SECRETARIA DE JUSTICIA. 
(SECRETARIAT OF JUSTICE.) 
When the Secretaria de Justicia y Negocios Eclesiasticos (Justice and 
Ecclesiastical Affairs) was created in 1821 there was assigned to it the 
supervision of: all matters relating to councils, supreme tribunals, justices and 
other civil authorities ; ecclesiastical matters in general, the presentation of 
archbishops, bishops, canons, curates, and other ecclesiastical employees ; 
everything relating to the religious establishments, secular and regular, includ- 
ing the provision of their employees, and the definition of their chapters; 
everything relating to the supreme councils (juntas) of surgery, medicine, 
pharmacy and veterinary medicine, the appointment of the members and their 
subordinates ; and the employees of the imperial palace, both ecclesiastic and 
secular. 
In 1837 the Secretaria became that of Interior (with Justicia, and Nego- 
cios Eclesiasticos attached). The functions of the interior department have 
been indicated under “ Secretaria de Gobernacion ”. The Secretaria de Jus- 
ticia y Negocios Eclesiasticos was soon reestablished independently, and in 
1853 it became the Secretaria de Justicia, Negocios Eclesiasticos, é Instruccion 
Publica.” In 1861 it became that of Justicia é Instruccién Publica. As has 
been indicated elsewhere (p. 316), the decree ordering the change also pro- 
vided that the archives of the suppressed department of Negocios Eclesiasticos 
should be distributed between the secretariats of Relaciones and Gobernacion, 
but it is evident from pp. 179-180 that this was not completely done. The func- 
tions assigned to this new secretariat were, (1) Judicial: the administration of 
justice, the supreme court, circuit courts, district courts, advocates, notaries, 
pardons, controversies before the federal tribunals, causes concerning piracy, 
expropriation for public use, codes, official collections of laws, decrees, judi- 
cial organization in the federal territories: (2) Educational: freedom of teach- 
ing, professional titles, primary, secondary, and professional instruction, na- 
tional colleges, special schools, academies, scientific, artistic, and literary 
societies, copyright, libraries, museums, national antiquities. By decree of 
Apr. 6 and Dec. 16, 1861, the secretariat became that of Justicia, Fomento, é 
Instruccion Publica, and there were organized, in 1862, the sections of Justicia 
y Mineria, Fomento, Instruccién Publica, Archivo, and Secretaria de la 
Sociedad de Geografia. Since 1905 the department has been that of Justice 
alone. 
Dependent on the secretariat there are three archives, none of which has 
great or general importance for the history of the United States. 
ARCHIVO DE JUSTICIA. 
(ARCHIVE OF JUSTICE.) 
The manuscripts in this collection date only from 1887, since in 1907-1908 
all of an earlier date were sent to the Archivo General y Publico (q. v., Sec- 
cidn de Justicia). The nature of the business of the secretariat and the 
* Dublan y Lozano, I. 554. 
® Ibid., IIT. 581, of 18309. 
* Ibid., V1. 400-401. 
374 
