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Show 400 m.s sv~. R1j. ~ I.I I S If 0 R. Y ,p F M E X I ~ :O. and etl;eem thetu ~hF lJlOfq taq.gl1L ~~ ~ fhw~ Pf all lan~-Hag s. 'Wte M~ican Iafig~~e J1~j not been qur , mother tor}g\le.,. nQr did we ~~~n '·it 'ig infan5y; yet the l\1cxic n n~rJ,l~S produc(!d by count d~ Buff~ n as ~p arg~mr.nt of the barbari~y qf c ~1a,t tongue, ~ppear to us bcypl) d c9. l?J>'lr~foi~ !pp~e eafy ~o be pr~nO~Jilc,ed ,th;m mat~Y. 1 qt?ers ta~en 1 from, oth~rf1 1P:,ur9~tUJ la.~uag~s, wh~c,h l)GJ afioP.ts m h1s l',J"atur~l ) I-bftory' (y),; aqd, . perhap , will appear fo to q1an~ Europeans ~ho . are not ufed to either of the languages ; and there Will nQt be W~f)ttng ~ · t • I. ,perfons who will wonder th.at coy.qt! qe Buffqn has t.ak~n : the trouble to write th,of~ ·nru;nes · whtch arc. ~apabl¢ , of. t~rnfy1 ng the mofl: coura.geous ,re~del(s . In !h,ort, w · th ltW~ to1 tl e Ameri~an langu ~!?es, · h.e aught to repofe in the judgm~n~ of thofc Europeans who have .known .them, rather than jn. th7 opfmqn of thofe who have not. • ) t S E C T. vu.· · Of the Laws of the Mexicans. MR. de Paw, tleftrous of oppofing that antiquity which Gemelli, by miJlake, has attr'buted to the c.ourt of ~exico, aUedgcs t~e mzarohy • of'ttbeir govebzment, and the Jcarczty of tbetr laws; and . tr~atmg of the .govemment 9f the Peruvians, fays, that there cannot be laws in a ' fta te of defpotifm; and although they may have once been, it is impoffib le ' to make an ana~yfis of them, becaufe we do not know them; nor can we know them, becaufc they were never written, and the memory of. them .nccefiarily terminated with the death. of thofe who knew them. No body has made mention of the anarchy of the kingdom of Mexico till M. de Paw came to the world, whofe brain fcems to have a particular organization to underftand things in a man net contrary to all other men. No perfon is fo ignorant of the hiil:ory of Mexico, as not to know that thofe people were fubjcCl:cd to particular heads aJJd ( y ) The reader wi ll plcafe to ! cad and compare the following nnme_s vhich the .c(lunt Je BllU~>Il has adllprcLI with thofe wh1ch he has raken und altered from the Mexican lang uage : H.Hmlmanct-jcs Mif:Gorllechovva ' Nicdr.vvicdz Brand hins Stachd-fchvvcin Prz avvia!ka ( 'hemik-fka rz ~cfck Sccbcufchlafcr Mcer-fchvv cin lldglu · d.illr• • . •• • &orzcc:z.leck Sc7.\1fcz, &c. 1 '. . the 1 ,•. I-I I S T 0 R Y 0 F M B X I C 0. the whole fiate to a chief who was king of Mexico. All hifl:orians record the great authority of that fovereig.t:l, and the high refpeCl: his va1fals bore him : if this is anarchy, then all the ftates of the world are furely anarchifed. Defpotifin was not introduced into Mexico until the la!l: yean; of the monarchy: in prior times the kings had al)Vays refpected the law~ eftablilhed by their ancefrors, and attended. zealoufly to the obfervance of them. Even in the' reign of Montezuma II. who was the on]y truly defpotic king, the magiil:rates governed according to the Jaws; and Montezuma himfelf punifhed tranfgre1fors fcverely; and abufed his power only in things which fervcd to increafe his wealth and hi£ authority . Thofe Jaws were never written, but they were perpetuated in the memories of men, not only by traditio11 but alfo by paintings. No fub ... jeCl: was ignorant of them, becaufe fathers of families c,iid not fail to inJtruCl: their children in them, that they might avoid tranfgreffion, and efcape punifhment. The copies of the paintings of the laws were unqueftionably infinite in number, becaufe, although they underwent a furious perfecution from the Spaniards, we have feen many of them. The underfl:anding ofthofe paintings is not diffic~lt to any perfon, who has a knowledge of the manner in which the Mexicans ufuall y r.epre1en ted things, the charaCl:ers which they made ufe of,· and their language; but toM. de Paw they wottld be as unintelligible as thofe of the Chinefe expreffed in the proper charaCters of that nation. Befides, after the conqueil: many intelligent Mexicans wrote in European charaCters the laws of Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tezcuco, Michuacan, &c. ; amongft others, D. F. de Alba Ixtlilxochitl, wrote in Spanilh the eighty laws formerly publilhed by his anceftor king Nezahualcojotl, as we have already mentioned. The Spaniards afterwards inveftigated the laws of thofe nations with more diligence than any other part of their hiil:ory, becaufe the knowledge of them was efientially requifite to the chrifl:ian government civil and eccleiiaftical; particularly in refpeCl: to marriages, the privileges of the nobility, the conditions of va!falage, and of £laves. They gained information from the mouths of the Indians who were the bell: inftrueted., and they :ftudied their ancient paintings. Befides the firfr mifiionaries, whg labqur.ed fuccefsfully in thi5, unde~- V oL ;· II. F f f takln£', 4PI DISSERT. VI. ~ |