stead the mild and peaceful influence of the ballot, directed by instructed Catholic conscience and enlightened Catholic intelligence"?

The uprising of the masses, Democratic and Republican, at this new intermeddling with our politics by the Jesuit order, which with olden skill and audacity is now assailing in turn the American state and our political and religious freedom, was such as to impress the country with the depth of the indignation which the movement had aroused, and which influential Democrats like ex-Mayor Wickham and Mr. Talcott were among the first to express; and the fact that the vote for Mr. Grace fell nearly forty thousand below the vote for General Hancock is one that indicates that a Democratic faction which consents to be led by Rome in its crusade against American institutions can no longer count on loyal Americans for support.

A significant remark by a prominent Southerner some weeks ago, that "Garfield would be elected, but that Hancock would be counted in," was recalled by vague suggestions of violence and civil war as the election approached, and which are now supplemented by threats that the Houses of Congress, both temporarily Democratic, will reject the vote of New York on some pretense of fraud, not yet discovered, and declare Hancock duly elected.

In the present temper of the country, both at the North and the South, in regard to the immorality of the Democratic canvass, it is not clear what the Democracy of either section would expect to gain by attempting to interrupt the prosperity of both sections by inaugurating war upon such an issue. Nor is it easy to see, despite occasional intimations of its coming, how such an interruption at this time would benefit the clerical friends of Mr. Kelly. The "Catholic Herald" of May 24, 1879, is quoted as saying: "It is our belief that a most dreadful combat, a most awful conflict between the powers of good and evil, is in the near future, and that the fate of the republic depends upon the result." General Grant, on the other hand, predicts that, if we are to have another contest in the near future, "the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, but it will be between patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."

Whatever may await us, all true Americans, whatever their party, creed, or section, will assist to maintain the national peace, honor, and prosperity. To all Republicans of intelligence and culture it belongs to let the incoming Administration of Mr. Garfield feel that in maintaining the republic in its dignity and strength,

keeping free from suspicion its civil service, and doing that exact and equal justice which will tend to restore our national harmony, and encourage the rise of Southern statesmen with a national policy, the President and his officers can depend upon a constant, earnest, and watchful support by the virtue, intelligence and culture of the republic.

JOHN JAY.

THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA.

PART IV.

OUR next field of labor was Tula, the ancient metropolis of the Toltecs, now a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, situate about sixty-five miles to the north of the city of Mexico. We traveled

by rail to Huehuetoca, and thence by diligence over execrable roads to our destination, some twenty-five miles from the latter place. I will here briefly recount the history of Tula as written by Clavigero, the only one of the Spanish historians of Mexico who possessed the critical faculty.

The Toltecs came from the north, bringing Asiatic traditions, and settled first at Tollantzinco, there tarrying only twenty years, and then definitively establishing themselves at Tollan or Tula, in the year 667. The Toltec empire lasted three hundred and eightyfour years, or till 1051. Here we are, therefore, in the capital of the most famous nation of Anahuac. A gentle race were the Toltecs, preferring the arts to war, and the nations that came later owed to them the culture of cotton, of maize, and of the different fruits grown on the high plateaus; from them they learned the art of metallurgy and of cutting precious stones. Wherever we go we find memorials of them: to them is attributed the construction of the pyramids of Teotihuacan and of Cholula.

This interesting civilization perished as though by an earthquake a series of calamities effaced the work of almost four centuries. First came a drought of several years' duration; this was followed by a famine, and then came pestilence. A feeble remnant of the population only survived, and with these the chief Quetzalcoatl resolved to go in search of some more hospitable region. Leaving Cholula they journeyed southward along the shore of the Gulf and the coast of the Pacific, and settled in Yucatan, where we shall find them later.

What now remains to indicate the site of their ancient capital, Tula? A hill about one mile long by half a mile broad, covered with mounds, plateaus, and ruins of all kinds.

Some of the inhabitants of Tula have made collections of the antiquities of the place. Among these I would particularize a carved pearl shell representing a Toltec chief seated. This figure exactly corresponds with one of the figures of warriors among the bas-reliefs of Chichen-Itza, as reproduced by Stephens.

On the face of a rock just south of Tula are sculptured two figures of warriors which, in their head-gear, their ornaments, and their attitude, are identical with the warriors of Chichen-Itza. A stone ring to be seen in one of the strects is carved precisely like the ring at Chichen. In the plaza is the shaft of a column in two pieces, which were held together by tenon and mortice. The column was sculptured and covered with curved lines and palms. There are also in the plaza three caryatides of very hard basalt, each two metres eighteen centimetres in height. The upper half of these figures is wanting. Though rudely executed, they are not without artistic merit.

We began our excavations here on the 16th of August with a force of four men and two boys. The results of each successive day's work I will state as they are recorded in my journal.

On the first day the objects of use or ornament found by us were not of much importance, and none of them were perfect. Nevertheless, I consider myself singularly fortunate in having discovered a Toltec house answering to the description given to us by Torquemada in his account of Teotihuacan. As yet I can affirm nothing; still, from the remains brought to light, I can conjecture what kind of habitation it must have been. I set the men to work at one of the many mounds upon the ridge, and soon found that I had hit upon a group of habitations; further, as luck would have it, the progress of the work brought us to the portal of the habitation.

When writing about Teotihuacan I said that all the dwellings of the upper class of the population were united together in groups, and erected in isolated mounds, one in the middle, the others round about, the whole forming a sort of honeycomb with its cells placed at different elevations. Well, the Toltec habitation here at Tula was organized in the same way.

I am not in the least surprised at the fewness of the objects found, for it must be remembered that the Toltecs did not quit their country at the close of a war, or after a conquest, but in conse

quence of a long series of misfortunes, and that they had time for collecting their portable goods-arms, utensils, ornaments. They left behind them only such of their goods as they could not carry away-their stone idols and the remains of their ancestors. It was

an emigration in the strict sense of the term, and hence we find nothing of value, no objects that were in daily use, except frag

ments.

But we have seen the Indian in his inner life through the relics found at Tenenepanco and at Apatlatepitonco; we are now studying him in his dwellings we shall complete our study by viewing his public life, into which we shall be initiated by an examination of his temples and his palaces. In short, we shall pass from the phalanstery to the citadel and the temple.

Among the objects found are thick red bricks of coarse clay; this is all the more curious because hitherto we have nowhere seen baked bricks employed. The outside of every wall is of stones of every kind-tetzontli, bowlders, fragments of basalt mixed with clay, with casings of different sorts, some of stone cut in the shape of bricks, the whole covered with a thick layer of lime or white stucco. The floor is covered with cement two inches in thickness, very hard, and painted red. In sundry places where we have dug we have found this layer of cement, which the builders employed not only for the floor of the houses and the pavements of the courts, but also for the streets of their cities and the highways. All this reminds us of Teotihuacan, and of the great road leading from Tihoo to Cozumel at the time of the conquest.

We find also great masses of baked clay, the original form of which it is difficult to conjecture. But the most singular thing found is some charcoal incased in baked clay. What could have been the use for this we are at a loss to determine.

August 17th.-I have found out the use of the bricks. These bricks, which are very hard, are from ten to twelve inches long by from five to five and a half inches wide and one to two inches in thickness. They were used for the steps of the stairways, and were there covered with a coat of cement; they were also used in the pilasters, of which we have discovered three, and in some walls.

Usually each people, according to its origin, build of bricks, of stones, or of wood; of clay mixed with stones; or of sun-dried bricks. But here at Tula we are face to face with an eclectic people, and this is not the least interesting circumstance connected with them. To judge from the great dwelling, or group of dwell