ers. They might starve or not, as circumstances might dictate,
after the fashion of European and American civilisation even of to-day,
which denies any inherent right to ownership and enjoyment of the land
and its resources on the part of its citizens. But Spain stamped many
institutions in Mexico with the beauty and utility of her own
civilisation. She endowed it with traditions and culture; she gave it
the spirit of Western ambition which bids every citizen assert his
right. The Mexican of to-day owes all he has--law, literature, art, and
social system, and refinement and religion--to Spain.

But let us now take our stand with Hidalgo, the warrior-priest of
Mexico. The hand of Spain is still pressing on the country. The year
1810 has arrived and the father of Mexico's independence is uttering
his famous cry, "_Viva_ America! _viva_ religion! death to bad
government!" After the native place of Hidalgo this message--for such
it rapidly became--was known as _el grito de Dolores_--"the call of
Dolores." The time was ripe for the assertion of independence. Spain
was invaded by Napoleon; the King had abdicated. Who was the authority
who should carry on the government--or misgovernment--of the colony?
asked the city Council of Mexico as they urged the Viceroy to retain
his authority against all comers. Unfortunately, the Spaniards,
residents of the capital, precipitated lawlessness by rising and
seizing the persons of the Viceroy Iturrigaray and high ecclesiastics,
and some political murders followed. But the predisposing causes for
the assertion of independence were nearer home. The British colonies,
away to the north-east on the same continent, had severed the link
which bound them to the Mother Country. The embryo of the great
republic of the United States--poor and weak then--was established, and
the spirit of independence was in the air. Most poignant of all,
however, was the feeling caused by Spain's treatment of the Mexicans.
Instead of fomenting the industries and trade of her colonies, Spain
established amazing monopolies and unjust measures of repression. The
trade which had grown between Mexico and China, and the great galleons
which came and went from Acapulco--a more important seaport then than
now even--was considered detrimental to Spain's own commerce. It was
prohibited! The culture of grapes in Mexico, where they had been
introduced and flourished exceedingly well, seemed antagonistic to the
wine-making indu