There are some twelve hospitals, asylums, and kindred establishments for the afflicted, in the capital or Federal districts, as public charities, and eight of a private nature, including the benevolent societies and hospitals of the various foreign colonies, as the Americans, Spanish, and others. Among the semi-charitable or benevolent institutions must be mentioned the famous Monte de Piedad, or National Pawnshop, which, as its name implies, carries on the business of such for the benefit of poor people, who thus avoid the usurious rates of interest of private pawnbrokers. This worthy institution was founded in 1775, by Terreros, Count of Regla, of mining fame, and during a single month of 1907 the establishment and its branches loaned money to the people against articles to the amount of nearly half a million _pesos_. Of penal establishments the Penitentiary, opened in 1900, at a cost of about two and a half million _pesos_, ranks first. It has a strict scientific _regime_ for its inmates, with more than seven hundred cells for convicts and others. Some of the public buildings are good types of structure of the colonial period. Among these is the Palacio Nacional, spacious and massive, but monotonous and plain in its outward appearance. Here the Government business is transacted, and this edifice occupies a whole side of the Zocalo, or Plaza de Armas, with a long arcade of the characteristic _portales_, or arches, facing the square, above the footpath. It is of historic interest, having sheltered nearly all Mexican rulers from Montezuma onwards, Cortes, the viceroys, Iturbide, Maximilian, and all the Presidents in succession. The Palacio Municipal is a somewhat similar structure also facing the plaza, and not far away is the handsome building known as Mineria--the School of Mines--which was founded by royal edict in 1813. This building, unfortunately, has subsided somewhat into the soft subsoil. Within its spacious hall an enormous meteorite confronts the view, brought there from a distant part of the country, entire. The Geological Institute is another public building of kindred nature. The famous Castle of Chapultepec, embowered in its cypresses, and surrounded by its handsome park, is at a distance of two miles away along the Paseo de la Reforma, before described, and serves both as a summer residence for the President and as a military academy. Around it is a public park. Here it was that the heroic incident of the American War took place, of the young Mexican military cadets and the national standard, which has been touched upon in the historical chapter. A monument is erected here to their memory. A new post-office was opened in the capital, in 1907, at a cost of three million _pesos_, to cope with the growing postal business of the Republic. Among the numerous public squares and gardens of the city is the Alameda, dating from the time of Spanish rule. Six theatres of good