Note 4 — LETTER FROM VIANA TO CARLOS III

Another of the more important causes which occasion the said abuse is, that since the Audiencia has no cognizance of the affairs of the provinces in regard to their government, and as the governors on account of their military profession (in which alone they have been trained) have not the necessary knowledge of the laws and of the “Ordinances of good government,” or of municipal regulations, it results that an upright governor does not come to a resolve about anything, for fear of making some mistake; another, more resolute, goes headlong into measures to which his associates persuade him; and another governor, with interested motives, works for his own advantage. As a general rule, all or most of the governors are bewildered with the multitude of affairs which present themselves; they do very little work, and in nothing do they act with less vigor than in the government of the provinces; and enactments are made at the pleasure of the governor’s secretary, and occasionally of the assistant judge [asesor]. Here these usually are venal and have little sense of honor; and they attend only to such business as brings them gain, and not that of their office, which yields them nothing. These serious and notorious difficulties can be avoided only by separating from the government the superintendency of the exchequer4 which is the department of business that is most neglected, and is most worthy of attention—and establishing ordinances, which shall be enforced without deviation, for the secure furtherance of the royal interests, and of the administration of justice in the provinces, leaving the absolute cognizance of the latter to the royal Audiencia, and of the former to an intendant, and forbidding them to the governors, who have more than enough field for action in military and purely political affairs in which to display their zeal. Then they would devote themselves to these important matters belonging to their profession, which are those which have seemed to them to merit least attention and care, because their application to other business produces them more gain.