INTRODUCTION. 



65 



different cities, but the chief magistrate of the place^ 

 is always the honorary president of tlie cabildo. 

 These municipalities have been compared to the Ro- 

 man dicuriones, established in their distant provinces. 

 Although not elected by the people, they are regard- 

 ed as their representatives, and are connected with 

 them by ties and interests, which the viceroys and 

 oydores are not allowed to form, or entertain. I 

 scarcely know an instance in which they have not 

 taken side with the people. They have been uni- 

 formly the organ through which their sentiments have 

 been expressed. In the present contest, the cabildos 

 have generally taken the lead in casting off the royal 

 authority, and we are informed by Guerra, that in 

 Mexico, on account of this well known inclination, 

 they were for a time suppressed. These municipal 

 bodies, intended at first to oversee the details of 

 the police, had a constant tendency in America, to 

 acquire greater importance and influence with the peo- 

 ple, on account of the variety of circumstances suffi- 

 €iently obvious to the reflecting mind; while at the 

 same time, similar institutions in Spain were every 

 day becoming of less account. While in America, 

 there existed a state of things favorable to liberty, in 

 the facility of obtaining subsistence, and the absence of 

 comparatively oppressive exactions from the state, 

 and the owners of fiefs |in Spain, the people were 

 ground and oppressed by tax gatherers, landlords, 

 and the clergy, and at the same time assailed by the 

 ills of poverty and want. 



These are the leading features of the civil govern- 

 ment. The only popular branch was possessed of 

 very limited powers compared, to our local legisla- 



VOL. I. 9 



