denied the benefits of the commonest education, and were kept the blind devotees of the darkest and most demoralizing super- stition that eve1· clouded the intellects, or degraded the morals of mankind. From this it is evident, that up to the period of their indcpenclence, having been so long destitute of education, so long unaccustomed to think or legislate for themselves, and so long undc-r the complete dominion of their liberty-hating Priests, they must have been totally unacquainted with the plainest principles of self-government. Let us examine what their subsequent oppor- tunities of improvement have been. At the close of the revolution, Iturbide, by fraud and force, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor, ,vho after much com- motion, was dethroned, banished and shot. After this Victoria was elected Pr_esident, during all of whose administration the country was distracted with civil wars and conspiracies, as is evidenced by the rebellion and banishment of Montano, Bravo, and many others. Victoria's term having expired, Pedraza was constitutionally elected, but was dispossessed by violence, and Guerero pm in his stead. Guerero was scarcely seated before Bustamente with open war deposed him, put him to death and placed himself at the head of the government. Bustamente was hardly in the chair before Santa Anna, warring, as he pretended, for the constitution and for making it still more liberal, dispos- sessed him Ly deluging the country in a civil war, the horrors of which have not at this moment ended. Since his accession we have been woful witnesses that nothing but turmoil, anarchy and revolution have overshadowed the land, and that at last he has at one fell stroke, with an armed soldiery, turned congress out of doors, dissolved that body and proclaimed that the constitu- tion is no more. Here, then, we have a lamentable verification of the fears and predictions of that great apostle of human liberty, Mr. Jefferson. His prophecy in relation to the result of their governmental experiment, .implies in him an almost superhuman forecast and knowledge of the elements essential to self-govern- ment. He knew that they were too ignorant and too much un- der the dominion of their priests at the period of their declara- tion, and he but too truly foresaw that owing to the unhallowed ambition of their military aspirants, the country would be too continually distracted with revolutions to admit of their advance- ment in education or any useful knowledge whatever. Time hns developed it. There has been no attention on the part of
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