JOURNEY TO GUATEMALA. 



19 



every species of vice reigned with impunity ; and in this 

 state of things, the subaltern magistracy, if not guilty of 

 connivance, were at least unpardonably remiss in the per- 

 formance of their duty. 



The measures adopted by the General for establishing a 

 new order of things, and for removing the Augean impuri- 

 ties which had collected in all the branches of his govern- 

 ment, deserve consideration ; while the fearless zeal and 

 untiring perseverance displayed in the pursuit of these 

 objects, evince the spirit' and character of the man. 



His first step was to extinguish the existing police, who 

 were justly regarded as accomplices of the offenders against 

 the laws, and to appoint certain commissioners, who, for the 

 preservation of order, were to patrol the streets by turns, 

 and to render him daily an exact account of every occur- 

 rence within their respective districts : a duty, in the per- 

 formance of which, they were subjected to the strictest 

 responsibility. A night watch was also instituted, who, as 

 well as the commissioners, were attended in their rounds 

 by a guard of soldiers. The edicts against gambling and 

 the use of prohibited weapons, were renewed and enforced. 

 Fifty-four individuals, and among them some persons of 

 rank, who were notorious for vicious and disorderly habits, 

 were banished from the Island, but not without due ob- 

 servance of the forms of justice. 



An inspection of the jails was next effected, and a num- 

 ber of prisoners, after a close but prompt consideration of 

 their cases by the tribunals, were either restored to liberty, 

 or sentenced to various punishments. A class of convicts, 

 whom the law had condemned to an unprofitable confine- 

 ment, were at the same time drawn forth from their cells, 

 and made to labour in the public works ; much to their own 

 advantage, from their being allowed a small stipend, and to 

 that of society, from the service thus rendered to it. 



The public hospitals, being in a most lamentable state 

 from the mismanagement of their resources, and other 

 causes, were also made the subject of strict investigation : 



