Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/471

Rh, the governor was practically relieved from the duties attendant thereon by the process of referring to the audiencia of Guadalajara all judicial matters coming to him on appeal. Thus he was enabled to devote a large portion of his attention to military and financial affairs with perfect independence of any New World authority. Full particulars upon this new organization are given in another subdivision of my work. Suffice it to add here that after this part of the plan had undergone several changes, a final arrangement was made under royal decrees of the 23d and 24th of November, 1792, with the reorganization of a comandancia general de provincias internas, comprising Sonora, Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Texas, and Coahuila, independent of the viceroy. The two Californias, Nuevo Leon, and the colony of Nuevo Santander were attached to the viceroyalty of New Spain. This last arrangement went into effect in 1793, and was still in force in the early years of the present century.

The other part of the plan adopted by the crown in 1769 upon the joint recommendation of the marqués de Croix and Visitador general Galvez, on the 15th of January, 1768, for an entire change in the organization of the government, was that of suppressing the corregidores and alcaldes mayores, of whom there were about two hundred in the districts of the audiencias of Mexico and Guadalajara. These officials were deemed prejudicial, for the reason that having to support themselves, to pay off the debts contracted for obtaining their office, and to retire with a fortune, they resorted to any means to secure these ends. Viceroy Linares gave them a bad