Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/503

Rh supreme court. These are the secondary elections. The returns are sent to the general congress, which, having erected itself into an electoral college, declares who have been elected. The primary elections are held on the last Sunday in June, and the secondaries commence on the second Sunday in July of each election year.

The administration of justice has ever been in a sad condition, owing to frequent change of constitutions and administrations, with consequent variations in the judicial system, and of judges, who were at one time perpetual, at another appointed by dictatorial authority or elected for brief terms, and with the selection of persons often worthless in character or unacquainted with law. With none to check or hold them responsible midst the shifting of power, they fell more readily into the general corruption, until justice became a mockery, and at the free disposal of the bidder or the bully. Since the reign of the new constitution greater order has prevailed.

The laws are based on those established during the colonial period, modified to suit republican and progressive times, largely after the Code Napoléon, and published in a series of special collections; but the