[Commerce.] In 1834, the Royal Tribunal of Commerce was instituted, to supersede the old consulate, which had been established since 1772, The Royal Tribunal of Commerce acts under the new commercial code, and possesses the same privileges of arbitration as the old consulate.  It consists of a prior, two consuls, and four deputies, elected by the profession.  The three first exercise consular jurisdiction, the other four superintend the encouragement of commerce.  The “Junta de Comercio” (chamber of commerce) was formed in 1835.  This junta consits of the Tribunal of Commerce, with four merchants, who are selected by the government, two of whom are removed annually.  The prior of the Tribunal presides at the Junta, whose meetings are required to be held twice a month, or oftener if necessary, and upon days in which the Tribunal is not in session.  The two courts being under the same influences, and having the same officers, little benefit is to be derived from their double action, and great complaints are made of the manner in which business is conducted in them.

[Magellan.] Of all her foreign possessions, the Philippines have cost Spain the least blood and labor.  The honor of their discovery belongs to Magellan whose name is associated with the straits at the southern extremity of the American continent, but which has no memorial in these islands.  Now that the glory which he gained by being the first to penetrate from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has been in some measure obliterated by the disuse of those straits by navigators, it would seem due to his memory that some spot among these islands should be set apart to commemorate the name of, him who made them known to Europe.  This would be but common justice to the discoverer of a region which has been a source of so much honor and profit to the Spanish nation, who opened the vast expanse of the Pacific to the fleets of Europe, and who died fighting to secure the benefits of his enterprise to his king and country.

Magellan was killed at the island of Mactan, on April 26, 1521; and Duarte, the second in command, who succeeded him, imprudently accepting an invitation from the chief of Cebu to a feast, was, with twenty companions, massacred.  Of all the Spaniards present, only one escaped.  After these and various other misfortunes, only one vessel of the squadron, the Victoria, returned to Spain.  Don Juan Sebastian del Cano, her commander, was complimented by his sovereign by a grant for his arms of a globe, with the proud inscription, commemorative of his being the first circumnavigator, “Primus Me Circumcedit.”