Merits and Demerits of "Residencias." 155 King's power to be felt and feared; and, accord- B. XIV. ingly, it occupies an important part in the legis- Ch. 3. lation specially framed for the Indies.* demerits of resi means for wrongs The merits and demerits of this practice of Merits and taking a residencia, admit of much discussion and dispute. It can hardly be doubted that some of dencias. the enormous abuses which have grown up in the legal system of modern states could not have been maintained, if the suffering suitors had, year after year, possessed such ready means for making their A ready wrongs known and felt, as these residencias making afforded. On the other hand, it must be remem- known. bered that the even hand of justice may be disturbed by fear as well as by fraud. There is an expression in one of the Spanish jurists which indicates the great objection to which residencias were liable on this head. He says that, during these visitations, the magistrates become timid But likely (los magistrades se acobardan). And this is but a judges small part of the danger; for the cowardice in timid. question, except in the case of very great or very just men, must have been preying upon them from their first entry into office. An apprehension of the weight of calumny to be let loose at some time or other in a residencia must have oppressed and scared them, like an evil phantom sitting by their sides, on the seat of judgment, and must have made them apt to think of something else besides justice. The jurist before quoted declares, that in his experience, good judges have run * See RECOPILACION DE LEYES de los Reynos de las Indias, mandadas imprimir y publicar por la Magestad Católica del Rey Don Carlos II. Nuestro Señor. Madrid, 1791. to render 156 Merits and Demerits of "Residencias.” B. XIV. more risk than bad judges.* A viceroy of Peru, who Ch. 3. had doubtless suffered from one of these residentiary visits, compares it to one of the hurricanes known in the New World, which sweeps from the streets and market-places every kind of dust and dirt and refuse, and heaps it upon the devoted heads of those who have to endure the tempest.† The good and brave man faced the hurricane, as became his honest consciousness of right, while the cunning, prudent men ("hijos del siglo," the jurist calls them) were likely to have provided by wrong-doing some shifty covering for themselves. The of a judge One great evil connected with the system of residencias was, that the judge who came to hold attendants the residencia was attended by a set of harpies, in the shape of clerks, who were prone to take gifts from suitors, and whose interest it was that the proceedings should be prolonged, and that there should be an abundance of writing. of residencia very noxious. Some *"I aun la experiencia me ha enseñado, que tienen otro trabajo, í es, que muy de ordenario peligran mas en ellas los juezes buenos í temerosos de Dios, que los barateros, í cohechados." SOLÓRZANO, Política Indiana, lib. 5, cap. 10, p. 841. "I se lo oí dezir al Marques de Montesclaros Virrey del Perú que comparaba estas visitas á los torvellinos, que suele aver en las plaças í calles, que no sirven sino de levantar el polvo, í paja, í otras horruras, de ellas, í hazer que se suban á las cabeças."SOLÓRZANO, Política Indiana, lib. 5, cap. 9, p. 840. "Tambien es de advertir el gravísimo daño, digno de remedio, que causan los Escribanos, que van con los Jueces de Residencia, de lo qual hago testigos á todos los que ante ellos han sido residenciados; porque conmunmente, sin respeto de conciencia, ni temor del castigo, se cohechan, y á montones llevan dineros, y otras dádivas de los litigantes, por vias improbables, y ocultas; y al que no negocia por este camino, bien se le echa de ver en su despacho. Tras esto, porque haya mucho papel, y escritura en la residencia, son Fiscales del Corregidor, y de sus Merits and Demerits of "Residencias." 157 Ch. 3. thing similar to this, however, is to be seen in all B. XIV. legal proceedings; and a sound remedy for legal abuses will never be accomplished, until it is made the interest of many obscure persons, that lawsuits should be swiftly disposed of. completing In the Indies, delay, the natural friend and Delays in follower of law, grew to a great height. In the resigood old times, a residencia would have lasted dencias. thirty or fifty days. But there was one residencia in the New World which dragged out a weary length of twenty years; and another is recorded which never came to an end.* dencias a fortuitous It is clear, too, that these residencias must Resihave been singularly subject to chance—to the enmity of the judges who came to take the resi- remedy. dencia-to the particular events which had occurred in the colony just before the residencia was held, and to the favour or disfavour which the governor about to suffer residencia was known to be held in at Court. In the case of the worst governor, Pedrarias Davila, that the Indies had ever known, the only residencia held upon him was utterly without Ministros, y solicitan que les pongan capítulos, y demandas." -BOVADILLA, Política para Corregidores, tom. 2, lib. 5, cap. I, p. 493. "I la de la Audiencia de Lima, que se cometió al Licenciado Bonilla, que murió electo Arçobispo de México, de que tratan muchas cédulas del tercer tomo de las impressas, duró mas de veinte años, í primero que se acabasse, murió él, í los visitados, 158 Merits and Demerits of "Residencias.” B. XIV. avail,* as it was known that after the residencia Ch. 3. he was to be reinstated as governor; and woe to the unfortunate individual who should be rash enough to bring any charge against so vindictive a man who, in a few months, would be in full power again! *"Pero como todos conosçian pues no confiaban de tal manera questa residencia era grangeada de juzgado, ni á ninguno conpor Pedrarías, é que passada, se venia pedir ni enojar al que se avia de quedar en el mesmo avia de quedar mandando la officio de gobernador, començaron tierra, porque despues no le los cuerdos á burlar é murmurar destruyesse por tal causa; é assí de tal cuenta, porque les paresçia ninguno ovo tan falto de sesso que era mejor disimular sus que se pusiesse en tal jornada, quexas é agravios que no trabaxar pues avia de ser tiempo perdido." é andar caminos en valde, gas--OVIEDO, Hist. Gen. y Nat. tando dineros, si allí fuessen; de Indias, lib. 29, cap. 17. CHAPTER IV. THE RESIDENCIA OF CORTES-DEATH OF PONCE DE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO-PONCE DE LEON'S INSTRUCTIONS THE serpent of Cortes to the HE residencia of Cortes was commenced; B. XIV. and during the whole time that it lasted Ch. 4. (namely, seventeen days), not a single charge was brought against him.* In his fifth letter to the Emperor, he successfully repels the The reply accusations, made against him by tongues," with regard to his wealth and posses- accusations sions, asserting that, if he has received much, he against has spent much more, and that, too, not in buying heritages for himself, but in extending the patrimony of the King. He declares, that, at the present moment, he is poor, and much indebted.† made him. |