o is used up in interest or
usury. Long experience has reduced the business of shaving the revenue
to a system. The most common way to do this is to buy up some claim at
twelve and a half cents on a dollar, and then couple it at par with a
loan of money on the assignment of some _rent_. Every thing is farmed
out, until at last, two years ago, Escandon proposed to farm the whole
foreign duties.

Many a time have I sat down in the large ante-room of the treasury to
look upon and study the characters of those who have come there to be
disappointed, when promises will no longer satisfy hunger. One poor
woman had got a new promise in 1851, and three months' interest, on
money _deposited_ with the Consolado of Vera Cruz, and invested in 1810
in building the great road of Perote. Santa Anna, on his return, gave
her a new order, and she presented it to the minister with bright
hopes, when he gave her fifteen dollars--all he had in the treasury.
The best way to collect a debt at Mexico is to convert it into a
foreign debt, if possible, and then, if there is a resident that stands
high with his minister, the matter meets with prompt attention. He that
can buy a foreign embassador at Mexico has made a fortune.

MEXICAN MILLIONAIRES.

I have spoken of two rich men of Mexico, the first Count of Regla, and
one who has succeeded to his mine. As I was standing on the Paseo, a
lad passed driving a fine span of mules. "That is the Count de Galvez,"
said my companion, "the son of the late Count Perez Galvez, the lucky
proprietor of the _bonanza_ in the mine of La Suz at Guanajuato."

"But that _bonanza_ has given out," said I.

"No matter; this boy's inheritance is sometimes estimated at
$9,000,000." A snug capital with which to begin the world!

Laborde, the Frenchman who projected and established the magnificent
garden at Cuarnavaca, and also built, from his private fortune, the
great Cathedral of Toluca, made and spent two princely fortunes in
successful mining, and at last ended his checkered career in poverty.
The Countess Ruhl, the mother of young Galvez, and her brother the
Count Ruhl, are also fortunate miners. The latter is now interested in
the _Real del Monte_. But the rich man of the Republic is the Marquis
de Jaral, in the small but rich mining department of Guanajuato. This
man's wealth surpasses that of all the three patriarchs put together. A
few years ago, the whole amount of his live-stock was set down by his
_a