trade, might as well attempt to "plot" with the British Government, as with this, for that purpose. Nothing seems too absurd for the sensational press of New York.
Mexico is a country of perpetual harvests. On the way from Vera Cruz to the capital, I saw corn in all its stages, from the time of its scattering by the hand of the sower, till it was gathered in the arms of the reaper. But agriculture is in a rude state. I saw them ploughing with a stick, and sawing with an axe, hoeing their corn with a shovel, and grinding it with a pebble. A few of our clever farmers, bringing with them their agricultural apprentices, would give new life and energy to the country. By sprinkling the Empire with settlers of this sort, they and their improved implements of husbandry and methods of culture would serve as so many new centres of agricultural life, energy, and improvement.
The present population of Mexico is said to be eight millions, more than seven of which belong to what with you is called the labouring classes. Yet with the richest of soils, the finest of climates, their perpetual harvests, and marvellous variety of productions, these seven millions of people contribute annually less than £7,000,000 to the commerce of the world.
The labouring classes of the South, though but little more than half as numerous as these, enabled that country to throw into the channels of commerce an amount of raw produce annually that was worth more than $300,000,000, or £60,000,000 sterling.
You may well imagine the effect, therefore, upon the prosperity of this country, and the stability of the Empire, which would follow the introduction of a few hundred thousands of these very labourers, guided, as they should be, by the skill and experience of their former masters. . . .
Maury had thus formed a grand scheme in his mind for the colonization of a New Virginia in Mexico. He submitted his plan to the Emperor, who at once adopted it, and appointed Maury Imperial Commissioner for Colonization.
