MEXICO. 411 I see, at present, no ground ; but if persevered in, they may be attended with circumstances still more injurious to British interests in the New World, than even the errors committed during the period of wild and unbridled speculation, by which they were preceded. I shall endeavour, therefore, by a plain statement of the advantages and disadvantages of the line that has been pursued, to show the nature of the expec- tations that may still be reasonably entertained with regard to the result. If I were to take into account nothing but the amount of capital now invested in the mines of Mexico, the average annual produce of these same mines before the Revolution, and the fact, that those from which by far the largest pro- portion of this annual produce proceeded, are now worked upon British account, — I should hazard but little in pro- nouncing the success of all the Companies to be unquestion- able. But experience has shown how ill calculations formed on such a basis can stand the test of those practical difficul- ties, with which Companies have to contend in the New World ; and many a scheme, the issue of which, upon paper, seemed infallible, has proved utterly inapplicable to the Ame- rican Continent, as soon as the attempt to reduce theory to practice was made upon the opposite side of the Atlantic. It is true that there is nowhere in Mexico that physical impossi- bility of success, which, at Upsallata, (in Chile,) appears to have put an end to the hopes of the adventurers at once ; * but still, the want of a previous knowledge of the country has been severely felt in all the operations of the Companies ; and, in more than one instance, has, at least, delayed a result, of which the character of the Mines themselves seems to afford the fairest promise. Upon this point, (the excel- lence of the Mines,) no doubt can be entertained ; for if ever Mining was reduced to a certainty, it was so in Mexico, be- fore the Revolution. There might be fluctuations, indeed, in
- Vide Captain Head's Statement.
