Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/478

450 450 FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. I'ART n. Orgaiiiza- lion of coun- cils. death. *^ How deeply it engaged her mind in that hour, is evinced by the clause in her codicil, in which she bequeaths the consummation of the work, as an imperative duty, to her successors. ^° It was not completed till the reign of Philip the Second ; and the large proportion of Ferdinand and Isabella's laws, admitted into that famous com- pilation, shows the prospective character of their legislation, and the uncommon discernment with which it was accommodated to the peculiar genius and wants of the nation. ^^ The immense increase of empire, and the cor- responding developement of the national resources, not only demanded new laws, but a thorough re- organization of every department of the adminis- 49 At the head of these, undoubt- edly, must be placed Dr. Alfonso Diaz de Montalvo, noticed more than once in the course of this History. He illustrated three suc- cessive reigns by his labors, which he continued to the close of a long life, and after he had become blind. The Catholic sovereigns highly ap- preciated his services, and settled a pension on him of 30,000 marave- dies. Besides his celebrated compi- lation of the " Ordenancas Reales," he wrote commentaries on the an- cientcode of the "Fuero Real," and onihe " Siete Partidas," printed for the first time under his own eye, in I49I. (Mendez, Typographia Espanola, p. 183.) Marina (En- sayo, p. 405) has bestowed a beautiful eulogium on this venera- ble lawyer, who first gave to light the principal Spanish codes, and introduced a spirit of criticism into the national jurisprudence. 50 This gigantic work was com- mitted, wholly or in part, to Dr. Lorenzo Galindez de Carbajal. He labored many years on it, but the results of his labors, as elsewhere noticed, have never been communi- cated to the public. See Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, pp. 50, 99. — Marina, Ensayo, pp. 392, 40C, and Clemencin, whose Ilust. 9. exhibits a most clear and satisfactory view of the legal compilations under this reign. 51 Lord Bacon's comment on Henry VIT.'s laws, might apply with equal force to these of Ferdi- nand and Isabella. " Certainly his times for good commonwealth's laws did excel. ***** For his laws, whoso marks them well, are deep, and not vulgar ; not made upon the spur of a particular occasion for the present, but out of providence of the future, to make the estate of his people still more and more happy ; after the manner of the legislators in ancient and heroical times." Hist, of Henry VH., Works, (ed. 1819,) vol. v. p. CO.