sorted. During nearly two years, he had haunted the province as a phantom of dubious authority. The efforts of the colonists, to prevent the transfer of their natal soil to a foreign prince, originated in their attachment to their own, and the Catholic king ought to have beheld in their conduct a pledge of their future devotion to himself. They had but lately seen their country severed, and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain; they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kindred; and were afterwards to be alienated, without their consent, and subjected to a foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few of them needed an apology, the common misfortune afforded it.

A few weeks afterwards, the proceedings against the six remaining prisoners were brought to a close. One witness only deposing against any of them, and circumstances corroborating the testimony, Boisblanc was condemned to imprisonment for life; Doucet, Mazent, John Milhet, Petit and Poupet were condemned to imprisonment for various terms of years. All were transported to Havana, and cast into the dungeons of the Moro Castle.

Conquered countries are generally allowed, at least during a few years, to retain their former laws and. usages. Louis the fifteenth, in his letter to d'Abadie, had expressed his hope, and declared he expected it from the friendship of the king of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquility of the inhabitants of Louisiana, orders would be given to the governors and other officers sent to the province, that the inferior judges, as well as those of the superior council, should be allowed to administer justice according to

the laws, forms, and usages of the colony. It is oppressive, in the highest degree, to require that a community should instantaneously submit to a total change in the laws that hitherto governed it, and be compelled to regulate its conduct by rules of which it is totally ignorant.

ana.

Such was, however, the lot of the people of LouisiA proclamation of O'Reilly, on the twentyfirst of November, announced to them that the evidence received during the late trials, having furnished full proof of the part the superior council had in the re volt during the two preceding years, and of the influence it had exerted in encouraging the leaders, instead of using its best endeavours to keep the people in the fidelity and subordination they owed to the sovereign, it had become necessary to abolish that tribunal, and to establish, in Louisiana, that form of government and mode of administering justice prescribed by the laws of Spain, which had long maintained the Catholic king's American colonies in perfect tranquillity, content, and subordination.

The premises might be true, but the conclusion was certainly illogical. The indiscreet conduct of a few of the members of the council, the violent measures adopted by some of the inhabitants, could not certainly be attributed to the organization of that tribunal, nor to the laws, customs and usages that had hitherto prevailed in the province. Aubry was about to depart; and were he to stay, the presidency of the council would not belong to him, but tothe Spanish chief. Foucault had been transported; La Freniere and De Noyant shot; and Boisblanc was in the dungeons of the Moro Castle. Nothing compelled the new sovereign to retain any of the old members as judges.

VOL. II.

2

The proclamation mentioned, that to the superior council a cabildo would be substituted, and be composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary alcades, an attorney-general-syndic, and a clerk; over which the governor would preside in person.

The offices of perpetual regidor and clerk were tọ be acquired by purchase, and for the first time, at auction. The purchaser had the faculty of transferring his office, by resignation, to a known and capable person, paying one half of its appraised value on the first, and one third on every other mutation.

Among the regidors were to be distributed the offices of Alferez real, or royal standard-bearer ;; principal provincial alcade; Alguaził mayor, or high sheriff; depositary-general, and receiver of fines.

The ordinary alcades and attorney-general-syndic, were to be chosen on the first day of every year by the cabildo, and were always re-eligible by its unanimous vote, but not by the majority, unless after the expiration of two years. At such elections, the votes were openly given and recorded.

The ordinary alcades were individually judges within the city, in eivil and criminal cases, where the defendant did not enjoy and claim the privilege of being tried by a military or ecclesiastical judge, fuero militar, fuero ecclesiastico. They heard and decided in their chambers summarily, and without any written proceeding, all complaints in which the value of the object in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In other cases, proceedings before them were recorded by a notary; and in an apartment set a part for this purpose, and where the value of the object in dispute exceeded ninety thousand maravedis, or threehundred and thirty dollars and eighty-eight cents, an appeal lay from their decision to the cabildo.

This body did not examine itself the judgment appealed from, but chose two regidors, who, with the alcade who had rendered it, reviewed the proceedings; and if he and either of the regidors approved the decision, it was affirmed.

The cabildo sat every Friday, but the governor had the power of convening it at any time. When he did not attend it, one of the ordinary alcades presided, and immediately on the adjournment, two regidors went to his house and informed him of what had been done.

The ordinary alcades had the first seats in the cabildo, immediately after the governor; and below them the other members sat, in the following order: The alferez real, principal provincial alcade, alguazil mayor, depositary-general, receiver of fines, attorney-general-syndic, and clerk.

The office of alferez real was merely honorary, no other function being assigned to the incumbent but the bearing of the royal standard in a few public ceremonies. The principal provincial alcade had cognisance of offences committed without the city; the alguazil mayor executed personally or by his deputies, all processes from the different tribunals. The depositary general took charge of all moneys and effects placed in the custody of the law. The functions of the receiver general are pointed out by his official denomination. The attorney-general-syndic was not, as might be supposed from his title, the prosecuting officer of the crown. His duty was to propose to the cabildo such measures as the interest of the people required, and defend their rights.

The regidors received fifty dollars each, annually, from the treasury. The principal provincial alcade, alguazil mayor, depositary general, receiver of fines,

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and ordinary alcades, were entitled, as such, to fees of office.

The king had directed a regiment to be raised in the province, under the style of the Regiment of Louisiana, and had made choice of Don J.Estecheria as its colonel. This officer not having as yet arrived, Unzaga regulated its organization, and assumed the provisional command. A number of commissions for officers in this regiment were sent by O'Reilly. They had been filled with the names of such inhabi❤ tants as Ulloa had recommended. These commissions were cheerfully accepted; the pay and emoluments in the colonial regiments of Spain being much more considerable than in the French. The ranks of the regiment were soon filled, soldiers in the service of France and in the regiments brought by O'Reilly being permitted to enlist in it.

The supplies which the Spanish government had destined to its military force in Louisiana were unaccountably delayed. The dearth of provisions in New-Orleans became excessive, owing to an increase of population, much larger than that of the city before the arrival of the Spaniards. Flour rose to twenty dollars the barrel. A momentary relief was obtained by the arrival of Oliver Pollock, in a brig from Baltimore, with a cargo of that article, who offered the load to O'Reilly on his own terms. He declined accepting it thus, and finally purchased it at fifteen dollars the barrel. O'Reilly was so well pleased with the bargain, that he told Pollock he should have a free trade to Louisiana as long as he lived, and a report of his conduct on this occasion would be made to the king.