despotic aristocracy are rife in the United States at this moment, no one can deny; and that these elements are for the most part confined to the southern states (whence the Texans principally come from), is equally indisputable, and we need no further proof of their existence in Texas, than the simple fact, that every revolutionary movement that has occurred in Mexico since the establishment of an Anglo-American colony on the Mexican frontier, has been stigmatized and complained of by the democratic republican Texans, as "the acts of the populace," or "mob." Here we may ask what has the Mexican army been since the establishment of republican institutions in Mexico, but a citizen soldiery? or, in other words, the republican constituency of the country in arms?

The inconsistency of these complaints from a republican people, is only equalled by the warm sympathy which they drew forth from the people of the southern states; a fact that should not be overlooked by the well-wishers of democratic movements in the north.

But if we need any further proof of the aristocratic disposition of the Texans, it will be found in the impenetrable lines of demarcation already established in society in Texas, which is divided into the four following and distinct classes;-Despotic aristocratical Land-owners and Speculators, Usefuls, Contemptibles, and Loafers.

The first consists chiefly of Planters, Slave

holders, and Government Officers.*

These men

have not the least spirit of accommodation in them, and the simplest act of civility may be considered as a very great condescension for them.

The second are overseers, store-keepers, and master tradesmen. The contemptibles are those who are obliged to labour hard to get their daily bread; these are also called "white niggers."

The Loafers are by far the most numerous class, and are those who go about from one dram-shop to another, for the purpose of gaming and sponging on their friends, and not unfrequently on strangers;† but this latter practice is by far too common in Texas to be confined or strictly applied to any one branch of the community. Notwithstanding the existence of these several grades, there is nothing sufficiently remarkable in their dress to distinguish the agriculturist from the soldier, the merchant, or mechanic; but still, when you behold the Texans, either separately or en masse,

* I must beg to exempt the officers of the Texan navy from the criticisms I am now entering on. I cannot refrain from stating that I never met a more liberal, high-minded, and gentlemanly set of men in any part of the world. Their position afloat secures them from the contamination on shore.

Such are the people whom Mr. Kennedy represents as "brave, intelligent, enterprising, and calumniated, who are to afford to England the benefit of a profitable connexion," and to Mexico "the advantages resulting from the neighbourhood of a state founded by men of British origin." See his Letter, "Times," 12th August, 1841.

they exhibit all the features of a ruffianized European mob, to whom, however, they are greatly inferior in social refinement, and much less formidable in a military point of view. The agriculturist being very deficient in his physical character, and totally ignorant of the manly exercises of the field; the soldier, of the gentlemanly and professional acquirements of his calling; the merchant, wanting in faith, stability, and business habits; and the mechanic, in that inventive genius and perseverance for which the English nation is so justly famed. "Still made up of such motley materials, which have not had time to coalesce and unite into a homogeneous whole, no general and uniform character can be ascribed to the people of Texas. The new settler in mingling with his fellows, witnesses no common or uniform manners, customs, or language,-sees no pattern to which he may conform, and hence each one retains his own previously formed habits, nor even thinks of adopting any model." *

The planters, however, are, on the whole, about the most moral and best-behaved people in the country. They are, with few exceptions, poor and in debt. The slave-labour employed by them, is

* Texas in 1840. By an Emigrant.

Very few of the inhabitants of Texas, with the exception of their lands, which are not yet available (being in the hands of their lawful owners, the Indians), are in possession of wealth, or even enough to preserve them from early want.-Texas in 1840. By an Emigrant. Page 233.

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generally obtained on credit, and for which they pay so much monthly or quarterly to the slaveowners, either in cotton or hides.

The slaves thus employed are chiefly owned by New Orleans' cotton brokers, who keep agents constantly travelling through the country, to collect the cotton, &c., as the instalments fall due, and in this way the whole of the cotton raised in Texas is pre-engaged by these brokers for three and four years.

That the planters of Texas can stand this ruinous system, certainly appears problematical, when we consider their present immense public debt,* and the great burden imposed on them by the congress of 1840, under "an act to create a revenue by direct taxation;" which is, without any exception, one of the most oppressive systems of taxation ever yet introduced into any country, and indeed unjustly so, when applied to the Texan planter, whose substance was freely given to support the government, and whose services were as freely given in the ranks of the army, during the

* Mr. Hartnel, supposing the French loan of 37,000,000 francs to be realized, makes it 13,614,319 dollars. (See Texas and California, page 47.) If this be true, the proportion on the public debt bearing upon every individual of the 29,088 permanent residents of Texas, is forty dollars, and not nine, as Mr. Hartnel calculates on Mr. Kennedy's wrong datum of 200,000 souls.

For assessed taxes of Texas, vide Index, chapter ix.

war of independence, leaving his plantation to become a barren waste, his cattle to run wild again, and his wife and children exposed to all the horrors of an internal war.

On the plantations, the spade is seldom seen; the plough, harrow, and hoe are the only implements of husbandry generally in use in Texas. The fences are all made of wooden rails, and are said to be extremely durable, and are certainly constructed with much rustic taste. The houses of the planters are also made of wood, in the architecture of which they display but little taste for domestic comfort; they are, however, open to travellers, but not, as some may suppose, without charge, and their charges are by no means so moderate as to lead visitors to suppose that hospitality has yielded altogether to the sheer necessity of "mine host," whose countenance either betrays low origin, or partakes at once of the acuteness of the Scotch, the discernment of the Irish, and the inflexible sternness of the English. The Texan ladies seldom show themselves to strangers, and, like those of the United States, they use either the pipe or the swab.* They have little

* The "swab" is a piece of soft wood about three inches long, which they chew at one end until it forms a brush, then dipping it into a small bottle of brown rappee snuff, which they carry about them for the purpose of cleaning their teeth; this operation being performed, the "swab" is placed on one side of the mouth, while the pipe sometimes takes the other.