The public schools are numerous, being chiefly conducted by the priests of the several religious orders. The royal academy of Arts and Sciences has a good establishment of professors of architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving, and mathematics. There has also been lately erected a college of mines, in which young men are instructed in various branches of science, and in every thing that relates to mining. The botanical garden is another useful institution, lately much enriched. The patron saint of Mexico is St. Mary of Guadaloupe, who is also the patroness of Spanish America. The character of the people of Mexico, as given by late travelers, is that of a courteous and charitable people. The polite arts are their chief study, and they boast of their painters. They are great smokers, using cigars even at the theatre, and the ladies all smoke; a part of their ornaments being a gold or silver cigar box suspended by a chain or ribbon, in which they keep their paper cigars; on the chain they wear little pincers to hold the cigar, which, is nearly finished, whilst they light the new one. The manufactory of cigars, a magnificent building, employs near 5000 persons; such is the demand for this article. They are fond of theatrical exhibitions and have a handsome theatre. As in all Catholic countries, religious processions and shows occupy a great part of their attention; amongst the most splendid of these, is the procession of the Corpus Christi, the festival of the anniversary of the conquest of Mexico, and the publication of the bulls of indulgence; which are hailed with eagerness, and looked for with earnestness. The great civil show, is the entrance of a new viceroy, on which occasion, the city is all splendour and joy. The lower people are immoderately fond of a liquor named pulque, and the number of houses for the sale of it have of late become so numerous that the Police allow them only to remain open from ten till four in the day-time, on account of the riots and violence that happens in them; this liquor is allowed to enter the city only by one gate, that of Guadaloupe; and such is the consumption of it by the inhabitants, that the tax on it yields a revenue annually of a million of dollars. The shopkeepers of Mexico issue tokens of copper, iron and wood; and even grains of cacao pass as current in the neighborhood; which arises from there being no bullion currency. The price of bread is regulated three times in the year by the price of grain. There are numbers of sugar mills in this capital, and from there numerous distilleries of rum are kept at work. Mexico is at present a place of immense commerce, and will become of more importance in a commercial point of view, when the great roads from Vera Cruz, &c. are completed; as the transport of goods will then be easier and less expensive; and the wheat, &c. of the fine plains of Mexico, will find a ready market all over the world.