for the poor under existing and appropriate authorities." We certainly do not quote this for the purpose of entering into a legal argument with the reverend author. We do not mean to take the trouble of reminding him, that all manner of toleration has now, for above thirty years, been the right of dissenting teachers by statute, as it always was, in sound policy and natural justice. Nor do we intend to upbraid him with referring, for the rights of the church, to obsolete canons, which denounce a series of excommunications against persons guilty of omissions, habitual to almost every British subject, of whatever religious denomination. But we state the substance of Dr. Bell's suggestion, for the sake of recording the fact, that there exist certain persons, whose almost avowed designs are hostile to toleration; who are preparing the minds of the people for attempts to extend the pow. ers of the hierarchy; who, not content with seeing the established church in possession (we thank God, in undisturbed, undisputed, unenvied possession) of the privileges so conducive to the temporal, as well as spiritual welfare of the realm; would madly seek to extend her power, and lessen her security; to exalt her name, and debase her character; to clothe her with new attributes, and bring into jeopardy her very existence. Now, therefore, we, in our turn, must be permitted to speak of dangers, and to occupy ourselves with alarms; we must presume to warn and admonish; we must denounce, as enemies to the peace and liberties of the community most certainly, but as worse enemies, if it be possible, to the welfare of the church, and the whole religious interests of England, those who first, by half concealed stratagem, and now by more than half declared ag gressions, undermining where they durst not assault, and attacking what they hoped to find defenceless; would wage war against the dearest rights of the people, for the purpose of involving the clergy in trouble and shame; and lay society itself waste, in order that the church might pass through the highest perils, to the most certain corruption. Against the machinations of such men, we warn, above all, the wise and pious part of the sacred order to which they belong, and the temporal rulers whose ears they may, perhaps, seek to gain, by promises of assistance and support. Distrusting both our authority and our powers of persuasion, we would warn both those classes, in the language of the most powerful supporter of the establishment who was ever suffered to die unmitred: "The single end," says Dr. Paley, "which we ought to propose by religious establishments, is the preservation and communication of religious knowledge. Every other idea, and every other end, that have been mixed with this; as the making of the church an engine, or even an ally of the state; converting it into the means of strengthening or of dif fusing influence; or regarding it as a support of regal, in opposition to popular forms of government; have served only to debase the institution, and to introduce into it numerous corruptions and abuses.". Whoever has done us the honour to follow us through the detail which we have now brought to a close, will probably be prepared to admit, among others, the following positions: That the new system of education is calculated to promote the cheap, rapid, and easy diffusion of knowledge, in an unprecedented degree. That the merit of devising it be * Moral and Political Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 305 longs to Joseph Lancaster, although one of its principles had been previously known to Dr. Bell, and exemplified in the school at Madras, but without those other principles, which, when taken together, constitute the new system. That to Joseph Lancaster, alone, belongs the praise of introducing the new system into practice, and enabling mankind to benefit by it, and preparing the way for its universal reception. That the plan pursued by Dr. Bell, and recently attempted to be set up in opposition to Mr. Lancaster's, has no one peculiarity which can entitle it to a preference; while, on the contrary, it is deficient in many of the most important points, and especially fails in the article of economy. Lastly, that, while great praise is due to Dr. Bell for his exertions in Madras, and for his attempts in England, there is no good whatever to be expected from any endeavours to keep alive the opposition to Mr. Lancaster, commenced by his friends; but that every real friend to the education of the poor, will consider the system of the latter as the only one well adapted to the attainment of that desirable object. The length to which this article has already extended, precludes the possibility of adding (as was our intention) a sketch of the proceedings of Mr. Lancaster's friends, and of the success which has attended their liberal and persevering exertions in behalf of the best interests of mankind. FROM THE LITERARY PANORAMA. HUMBOLDT'S POLITICAL ESSAYS ON NEW SPAIN. VERY little foresight was necessary to authorize our opinion, that the colonies of New Spain were ripe for separation from the parent state, as suggested in the former part of this article. It is not, therefore, as claiming much credit for sagacity, that we introduce the continuation of this subject, by remarking, that, since our last publication, intelligence has arrived, of Mexico, with its provinces, generally, having assumed the character of independence. This event was to be ex pected. Whether it will issue in such an entire separation of interests from Old Spain, as too often converts old friends into new enemies, cannot, at present, be determined. Many are the questions which may arise in consequence of such a revolution. For instance, as to religion. Being catholicks, will the Mexicans retain their subjection to the head of the catholick church? will the head of the catholick church continue to bestow his apostolick benediction on revolters It is admitted by sir T. Bernard, that no charge of borrowing from Dr. Bell can possibly be brought against Mr. Lancaster. Indeed, he accuses both Mr. Lancaster and his defenders, of never having "examined Dr. Bell's principles or their applica tion." [p. 103] And, if they never did understand them, Dr. Bell himself furnishes their best apology; for, after the lapse of twelve years, and the publication of three editions of his plan, he announces the purpose of additional matter in the fourth to be, to "give minute and particular instructions for reducing his scheme to practice." p. 29, from their natural sovereign, his most catholick majesty? Great was the traffick, formerly, in this country, in religious articles, bulls, indulgences, pardons, rosaries, girdles, &c. but this source of wealth to the popedom, must now fail. Not much can the peninsula afford to expend at Rome, for such purchases; and still less will the fervour of religious zeal, after a while, induce the Mexicans to remit for that purpose. As to the political condition of the inhabitants, it should seem, that no great energy has been of late transmitted from the sovereign in Europe to his subjects in the new world. The wisdom that emanated from the court of Madrid was not prodigious; and the vigour of administration was not superiour, in degree, to what the country to be governed might have afforded. The mass of the people will feel no loss when the European parent is de vested of the supremacy over them. Whether they will be sensibly gainers by the change, must, with many other inquiries, be referred to the decision of time. We avail ourselves of M. de Humboldt's words, to state, that old "Spain is five times smaller than Mexico." [We do not approve of this mode of stating the proportion: the translator should have said, "Mexico is five times larger than Spain.] Should no unforeseen misfortunes occur, we may reckon, that, in less than a century, the population of New Spain will equal that of the mother country." At present, the population of Mexico is almost equal to that of the United States of America. Our traveller thus compares these two countries: "If the political force of two states depended solely on the space which they occupy on the globe, and on the number of their inhabitants; if the nature of the soil, the configuration of the coast, and if the climate, the energy of the nation, and, above all, the degree of peffection of its VOL. V. 2 S social institutions, were not the principal elements of this grand dynamical calculation, the kingdom of New Spain might, confederation of the American republicks. at present, be placed in opposition to the Both labour under the inconvenience of an unequally distributed population; but that of the United States, though in a soil and climate less favoured by nature, augNeither does it comprehend, like the ments with an infinitely greater rapidity. Mexican population, nearly two millions and a half of aborigines. These Indians, degraded by the despotism of the ancient Azteck sovereigns, and by the vexations of the first conquerors, though protected by the Spanish laws, wise and humane in general, enjoy very little, however, of the supreme authority. The kingdom of this protection, from the great distance of New Spain has one decided advantage over the United States. The number of slaves there, either Africans or of mixed race, is almost nothing; an advantage begun rightly to appreciate since the tra which the European colonists have only gical events of the revolution of St. Domingo. So true it is, that the fear of physical evils acts more powerfully than moral considerations on the true interests of society, or the principles of philanthropy and of justice, so often the theme of the the works of the philosophers.' parliament, the constituent assembly, and When reporting on Mr. Arrowsmith's map of these provinces (copied mostly from M. de H.) we suggested the possibility, that, hereafter, the sceptre of dominion, over both east and west, might be held by a sovereign of Mexico. The baron ena-bles us to add, that "a king of Spain, resident in the capital of Mexico, might transmit his orders in five weeks to the peninsula in Europe, and in six weeks to the Phillippine Islands in Asia." He might raise in his kingdom what commerce collects from the rest of the globe: sugar, cochineal, cacao, cotton, coffee, wheat, hemp, flax, silk, oils, and wine, metals of all kinds, not excepting quicksilver, superb timber, with various requisites for the support of marine power. The eastern coast, nevertheless, is ill provided with ports; for Vera Cruz, which is one of the best now used, is merely a bad anchorage, between dangerous shallows. It is well known, that the project of a canal, cut across the isthmus, to unite the two seas, has long been contemplated with interest in Europe; and we remember to have seen a private memorial addressed to the king of France, the burden of which was, the dread entertained by the French statesmen, lest England should obtain possession of this territory, by permission of Spain; should form a canal, and, thereby, obtain facilities for commerce in the South Sea; against which, all the navy of France might in vain at tempt to oppose effectual obstacles. M. de H. examines the feasibility of this scheme, and describes the localities of nine different points, on which it has been proposed to be executed; stating the advantages and disadvantages of each. There is no present appearance, favourable to the execution of such a plan, which leads us to investigate further the character of this proposal. The elevations above the level of the sea, which distinguish the provinces of New Spain, are known, among the inhabitants, under three appellations. The first is the Tierras Calientes; the sultry districts; these produce abundance of sugar, indigo, cotton, and bananas; but they are visited by the yellow fever. Yet impetuous winds, from October to March, cool the air to 60° of Fahrenheit at Vera Cruz; at the Havanna to 32°. Rising on the Cordilleras, we come to the Tierras Templadas, the temperate region; about 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the level of the sea; the mean heat of the whole year is from 68° to 70°; and it seldom varies more than eight or ten degrees. But to this height the clouds ascend; thick fogs, therefore, are frequently their envelope; but when this country is free from them, it is a delightful region. The third elevation is the Tierras Frias, the cold districts; rising from 7,000 to 8,000 feet or more. The mean temperature is under 62o. At Mexico the thermometer has been known to fall several degrees below the freezing point. Still higher elevations have winters proportionately rude; with snow, ice, and other atmospherick phenomena. It would be worthy of some intelligent naturalist, to form a comparison between these gradations under the torrid zone, which, rising in height, increase in rigour; and those countries, northward and southward, of which the winters are more severe as we advance towards the poles. Supposing the earth to be depressed at the poles, it is fair to ask whether the elevation of one country produces effects analagous to the depression of the other? and to infer, that nature has more than one way of producing the same effects. The heights at which the precious metals are found, deserve our attention. "A remarkable advantage for the progress of national industry, arises from the height at which nature, in New Spain, has deposited the precious metals. In Peru the most considerable silver mines, those of Potosi, Pasco, and Chota, are immensepetual snow. In working them, men, proly elevated very near the region of pervisions, and cattle, must all be brought from a distance. Cities situated in plains, where water freezes the whole year round, and where trees never vegetate, can hardly be an attractive abode. Nothing can determine a free man to aban don the delicious climate of the valleys to insulate himself on the top of the Andes, but the hope of amassing wealth. But in Mexico, the richest seams of silver, those of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, Tasco, and tions of from 1700 to 2000 metres. The Real del Monte, are in moderate eleva mines are surrounded with cultivated fields, towns, and villages; the neighbouring summits are crowned with forests; and From 5576 to 6561 feet. every thing facilitates the acquisition of New Spain, 28 or 50,000. Hence there is subterraneous wealth." Our author drops many interest ing suggestions on the mines. "The working of the mines has long been regarded as one of the principal causes of the depopulation of America. It will be difficult to call in question, that at the first epoch of the conquest, and even in the seventeenth century, many Indians perished from the excessive labour to which they were compelled in the mines. They perished without posterity, as thousands of African slaves annually perish in the West Indian plantations, from fatigue, defective nourishment, and want of sleep. In Peru, at least in the most southern part, the country is depopulated by the mines, because the barbarous law of the mita is yet in existence, which compels the Indians to remove from their homes into distant provinces, where hands are wanted for extracting the subterraneous wealth. But it is not so much the labour as the sudden change of climate, which renders the mita so pernicious to the health of the Indians. This race of men have not the flexibility of organization for which the Europeans are so eminently distinguished. The health of a copper-coloured man suffers infinitely when he is transported from a warm to a cold climate, particularly when he is forced to descend from the elevation of the Cordilleras into those narrow and humid valleys, where all the miasmata of the neighbouring regions appear to be deposited. "In the kingdom of New Spain, at least within the last thirty or forty years, the labour of the mines is free; and there remains no trace of the mita, though a justly celebrated author has advanced the contrary. No where does the lower people enjoy, in greater security, the fruit of their labour, than in the mines of Mexico, no law forces the Indian to choose this species of labour, or to prefer one mine to another; and when he is displeased with the proprietor of the mine, he may offer his services to another master, who may pay, perhaps, more regularly. These unquestionable facts are very little known in Europe. The number of persons employed in subterraneous operations, who are divided into several classes [Barenadores, Faeneros, Tanateros, Bareteros] does not exceed, in the whole kingdom of not more than one hundredth part of the whole population immediately employed in the mines. "The mortality among the miners of Mexico is not much greater than what is observed among the other classes. We may easily be convinced of this, by examining the bills of mortality in the different parishes of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas. This is a phenomenon, so much the more remarkable, as the miner in several of these mines, is exposed to a temperature 6o above the mean temperatures of Jamaica and Pondicherry.† I found the centigrade thermometer at 34° at the bottom of the mine of Valenciana (en los planes) a perpendicular depth of 513 metres, while at the mouth of the pit, in the open air, the same thermometer sinks in winter to 4° or 5° above 0. The Mexican miner is, consequently, exposed to a change of temperature of more than 30. But this enormous heat of the Valenciana mine is not the effect of a great number of men and lights collected into a small space; it is much more owing to local and geological causes, which we shall afterwards examine. "It is curious to observe how the Mestizoes and Indians employed in carrying minerals on their back, who go by the name of Tenateros, remain continually loaded for six hours with a weight of from 225 to 350 pounds, and constantly exposed to a very high temperature, ascending eight or ten times successively, without intermission, stairs of 1800 steps. The appearance of these robust and laborious men would have operated a change in the opinions of the Raynals and Pauws, and a number of other authors, however estimable in other respects, who have been pleased to declaim against the degeneracy of our species in the torrid zone. This occupation of Tenateros is accounted unhealthy, if they enter more than three times a week into the mines. But the labour which ruins most rapidly the robust-. est constitutions is that of the Barenadores, who blow up the rock with powder. These men rarely pass the age of 35, if from a thirst of gain they continue their severe labour for the whole week. They generally pass no more than five or six years at this occupation, and then betake themselves to other employments less injurious to health. "From five to six thousand persons are * Robertson, History of America, vol. ii. p. 373. Nearly 11° Fahrenheit. # 93° Fahrenheit. 39° or 41° Fahrenheit. 54° Fahrenheit. |