The
last, and most southerly, is San Diego, including the mission of the
same, San Juan Capestrano, the Pueblo de los Angelos, the largest town
in California, with the neighboring mission of San Gabriel. The
priests in spiritual matters are subject to the Archbishop of
Mexico, and in temporal matters to the governor-general, who is the
great civil and military head of the country.
The government of the country is an arbitrary democracy; having no
common law, and no judiciary. Their only laws are made and unmade at
the caprice of the legislature, and are as variable as the legislature
itself. They pass through the form of sending representatives to the
congress at Mexico, but as it takes several months to go and return,
and there is very little communication between the capital and this
distant province, a member usually stays there, as permanent member,
knowing very well that there will be revolutions at home before he can
write and receive an answer; if another member should be sent, he
has only to challenge him, and decide the contested election in that
way.
Revolutions are matters of constant occurrence in California.
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