230 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



of Mexico returned to his relldence, while the other be- 

 gan with the utmoft diligence to make reformations in 

 the court of Tezcuco. 



The kingdom of Acolhuacan was not then in fuch 

 good order and regulation as Techotlala had left it. The 

 dominion of the Tepanecas, and the revolutions which 

 had happened in the laO: twenty years had changed the 

 government of the people, weakened the force of the 

 laws, and caufed a number of their cuftoms to fall into 

 difufe. Nezahualcojotl, who, befides the attachment 

 which he had to his nation was gifted with uncommon 

 prudence, made fuch regulations and changes in the ftate 

 that in a little time it became more flourifliing than it had 

 ever been under any of his predecelTors. He gave a 

 new form to the councils which had been eftablifhed by 

 his grandfather. He conferred offices on perfons the 

 fitteft for them. One council determined caufes purely 

 civil, in which, among others, five lords who had proved 

 conftantly faithful to him in his adverfity, aflifted. An- 

 other council judged of criminal caufes, at which the 

 two princes his brothers, men of high integrity, prefided. 

 The council of war was compofed of the moft diftin- 

 guiflied military characters, among whom Icotihuacan, 

 fon-in-law to the king and alfo one of the thirteen nobles 

 of the kingdom, had the firft rank. The treafury -board 

 confided of the king's major-domos, and the firfi: mer- 

 chants of the court. The principal major-domos who 

 took charge of the tributes and other parts of the royal 

 income, were three in number. Societies fimilar to aca- 

 demies were inftituted for poetry, aftronomy, mufic, 

 painting, hiftory, and the art of divination, and he in- 

 vited the moft celebrated profelTors of his kingdom to 

 his court, who met on certain days to communicate their 



difcoveries 



