and flowers." Idem, "It has the variety and bold contrasts of nature." Idem, "the beautiful and the superficial seem to be naturally conjoined." Page 212, "and by a law of his nature." Page 213, "Those gloomy and appalling pictures of our nature." Page 215, "These conflicts between the passions and the moral nature."

We regret that so eminent and accurate a scholar, and so influential a man, should have fallen into such an indefinite and confused use of any portion of our language. If we mistake not, it will require more than usual reflection for the mind to determine what idea is presented by its use in the most of these instances. We know that some use this word so vaguely, that, if required to explain the idea they wished to convey by it, they would be unable to do so. But there are those from whom a better use of language is expected. Many English readers pass over such sentences, without stopping to think what are the distinct ideas of the writer. There are, in our language, a few words used in conversational dialect, as if especially intended for the speaker's aid, when he only had a confused idea, or, perhaps, none at all, of what he desired to say; and we regret, extremely, that words, to us of so much import as nature and conscience, should be found among that class. The teacher of theology and morals should surely be careful not to lead his pupils into error. Might not the unskilled inquirer infer that nature was a substantive existence, taking rank somewhere between man and the Deity? And what would be his notion, derived from the aforesaid use of the term, of its offices? What, of its influence on, and of man's relation with it? What is our notion as to the definite idea these passages convey?

"Man has rights, gifts of God, inseparable from human nature, of which slavery is the infraction."

By "human nature," as here used, we understand the condition or state of being a man, in a general sense. Our inference is, then, that God has given man rights-that is, all men the same rights-which are inseparable from his state of being a man; consequently, if, by any means, these rights are taken from him, then his state of being a man is changed, or ceases to exist: and, since slavery breaks these rights, therefore, a slave is not a man! But we find the fact to be, that the slave is, nevertheless, a man; and hence it follows, that these "rights" were not "inseparable" from his state of being a man, or that he had not the "rights."

[Thus far have we extracted from Mr. Fletcher's "Studies on Slavery," not so much with a view to present a continuous and perfect argument, as to give our readers an idea of the author's powers of reasoning, and his care to elaborate

sound and defensible views on the subject of slavery. The limits of a single article permit us to do no more.

Mr. Fletcher has a volume in manuscripts on the subject of slavery. He views the institution to be an ordinance of God-the consequent of sin and degradation-bestowed in mercy, and, as existing in this country, the greatest possible blessing to the enslaved race; but by no means does he hold the American people irresponsible for the abuse of the mighty power of guardianship over a race, whose ancestors could neither protect themselves nor their children from moral degradation and heathenism worse than the lowest slavery that ever darkened the annals of human misery. Great the trust, solemn the responsibility, for the New World to receive the outcasts of earth's eldest continent and teach them the virtue, the restraining power, of labor-the science of lifethe hopes of immortal being!]

ART. V.-MEXICAN MINES AND MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1850.

INTRODUCTION; THE MINES OF MEXICO; MEXICO UNDER THE COLONIAL SYSTEM.-BY BRANTZ MAYER.

Ir is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of the most powerful stimulants of Spanish conquest and emigra tion; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this ar ticle, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been immensely augmented and sustained by the discovery of the New World.

In the order of the earth's gradual development under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws; and a virgin country is forthwith assigned to man, in which the principle of self-government may be tried, without the necessity of casting off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or invention of the largely augmented population of the earth exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far off

continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is realized. The labor of man and the flight of time strip commercial countries of their trees; yet, in order to support the required supply of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation but also for the industry of the race, the heart of the earth, beneath the soil which is required for cultivation, is found to be veined with inexhaustible supplies of mineral coal!

The bounty and the protective forethought of God for his creatures is not only intimated but proved, by these benevolent storehouses of treasure, comfort and freedom; and whilst we acknowledge them with proper gratitude, we should not forget that their acquirement and enduring possession are only to be paid for by labor, thrift, and social as well as political forbearance.

We do not think these observations out of place in an article devoted to the mineral wealth of Mexico. The subject of property and its representative metals, should be approached in a reflective and Christian spirit, in an age in which the political and personal misery of the overcrowded masses of Europe, are forcing them to regard all who are better provided for, or more fortunate by thrift or the accident of both, as enemies to the poor. The demagogue leaders of these wretched classes, pushing the principle of just equalization to a ridiculous and hideous extreme, have not hesitated to declare, in France, since the revolution of February, 1848, that " property is robbery." We shall not pause to examine or refute this false dogma of a dangerous incendiary. The common sense as well as the common feeling of mankind revolts at it. Property, as the world is constituted by God, is the source of new industry-because it is, under the laws of all civilized nations, the original result of industry. "It makes the meat it feeds on." Without it there would be no duty of labor, no exercise of human ingenuity or talent, no responsibility, no reward. The mind and body would stagnate under such a monstrous contradiction of all our physical and intellectual laws. The race would degenerate into its former savage condition; and force, itstead of its antagonists, industry and honest competition, would usurp the dominion of the world and end this vicious circle of bastard civilization.

And yet it is the duty of an American-who, from his superior position, both in regard to space in which he can find employment, and equal political laws by which that employment is protected, stands on a vantage ground above the confined and badly governed masses of Europe to regard the present position of the European masses not

* "La propriete, c'est le vol."-Prudhon.

only with humane compassion, but to sympathize with that natural feeling that revolts against a state of society which it seems impossible to ameliorate, and yet whose wants or luxuries do not afford them support. It is hard to suffer hunger and to see our dependants die of starvation, when we are both able and willing to work for wages but can obtain no work upon which to exercise our ingenuity or our hands. It is frightful to reflect, says Mr. Carlyle, in one of his admirable essays, that there is hardly an English horse in a condition to labor for his owner, that is deprived of food and lodging, whilst thousands of human beings rise daily from the obscure and comfortless dens in the British isles, who do not know how they shall obtain employment for the day, by which they may purchase a meal.

To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of the American continent affords the best reply. The answer and the remedy are both displayed in the social and political institutions, as well as in the boundless, unoccupied and prolific tracts of our country. Labor cries out for work and recompense from the OLD WORLD; whilst the NEW displays her soil, her mines, her commerce and her trades, as the best alms that one nation can bestow on another, because they come direct from God, and are the reward of meritorious industry. Before such a tribunal the modern demagogues of continental Europe shrink into insignificance, and the laws of labor are effectually vindicated.

The MINES OF MEXICO have been wrought from the earliest periods. Long before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of Mexico, like those of Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. Nor were they contented with such specimens as they found scattered at random on the surface of the earth or in the ravines of mountain torrents, but had already learned to dig shafts, pierce galleries, form needful implements, and trace the metallic veins in the hearts of mountains. We know that they possessed gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful samples of jewelry were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases, constructed in Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as testimonials of the mineral wealth of the country. The dependent tribes paid their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency, which, though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representative of a standard value. The exact position of all the mines, from which these treasures were derived by the Aztecs, is not certainly known at the present day; but, as the natives were often compelled to indicate some of the sources of their riches to the conquerors, there is little doubt that the present mineral district of the Republic is that from which they procured their chief supplies.

The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all of

which are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great Cordillera. The first of these groups has been the most productive, and embraces the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Louis Potosi, Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and Sombrerete.

The second comprises the mines situated west of the city Durango, as well as those in Sinaboa, for the labors of engineers have brought them so close to each other by their works, that they should be united in the same geological division.

The third group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that which embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the 27th to the 29th degree of north latitude.

The fourth and fifth clusters are found northeast of Mexico, and are found by the mines of Real del Morte, or Pachuca, and Zimapan, or El Doctor. Bolanos, in Guadalajara, and Tasco, in Oajaca, are the central points of the sixth, seventh and eighth.*

The reader, who will cast his eye over the map of Mexico, will, at once, perceive, that the geographical space, covered by this metalliferous region, is small, when compared with the great extent of the whole country. The eight groups into which the mining districts are divided, occupy a space of twelve thousand square leagues, or one-tenth, only, of the whole extent of the Mexican republic, as it existed previous to the treaty of 1848, and before the mineral wealth of California, and, probably, of New Mexico, was known to the world. But, as that treaty confirmed and ceded to the United States more than one-half of the ancient territory of Mexico, we may estimate the mining region as covering fully one-fifth of the remainder.

Before the discovery and conquest of the West Indies and the American continent, Europe had looked to the East for her chief supplies of treasure. America was discovered by Columbus, not, as was so long imagined, because he foresaw the existence of another continent, but because he sought a shorter route to the rich and golden Zipangon, and to the spice regions of eastern Asia. Columbus and Vespucius both died believing that they had reached eastern Asia, and thus a geographical mistake led to the greatest discovery that has ever been made. In proof of these assertions, we may state, that Columbus designed delivering, at Cuba, the missives of the Spanish king to the great Kahn of the Mongols, and that he imagined himself in Mangi, the capital of the southern region of Cathayor China! "The island of Hispaniola" (Hayti), he declares to Pope Alexander VI, in a letter found in the archives of the Duke of Varaguas, "is Tarshish, Ophir

* Humboldt's Essai Politique, book iv, chap. ii. Paris, 1811.