Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/297

MEXICO. the clergy, and many of them have, undoubtedly, not been employed according to the intentions of the testator. In Durango, copies of the original wills of two individuals^ who bequeathed to the Church funds for the express purpose of endowing schools, having been procured, the State Con- gress has demanded the restitution of a capital, which has been allowed to remain thirty years unemployed, or, at least, unappropriated in the manner prescribed. The Chapter re- fused at first to listen to this demand ; but finding no very great disposition on the part of the General Congress to inter- fere, it has avoided bringing matters to an extremity, by ad- vancing the money required by the Government, for projects of public utility, as a loan. In Guadalajara, the Canons, to avoid being called to a similar account, have commenced very extensive repairs in the Cathedral, all of which the fund of Obras Pias defrays. In other States similar precautions have been taken ; and the necessity for these, on the part of the Church, has led to a great deal of jealousy, and bad feeling, between the Ecclesi- astical and Civil authorities, which has been not a little in- creased by the circumstance of so many of the Canons being old Spaniards, against whom, individually and collectively, a decided spirit of hostility prevails. What I have said of the growing interference of the States in the affairs of the Bishoprics, is equally applicable to the Monastic Orders. There is no national act that vests, either in the Chambers, or in the Executive, or in the State Con- gresses, any legal right of control over them, nor is any such control exercised at the present moment, except in those general regulations, which I have already pointed out : but there are evident indications of an intention, on the part of the Congress, to take measures for restricting Novitiates under a certain age, and thus gradually to reduce the num- ber of Convents, by fixing, for each, a minimum of resident monks. VOL. I. S