Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/567

Rh installed in the beginning of the eighteenth century. This with its vigilant-like features of rapid movement, inflexible sternness, and swift meting of justice, spread a wholesome terror that proved lasting, and did more to check crime than anything else. The power over liberty and life accorded to this body, and at times to local magistrates, led naturally to many abuses, and consequently to certain restrictions, yet the remedy could not have been worse than the disease. Justice was too often defeated by its own officers; for few rose above the temptation of bribery, and many succumbed through insufficiency of pay. And who could severely blame them, when the king placed himself above the law and issued regular tariffs of prices, for which exemption could be granted from laws concerning offices and trade, birth and race stigma, and a host of other matters, often with utter disregard for common justice or public welfare? This tampering was promoted by supporting from prison fees the staff connected with this establishment. The rich could here surround themselves with comforts, people of standing enjoyed privileges, and those less favored could often be made to languish in jail for unpaid charges. A regidor must visit the prison every Saturday; in audiencia towns two oidores did so, attended by fiscal and alcalde, to investigate cases of wrongful detention or maletreatment.

Imprisonment for debt obtained here as elsewhere. Indians were surrendered to private creditors to work off their indebtedness, the pay being regulated