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VII.

state. Its fpirit and principles feem to have BOOK operated in the New World in the fame manner as in the ancient. The jurisdiction of the crown was extremely limited. All real and effective authority was retained by the Mexican nobles in their own hands, and the fhadow of it only left to the king. Jealous to excefs of their own rights, they guarded with the most vigilant anxiety against the encroachments of their fovereigns. By a fundamental law of the empire, it was provided that the king fhould not determine concerning any point of general importance, without the approbation of a council compofed of the prime nobility ". Unless he obtained their confent, he could not engage the nation in war, nor could he difpofe of the most confiderable branch of the public revenue at pleasure; it was appropriated to certain purposes from which it could not be diverted by the regal authority alone w. In order to fecure full effect to those constitutional restraints, the Mexican nobles did not permit their crown to descend by inheritance, but difpofed of it by election. The right of election feems to have been originally vested in the whole body of nobility, but was afterwards committed to fix electors, of whom the

" Herrera, dec. 3. lib. ii. c. 19. lib. iv. c. 16. Corita MS. w Herrera, dec. 3. lib. iv. c. 17.

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VII.

BOOK Chiefs of Tezeuco and Tacuba were always two. From refpect for the family of their monarchs, the choice fell generally upon fome perfon fprung from it. But as the activity and valour of their prince were of greater moment to a people perpetually engaged in war, than a strict adherence to the order of birth, collaterals of mature age or of distinguished merit were often preferred to those who were nearer the throne in direct defcent. To this maxim in their policy, the Mexicans appear to be indebted for fuch a fucceffion of able and warlike princes, as raised their empire in a fhort period to that extraordinary height of power which it had attained when Cortes landed in New Spain.

Power and fplendour of their monarchs.

WHILE the jurifdiction of the Mexican monarchs continued to be limited, it is probable that it was exercifed with little oftentation. But as their authority became more extenfive, the splendour of their government augmented. It was in this last state that the Spaniards beheld it; and ftruck with the appearance of Montezuma's court, they describe its pomp at great length, and with much admiration. The number of his attendants, the order, the filence, and the reve

* Acofta, lib. vi. c. 24. Herrera, dec. 3. lib. ii. c. 13. Corita MS.

rence

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rence with which they ferved him; the extent BOOK of his royal manfion, the variety of its apartments allotted to different officers, and the oftentation with which his grandeur was difplayed, whenever he permitted his fubjects to behold him, seem to resemble the magnificence of the ancient monarchies in Afia, rather than the fimplicity of the infant ftates in the New World.

their go

BUT it was not in the mere parade of royalty Order of that the Mexican potentates exhibited their vernment. power; they manifefted it more beneficially in the order and regularity with which they conducted the internal administration and police of their dominions. Complete jurisdiction, civil as well as criminal, over its own immediate vaffals, was vefted in the crown. Judges were appointed for each department, and if we may rely on the account which the Spanish writers give of the maxims and laws upon which they founded their decifions with refpect to the diftribution of property and the punishment of crimes, justice was administered in the Mexican empire with a degree of order and equity resembling what takes place in focieties highly civilized.

for the fup

port of it,

THEIR attention in providing for the fupport Provifion of government was not lefs fagacious. Taxes were laid upon land, upon the acquifitions of

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BOOK industry, and upon commodities of every kind

VII. exposed to fale in the public markets. These

Their police.

duties were confiderable, but not arbitrary or unequal. They were impofed according to eftablished rules, and each knew what share of the common burden he had to bear. As the use of money was unknown, all the taxes were paid in kind, and thus not only the natural productions of all the different provinces in the empire, but every species of manufacture, and every work of ingenuity and art, were collected in the public ftore-houses. From those the emperor fupplied his numerous train of attendants in peace, and his armies during war, with food, with clothes, and ornaments, People of inferior condition, neither poffeffing land nor engaged in commerce, were bound to the performance of various fervices. By their stated labour the crown-lands were cultivated, public works were carried on, and the various houfes belonging to the emperor were built and kept in repair ".

THE improved state of government among the Mexicans is confpicuous, not only in points effential to the being of a well-ordered fociety, but in feveral regulations of inferior confequence

y Herrera, dec. 2. lib. vii. c. 13. dec. 3. lib. iv. c. 16, 17. See NOTE XXXII.

The

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with respect to police. The inftitution which I BOOK have already mentioned, of public couriers, ftationed at proper intervals, to convey intelligence from one part of the empire to the other, was a refinement in police not introduced into any kingdom of Europe at that period. structure of the capital city in a lake, with artificial dykes, and caufeways of great length, which ferved as avenues to it from different quarters, erected in the water, with no lefs ingenuity than labour, feems to be an idea that could not have occurred to any but a civilized people. The fame obfervation may be applied to the structure of the aqueducts, or conduits, by which they conveyed a stream of fresh water, from a confiderable distance, into the city, along one of the causeways. The appointment of a number of perfons to clean the streets, to light them by fires kindled in different places, and to patrole as watchmen during the night, discovers a degree of attention which even polished nations are late in acquiring.

THE progrefs of the Mexicans in various arts, Their arts. is confidered as the most decifive proof of their fuperior refinement. Cortes, and the early

? See NOTE XXXIII.

a Herrera, dec. 2. lib. viii, c. 4. Torribio MS.

Spanish

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