354 



HISTOKY OF MEXICO. 



fliort, with refpe& to the American languages he ought 

 to repofe in the judgment of thofe Europeans who have 

 known them, rather than in the opinion of thofe who 

 have not. 



SECT. Wh 



Of the Laws of the Mexicans. 



MR. de Paw, defirous of oppofing that antiquity 

 which Gemelli, by miftake, has attributed to the court 

 of Mexico, alleges the anarchy of their government, and 

 the fcarcity of their laws ; and treating of the govern- 

 ment of the Peruvians, fays, that there cannot be laws 

 in a ftate of defpotifm ; and although they may have 

 once been, it is impoffible to make an analyfis of them, 

 becaufe we do not know them ; nor can we know them, 

 becaufe they were never written, and the memory of 

 them neceffarily terminated with the death of thofe who 

 knew them. 



No body has made mention of the anarchy of the 

 kingdom of Mexico till M. de Paw came to the world, 

 whofe brain feems to have a particular organization to 

 underftand things in a manner contrary to all other men. 

 No perfon is fo ignorant of the hiftory of Mexico, as 

 not to know that thofe people were fubjected to parti- 

 cular heads and the whole ftate to a chief who was king 

 of Mexico. All hiftorians record the great authority of 

 that fovereign, and the high refpecl his vaflals bore 

 him : if this is anarchy, then all the dates of the world 

 are furely anarchifed. ^ 



Defpotifm was not introduced into Mexico until the 

 lafl: years of the monarchy : in prior times the kings had 

 always refpe&ed the laws eftablifhed by their anceftors, 



and 



