ther. But it
may well be asked if the cost, estimated at 40 million pounds sterling,
to build the 5,000 miles necessary to complete the chain of existing
lines, would ever pay through these thinly scattered populations and
endless mountain regions. It is, however, an alluring project, and
calls for some great railway-building Bolivar to impulse it. It is but
a question of time.

The attitude of the modern Mexicans towards Spain--the land which gave
them birth--is rather a remarkable one. As a whole they cannot be said
to be pro-Spanish. The Indian blood is strong, and the Indian side of
the Mexican cherishes still what is almost a resentment against Spain
for the acts of the Conquest. Perhaps the reader of this book, if he
has read the chapters upon those stirring times, will not need to ask
himself why! Spanish America--Mexico and Peru--raises no statues to
Cortes, nor to Pizarro. But there is another side to the picture, and
during the war between Spain and the United States, the Spaniards and
pro-Spaniards of Mexico raised funds to purchase a warship for Spain.
But neither Mexico nor any other free Republic of Latin America raised
a hand in aid of the unfortunate Cubans, whose life-blood Spain, with
all her old methods, was slowly letting before their eyes!

Of international questions in the American hemisphere the Monroe
Doctrine takes much importance. The origin of the principle contained
in this has been set forth in the chapter devoted to history, and its
British origin recollected. At the present time the doctrine embodies,
to the Spanish-American mind, not so much the antidote to possible
European aggression as the hegemony of the United States in the
American hemisphere. Of recent years the method or spirit of its
enunciation by the United States has been such as almost to cause
offence among the Spanish-American Republics, an effect which,
naturally, it was not intended to convey. But the Mexican and South
American Republics are not slow to resent any idea of North American
leading-strings. They consider their individuality no whit inferior to
that of the Anglo-American, and the discussions which have been carried
out in the press of both continents show how little the two races of
the Americas really understand each other. Nor can they be expected to
do so, possibly for centuries--such centuries as passed before a
Franco-British _entente_ became possible! There is far more affinity of
social interests betw