1824, issued a Decree "prohibiting the States from taking any measures calculated to diminish the revenues of the Church, without the full concurrence of the Ecclesiastical Authorities, until the time should arrive, at which the General Congress should think it expedient to enact a law for the regulation of the right of Patronage throughout the Republic."
This measure, although it has been much criticised, was undoubtedly productive of the very best effects, as it put a stop to encroachments on the part of the States, for which the country was by no means prepared, and yet left the door open for all necessary reforms, wherever there was an attempt to exercise Spiritual jurisdiction, in such a manner as to affect the rights and privileges of any other class of citizens. For, it is to be observed, that the Decree, while it prohibits any attempt to trench upon the revenues of the Church, does not prohibit the interference of the States with regard to the mode in which these revenues are collected.
Advantage has been taken of this opening, in almost every part of the Federation, in order to abolish the Tribunal de Haceduria, or Court of Tithes, before which all cases connected with the collection of tithes were brought and decided, in dernier resort, by the Canons, who were thus both parties and judges in their own cause. The mode of abolition has varied in the different States. In Durango, the right of decision is vested in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice: in Valladolid, San Luis Pŏtŏsī, Guana-
