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tors shall not send a Deputy on account of their being too remote, or too poor to pay the expences of his journey to Mexico, and his residence therein, it shall be sufficient if they send full power and instruction to any person residing in that capital to act for them, provided the same be not a Deputy or Agent for any other mining district; but he must be a Mine-Owner or MineSupplier. (Person who lends money to carry on mining operations.)

SECTION VI.

To enable a Mine Town to have a vote at the Election, it must be proved to contain an inhabiting population, and a church and a Curate, or Deputy, a Judge and Deputies of the Miners, six mines in actual working, and four reducing Establishments (Works for the reduction of metal from ore).

SECTION VII.

The city of Guanajuato shall have six votes in the said Election; that of Zacatecas four; that of San Luis Potosi three; that of Pachuca and Real del Monte three; and, generally speaking, the mining districts which bear the title of city shall have three votes each; and those which bear the title of town, or in which there are Provincial Treasuries (Caxas Reales), two votes each.

SECTION VIII.

Before proceeding to the Election, there shall be held three scrutinies on three several days, for the qualification of persons eligible to these offices, with this proviso, that the person to be elected Administrator-General must have been one of the Deputies-General during one of the preceding triennial periods, except in the case of re-election, when it will be necessary to observe what is laid down in the 10th Section of this present Chapter; observing also, that, at the expiration of each triennial period, only one new Deputy-General shall be appointed to supply the place of the one about to resign, which person so resigning at the end of the first three years, is to be the one who, at the time of the original appointment, had the smallest number of votes. The same rule is to be observed at the end of the second triennial period, and again at the end of the third, with regard to the last of the three original deputies: Afterwards, at the end of each succeeding triennial period, the Senior-Deputy shall always resign in favor of the one newly elected. Conformably to these regulations, each Deputy will, in future hold his said office for nine years, excepting in the case of the death of any of them before the expiration of that time: in which case, at the next Triennial Meeting, besides

*The Spanish word is Aviador, a word well worthy of attention, for it describes the class of persons to which the mining associations belong. Its largest sense seems to be, "to advanee money for the working of mines, and to carry on the operations therein, either entirely or in part, on condition of sharing the profits with the proprietor."

the Deputy that is to supply the place of him who resigns, from having completed his nine years, there shall be another appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by such death, which latter, in point of seniority, shall stand in the place of his predecessor, in order to depart as little as possible from the established rule of succession.

SECTION IX.

The Administrator, the Director, and Deputies-General, shall preside over the said meeting of electors, and shall have votes therein and the election. shall take place on the 31st day of December, by secret lots (Cedulas Secretas), and those shall be considered duly elected who have the greatest number of votes; and in case of any dispute arising, the election shall fall upon that person for whom the Administrator-General shall give his vote.

SECTION X.

To enable any person to be re-elected to any of the said offices of the Royal Tribunal, an interval of three years must have elapsed since his last service, and he must have more than one half of the whole number of votes.

SECTION XI.

No person elected to any of the said offices can excuse himself from serving it; but every such person must accept the same on the day of his elec tion before sun-set, under the penalty of 2000 dollars, and of being obliged to serve such office even after the payment of the penalty.

SECTION XII.

In case of the death of the Administrator, the Director, or any one of the Deputies-general, or of their resignation (which can only be allowed upon just and indispensable cause), the other members of the Tribunal shall elect a temporary substitute, who shall hold the office till the expiration of the triennial period then subsisting, and till the next general meeting, when a proper person shall be elected, conformably to the 8th Section of this present Chapter.

SECTION XIII.

Those who shall be elected Administrator General and Director-General, in succession to the persons now filling those offices, and others hereafter, shall hold the said offices, the first for six years, and the second for nine; with a view to this consideration, that from the circumstances already explained, and which are applicable to all persons who compose the Tribunal, the Director ought to be a person well acquainted with the interests, concerns, and resources of the establishment, with the management and working of the mines, and with the theory and practice of the sciences relating thereto, all which is not to be acquired in a short time.

SECTION XIV.

THE Factor, the Assessor, and the Notary may be appointed and removed with or without cause at the free will and pleasure of the Royal Tribunal General.

SECTION XV.

IN the first General Meeting to be held in Mexico, for the purpose of carrying the present ordinances into effect, there shall be chosen 12 Advi sers (Consultores), experienced Mine-Proprietors, or Mine Suppliers of distinguished reputation, four of whom shall be persons resident in Mexico, and the Royal Tribunal may consult all or any of them in difficult cases, whenever it shall be necessary; and in order that their employments may be temporary, and to avoid the inconvenience which might arise from their being all changed at the end of each triennial period, six others shall be appointed at the next General Meeting, to supply, for the second triennial period, the places of those six of the first elected twelve who shall have been chosen by the smallest number of votes; and afterwards, at the end of each triennial period, the six newly elected shall replace the six who shall have then been the longest in office; so that the number of twelve will always remain complete; and I hereby declare, that the re-election of such Advisers, in the aforesaid General Meetings, shall be permitted, without regard to those in. tervals of time and other formalities established in the tenth Section of this present Chapter for the regulation of the offices therein mentioned; observ. ing only, that their seniority is to be reckoned from the period of their reelection; and I grant to the said Advisers a seat in the Public Sittings of the Royal Tribunals, next after the Deputies-General; and when any Mine Proprietor, from any of the mine districts shall be in Mexico, I grant to him the honour, dignity, and office of Adviser of the Royal Tribunal as long as he shall remain there.

SECTION XVI.

On the days of scrutiny, and before proceeding to the election, there shall be laid before the General Meeting a clear and correct statement of the funds with which the body of Miners have been endowed, what they have produced, and how they have been applied during the preceding triennial period, as well as of the Bank of Supplies, its gains and losses, shewing, at one view, the condition of the body of Miners at that time, their concerns and possessions in money and effects, their claims, debts, dues, and affairs of all kinds.

SECTION XVII.

Before proceeding to the scrutinies, the permission of the Viceroy must be obtained; and after they are concluded, an account thereof must be rendered to him similar to the practice of the Tribunal of Commerce of that capital (Mexico).

SECTION XVIII.

To the Director-General shall also belong the offices of Fiscal and Promo. ter of the important body of Miners, and he shall, in consequence, represent, suggest, and propose to the Royal Tribunal, whatever he may judge conducive to the advancement and success of that establishment; giving them also, in proper time, such advice and caution as might tend to obviate whatever he may consider as prejudicial to their interest.

SECTION XIX.

The Royal Tribunal shall transmit to me annually, through the Viceroy, an account of the working of the mines and of the concerns of the body of Miners; and, moreover, they may communicate with me, extraordinarily, through the same channel, upon great occasions, when it may seem necessary.

SECTION XX.

The Royal Tribunal may have a representative at the city and court of Madrid, for the protection of its interests; and, in case it should seem necessary, upon any weighty occasion, to send a confidential person to com municate with the same Court, they must, in the first instance, satisfy the Viceroy of the importance of the matter which obliges them to incur such expense, and must procure his certificate of the same, which will precede my Royal Licence.

SECTION XXI.

The Clerk of the Royal Tribunal shall keep a minute book of resolutions, in which shall be entered, all the determinations relative to the administra tion and economy of the mines, whether the same be intended only to last for a time, or to be permanent and perpetual.

SECTION XXII.

There shall be preserved in the Royal Tribunal, the originals of the Royal Letters Patent, Orders, and Declarations, which have proceeded, or may pro ceed, from me; as also the official letters from the Viceroys, and copies of the Orders that have been, or shall be, received through their hands; and lastly, all Acts and fundamental Decrees relating to the creation or administration of the Royal Tribunal; all which shall be carefully preserved in the archives; and there shall be a book kept, in which there shall be an accurate account of the same, which may be referred to as occasion may require; and I prohibit the originals from being ever taken out to be exhibited, but permit accurate copies or extracts to be taken, compared, and corrected in due form, according to law.

SECTION XXIII.

Before proceeding to the Triennial Elections, an inventory shall be drawn up, and the papers, both of the archives, and of the office of the Tribunal, shall be inspected by two of the Deputies, in order that it may be ascertained whether they correspond with the inventory of the preceding triennial period, and the papers received within the last three years shall be then added to the former.

SECTION XXIV.

The Secretary of the Royal Tribunal shall be one of the Royal Notaries (Escribanos Reales), duly instructed and admitted to his office, and possessing all those qualifications required by the law in persons filling that office, and must be moreover a person of good birth, character, and education, and of good conduct and respectable habits, in order that by these means the office may be held in honour, and that he who holds it may be respected and esteemed both in the Tribunal and elsewhere, and he is to be addressed by the title of Don.

SECTION XXV.

The Secretary shall propose to the Royal Tribunal three persons, one of whom is to be appointed chief Official (Oficial Mayor) to the court, and another second Official, if necessary; but he shall have free permission and authority to appoint and remove at his pleasure the writer or writers whom he shall employ for the Tribunal.

SECTION XXVI.

The Royal Tribunal shall appoint two Messengers or Porters, who are to execute its orders, provided that they be persons of good character, and Spaniards.

SECTION XXVII.

The Royal Tribunal shall draw up a Table of Fees or Wages to be received by persons employed in Mexico, and in the mining districts, but the same is not to be reduced into practice until it shall have been laid before the Royal Audiency of each district, qualified or regulated by them, and transmitted to me for my Royal Approbation.

SECTION XXVIII.

The Administrator, the Director, and Deputies-General of Mexico, and all other persons employed, shall, at the time of entering upon their respective offices, make oath that they will truly and faithfully discharge the duties thereof, that they will observe these Ordinances, and cause them to be observed, and that they will observe secrecy in the causes and affairs submitted to them; and also that they will maintain the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.

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