last quarter of the seventeenth century. While the bulk of the references are to the _Recopilación de los leyes de las indias_, other writings, such as those of Matienzo, Acosta, and Torquemada, are frequently cited, and, in keeping with the fashion of the times, there is embodied a profusion of citations from classical authors. With all its superfluous display of learning _Política indiana_ still holds and will continue to hold a conspicuous place among the books of the first order for students of the laws and government of the Spanish colonies in South America. [Sidenote: Gaspar de Escalona] [Sidenote: _Gazophilatium regium Perubicum_] The third member of this group is Gaspar de Escalona y Agüero. It is not positively known where he was born. Three cities have contended for the honour of being recognized as the place of his origin. Alcedo, the author of the geographical and historical dictionary, and the historian Cevallos affirm that he was born in Ecuador, but other evidence points to Lima as his native town. Wherever the honour may rest, it was in the schools of Lima and the University of San Marcos that he was educated. He held a number of public offices: he was corregidor of Jauja, governor of Castrovireyna, procurador-general of the city of Cuzco, and oidor, or judge, of the audiencia of Chile. His principal work, entitled _Gazophilatium regium Perubicum_, was printed in Madrid in 1647; the first part in Latin, and the second part in Spanish. It treats particularly of matters of justice, of questions concerning the civil administration and the treasury, and of the affairs of the army. Its analyses and descriptions present minute details both of the organization and the functions of the public offices. These writers were not reformers after the manner of persons who aim to supplant the established government by a new form of administration; they were loyal to the system which they served, but this loyalty did not withhold them from criticising the practical execution of the existing laws; they condemned with severity the criminal exactions of the corregidores of Indians, and other abuses due to the dishonesty of officials and their remoteness from the centre of superior authority. [Illustration: Juan de Solórzano Pereira] [Sidenote: The three works compared] [Sidenote: Escalona’s book]