion in ameliorating their helpless and degraded state.

The fine arts as will have been observed in the account of the Art Academy, are at a low ebb in Mexico; but considerable ability exists in the inhabitants (devoid, it is true, of high cultivation) for the art of carving small figures and ornamental work. Scientific music also is in a backward state, though great taste is often evinced in producing harmonies by the ear, and richty-toned voices are very common.

The manner of recruiting the army has been described, with the frauds often practised by officers, the uncertain pay of the soldiers, and the exaggeration of numbers continually made at head-quarters. The insolence, amusing indolence, and sang froid, so often observable in Mexican tradesmen and shopkeepers, have also been glanced at in former chapters.

Reputable and prosperous physicians are not wanting in the better neighbourhoods of Mexican cities, and great skill and attention are often evinced by them; but it must be said that in poor and remote districts much suffering is caused by the difficulty of obtaining good medical aid, and by the ignorance or carelessness of practitioners. Numbers perish through want of requisite care and medicine. Lawyers abound in the republic, and, both at the mining establishments and country estates, their services are in frequent requisition.

The state of society in this country—although compliments are profuse, and personal decorations expensive and elaborate—is susceptible of much greater polish and refinement. Too often, as in more favoured communities, external show, glitter, and ceremony, are studied in place of true politeness of feeling and consideration for others. Inexpensive social entertainments are not sufficiently popular; and female influence is held in far too little esteem.

The numerous good points in Mexican character of the better class, have been dwelt upon elsewhere,—their hospitality, sincerity, courtesy, and bravery, as also their jealousies and weaknesses together with the dangerous and repulsive qualities of the lowest grades of the population.

It is needless again to refer to the almost matchless variety and beauty of the scenery of Mexico, or the richness of its mineral and vegetable productions; inasmuch as some idea of these may have been gathered, it is hoped, from several of the preceding chapters.

As may be conjectured, literature, properly speaking, has scarcely an existence in this country. There are a few newspapers, but they are of a very inferior grade, and do but repeat the information received from one paper to another, in turn. Slender rows of Spanish books may occasionally be perceived on the shelves of the wealthy classes; but, to the vast proportion of the community, books are literally "sealed." A show of learning is kept up at the convents of the republic, and the holy fathers sometimes profess a fondness for books and authors; but their knowledge is almost universally shallow, and their attachment is generally assumed.

The language spoken in Mexico is the Spanish; it is for the most part uttered fluently and melodiously among the upper classes (who are of Spanish descent); while among the lower orders, great attachment is evinced towards old Indian or Aztec words and phrases; and this fondness often influences both their ideas and pronunciation. There is little or no slang, or conventional abbreviation, in use in the republic; the speech of the people, on the contrary, inclining to the elaborate and redundant; the vowels are usually dwelt upon in pronunciation, and pronounced in a full and musical manner.

The subject of education is one of the most promising of future good, presented by the republic at the present time. As has been before observed, there are subscription Lancasterian Associations in various parts of the country, where children are instructed gratis, with evening schools for adults. There are also government establishments for the tuition of the young of both sexes, in numerous country departments; these schools are inspected and supported under the direction of the town councils, where the children are furnished with books without charge.

The capital contains four collegiate establishments; and there is a Government normal school for the instruction of soldiers in the army. It is to be feared that the Mexican priesthood are, privately even more averse to the progress of knowledge than the old Spanish ecclesiastics; yet despite all obstacles and opposition; there is good reason to believe that education will be more generally diffused among the people from year to year; and that it will become the means of producing the noblest and most beneficial changes throughout this degraded country.

It appears highly probable, that the political future of Mexico may be influenced in no ordinary degree, by the government of the United States of America. Since the war between the two countries, American habits and opinions have steadily gained ground; the Mexican republic adopting the United States for its model in many particulars. There are not wanting politicians in the United States, who already "realize," in imagination, the Mexican territories as brilliant appendages to their own; nor are others unfrequently met with, who complacently regard Mexico as lying "in their path of empire."

However this may result, any movement, having the effect of releasing the community from the oppressive bondage of superstition— of enlightening and instructing the grossly ignorant—of infusing new energy into the indolent and enervated—of lessening the terrible amount of crime at present prevailing—and of placing truth and religion in a purer and more elevated light would confer a benefit not on the country of Mexico alone, but on mankind.

 

the end

 

London:
Printed by Stewart and Murray,
Old Bailey.