180 



BENEVOLENT ESTABLISHMENTS. 



thority in June 1659, which time the count of Alba was 

 viceroy ; and in the same year the constitutions for its direc- 

 tive and economical order, were drawn up by the inquisitor, 

 Don Cristobal De Castilla, who h'ad been commissioned by 

 the tribunal to that effeft. 



The college was governed according to the spirit of these 

 constitutions until the year 1756, at which time it was found 

 indispensably necessary to new model them in some parts, 

 and to make additions and corredlions to them in others, ac- 

 cording as was required by the lapse of time, and the altera- 

 tion of circumstances*. This was effe6ted by the inquisitors 

 Don Mateo De Amusquibar, and Don Diego Delgado. The 

 constitutions having been modified in this manner, were re- 

 ' printed at the above time, and have since sufficed for the go- 

 vernment of the college, without the necessity of any further 

 innovations. What they stri6lly require, for the reception of 

 a female infant, is, that she shall be a foundling and a Spa- 

 niard\. On these heads the most precise information is 

 taken. 



The number of the college girls educated, fed, and clothed, 

 has varied with the increase or diminution of the funds of the 

 establishment. It consists at present of twenty-four of these 



'* Legislation, as well as all other sublunary things, grows old with the progress 

 of time. In that state its force is languid, and it resists its infradlions but feebly. If 

 we were to endeavour to govern men at this time according to the ordinances of the 

 Romans, or the Goths, there would be a perpetual contradidlion between the anti- 

 quity of the law and the force of custom ; at the same time that the influence of 

 opinion would be invariably in opposition to the accomplishment of what should be 

 commanded. — Political Reflexions, MS. 



f Ail those born in South America of Spanish parents, are reputed Spaniards. 



females, 



