peros_. They were alarmed at the bold reforms of the liberal Cortes
of Spain, and trembled at the prospect of losing their privileges and
monopolies. They judged that the safest course for them was the
establishment of an empire upon the subversion of the vice-kingdom,
which would be so weak a power that they could overawe it. The priests
reasoned correctly, and have augmented their privileges and their
wealth, as we shall presently see. The Spanish monopolists were ruined
by the Revolution, as we have seen in the last chapter. But the common
people were the gainers ultimately by the expulsion of the Spaniards,
though the whole country suffered for a time by the withdrawal of the
capital of the Spaniards. The benefit derived by the _peons_ from this
revolution was the political importance which it gave them. The Parian
and the _lepero_ perished together. The latter ceased to exist when the
last stone of the former disappeared. The Spaniards had been banished
from the country long before the authorities undertook the removal of
this obnoxious edifice, and those who wished to avoid a like fate
sought security in acts of benevolence; so that at Mexico charitable
institutions are now so well conducted, that it is one of the few
Catholic cities in the world that can boast of being free entirely from
beggars. Political power gave to the common people an importance in the
social scale which they had never before enjoyed. With the cheapness of
clothing the unclad multitude have disappeared, and the new generation
find more employment and better wages than their ancestors did, when
all branches of industry were clogged with monopolies, and they are,
consequently, more industrious and temperate.

MEXICAN MECHANICS.

Still, the Mexican _peon_ is immensely below the American laborer, and
still has to be watched as a thief, for the want of a little morality
intermixed with his religious instruction. It is a degrading sight to
stand at the door of one of the large coach manufactories at Mexico,
and to witness the manner in which they search them, one by one, as
they come out. The natives, who have learned the most difficult parts
of coach-building from English and French employers, can not for a
moment be trusted, lest they should steal their tools or the materials
upon which they are employed. I saw even the man who was placing the
gorgeous trimmings on the Nuncio's coach carefully searched, lest he
should have concealed about hi