For centuries we have had important libraries in Mexico. There is the National Library, containing over half a million books and manuscripts of great value. There are also the libraries of Guadalajara, Puebla and other states; but all these were organized in accordance with a system which made of a library a kind of archive where the books were hidden from instead of being offered to the reader. We are trying to imitate the splendid public libraries of the United States, and the Department of Public Education has opened thousands of little libraries all over the country. The libraries we tell the teachers should go hand in hand with the schools. After learning to read one should have books to read. A good library can take the place of the school and sometimes is even better. It is as important to build libraries as to build schools. . . .

In order to supply our own libraries and increase the circulation of good books in Spanish the Department of Education has its own printing plant, which is fairly large, where schoolbooks are printed and distributed free of charge. In 1922 we printed 400,000 volumes and we hope to increase this figure to one million this year. We are making translations from French and English for the high schools, and we are also preparing manuals for railroad workers, electricians and workers in other public industries. We have also published a series of classics under the direction of the University of Mexico, including Homer, Plato, Euripides, Dante and Æschylus. We send free copies of these books to the universities of Mexico and South America, normal schools, high schools and libraries. The books are sold to the public at cost price.

At the suggestion of President Obregon, the department began the publication of "El Maestro" (The Teacher). This magazine is published monthly and is distributed gratis to the schools and teachers of Latin America. Political and religious propaganda are excluded from it; but articles on every phase of literature, science, history, geography, hygiene and general interest are published.

The Department of Fine Arts was made an independent branch of our educational system, and this meant a considerable change in our school régime. This department had charge of the teaching of music, drawing and gymnastics. We had hundreds of good musicians and good artists whose services were never utilized after they left the

Conservatory of Music or the School of Fine Arts. We decided to have them teach music and drawing in the elementary schools. They work independently of the normal supervisors, as the artist alone can judge in questions of art. We have likewise formed a group of gymnastic teachers, directed by experts in this field, who carry out their own plans and ideas, after first having discussed them with the educational authorities at regular meetings. The results of the new system have been demonstrated in the public concerts which the school children give on Sundays in the parks or in the schoolyards in which they sing Spanish and Latin-American songs with a feeling and harmony rarely surpassed on the professional stage. These concerts have been such an undivided success that we have decided to introduce the system all over the country.

We have also established singing societies in all the larger cities. Every Sunday concerts and lectures are given in theaters and movingpicture houses, to which twenty thousand persons come, not merely as spectators but as creators of a form of beauty.

We are founding some centers for physical culture, but we can hardly be said to have had much success with them yet. We hope to have more funds at our disposal next year for the development of this work.

An education worthy the name is not complete if it lacks the impulse which only a noble ideal can give it. The ultimate aim of life is something outside and beyond even the most important social ideals; and this obliges us to stop and consider the real object of life once we have achieved success and wealth.

Mexico, together with the most advanced nations, has the duty of improving life itself, creating more perfect types for it. If anyone thinks there may be an exaggeration in this, and were to ask me whether I think that Mexico has anything original to contribute to the world's civilization, I should answer decidedly "Yes," in spite of the fact that I divine the smile which accompanies the question.

And the case of Mexico is not an isolated one; Mexico is one of twenty nations of the same blood and the same tongue, separated today, but which sooner or later will be joined together. They will be united because the feeling of race is even stronger than that of patriotism. Patriotism is frequently the result of political or geographical causes which are artificial or material. But the sentiment of race

proceeds from deep spiritual differences, perhaps in obedience to the designs of Providence which made man different in order that the expression of the human soul may be more varied and rich. This is the reason why true progress in the world demands that no race impose upon another its particular characteristics. In this Latin-America of ours it is our duty to forge a new and broader expression of the Latin spirit and anyone who attempts to impede this is hampering progress. We are teaching in Mexico, therefore, the patriotism of all LatinAmerica, this huge continent which lies open to all races and all colors. We are basing our experiment not on utility alone, but principally on beauty, which is what our races of the South instinctively seek, as though in it they found the supreme law. It is broader than nationalism and prepares the coming of that future internationalism which shall rise upon the ruins of imperialism and oppression, a new world inspired in the love of all men and all lands.

BRAZIL

108. DECREE OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL, RESPECTING THE REMOVAL OF THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT TO LISBON; THE APPOINTMENT OF THE PRINCE ROYAL TO THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT AT RIO DE JANEIRO; AND THE ELECTION IN BRAZIL OF DEPUTIES TO THE CÔRTES IN PORTUGAL

[Rio de Janeiro, March 7, 1821. British and Foreign State Papers, VIII, 968-969. Published by the British Foreign Office.]

The prince regent of Portugal, the mad Queen Maria I, and the court and fifteen thousand persons, "including most of the nobility, and fifty millions of property and treasure," had embarked at Lisbon late in November, 1807, for Brazil under British convoy. There was barely time enough to get under sail, for Junot's advance guard arrived to see them sail away. The prince regent and his followers disembarked at Bahia early in January, 1808, and at Rio de Janeiro on March 7. The seat of government was at Rio de Janeiro until 1821, when it was removed to Lisbon, according to the decree given below. A crisis had come in the relations of Portugal and Brazil, as shown by the two other sections of this decree.

Divine Providence having graciously granted to all European Nations the long wished-for blessings of a general Peace, after a ruinous War; and having permitted the establishment of a basis for the happiness of the Portuguese Monarchy, by means of the Meeting of the General Cortes now extraordinarily assembled in my very Noble and Loyal City of Lisbon, for the purpose of giving to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarve, a Political Constitution, in accordance with the liberal principles, which, from the progressive improvement of the age, are now generally received by all Nations: and it having been represented to me, by well informed Persons, who are zealous for the

service of God and for my welfare, that the minds of my faithful Vassals, (and principally of those now in this Kingdom of Brazil) who, anxious to maintain the unity and integrity of the Monarchy, were in a painful state of uncertainty, so long as I should not be pleased to declare, in a solemn manner, my express, absolute, and decisive, approbation of the said Constitution, to the end that it may be generally received and executed, without alteration or difference, in all the States of my Royal Crown; - I have thought it fitting to make such Declaration, in my Decree of the 24th of last February, and to take, conjointly with the whole of my Royal Family, and the People and Troops of this Capital, a solemn Oath, to observe, maintain and keep, in this and all the other Kingdoms and Dominions of my Monarchy, the said Constitution, such as it shall be determined, made and agreed upon, by the above-mentioned General Cortes of the Kingdom: and, moreover, to issue my Orders, to the Governors, Captains General, and Authorities, Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical, in all the other Provinces, to administer a similar Oath to all their Inferiors and Subalterns, as a further means of strengthening and ensuring the said unity and integrity of the Monarchy.

But as the first and most essential condition of this social Compact, thus received and sworn to by the whole Nation, is that the Sovereign should fix his residence in that city, where the Cortes assemble, in order that the Laws, immediately after their discussion, may be presented to him, and receive, without delay, his indispensable sanction, — that scrupulous piety which behoves me to fulfil even more than the most arduous duties which have devolved upon me, by the Oath I have taken, enjoins that I, for the general good of my People, should make one of the most painful sacrifices of which my paternal and Royal heart is capable, by my separation a second time from Subjects, the recollection of whom will always be to me a source of anxiety, and whose prosperity, wherever I may be, will never cease to be one of the most assiduous cares of my paternal Government.

It was, therefore, fitting, that I, in fulfilment of the duty which Providence imposes upon me, of sacrificing every thing for the happiness of the Nation, should resolve, as I have now done, to transfer once more my Court to the City of Lisbon, the ancient Seat and original Cradle of the Monarchy; to the end that I may there co-operate with the Deputies, Representatives of my People, in the glorious under