In lieu of the old ayuntamientos, which were made up of hereditary regidores, whose offices might be transferred or sold, others were created, their members to be chosen by electors who had been in their turn chosen by popular vote. The ayuntamientos were to control the internal police of their towns, their funds, public instruction within their respective localities, benevolent establishments, and local improvements. They were to be under the inspection of a diputacion provincial, formed of seven members, elected by the above-mentioned electors, in each province, under the presidency of the chief civil officer appointed by the king; the chief and the diputacion were jointly to have the direction of the economical affairs of the province. No act of either corporation was final till approved by the national córtes. In America and Asia, however, owing to great distances, moneys lawfully appropriated might be used with the assent of the chief civil authority; but a timely report was to be made to the supreme government for the consideration of the córtes. Such were the chief wheels in the machinery of provincial and municipal administration. Now, as to popular rights, equality of representation in the provinces of the Spanish peninsula, Asia, and America was fully recognized. The descendants of Africans were alone deprived of the rights of citizenship. This exclusion was combated with forcible arguments by many of the American deputies setting forth the faithful, efficient services colored men had repeatedly rendered and were still rendering to the nation, and their fitness for almost every position. Many of them, they said, had received sacred orders, or had been engaged in other honorable callings, in which they had made good records; besides which, they comprised a considerable portion of the useful mining and agricultural population. Unfortunately for the negro race, the American deputies were not all of one mind. Larrazábal, from Guatemala, probably acting both on his own judgment and on the opinion expressed in 1810 by the real consulado, asserted the black man's incapacity, advocating that persons of African blood should be conceded only the privilege of voting at elections. This motion was supported by a Peruvian deputy. The peninsular members favored the admission to full rights of colored priests, and all colored men serving in the royalist armies. The measure was lost, however; but the article as passed authorized the admission to full political rights, by special acts of the córtes, of colored men proving themselves worthy by a remarkably virtuous life, good service to the country, talents, or industriousness, provided they were born in wedlock, of fathers who had been born free, married to free-born wives, and were residents of Spanish possessions, practising some useful profession and owning property. Pursuant to the constitution, the córtes ordered, May 23, 1812, elections for members to the ordinary córtes of 1813.[I-23]