238 MEXICO. to circulate, until it had received the Regium Exequatur, or Placet, from the Council of the Indies. The causes of this extreme circumspection, on the part of Spain, I have explained in the Section which treats of her Colonial Policy, (Book I. Section IV.) It gave a peculiar character to the whole religious system of America, and pre- pared the way for that spirit of independence, which has been displayed by most of the New States in their intercourse with the See of Rome, since their assumption of a political existence. But this was not the only effect produced by the applica- tion of the ordinary principles of the Colonial System of Spain to the ecclesiastical institutions of the Colonies. In Mexico, at least, it may be regarded as one of the principal causes of the Revolution. The Secular, or Parochial Clergy, shared in all the dis- advantages under which their Creole countrymen were con- demned to labour, by the jealous policy of the Mother coun- try. They were excluded from the higher degrees of Church preferment, and left to fulfil the laborious duties of parish priests, while the Bishoprics, the Deaneries, and the Chap- ters of the different Cathedrals, were filled by old Spaniards, many of whom never saw the country, in which they were destined to hold so conspicuous a station, until they were sent out to enter at once upon its richest benefices. It is true that some of these new Dignitaries displayed a spirit truly apostolical; while others have left monuments of their munificence, which prove, that they regarded their revenues, not as a patrimony, but as held in trust for the benefit of their adopted country.* Still they were strangers, — they were, a privileged Caste, they held what they did hold
- I allude more particularly to the establishment of hospitals, which
seems to have been general in all the Bishoprics, and to the construction of the magnificent Aqueduct of Valladolid, the work of one of the Bishops of that See.
