POPULATION.

We have until recently taken a regularly correct census of our population. The first reliable census was made in 1795, under Revillagigedo's viceroyalty, the second in 1810 by Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega, the third one was estimated by Mr. Poinsett, United States Minister in Mexico, in 1824, and the others have been taken by the Mexican Government.

The following is a statement of the general results of our various

The population of Mexico appears to be, from our last census, taken in 1895, 12,570,195, which would give 16.38 for each square mile; but from my personal knowledge of the country, I am quite sure that it is not less than 15,000,000. It is very difficult to take a correct census in Mexico, because there is not the proper machinery in operation for that purpose, and especially because a great many districts are inhabited by Indians, who are impressed with the fear that if they inscribe themselves in the census they will be taxed or drafted into the military service, and they try to avoid registration.

A great many of our people live in such remote districts that they are practically cut off from communication with other portions of the country, and in fact are almost isolated; and this constitutes still another difficulty in the way of taking a correct census. These people generally raise everything they need for their living, as well as for their clothing. They also raise their domestic animals, and wear either cotton or woollen clothes, manufactured by the women. The configuration of the country, which makes transportation very expensive, together with the very sparse population, has caused their isolation, and this explains why some agricultural products which are very cheap in other countries are very dear in certain districts of Mexico, as prices can be easily controlled, there being no possibility of competition. While sugar, for instance, costs 25 cents per pound in some districts, it can be had in others for one cent. This fact shows also that a year of good crops was often a real misfortune to these districts.

The upper lands being the healthiest, most of the population in Mexico is settled in the central plateau; a relatively small portion lives in the temperate zone, while the torrid zone is very thinly populated. I imagine, at a rough calculation, that about 75 per cent. of the population make their abode in the cold zone, from 15 to 18 per cent. in the temperate zone, and from 7 to 10 per cent. in the torrid zone.

From the synopsis of our censuses, inserted above, it appears that the population in Mexico has duplicated during the last century, and although that increase does not keep pace with the increase in the United States, because this has been really wonderful, it compares favorably with the increase in other countries. Mexico also, as a new country and one full of possibilities, ought to have increased its population more rapidly, but its slow progress can be accounted for in several ways.

Under the head of Ethnology I enumerated the different races inhabiting Mexico and stated the number of inhabitants belonging to each, and I gave at length the reasons for the slow increase of the Indian population, which is the largest in Mexico. I will only add here that while the Indians lead a very abstemious and simple life, marry while very young and generally have a family of several children, they are at the same time subject to epidemics. Notwithstanding that the race on the whole is sturdy and little subject to disease, the mortality is very large among the children for want of proper nutrition and care. The losses caused by our civil wars could not at all explain the slow increase of our population, and the only way in which I can account for it is that they are not so well prepared as the people of the United States and other more advanced countries, to bear the discomforts of life and climate, and that, therefore, they cannot bring up all the children born in the family, among whom there is annually a great mortality.

Classification of Mexican States. Under the Spanish rule Mexico was divided into several provinces, the Spaniards trying to divide the provinces in accordance with the different nationalities of the aborigines found there, and each province possessing a very large extent of territory. After our independence and when we established a Federal government, each province was made a state, and since then some of the largest states have been divided into two or even three smaller In the chapter on Political Organizations I shall give further information on this subject.

ones.

The Mexican states are classified in several ways, and generally as Northern, Southern, Central, Pacific, and Gulf States; but it is difficult to make a proper division of them, because there are several included in two denominations. I will, therefore, divide them into Northern States, calling so those bordering on the United States; Southern States,

those bordering on Gautemala and Belize; Gulf, Caribbean Sea, and Pacific States, those bordering on their respective waters; and Central States those which do not belong to any of the above denominations, although I do not consider this a proper classification, because the State of Tamaulias included among the Northern States, and the States of Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan among the Southern States, are all on the Gulf of Mexico, and are, therefore, Gulf States, the latter being also washed on their southern side by the Caribbean Sea, and the State of Sonora, classified as a Northern State, borders on the Pacific; the State of Chiapas, included among the Southern States, also borders on the Pacific, and, therefore, is, like Sonora, also a Pacific State.

Our last official census, taken in 1895, gives the following results by States, which I compared with the census of 1879.

AREA AND POPULATION OF THE UNITED MEXICAN STATES.

POPULATION

MILE.

RELIGION.

All Mexicans are born in the Catholic Church, that being the prevailing religion of the country; but there is no connection between Church and State, and the Constitution guarantees the free exercise of all religions.

While Mexico was a colony of Spain and for many years afterwards, the catholic religion was the only one allowed in the country, and anybody professing any other would expose himself to great hardships if he avowed that he was a dissenter, especially while the Inquisition was in existence.

The clergy became one of the principal pillars of the Spanish domination in Mexico. In the early part of the present century the Church was flourishing, and it was the high-water mark of clerical prosperity. The humble Mexican priests did the hard laborious work, while the Spanish-born ecclesiastics filled the great bishoprics and other great posts and lived at their ease, and the great convents in their most lucrative positions of control were practically in Spanish hands.

Huge convents occupied a considerable part of the site of the City of Mexico, Puebla, Morelia, Guadalajara, Querétaro, and other cities. The incomes of the convents were derived from endowments, amounting to a large sum. To support the high ecclesiastics, great sums were derived from tithes. The archbishop of Mexico had an income of $130,000 a year; the bishops of Puebla, $110,000; of Michoacan, $100,000; and of Guadalajara, $90,000. Meantime, the parish priests, who bore the brunt of Christian work among the masses, were living on very moderate sums. The Church erected in Mexico buildings which are remarkable for their dimensions and taste.'

'Mr. Charles Dudley Warner in the Editor's Study of Harper's Illustrated Monthly Magazine for July, 1897, speaks in the following way of the church edifices in Mexico:

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'Somebody of authority, by the way, ought to explain why Mexico has so many church edifices that go to the heart of the lover of beauty, and why the United States has so few that are interesting. Aside from the great Gothic monuments in Spain, Mexico surpasses Spain in interesting ecclesiastical architecture. It has more variety, more quaint beauty, more originality in towers and façades. The interiors are generally monotonous, and repetitions of each other. The Spaniards, in an age of faith, built churches, convents, monasteries, all over the county, in remote and unimportant Indian villages, and as far north as their patient ministers of religion wandered, even to the bay of San Francisco. In these edifices the Spanish ingenuity and enthusiasm prevailed, but they were largely executed by Indian builders and artists; and if there is Sarasenic feeling shown, there are also, especially in ornamentation, traces of that aboriginal artistic spirit which, long before the Spanish conquest, executed both in stone and in pottery singularly attractive work. Even within a hundred years of our own time Indian genius has been distinguished. Those who think that this genius is only exhib

Not all the great dignitaries of the Church exhibited an unchristian selfishness, for many often spent their income in pious and charitable works, and in prosecuting missionary undertakings among the Indians of the remote distances.

The wealth of the Church was loaned out at a moderate rate of interest to landed proprietors, who formed the moral support of the Church among the laity and whose influence was prodigiously strong. The wealth of the Church was mostly in mortgages, while it held a large amount of real estate. In the City of Mexico and other places, the clergy owned a large portion of the real estate and held a great many mortages, and, to its credit be it said, was not at all usurious, exacting only a fair rate of interest and being hardly ever oppressive in dealing with delinquent debtors.

After the Revolution which effected the independence of the country, the ecclesiastical life began to cease having many of the attractions it had before. While many men became friars from genuine inclination and vocation, not a few went into the religious life because it gave them support without hard labor, and because it was one of the best careers opened to young men at the time.

The nunneries sheltered a great many pious women, who effected some good as educators of the young, as almoners for the wealthy, and as nurses of the sick. There were abuses, of course, but on the whole the religious life afforded a refuge for many thousands of good women who felt drawn to works of charity and usefulness. Rich young girls were often over-persuaded to enter the convents, by avaricious and scheming priests, but such abuses are common to all religions. The Liberal party thought that the best way to destroy the Church influence in Mexico was to suppress convents, both of friars and nuns, because they

ited in bizarre forms, and in such small details of design and color as the potter can attain, should see at Querétaro the work of Tresguerras, architect, sculptor, and painter. Any modern architect, who is led away by straining after effect in a grotesque combination of distinct Greek styles with medieval and early English, having no note of originality anywhere, could study with profit the simple elegance—as simple as the Old Louvre of the Bishop's Palace in Querétaro, or the wood-carving in the church of the sequestered Convent of Santa Rosa. In my remembrance there is not, on such a great scale, any wood-carving in the world equal to it in freshness and largeness of execution and in beauty of design. It could not have been all done by the hand of Tresguerras, but it was all from his designs and under his superintendence. Of course, as to civic and ecclesiastic architecture, climate and lack of popular taste for the beautiful put limits upon our architectural work, but it is worth the while of the American architect to consider whether he cannot learn more from our sister republic below the Tropic of Cancer than he is likely to get from the well-studied structures of Europe. In many petty and poverty-stricken Indian villages are charming towers and curious façades which would be a most valuable education in the principles of taste to any American community."