ception of the value of the revenue derived from Mexico by Spain. But many parts of his Eighth Book (on the Colonial Policy of the Peninsula) are wonderfully correct; and in particular his observations both upon the mild spirit of the first Leyes de Indias, and the impossibility of enforcing them. His eulogy of the Council of the Indies,[1] though sound in theory, was not equally so in practice. It produced latterly none of those good effects, which were contemplated upon its first institution. The responsibility of the higher officers before it, as a tribunal, was merely nominal. Not one Viceroy suffered by the sentence of Residencia, with the exception of Iturrigaray, who did not deserve the severity with which he was treated. The schemes of improvement submitted to it were buried in the Archivo-general de Indias at Siguenza, where they still remain unnoticed and unknown. The most unjust decrees were obtained by bribery; and, latterly, the influence of the members of the Council was employed principally in stifling complaints, and supporting their respective proteges in the Colonial Audiencias against charges, which ought to have led to their immediate dismissal. In lieu, therefore, "of attributing to the wise regulations and vigilant inspection of this respectable tribunal, whatever degree of public order and virtue still remained in the Spanish Colonies," I should say that nothing had
- ↑ Robertson, Book viii. p. 20.
