The king in council, wishing to reward his efficiency and rectitude, directed that, after his surrender of the viceregal office and its appendages to his successor, there should be continued to him the address of Excelentísimo é Ilustrísimo Señor, and the honors of a captain-general, the viceroy's guard paying him during the rest of his life the same honors as when he held the office of viceroy. And this was done, although his successor was churlish enough to make objection. Not content with that, the king conferred on him the grand cross of the royal and distinguished order of Cárlos III. The seat in the royal council must have been given him at a much earlier date.[1]
The archbishop's course and exemplary life throughout his twenty-eight years of service had made him highly esteemed at court, as was evident in upward of one hundred and ten royal cédulas, letters, and other writings, from the king's ministers and council, which conveyed the approval of some act, and the appreciation of his merits.[2] After a year's painful illness the prelate died on the 26th of May, 1800, at the age of seventy years, an event that caused the deepest sorrow throughout all classes. He was the
- ↑ Among the printed works of that period in which he is mentioned with these honors is Xaroacharó, Josefa, Version parafrástica. The archbishop's efforts and large donations were not confined to benevolent, religious, and educational pui-poses. For the construction of a dockyard on the Alvarado River he gave $80,000; for the wars against France and England, $100,000 and $90,000 respectively; for printing the work entitled Flora Americana, $2,000; for a statue of Cárlos IV., $6,000; besides other considerable sums, including $37,000 for enlarging the archiepiscopal palace, and $24,000 in aid of the poor stricken by small-pox in 1797. None of the above contributions includes the annual and monthly alms he gave, nor his large presents to his cathedral church, nor the cost of gold and silver medals that he caused to be struck and sent to Spain to commemorate Cárlos IV. 's elevation to the throne. During his episcopacy Haro confirmed in parishes of his archdiocese nearly 700,000 persons, and ordained 11,197 priests, of whom 6,958 were secular and 4,239 regular of the several religious orders. Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 203-5.
- ↑ Rivera, Gob. Mex., i. 461; Id., Hist. Jalapa, 149; Alaman, Disert., iii. app. 77-8. Bustamante, who was not given to glorifying the men who held power during the Spanish domination, does full justice to the purity of purpose and valuable services to Mexico of this distinguished man: 'Su memoria será suave á la posteridad, excitará sentimientos de justa gratitud y alabanza.' Suplem., in Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 193. 'Pastor espiritual, el mas celoso y caritativo ejemplo de Padre de todos.' Panes, Vir., in Monum. Dom. Esp., MS., 55.
