supreme court. These are the secondary elections. The returns are sent to the general congress, which, having erected itself into an electoral college, declares who have been elected. The primary elections are held on the last Sunday in June, and the secondaries commence on the second Sunday in July of each election year.[1]
The administration of justice has ever been in a sad condition, owing to frequent change of constitutions and administrations, with consequent variations in the judicial system, and of judges, who were at one time perpetual, at another appointed by dictatorial authority or elected for brief terms, and with the selection of persons often worthless in character or unacquainted with law. With none to check or hold them responsible midst the shifting of power, they fell more readily into the general corruption, until justice became a mockery, and at the free disposal of the bidder or the bully. Since the reign of the new constitution greater order has prevailed.[2]
The laws are based on those established during the colonial period,[3] modified to suit republican and progressive times, largely after the Code Napoléon, and published in a series of special collections;[4] but the
- ↑ Copy of the electoral organic law in Dublan and Lozano, Leg. Mex., viii. 409-18. By referring to the population column in the preceding statistical table, an approximate idea will be arrived at of the number of deputies sent to congress by each state. For earlier election rules, see Hernandez y Dávalos, Col., ii. 307-8; Guerra, Rev., p. xl.-iii.; Mex., Col. Dec. y Ord., 55, 85; Mex., Col. Ley., 1841, 110-11; Dublan y Lozano, Leg. Mex., iii. et seq.; Mex., Ley. Elect., 1848, 1-34. Comments on neglect and fraud in Clarke's Mex., MS., 30-2; Diaz' Miscel., No. 56; Pap. Var., lxxxviii. pt 2. There have been property limits to the exercise of franchise, of from $100 to $200.
- ↑ There have been marked reforms by Diaz. Instance the report in his Informe, 1880, 16-17, and the suppression of highway robbery and crime generally, as elsewhere shown.
- ↑ Which date back to the first recorded code, El Fuero Juzgo of about 690, developed in the Siete Partidas of Alfonso the Wise, and the Recopilaciones, and extended with special reference to the colonies in the Recopilacion de Indias, together with special ordenanzos and decretos, as shown in Mex. Laws, MS., 1 et seq., and as explained in previous volumes of this work.
- ↑ As Galvan's, which extends to 1829 and even beyond, Arrillaga's till 1837 and partly later, Lara's, Navarro's, the several sets issued during the reforın war, during the French and imperial periods, besides odd publications, and the compilation of Dublan and Lozano, which has nearly reached our decade.
