manent or temporary disability of the President, not caused by resignation or by leave, the Secretary of State, and after him the Secretary of the Interior, shall exercise that office until Congress elects a President pro tempore. In case of resignation, Congress, accepting it, elects a President pro tempore, and in case of leave the President recommends to Congress the person to fill that office.

The Federal Judiciary is composed of a Supreme Court, consisting of eleven Judges, four substitutes, one Attorney-General, and one Fiscal, chosen for six years; three Circuit and thirty-two District Courts.

The States are independent in their domestic affairs, and their governments are similarly divided into three branches the Governor, the Legislature, and the State Judiciary.

As we adopted the federal system rather to follow the example of the United States than to suit the conditions of Mexico, that system did not work with us so easily or so satisfactorily as it works here; and the tendency is rather to centralization and to the increasing of the powers given by the Constitution to the Federal Government. In the article above mentioned published in the North American Review, for January, 1896, entitled, "The Philosophy of the Mexican Revolutions," I dwelt particularly on the results of our having copied almost literally the political institutions of the United States, and gave a general idea of our political condition.

Political Division.-When the federal system was established in Mexico, in 1824, each of the old provinces under the Spanish rule was organized as a State, and our Constitution of October 4, 1824, enumerated nineteen States. After the war with the United States we lost Texas, New Mexico, and California; but since then as I stated in the chapter on population some of the larger States have been divided into two, or even three States, as was the case with the old State of Mexico, out of which were formed the three present States of Mexico, Hidalgo, and Morelos. Our present Constitution, of February 5, 1857, enumerates twenty-four States; but we now have twenty-seven.

The tabular statement published above, under the head of "Population," shows the number of States which form the Mexican Confederation, their area, population, and capital cities.

Army and Navy.-During our civil wars, and for some time later, we had to keep a very large standing army, and our army acquired recently a very high degree of discipline and efficiency. The Liberal party always favored the reduction of the army, while the Church party favored a large army, as our old regular army, on the whole, took sides with the Church. Soon after the restoration of the Republic, in 1867, the Mexican army consisted of: Infantry, 22,964; engineers, 766; ar1 This article will appear in this volume under the head of "Historical Notes on Mexico."

tillery, 2304; cavalry, 8454; rural guards of police, 2365; gendarmerie, 250; total, 37,103; and was commanded by 11 Major-Generals, 73 Brigadier-Generals, 1041 Colonels, Lieutenant-Colonels, and Majors, and 2335 Commissioned Officers. The total fighting strength, including reserves, is stated to be 132,000 infantry, 25,000 cavalry, and 8000 artillery. Every Mexican capable of carrying arms is liable for military service from his twentieth to his fiftieth year.

Notwithstanding that General Diaz is himself a soldier, he has followed the policy of the Liberal party of reducing the army as much as possible, and in his report of November 30, 1896, in which he informs his fellow citizens of his results of his sixteen years administration, he gives the following figures, showing the reduction he has been able to accomplish in the army since 1888:

The army had, in 1888, according to President Diaz's report, the following personnel :

In 1896 the personnel had been reduced in the following numbers:

The Mexican navy is now in its inception, as it consists of a fleet of two dispatch vessels, launched 1874, each of 425 tons and 425 horsepower, and severally armed with a four-ton muzzle-loading gun, and four small breech-loaders. A steel training ship, the Zaragoza, of 1200 tons, was built at Havre, in 1891; four gun-boats are building, and a battle-ship and cruiser are projected; five first-class torpedoboats have been ordered in England. The fleet is manned by ninety officers and five hundred men.

EDUCATION.

In 1521, the City of Mexico fell into the hands of the conquering Spaniards, and exactly eight years after that event there was established in the City of Mexico the College of San Juan de Letran, for giving secondary education to intelligent Indians as well as to the sons of the

invading race. Thus, ninety years before the landing of the Pilgrims, the City of Mexico had its "Harvard."

Universities Established by the Spanish Government.—The first viceroy of New Spain, as Mexico was called then, fourteen years after the conquest, petitioned the King of Spain to permit him to found a university in Mexico, and, anticipating from his knowledge of the good-will of the Spanish-rulers that the desired permission would be given, the viceroy took the responsibility of establishing certain classes in the higher learning, a fact which does not support the commonly held theory that Spain has always been the enemy of education and of popular enlightenment. Owing to the slow means of communication in those days, and the legal steps necessary to be taken in the mother country, the university was not formally established until 1553, or eighty-three years before Harvard College was opened. The great event of setting on foot the university came under the enlightened rule of the second viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, who did so many great things for Spain's new dependency.

Later on, in 1573, there were founded in Mexico the colleges of San Gregorio and San Ildefonso, the latter still open, but modernized into the national preparatory school, a really great institution in that city of many schools. A few years later, long before the 17th century had dawned, came the founding of two more colleges and a divinity school, so that in the first sixty-five years of Spain's control in Mexico no less than seven seats of the higher learning had been established on secure foundations.

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No wonder that Mexico's capital became known as the Athens of the new world, producing men of great learning, such as Don Juan Ruiz de Alarcon and such notably erudite women as Juana Inez de la Cruz. The extensive library of “ Americana," belonging to Don Jose de Agreda, of that city, containing over 4000 books, many of them invaluable, attests the literary, antiquarian, scientific and artistic activity of the Spaniards who planted there in a short space of time so much of learning and such vast institutions dedicated to the instruction in all the higher branches of knowledge.

At the outset the University of Mexico gave instruction only in mathematics, Latin and the arts. Medicine and surgery were not esteemed highly during the middle ages, and it was not until long after the revival of learning in the Renaissance that the physician came to be considered as a true man of science. So it is not to be marvelled at that the University of Mexico waited until 1578 to establish a chair of medicine-the first in the new world discovered by Columbus. The first chair of medicine was a morning class, and a single professor carried his students through a four years' course unaided. In 1599, a second medical professorship was added; in 1661, anatomy and surgery

were added, and, consequently dissection was authorized. At the outset the viceroys appointed the professors, but after a time the candidates for chairs had to win the coveted prizes through competitive examinations.

The early students were not railroaded through. They had to study four years to obtain the diploma of a bachelor of medicine; then went out into active life, and, on gaining practical knowledge, received, passing a fresh examination, the diploma of licentiate of medicine, and, later, that of doctor of medicine.

School of Medicine.—In 1768 a decree was issued for the establishment in the City of Mexico of a royal college for surgeons, similar to institutions in Cadiz and Barcelona. This college was a very complete one, instruction being given in anatomy and dissection, in physiology, operations, clinical surgery, and medical jurisprudence. There were graduated also from the college all the dentists, bonesetters, phlebotomists, and midwives. A knowledge of Latin was not essential to receive a medical degree until 1803.

In 1821, Mexico having achieved her independence, the same careful watch over education continued, and in 1833 a general revision of educational institutions was ordered under the administration of Don Valentin Gomez Farias a leader of the Liberal party and the university was closed, because it was considered to have conservative tendencies, and a general board of education organized, which, among other things established what was called the School of Medical Science, with ten professors, giving a remarkably complete and modern course. On account of a revolution which occurred in 1834 which overthrew the Gomez Farias Government, the new school of medicine was closed, and the old university reopened; but, as the officials of the university, on making a careful study of the conditons of the new school of medicine rendered an impartial report, setting forth its manifold advantages it was decided to keep open the institution.

The incessant revolutions and consequent changes of government brought many evil things to pass, and the medical professors at times. found themselves without salaries, and nobly devoted themselves to their classes without remuneration. They at one time were deprived of their building and literally thrown into the street. Better times came, however, the successive governments began to give substantial aid to the school, and in 1845 it took the name it still bears, the National School of Medicine. After more vicissitudes, many movings and trials which bore hard on the enthusiastic professors, the National School of Medicine finally was located where it now remains, in a part of the enormous edifice belonging formerly to the Inquisition.

In the chaos of succeeding revolutions the salaries of the professors were often unpaid, but the devoted men of science struggled on,

assisted by wealthier students and contributing often out of their own slender means to keep the school alive; but, in 1857, a better era commenced, and not since then, with rare exceptions, have there been any interruptions in financial aid from the various governments. All the other institutions of learning suffered the same fate and were exposed to similar ups and downs.

School of Engineering.-Our mining college is the best in Spanish America, and it was established when engineering was hardly taught, and endowed by a portion of the taxes levied by the Spanish Government on mines. Its edifice is one of the best built by the Spaniards in their colonies, and still stands as a great monument, embellishing the City of Mexico.

The above given facts will show how early did Mexico open great schools for the higher education, and how solicitous was the Spanish government to maintain them. But, three centuries of devotion to learning, antedating the war for independence, planted there firmly a love of knowledge which is now exhibited in the great government schools, in a city full of students, in innumerable private schools, in the well-filled public primary institutions, in night schools for adults, and in the thirty-five bookstores of that city.

Mexican Technical Schools in the Present Time.-The edifice of the first University in America, founded by the Spanish crown in 1551, is to-day occupied by the National Conservatory of Music. The National Academy of Art, ancient Academy of San Carlos, stands where Fray Pedro de Gante founded, in 1524, the first school of the New World-a school for Indians. The Normal School for males, with its six hundred pupils and its first-class German equipment, occupies the old convent of Santa Teresa, (1678). The Normal School for females has fourteen hundred pupils, an expensive building of 1648. The fine old Jesuit College of San Ildefonso, erected in 1749 at a cost of $400,000 is now filled with a thousand pupils of the National Preparatory School. The National College of Medicine is housed in the old home of the Inquisition (1732), an edifice whose four hanging arches at each corner of the lower corridor are famous. The building was taken for its present purpose in this century, the Holy Office dying in America with the Independence, but the medical college was established by royal decree of 1768. It has now several hundred pupils. San Lorenzo (1598) is now the manual trainingschool where poor boys are gratuitously taught lithography, engraving, printing, carpentry, and many other trades. The similar institution for girls is of course modern, dating only from 1874. The National Library, with its 200,000 volumes, dwells in the splendid sequestered Church of San Agustin. The National Museum occupies part of the million-dollar building erected in 1731 for the royal mint. And so on