Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/539

Rh viceroy; and thus it was able to carry out as late as 1767 such extraordinary measures as the expulsion of the Jesuits without serious trouble.

The administration of the different dominions of Spain re.sided in different councils, which possessed also legislative power and were wholly independent of each other, subject only to the sovereign who conferred with his ministers and his royal and supreme council of Castile. Thus the transoceanic possessions were intrusted to the supreme council of the Indies, holding permanent sessions at Madrid. Its jurisdiction extended to every department, civil, military, ecclesiastic, and commercial, with particular attention to the welfare of the Indians, and with the existing laws in Spain for guidance in framing cédulas, which together with royal decrees formed the laws for America. Its power corresponded to the vast extent of territory controlled; for by it viceroys and governors were made and unmade, also patriarchs and bishops, even the pope having here to submit for approval his bulls and briefs concerning the Indies.

For purpose of government the possessions were divided into viceroyalties, provinces of audiencias, of chancillerías reales, and of royal officials, adelantamientos, gobernaciones, alcaldías mayores, corregimientos, alcaldfas ordinarias and of hermandad, town consejos of Spaniards and Indians; and for spiritual administration into sees, parishes, religious provinces, and other divisions, which were intended to conform to the temporal boundaries. With the discovery of new abuses among the ever transgressing officials, new officers were created, thus forming wheels within wheels for watching watchers and carrying out the king's will. This division was the growth of centuries, and embraced toward the end of Spanish domination the four viceroyalties of Peru, New Spain, New