MEXICO.
Extract from the Report on the state of the nation, lately laid before the Mexican Congress by the Secretary of State.
We will soon reap abundantly the fruits which have been planted in the first era of our liberty. The odious chains which hitherto had always impeded the progress of foreign trade, & the considerable duties which burthened the most important and precious branch of it, that of the minerals, have been taken off. The sources of public riches and prosperity are now open, and it is not easy to calculate the degree of wealth and glory to which we shall reach. The talents and philanthropy of the provisional junta, which drew up the new commercial tariff, lately approved by a decree of the Regency, dated the 18th of February, have given a new impulse to our commerce. We are no longer jealous of the skill of strangers; we appreciate their talents, and wish them to spread on our soil. We have just award to an European artist, a remission of the duties on machinery landed at Vera Cruz — and also, the privilege of export money, in order to import other machinery, with the view of establishing among us, manufactories of linen and other fine stuffs. Don James Smith Wilcocks, an anglo-American, has obtained a temporary privilege according to law, for the introduction of steam engines, to facilitate the draining out water from our mines. We have granted public land to Antonio Paul, a faithful administrator of the tobacco revenue, in order that he may cultivate thereon, hemp, flax, and mulberry trees. An augmentation of population, according as it may be favored by the fertility of, and be proportioned to, the extent of ground, undoubtedly constitutes the prosperity of states, and merits the greatest attention from all enlightened governments. Our government has not neglected this important object, as the provisional junta have been occupied in adopting a plan for the internal provinces; and we already calculate on three hundred industrious and hard working families from Louisiana, who wish to establish themselves in Texas. At present, the Academy of Fine Arts is actually shut up, in consequence of the deplorable state of its revenues; and they having had recourse to this office, we have written to the R. R. Bishops and corporations of vacant sees, to engage them to place at the disposal of the government, their revenues in the metropolis, and contribute with those sums to the preservation of an institution so interesting to us, and which cannot be suppressed without the greatest injury to the studious youth, and dishonor to the Mexican people.
The government has with pleasure seen news-papers printed at Chiepa, Sans Louis de Potosi, and Queretexro.
The patriotic societies established at Guadalajara and Ciudad-Real, have adopted wise regulations for the promotion of the sciences, which will insure the gratitude and thanks of our posterity to the virtuous and illustrous (sic) patriots who, since the restoration of liberty and independence, have contributed by their long and arduous labors to dissipate the darkness and ignorance prevailing among the inhabitants of the Mexican empire.
"Mexico." Nashville Whig, Wednesday, June 12, 1822, p. 3, col. 3.