effect diametrically opposite to that which was intended.
Not the slightest difference of opinion appeared amongst the natives; and as the President, (who was then armed with extraordinary powers) took advantage of the most critical moment to banish to California two old Spaniards, (the Editors of the Filantropo newspaper at Tampico,) who had endeavoured to circulate, surreptitiously, copies of the Bull amongst the inhabitants of New Leon and San Luis, the other Spanish residents were effectually deterred, by this rigorous measure, from making any attempt to excite the lower classes, in the name of Religion, to rebellion against the constituted authorities.
The work of Baron Humboldt, and the admirable reports presented to Congress in 1826, and 1827, by the Mexican Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Don Miguel Ramos Arizpe, enable me to institute a comparison, founded upon the most authentic data, between the condition of the Mexican Church before the Revolution and at the present day.
In 1802, the number of Ecclesiastics, Secular and Regular, in New Spain, was estimated at ten thousand, or at thirteen thousand, including the lay-brothers of convents, and other subordinate hangers-on of the Church. The Secular Clergy was composed of about five thousand Priests (Clerigos); the Regulars, wearing the habits of different Orders, of nearly an equal number, of whom two thousand five hundred (including lay-brothers) resided in the convents of
