governments, respectively, differ little from ours. The law has been codified, the Code Napoleon being the law of the land.

The population of Mexico is about twelve millions, of which six millions, or one-half, are full blooded Indians, four millions mixed whites and Indians, one and one-half millions native whites, probably two hundred thousand Americans from the United States and one hundred thousand Europeans, one hundred thousand other foreigners including Chinese, some ninety thousand mulattoes and only ten thousand negroes. These are round numbers but approximate the mark. Spanish is the recognized national language but the majority of the nation still use the various Indian dialects of their ancestors. The Catholic church has been stripped of its privileges and a large portion of its property, and the political influence it formerly enjoyed is rigidly repressed, but as yet there are comparatively very few Protestants. Prior to the anti-clerical revolution in 1859, the Catholic church owned more than one-third of all the property in the country.

AZTEC ANTIQUITIES.

CALENDAR.

The area of the Republic of Mexico is about seven hundred and fifty thousand square miles, equal to fifteen states the size of North Carolina or nearly

seventeen the size of New York. The largest states are in the north Chihua

hua eighty-eight thousand square miles, Sonora seventy-six thousand, and Coahuila sixty-three thousand; but these are very thinly populated, having only two to three people to the square mile. The smallest state, Tlascala, has less than sixteen hundred square miles of territory, being larger

than Rhode Island but smaller than Delaware. The most populous states are Jalisco, with one and a quarter millions,

and Guanajuato, which has also passed the million mark. The least populous states are Colima with seventy thousand and Campeachy with ninety thousand. The states are divided into departments, counties, cantons, etc. The boundary line between Mexico and the United States is eighteen hundred miles in length. Mexico lies between the eighty-seventh and one hundred seventeenth meridians of longitude and between the fifteenth and thirty-second degrees of latitude, the northern part being in the same latitude with Georgia and our Gulf States. The central and southern parts are in the latitude of Hindostan, Siam, Arabia and Upper Egypt. The shape of

the country roughly resembles a cornucopia with its mouth to the north, which may possibly prove significant.

The great bulk of the territory of the republic is a high central plateau, averaging seven thousand feet above sea level. This descends abruptly on the east to the Gulf of Mexico, and slopes more températely to the Pacific. This causes a division of the country into three zones. The Tierra Caliente, or torrid zone, lies on the shores of the Gulf and the Pacific; here are grown coffee, sugar, bananas and other tropical fruits. The great central plateau is called Tierra Frias or frigid zone, and the slopes on either side Tierra Templada or temperate zone,

for in one day's travel, passing down the mountains, the traveller can see every variety of product and feel corresponding changes in temperature. The rainy season varies in different localities, but roughly speaking embraces the months from June to October, while during the rest of the year rain very rarely falls. A clear sky prevails, as a rule, the entire year except for a few hours of the day during the rainy season.

The second tallest mountain is Popocatapetl, which, towering to the height of nearly eighteen thousand feet, hangs over the city and valley of Mexico, while Orizaba, 18,314 feet high, and midway to Vera Cruz from the capital, looks down upon the scorching sun

burnt plains of the Tierra Caliente, with the smooth summit of the mountain shining like burnished steel, in a covering of eternal snow and ice. Orizaba, which is a half mile higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, is the culminating point of the North American continent, Mt. St. Elias, in Alaska, being 18,010 feet in height. Further south, Jorullo, which was a volcano thrown up in 1759, still smoulders, though beneath its wreath of smoke it wears a diadem of snow.

The annual income of the republic is forty million dollars, half of it being derived from the customs. The national expenditures about equal the receipts, over one-fourth (ten. million, five hundred thousand) being expended on the army and navy. The navy is lilliputian, but the army numbers about

the same as that of the United States -- twenty-five thousand men. The uniform is a dark blue. The national debt is one

hundred seventy-five millions. The assessed value of property for taxation is five hundred millions, the actual value being nearly double that sum.

The mineral wealth of Mexico is incalculable. The gold and silver taken out of her mines since the occupation by Cortez foot up over

four thousand millions of dollars, and her mineral wealth is scarcely tapped. The largest silver mines are at

Guanajuato,

Guadalajara,
Catorce and

Zacatecas. Pe-
troleum, iron
and sulphur are
abundant. The
full capacity of
the country as
to agriculture
has not yet
been fairly
tested. The av-
erage vield of
cotton is seven
hundred pounds
per acre, being
three times the
average in our

southern States.

Coffee of the finest and best quality is grown, and its cultivation is rapidly increasing since the advent of railroads. The cultivation of coffee was introduced into the West Indies in 1714, but for some unexplained reason it took nearly a hundred years longer to reach Mexico, where its cultivation began early in the present century. Tobacco is indigenous, and indeed takes its name from Tobaco, in Yucatan. In the Tierra Caliente three crops of Indian corn annually, on the same ground, is the rule.

Such in brief résumé are the history, geography, civil status,

climatology and products of our next-door neighbor who is so little known to us, but who offers to our friendly enterprise treasures beyond computation and to the traveller and visitor, scenery of surpassing beauty and interest. Future articles will be more in detail and less general in their nature.

It may be mentioned incidentally that Cortez, who was rewarded for his conquest by the title of Marquis of the Valley (of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico) still has descendants living in the state of Oaxaca who bear the surname of Monteleone, and the grandson of the emperor Iturbide, who was also adopted by the emperor Maximilian as his heir, is an officer in the army of the republic.

Much as Mexico owes to the genius and firm government of Juarez and afterwards of Diaz, it is no less indebted to the rapid extension of the railroad system which now embraces near eight thousands miles and reaches nearly every important point. Railroads are great educators and by offering markets in other quarters for the overproduction of localities give an incentive to industry and more profitable employment than revolutions and pronunciamentos to the energetic, active-minded element of the population. Besides, the prompt concentration of troops enables government to repress insurrection in its beginning. The railroads are usually of the standard gauge and rarely run nearer any town than a mile or two.

By a curious experiment, the sharpest and shrewdest criminals upon conviction are sentenced to serve upon the police force, and it is said the plan works admirably, there being no better officers than these men when intrusted with power and responsibility. Upon the same plan, the leaders of brigands when captured are offered by the government the alternative of taking a command in the army, devoted to the suppression of brigandage, and this has been the most effectual means of clearing the country of that pest.

Mexico has not made the mistake of contracting her currency, and hence being untrammelled in her progress has marched on by leaps and bounds in her development during these latter years, while the United States, owing to a contrary policy, has been suffering under the blight of a long enduring depression.