To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of the American continent affords the best reply. The answer and the remedy are both displayed in the social and political institutions, as well as in the boundless unoccupied and prolific tracts of our country. Labor cries out for work and recompense from the Old World, whilst the New displays her soil, her mines, her commerce and her trades, as the best _alms_ that one nation can bestow on another, because they come direct from God and are the reward of meritorious _industry_. Before such a tribunal the modern demagogue of continental Europe shrinks into insignificance, and the laws of labor are effectually vindicated. The MINES OF MEXICO have been wrought from the earliest periods. Long before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of Mexico, like those of Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. Nor were they contented with such specimens as they found scattered at random on the surface of the earth or in the ravines of mountain torrents, but had already learned to dig shafts, pierce galleries, form needful implements, and trace the metallic veins in the hearts of mountains. We know that they possessed gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful samples of jewelry were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases, constructed in Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as testimonials of the mineral wealth of the country. The dependant tribes paid their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency, which though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representative of a standard value. The exact position of all the mines from which these treasures were derived by the Aztecs is not certainly known at the present day, but as the natives were often compelled to indicate some of the sources of their riches to the conquerors there is little doubt that the present mineral district of the republic is that from which they procured their chief supplies. The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all of which are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great _Cordillera_. The _first_ of these groups has been the most productive, and embraces the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and Sombrerete. The _second_ comprises the mines situated west of the city of Durango as well as those in Sinaloa, for the labors of engineers have brought them so close to each other by their works that they may be united in the same geological division. The _third_ group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that which embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the 27th° to the 29th° of north latitude. The _fourth_ and _fifth_ clusters are found north-east of Mexico, and are formed by the mines of Real del Monte or Pachuca, and Zimapan, or, El Doctor.