The Emperor Charles V was a statesman of ability and good intentions; but it was impossible, as has been already observed, for one man to give sufficient attention to all his vast dominions. Those numerous kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, and lordships are enumerated in the preamble to the New Laws. When at last he found time to attend to the affairs of the Indies it was twenty years too late. He was convinced by Las Casas and others that the Spaniards, in their haste to enrich themselves, were treating the Indians with such cruelty that it must needs lead to a serious diminution of the population in the near future. As a statesman, he saw clearly that the value of the Indies must depend on the preservation and good treatment of the native races. His view of the course it was best to adopt was statesmanlike. Probably without knowing it, Charles wished to adopt the policy which the experience of ages had shown to be the best in all the countries of the East. The cultivator should be a vassal of the Crown; and what Charles V called the "tribute" of the Indians was simply the land tax of eastern countries, the _ryotwari_ system of Sir Thomas Munro in Madras. It was also the system of the Inca government, and was well understood by the people. As a rule, the State took two-thirds of the produce or its equivalent, and the cultivator retained one-third. In some cases the cultivator received seeds and implements. This land tax, or tribute, as the Spanish Government called it, should have been the main source of revenue. So far the Emperor's plan was excellent, but it came too late. It should have been announced and enforced from the very first, and rewards to the conquerors should have come from the State. In 1542 a very different and most tyrannical and ruinous system was in force. The land tax, with liberty to treat the natives as they pleased, had been to a very large extent alienated and granted to adventurers, usually for two or three lives. The Emperor hoped to obviate this almost insuperable difficulty by ordering all official bodies, whether civil or religious, to surrender their grants at once; and all others to cease on the death of the grantee, whether granted for two or three lives or not, some maintenance being allowed to widows and children. All grants that were considered too large were to be reduced to what a judge should decide to be a moderate size. For Mexico the names of those whose huge grants ought to be cut down are given. In these ways Charles V seems to have intended that all the natives of the Indies should become vassals of the Crown, be well treated, and pay the land tax direct to the State. He trusted, for obedience, to the loyalty of his subjects in the Indies. He was disappointed; loyalty had no chance against self-interest. Don Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of Mexico, did not enforce the New Laws. He explained that it would cause an insurrection. This excellent