ego, a denomination not even given to some of the viceroys of provinces, in the Peninsula itself.* Chanceries and Audiencias, or high courts of justice, were established, with the same privileges and pre-eminence as those of Spain; also, universities, on the same footing as that of Salamanca, and municipalities, as in the Peninsula. The archbishops and bishops were made independent of Spain, and of even each other. The Spanish American provinces, were, moreover, allowed to hold their Cortes of the deputies of the cities and towns; and in New Spain, the capital of Mexico held the first place, as Burgos did in the Cortes of Castile. In the Cortes of the south division of America, Cusco, from being the ancient seat of the Incas of Peru, was entitled to the first place.† Nor ought it be forgotten,'this is a privilege which cven the province of Galicia in Spain, never obtained.

This right, was, indeed, never exercised in America, but it never was revoked. It was decreed, by Charles V, in 1530, and the privilege of Tlaxcala having the second scat, immediately after Mexico, in the Cortes of New Spain, was granted by Charles I. on March 13, 1535, and confirmed by Phillip II. on July 16, 1563. Even in Spain, during the reign of Charles V, the usage of assembling Cortes ceased; for the regent Cisneros, overturning the barriers which had been placed by the people, to check the arbitrary conduct of their sovereigns, by means

*The viceroy of Navarre alone, had a similar denomination, because this kingdom, like these of America, was dependent only on the king; nor was any law promulgated in Spain, binding therein, unless accepted by its own Cortes. Vide Revolucion de Mexico, tom. 2, lib. 14, et alibi.

+ Vide, Recop. Leyes Ind. by 2, tit. 8, lib. 4; also, Rea! Cedula de 25 de Marzo, 1535; also Ibid, lib. 4, tit. 8, lib. 4, et alibi.

of the armed force he had at his command, excluded the grandees and prelates from the Cortes in 1538; thereby reducing this popular representation solely to the deputies of the towns and cities, from whom he stood in need of subsidies for the public service. From that time, the Cortes declined, in such a way, as to become a mere ceremony, to swear in a new king; and in fact, the general Cortes were never since assembled for public business, till lately in La Isla de Leon.

§ The whole of Spanish America, as before stated, was governed by a supreme council, called of the Indies, equal in honours and in power with that of Castile, and so independent of it, and of all other branches of government, that no law premulgated in Spain, nor even a bull of the Pope, was legal or valid on the other side of the Atlantic, unless authorized by the seal of the said council of the Indies. Like that of Castile, it was further empowered to enact laws relating to America, in concurrence with the king. A code of particular laws, was also given to the American provinces, but the monarchical constitution, was declared equally extending to them.

§ Such were the rights, privileges, and equality granted and sanctioned by the respective sovereigns of Spain, to the discoverers and settlers of the new world; such as they are yet found in their own legislative code, and in the primitive grants, charters, and compacts, on which their possession of these countries, was founded. From these faithful sources, it is, as well as from the ancient histories of the conquest, that the above grounds have been extracted. Hence may it fairly be deduced, that the relative situation of the ultramarine provinces to Spain, originally, was not that of dependent colonies on

a parent state; but that they were, by their own prerogatives, and by the laws themselves, made equal with Castile, and were even placed on a more eligible footing than their sister provinces of the Peninsula, which, like themselves, had been successively added to the said crown of Castile. It further results, that the king was their chief, if not, only and immediate bond of union.

Humboldt, who was not only theoretically conversant with the legislation of Spanish America, but also confessedly, the most accurate and enlightened observer who has visited those long secluded regions, expressly says, "that the Kings of Spain, by taking the title of Kings of the Indies, have considered these distant possessions, rather as integral parts of the Spanish monarchy, as provinces dependent on the crown of Castile, than as colonies in the sense attached to this word, since the sixteenth century, by the commercial nations of Europe.* In another part of the same work, he adds, "According to old Spanish laws, each viceroyalty is not governed as a domain of the crown, but as an insulated province, separated from the mother country. All the institutions, that together form an European government, are to be found in the Spanish colonies, which we might compare to a system of confederated states, were the colonists not deprived of several important rights in their commercial relations with the old world.† Solórzano, one of the compilers of the laws of the Indies, and besides, one of the most learned of the Spanish jurisconsults of his time, confesses, "that the Indies were incorporated to the crown of Castile, as feudatory king

Essai Politique, chap. 12, lib.5.

Ibid, chap. 6, liv. 13.

doms, or as the municipia of the Romans, without losing any of their rights, forms, privileges, &c.*

In strict accord with the laws of the Indies, and conformably to the records of the discovery, conquest, and. settlement of the great continent of Spanish America, it plainly results, that its constitution was founded on mutual compacts made with the first conquerors and the indigenes, guaranteed by the faith of kings'; and afterwards modeled on such laws and charters as were successively emitted, according to circumstances, and the relative situation in which the conquerors and settlers stood, whilst their rights and privileges were yet fresh and undisputed. No part of these same rights, was ever surrendered up by the original settlers or their descendants; and the present natives of Spanish America, as their direct and lawful heirs, of course, have inherited every prerogative thereby solemnly pledged to their forefathers, and sanctioned by the most solemn governmental faith.

§ Experience had, indeed, proved, that these laws, rights, charters and privileges, had long been trampled upon, and that, in their stead, had been substituted a - practical colonial policy, undoubtedly adapted to insure control, as far as ignorance and abjection could depress the mind, so as to take from its energy, and make servitude habitual. But, as the ultramarine provinces, have, already been proved, equal in their ancient constitution with those of Spain, independent of her councils and - tribunals, and equal in rights, as well by virtue of their subsequent laws, as by their primitive social compact, this abuse became not only unjust, but also unwarrantable; and the natives are now fully authorized to sue

Polit. Ind. lib. 2. cap. 27.

for its removal. If such, moreover, were their rights, privileges, and prerogatives; if such was the social compact originally and solemnly instituted in favour of the first settlers, and if these agreements have not been fulfilled to their children, the present generation, as their rightful inheritors, are justifiable in claiming, and in recovering them by every means in their power; and their being any longer withheld, is an act of tyranny on the part of the Spanish government. Nay, by their long forbearance, they are doubly entitled to insist on the due performance of a convention, strengthened by as explicit and binding acts of the legislature, as sagacity could frame, and language express.

§ By the force of habit, and the pressure of despotism, as well as by the exclusion from the perusal of every thing liberal and enlightened, gradually the Spanish Americans, instead of equal subjects, had become dependent vassals, and their rights and privileges, were scarcely to be found, but in their Statute books. Were these, however, to be examined carefully, and the primitive history of the ultramarine provinces to be attentively perused, it would not only appear, that their sole bond of political union with the mother country, was the person of the king; but, that, from being in their constitution independent of every branch of government, not immediately and directly emanating from him, when this bond became dissolved, they naturally re-assumed all their political and social rights, as free men. The powerful confraternity which united the Spanish inhabitants of both hemispheres, and their reciprocal and social connections, naturally prescribed the propriety and necessity of preserving this union; yet, it is, at the same time, certain, that prior to the unjustifiable abuse