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256 MEXICO. rights and privileges of any other class of citizens. For, it is to be observed, that the Decree, while it prohibits any at- tempt to trench upon the revenues of the Church, does no^ prohibit the interference of the States with regard to the mode in which these revenues are collected. Advantage has been taken of this opening, in almost every part of the Federation, in order to abolish the Tribunal de Haceduria, or Court of Tithes, before which all cases con- nected with the collection of tithes were brought and decided, in dernier resort^ by the Canons, who were thus both parties and judges in their own cause. The mode of abolition has varied in the different States. In Durango, the right of de- cision is vested in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice : in Valla- dolid, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, and Jalisco, Mixed Courts have been established, the shades of difference between which it would be unnecessary to point out : but in all, the spirit is the same ; and the determination to allow of no ex- tension of Spiritual jurisdiction to civil cases has been equally asserted. This step has not been taken without much resistance on the part of the Chapters ; and, in Guadalajara, the Canons have gone so far as to declare, " that they will give up their claim to any portion of the tithes, and subsist entirely upon the alms of the faithful, rather than allow one of their num- ber to become a member of the Mixed Court." But as the Congress, up to the period of my departure, had refused to interfere in the question, and has not, I believe, done so since, the measure will be gradually carried into execution in all the States, and will, I doubt not, be in full effect in most, before the end of the present year. The sums left at the disposal of the Cathedrals for Obras Pias, or charitable institutions, have furnished another source of contention in many parts of the Republic. These sums constitute, as we have seen, a part of the general funds of