These laws, sanctioned by an exclusive and retrogressive government, have not been revoked up to the present time by the enlightened, progressive and wise government that rules the destinies of the Mexican Republic, and they are a barrier that henceforth will impede the investigation of scientific men, among the ruins of Yucatan and Mexico. It is in effect a strange fact, that while autocratic governments, like those of Turkey, Greece, and Persia, do not interpose difficulties--that of Turkey to Dr. Henry Schliemann, after discovering the site of the celebrated Troy and the treasures of King Priam, to his carrying his _findings_ and presenting them to the civilized world; that of Greece to General Cesnola’s disposing in New York of his collection of Phœnician antiquities (the only one in the world), found in the tombs of the Island of Cyprus. Nor did even that of Persia think of preventing Mr. George Smith, after he had disinterred from among the ruins of Nineveh, the year before last, the libraries of the kings of Assyria, from carrying the precious volumes to the British Museum, where they are to be found to-day. I alone, a free citizen of a Republic, the friend of Mexico, after spending my fortune and time, see myself obliged to abandon, in the midst of the forests, the best and most perfect works of art of the sculptor, up to the present time known in America, because the government of this Nation reclaims as its own, objects found in the midst of forests, at great depths below the surface of the earth, and of whose existence it was not only ignorant, but was even unsuspicious. The photographs of these objects, and of the places where they were found, are all that, with plans, and tracings of most interesting mural paintings, I can now present: and that after so many expenses, cares, and dangers, unless you, Mr. President, considering the historical importance of my discoveries and works, as an illustrious man, a lover of progress, and the glory of his country, in the name of the nation authorize me to carry my _findings_ and photographs, plans and tracings, to that great concourse of all nations to which America has just invited every people of the earth, and which will be opened shortly in Philadelphia; and with them the material proofs of my assertion that America is the cradle of the actual civilization of the world.