To the first, I should object that they have not, perhaps, taken a very deliberate view of the actual situation of New Spain, or that, at all events, in reflecting upon things as they are, they do not sufficiently consider the point from which the Mexicans commenced their new career. To the second, I can only say that I am not one of those who believe in the practicability of hot-bed reforms. It appears to me to be as impossible to force the human mind to advance too rapidly, as it would be to compel the present generation to revert to the superstitious credulity of the thirteenth century. Nor can a change of government be productive of a simultaneous change in the habits and opinions of the people governed. It may,—indeed it must, ultimately affect them. It may exalt or debase the national character, strengthen or enervate it, according as it affords more or less scope for the developement of individual talent, and more or less encouragement for its application to the public service: but no constitution, even if it came down from Heaven with the stamp of perfection upon it, could eradicate at once the vices engendered by three centuries of bondage, or give the independent feelings of free men to a people, to whom, until lately, the very name of freedom was unknown.
It will be sufficient for me, if I am thought to have shown in the work, which I have now the honour of submitting to the public, that in three years a great deal has really been effected; that the
