In the administration of justice, there are three distinct and privileged jurisdictions, known as _fueros_:[7] the _eclesiástico_, which provides that no member of the clergy, at least of the rank of curate and upwards, shall ever be arraigned before a civil tribunal, but shall be tried by their superiors in the order; the _militar_, which makes a similar provision in favor not only of commissioned officers, but of every common soldier from the ranks; and the _civil_ or ordinary courts, for all cases in which the defendants are laymen. These _fueros_ have hitherto maintained the ecclesiastical and military classes in perfect independence of the civil authorities. The _civil_, in fact, remains in some degree subordinate to the other two _fueros_; for it can, under no circumstances, {235} have any jurisdiction whatever over them; while the lay plaintiff, in the privileged tribunals of these, may, if unsuccessful, have judgment entered up against him: a consequence that can never follow the suits of the ecclesiastical or military orders before the civil tribunals. The judgments of the latter, in [Pg030] such cases, would be void. It is no wonder, then, that the cause of freedom in Mexico has made so little progress. Imprisonment is almost the only sort of punishment resorted to in the North. For debt, petit larceny, highway robbery, and murder, the usual sentence is "_A la cárcel_" (to jail), where a person is likely to remain about as long for inability to pay _dos reales_, as for the worst of crimes: always provided he has not the means to pacify the offended majesty of the law. I never heard of but one execution for murder in New Mexico, since the declaration of independence. The most desperate and blood-stained criminals escape with impunity, after a few weeks of incarceration, unless the prosecutor happens to be a person of great influence; in which case, the prisoner is detained in the _calabozo_ at will, even when the offence committed has been of a trivial character. Notwithstanding this laxity in the execution of the laws, there are few murders of any kind committed.