succeed as viceroy ad interim. Until his arrival the government devolved on the audiencia. The baton of acting captain-general was delivered to the regente, Francisco Romá y Rosel.[1] Circulars were despatched to the authorities throughout the country to notify them of these events.[2]
On the 23d of April was celebrated a thanksgiving mass, attended by the audiencia and the regente. At the head of the palace reception room were placed three chairs; the middle one was occupied by the regente, and the other two by the decano, or senior oidor, and the subdecano. The regente and his two associates took the palace coach, the guard presenting arms, and with a squad of cavalry in advance, and the escort of halberdiers, repaired to the cathedral, at the principal door of which were four canons to receive them. For the regente was supplied not a prie-dieu, but a mere cushion.[3] The audiencia during its rule of a little over four months made no change in the government policy.
One of the notable events of the second half of the eighteenth century was the assembling of the fourth Mexican provincial council,[4] convened pursuant to two royal cédulas of August 21, 1769, one of which
- ↑ He was the first regente; appointed June 20, 1776; entered upon his duties March 13, 1778, and resigned the office in 1782. Both he and his wife, Narcisa Paisagns, were from Catalonia. He died in Mexico, December 1, 1784, and was buried the next day in the chapel of Santo Domingo with the honors of the last rank he held in life. Reales Cédulas, MS., ii. 159; Gomez, Diario, 198-9. His colleagues in the government were the oidores Villaurrutia, Madrid, Gamboa, Algarin, Luyando, and Guevara. Cédulario, MS., i. 90.
- ↑ Every official on seeing the circular wrote over his signature in continuation the date of its receipt, as well as the obligation he was under of forwarding it to other officios residing off the main routes taken by the couriers. There were six such circulars. Liévano, Luis Mendez de, Carta á Romá, MS.
- ↑ Other ceremonies practised toward viceroys were omitted; for instance: the mace-bearers and doorkeepers of the city were not stationed in front of the audiencia; the holy book was not brought to the regente to kiss, 'sino la paz,' that is to say, an image to be kissed in sign of peace and fraternity, and this, not by a canon, but by the master of ceremonies wearing the surplice and stole. Gomez, Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., 2d ser., vii. 62-3.
- ↑ Hist. Mex., ii., this series, gave full information on the preceding councils.
