CHAPTER XII. CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS. VARIOUS NA CHANGES OF THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION. PRESENT ORGANIZATION OF THE NATIONAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. CONSTITUTION OF 1847. LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIARY TIONAL AND STATE. JUDICIARY -ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCESS -- MAL-ADMINISTRATION STATISTICS OF CRIME IN THE CAPITAL MEXICAN OPINIONS. SINCE the downfall of Iturbide the body politic of Mexico has passed through many stages of revolutionary and factious disease. Four constitutions have been formed and adopted by the people or their temporary rulers independently of the Bases de Tacubaya, under which Santa Anna ruled despotically until the month of June, 1843. These are the Federal Constitution of 1824; the Bases y Leyes Constitutionales, or, Central Constitution of 1836; the Bases Organicas de la Republica Mejicana of 1843, and the restored Federal Constitution, with amendments by an acta de reformas, in 1847. Five great organic changes, in twenty-six years, have thus continually swayed the people between Federation and Centralism; and we may hope that, after all these vital alterations, besides all the minor military pronunciamientos or gritos, which, in the intervals have vexed the public tranquillity, the country has, at length settled down firmly upon the reliable basis of a great but balanced confederacy. The Constitution of 1847 creates a Federal Republic; and, with the exception of the intolerant articles in regard to religion upon which we have commented in the preceding chapter, it is a document worthy of freemen who desire to avoid consolidation and are anxious to preserve the distinct, responsible activity of their states. This instrument, after indicating the subdivision of the whole territory into the states heretofore enumerated in Chapter 1st, deposes the national legislative power in a Congress formed of a house of representatives and a senate, the representatives being chosen every two years by the citizens of the states, in the ratio of one for every fifty thousand souls or for any fraction beyond twenty-five CONSTITUTION OF 1847. 145 thousand, while the senate is composed of two members from each state, elected by the legislatures, one-third of that body being renewable every two years. There are now one hundred and forty deputies, each of whom receives a salary of three thousand dollars; and sixty-three senators, whose yearly pay is three thousand five hundred each. The executive power resides in a president, who is eligible every four years, and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of four years. There is no vice president; and, in case of the death or perpetual incompetency of the president, congress, or in its recess the council of government, shall call upon the state legislatures to fill his place by election. The ordinary and regular election of the chief magistrate, of deputies, senators and ministers of the supreme court of justice, is to be regulated by general laws, and may be either by the people directly or by electoral colleges; but in these indirect elections no one can be named, either as a primary or secondary elector, who holds a political office or exercises civil, ecclesiastical, or military jurisdiction in the district he represents. The salary of the president is thirty-six thousand dollars a year. During the recess of the general congress a council of government is to be constantly in existence, composed of one half of the senate, one member being retained from each state. The duties of this council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over the constitution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary sessions of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the president or by its sole act. The cabinet consists of a minister of foreign and domestic affairs; a minister of justice; a minister of finance; a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual salary of six thousand dollars. Each state government is independent within its local jurisdiction, and, like the federal government has, executive, legislative and judicial powers. The law making power of each of these governments resides in a legislature composed of the number of members which may be determined by its separate constituency, all of whom shall be elected by the people and removable at the time and in the manner they may think proper to decree. The persons to whom the sovereign states confide their executive power, can only exercise it for a time fixed by each respective state constitution. The power and jurisdiction of the national judiciary are amply defined so as to avoid conflict. The state judicial power is to be exercised by the tribunals created or appointed by the state constitutions, and all civil or criminal causes recognized by S 146 LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIARY NATIONAL AND STATE. those courts shall be conducted in them to a final hearing and to the execution of the sentence. Every male person either born in the republic or naturalized, who attains the age of twenty years, possesses the means of honest livelihood, and has not been sentenced by legal process for any infamous crime, is declared to be a citizen of Mexico, and enjoys the right to vote, to petition, to meet others in the discussion of public affairs and to belong to the national guard. The exercise of these rights of citizenship may however be suspended in consequence of confirmed intemperance, professional gambling, a vagabond life, the assumption of religious orders, by legal interdict, in virtue of crimes which cause loss of citizenship, and by inexcusable refusal to serve in public employment when appointed by the people. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. The federal constitution of 1824, introduced into Mexico, as we have seen, two general orders of tribunals; those of a federal or national character, and those of the states. The power of these judiciaries was deposited in a supreme court, and in circuit and district courts; and causes were taken from one to the other, by appeals, or in other words, passed by grades from the lowest to the highest, according to the nature of the transactions they involved. The jurisdiction of these courts was of course very extensive; yet it was not paramount or universal over all classes of Mexican society, inasmuch as large numbers of Mexicans were exempted by fueros or special privileged jurisdictions, from the control of the constitutional courts. The fueros were chiefly those of the military and ecclesiastics. There was a common military fuero in civil and criminal matters, which authorized the parties to have their causes tried before the commanding generals, and, on appeals, before the supreme tribunal of War and Marine, whilst there was another right of trial, or jurisdiction for military misdemeanors, before the council of war of general officers. There were, besides these, three special fueros of war; - one of artillery, one of engineers, and another of the active militia. The ecclesiastical fuero, gave an appeal from the bishop to the metropolitan, or from the archbishop to the nearest prelate; - if the metroplitan commenced a cause, an appeal lay to the bishop who was his nearest neighbor; and, on a third trial, to another neighboring episcopate. Notwithstanding these military and ecclesiastical fueros were permitted to exist by special favoritism after the republic was formed, the Mexicans suppressed, after 1824, the fueros of the JUDICIARY - ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 147 consulados and of the mineria, or the mercantile and mining tribunals, both of which were sanctioned by experience or convenience, and whose foundations had been laid in the best principles of jurisprudence. To compensate, however, for the destruction of such useful institutions, it was determined that, in the federal districts and territories, suits growing out of mercantile transactions should be decided, in the first instance, by the "Alcaldes" or judges de letras, with whom were associated two colleagues proposed by the parties, and from whom an appeal might be taken to the supreme court. No special tribunal was created for the mining interests. In the federal districts and territories a primary tribunal was constituted for the trial of culprits, before an Alcalde and two Regidores; from whom an appeal lay to another Alcalde or Regidor and two associates, one of whom was named by the Syndic, and the other by the criminal. This correctional police, which has since been somewhat modified, disposed summarily of the greater part of malefactors in Mexico, and was empowered to sentence to the extent of six years imprisonment. The central constitution of 1836 modified this judicial system, and constituted judges de partido,-Jueces Departamentales, and a supreme court. The federal jurisdiction was confined to admirality cases, fiscal transactions, and causes which concerned the public functionaries, while the military and ecclesiastical tribunals were left untouched. Santa Anna during his last administration suppressed the district and circuit judiciary, and extended the jurisdiction of the common tribunals. But he restored the mercantile and mining "fueros" which were loudly demanded by public opinion. One of the few really good and useful provisions of the Spanish constitution has always been preserved in all the changes of Mexican legislation. This is the judgment of conciliation, by which litigant parties were prohibited from originating an action until they procured a certificate from an Alcalde, who was not a lawyer, that a judgment by arbitration or conciliation had failed before him on trial. This is an admirable device and terminates multitudes of law suits in Mexico when men fear to encounter the costs and procrastination of the courts. It might be successfully grafted on our own system of tribunals, where it would doubtless benefit the clients though it might impair the professional revenue of the counsellors. By the readoption of the federal constitution of 1824, in the year 1847, the judicial system was brought back from the changes of 1836 and 1843 to its former condition. The laws of Mexico, founded upon the old Spanish colonial legislation, and improved, 148 CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCESS. in some measure, by the modification of state and national legislatures under the republic, constitute a vast and chaotic mass of principles, commentaries and decisions, which require a life time. of studious toil to master and expound. The mixture of constitutional tribunals and specially privileged jurisdictions, under the system of fueros, created a complication of judicial functions, which greatly narrowed the chances of a pure administration of law. The Mexican advocates, among whom many are distinguished for their learning and studious habits, are not, when considered as a professional body, comparable, either in information or ability, to their British, French, German or American brethren. The cumbrous formalities of Spanish law form a prolific hot-bed of special pleading, chicanery, and delay. A Mexican law suit is a proverb of procrastination. There are cases in Mexico in which the first paper was filed more than a hundred years ago. The suitor is not only impeded by every device that cunning and exaction can throw in his way, but there is cause to believe that the path of justice is sometimes impeded by the barrier of a bribe. If a Mexican lawyer is unable to force his cause to a final verdict, he is at least always prepared to assign plausible reasons for the tedious delay with which it halts and lingers in the forums. Nor is the value of legal costs unknown in Mexico, either by judges, notaries, or clerks. In proportion as the litigants are wealthy, or as it is necessary that their cause sho ld be speedily decided, so are the greedy officials slow in preparing it for a final hearing and decree. The maxim in Mexico is "mas vale una mala composicion que un buen pleito, a bad compromise is better than a good law suit. "There are "" - said a member of the Mexican cabinet to congress, in men, 1830,-"who exercise the right of life and death over their equals, whom the arm of justice does not venture to reach; and, thus, as the bonds of society are effectually dissolved, individuals owe security, rather to their personal power, than to the protection they have a right to expect from the laws. " There are many criminals throughout the republic who have long offended with impunity while every species of chicanery has been taken advantage of to secure their life and liberty. Witnesses are sometimes intimidated, false oaths sworn, and terrible menaces whispered in the ears of the timid; nor are these base threats always left unexecuted if the victim is finally condemned and punished. In the space of six months, during the end of 1841 and beginning of 1842, several horrible assassinations were perpetrated in |