On the east of the cathedral, fronting the west, and bounding the whole eastern limit of the plaza, is the national palace, formerly the residence of the viceroys, and now occupied by the president, as a dwelling. It is an immense quadrangular building, constructed on the ground which it is supposed was covered by the palace of Axayacatl, in which Cortéz was lodged by Montezuma, when he first arrived in the Aztec capital. Besides affording room for the president and his family, this huge edifice contains all the offices of the several secretaries of state; the general treasury and tribunal of accounts; the supreme court; the headquarters of the general-in-chief; the two chambers of deputies and the senate, both of which are elegant apartments, and, especially that of the deputies;--two barracks for infantry, cavalry, and a park of artillery;--two prisons; some shops; a botanical garden; and the mint. South of the National Palace, but not fronting the plaza, are the University, containing the National Museum, in front of which is the magnificent modern market, built during the administration of Santa Anna in 1842. [Illustration: THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.] Directly opposite the façade of the cathedral, in the south-eastern corner of the plaza, is the Casa Municipal, or City Hall, which is occupied partly by the corporate authorities, and partly by the merchants' Lonja, or exchange. On the western side of the square there are no public buildings; but the palace of Cortéz, which was erected by the conqueror and rebuilt and still owned by his descendants, covers a portion of its front and deserves to be mentioned for its associations if not for its architectural beauty. The whole of the side walks on the southern part of the plaza, and a portion of the western, beyond the Calle Plateros, or street of the silversmiths, are protected by a broad and massive corridor or portico, called the _portales_, in which the traveller will constantly find crowds of hawkers, pedlars, shopmen, letter writers, clothiers, fruit sellers, liquor venders, crockery dealers and book hucksters. A few squares west of the plaza, is situated the magnificent palace of the Mineria, or School of Mines, one of the most elegant edifices in the capital. [Illustration: COLLEGE OF MINES--(EXTERIOR.)] In noticing the general splendour and luxury of ecclesiastical architecture in Mexico we should not omit to mention particularly the beautiful convent of La Merced, a view of whose elegant interior court and corridor is presented in the opposite plate. Gloomier recollections, however, are conjured up from the past by beholding the church of San Domingo and the neighboring inquisition, which was the prison and the place of torture to so many unfortunate victims dining the viceroyal government of New Spain.