Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/96

 90 could not convert. He was tolerant in religion, thus showing a spirit almost five hundred years in advance of his time. He instituted tribunals, and ordered that no lawsuit should be prolonged over eighty days; at the expiration of that time a general assembly met in the palace, and all cases pending were at once decided upon. This shows that he had a hatred of those vultures of the law that prey upon society. The unsettled state of



his kingdom called for severe laws; it makes one shudder to read of the penalties he caused to be inflicted: deaths for drunkenness, for treason to the state, for taking anything from another's field,—even the taking of seven ears of corn was enough to incur the penalty. But to provide for travellers passing through his kingdom, he caused the highways to be sown with corn, which was free to all. Another instance of his wisdom and foresight was the preservation of his forests. He fixed limits to their