74 MEXICO. have been so long preserved, amidst the changes of form to which the institutions had been subjected. In Mexico, until the establishment of the Constitution in Spain, in 1812, the privilege of election was merely nominal. The situations of Alcalde, and Regidor, were, in fact, put up to auction, and disposed of to the best bidder. In some parts of the country, they were even made use of as an inducement to engage people to enter into the militia. Thus, Brigadier Calleja, (afterwards General, Viceroy, and Conde de Calderon,) who, in 1794, was entrusted with the organization of that body, in the Provhicias Internas, introduced a regulation, by which, in every town and village,* the Captain of the militia of the place (however ill-qualified for the situation in every other respect) became perpetual Alcalde ; the first and second lieu- tenants, Regidores; and the first serjeant, Procurador (or legal adviser) to the corporation, thus singularly formed; with due provision for replacing them, when absent, by the next in rank, according to military gradation. By this ab- surd system, in these distant provinces, where the Munici- palities were the only tribunals for the decision of all petty disputes, a corporal, or even a private, in the absence of his superiors, was entrusted with the administration of justice in villages inhabited by fifty or sixty respectable proprietors, whose only remedy against the absurdities, into which his Ignorance might betray him,-|- was an appeal to the governor of the Province, or to the Audiencia of Chihuahua, which was always attended with the most vexatious uncertainty and expense.
- Vide the Memorial presented to the Cortes of Cadiz, in 1811, by Mr.
Ramos Arizpe, deputy for the pi-ovince of Cohahuila. f One can hardly credit the possibility of so singular an instance of oppression, and that affecting not an individual, but four whole Pro- vinces, (Cohahuila, New Leon, Santander, and Texas;) but I have had opportunities of ascertaining the correctness of the statements given by Mr. Ramos Arizpe on the subject, and know that they may be depended upon.
