works. Marine docks were built one year, but they were reserved as arsenals. There were subsidies sent out to other Spanish colonies, and there were pensions for Crown favorites. This amount of revenue from a wretched population of about four millions and a half is amazing.
The revenue of the republic, with a population of at least ten millions, was in 1870, in round numbers, sixteen million dollars. In 1886-87 it reached thirty-two million dollars. The expenditures have kept pace with it, and in fact must have exceeded it, and must continue to exceed it for some years, until great public works are constructed, such as the drainage scheme already under contract, canals, bridges, roads, and harbors. The expenditure by departments presents a gratifying picture of national order and growth. The executive is the smallest item in the budget, only $49,252. Railway subventions have been liberally made; not as prodigally as in the case of our Pacific railways, but with a certainty of corresponding national benefit. Ten years ago Mexico had only four hundred miles of railway. There are now almost ten times as many. New York is distant from the ancient Aztec capital only
