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tery, and he who has committed the same with her, shall be delivered up to the husband, to be dealt with as he may please; with the reserve, however, that he shall not put one of them to death, without inflicting the same punishment on the other..

Art. 7. "The man who shall consent that his wife live in concubinage with another, or who shall have induced her to commit adultery, shall, for the first time, be exposed to public shame, and condemned to a confinement of ten years in some fortress; and, for the second time, shall be sentenced to one hundred lashes and confinement for life.

Art. 8. "The same punishment shall also be inflicted on those who carry on the infamous trade of enticing women to prostitution, by procuring them the means of accomplishing the same.

Art. 9. "He who shall be guilty of fornication with a relation in the fourth degree, shall forfeit half of his property to the profit of the public treasury, and shall, moreover, be punished corporally, or banished,. or undergo some other penalty, according to the rank of the person and the degree of kindred between the parties. If the said crime be committed between parents and their offspring, or with a professed nun, the same shall be punished with death.

Art. 10. "He who shall commit the detestable crime against nature shall suffer death, and his body shall afterwards be burnt, and his property shall be confiscated to the profit of the public and royal treasuries.

Art. 11. "The woman who shall be publicly the concubine of an ecclesiastic shall be sentenced, for the first time, to a fine of a mark of silver, and to banishment for one year from the town or from the place where the offence may have been committed. The second time, she shall be fined another mark of silver and banished for

two years, and, in case of relapse, she shall be punished by one hundred lashes, in addition to the penalties aforesaid.*

Art. 12. "If fornication be committed between unmarried persons, they shall be admonished by the judge to discontinue every kind of intercourse with each other, under the penalty of banishment for the man, and confinement for the woman, during such time as may be necessary to operate a reformation. Should this menace have not the desired effect, the judge shall put the same into execution, unless the rank of the parties requires a different procedure in which case, the said offence shall be submitted to the consideration of the judges collectively, to apply the remedy which their prudence and zeal for the repression of such disorders may suggest. They shall punish all other offences of debauchery in proportion to their degree, and to the injury occasioned thereby."

Ever after the promulgation of this document, it is to be supposed that all judicial decisions were grounded on the laws, of Spain. At a later period, however, it became a question, which was debated in the courts of justice of Louisiana, how far the French laws had been repealed by O'Reilly, and whether he had the authority to abolish them, as the extent of his powers had never been exactly known. But now the question is set at rest, as it is ascertained that O'Reilly was clothed with unlimited authority, and that all he did in Louisiana was fully confirmed by the king and the council of Indies. In a communication addressed to his government, on the 17th of October 1769, he had said, "it seems proper

*No penalty was decreed against the ecclesiastic by the civil authorities, be cause he probably had the privilege of being tried only by the tribunals of his holy order.

See the Letter of the Marquis of Grimaldi to the Count of Fuentes, at the court of Versailles. Gayarré's Louisiana, 3d series of Lectures, p. 264, vol ii.

En la 3d Fha, en Nueva Orleans, 17 de Oct. de 1769, dice: "Que le parece con

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that this colony be governed by the same laws which prevail in the other dominions of his Majesty in America, and that in its military, judicial, and financial organization, it be, in each of these respective departments, a dependency of the Island of Cuba." The government gave its approbation to these views of O'Reilly.* Fortunately, there was no very great dissimilarity between the funda mental principles of the Spanish and the French jurisprudence, which had the same sisterly origin, and drew their existence from the honored womb of Roman legislation, emphatically called the "Civil Law," and so well known under that name.

O'Reilly had a set of instructions drawn up, which he sent to the parish commandants. From those addressed to de Mézières, who was in command of Natchitoches, I extract the following passage: "The commandant of the Post of Natchitoches shall not omit to employ every means to prevent the trade now going on with the Mexican provinces; and, whereas every officer who commands a post, ought not to be ignorant of anything that occurs within the limits of his jurisdiction, he shall bear the responsibility thereof in every respect. There is nothing which renders a government more respectable and beneficent than the prompt and equitable administration of justice. Therefore do I most particularly recommend the observance of this duty to every commandant, and any want of exactitude in the discharge of official functions I shall consider as a contempt of the authority of the Governor General of this province. Those in command have been clothed with power, only to make their subor

veniente que dicha colonia se gobierna por las mismas leyes que los demas dominios de S. M. en America, y que en lo militar, judicial y economico dependa de la isla de Cuba."

* See the Records of the deliberations of the Council of the Indies on O'Reilly's acts in Louisiana, which are in manuscript in the office of the Secretary of State at Baton Rouge.

dinates happy, and to endear the government of the king to his subjects by its gentleness and benefits. This end will be accomplished by the impartial administration of justice, by a strict compliance with the orders of the Governor General, and by an enlightened exhibition of firmness and humanity on all occasions.

*

*

*

*

*

"It shall be made known to all the inhabitants that, by the laws of his Majesty, which shall go into operation in this province on the 1st of December, 1769, it is not permitted that Indians be held in slavery; wherefore, from the date of the notification of these presents, no one shall buy, exchange, and barter, or appropriate to himself Indian slaves. They shall neither sell, nor in any way part with, those they now have (unless it be to set them free), until they hear further from his Majesty on this subject. M. de Mézières shall make out an exact list of the Indian slaves who are within his jurisdiction. Said list shall contain the names of the owners, the price which they ask for every one of their Indian slaves, and the exact filiation of said slaves. This will obviate any future abuse on a subject which has so strongly excited the solicitude of our laws.

"I have remarked a considerable number of traders in the census of Natchitoches. These men can have no other object in view than an illicit trade. Therefore I charge M. de Mézières, most particularly, to cause to depart those named Ménars, Poeyfarré, Dartigo, Durand, Duvivier and Villars, of whom I know enough to desire that they be dismissed from that post, and be forced to remain in this capital (New Orleans), or be expelled altogether from the province.

*

*

"M. de Mézières shall cause the inhabitants to make

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to their parochial church all the repairs which decency and the security of the edifice require. This is the first duty of every good Christian, and no one has the right nor the power to refuse his contribution thereto. M. de Mézières shall make known to every inhabitant the equity of this contribution, and shall have recourse to compulsory means, only when it shall be absolutely necessary, to enforce the fulfilment of so essential a duty."

It is impossible not to smile at the following passage: แ Having been informed by the curate of Natchitoches that, during divine worship, the church is filled with dogs, I request the commandant to prevent the repetition of this breach of decency.".

He also gave a set of instructions to the commandants of the Coast-that is, all the petty governors at the different posts on the banks of the Mississippi.* In the 16th Article, he said: "The greatest vigilance shall be exercised to oppose the sojourning of men of bad morals in those posts, in order to prevent that any damage or scandal result thereby to the inhabitants; and should there be such men as above described, when the commandants shall fail to change their vicious behavior by admonitions and corrections, then it shall become the duty of said commandants to arrest them, and to send them to the Governor General, with an account of the causes of complaint laid against them."

The 19th Article said: "The aforesaid commandants shall take special care, that the inhabitants carry on no trade with the English vessels which navigate the Mississippi, nor with any of the settlements situated on the territory of his Britannic Majesty, and that the king's subjects do not go out of the limits of this province,

Tenientes particulares de la Costa.