The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55.
or proceeded against except by your Majesty or the royal Council, or by your order.  Nevertheless, the president, in virtue of his superintendency over the Audiencia, may ordain to the auditors what may be just and reasonable in matters that pertain to the government and its conservation; and even, in the heated arguments that are wont to arise between the auditors, has authority, in case the nature of the affair might require it, to retire each auditor to his own house, until they make up the quarrel; and, should he deem it advisable, he may inform your Majesty.  For the ordinance does not say that the president and alcaldes shall proceed, arrest, sentence, and execute justice in criminal causes affecting the auditors.  All that, in my opinion, was meant to amend the express privilege of law as contained substantially in the corpus juris [civilis]; [32] and even then serious causes would have to be understood by criminal causes; ultra multa cum tiberº farsnaci e regni col. 9, ttº 4, pº. 3. [33] But it says only that the governor shall try criminal causes, which means that, in crimes that are not such by reason of the office, but personal and serious crimes of the auditors, he shall investigate, together with the alcaldes, and advise your Majesty; and the word “try,” instead of meaning to arrest and execute justice and other equivalent things, only denotes simple jurisdiction which belongs to civil cases, and not authority, either pure or mixed. [34] Otherwise your Majesty could avoid the visits and residencia which you send to the Audiencia.  Accordingly, to try criminal cases means that they be treated civilly without allowing them to be [cases for either] pure or mixed authority, by arresting or proceeding; but only to investigate and advise your Majesty, except in capital causes that have the capital penalty.  In such cases it would be advisable for the Audiencia, and even for the president alone, to secure the criminals, if they should be auditors and nearest [to the king], but not by virtue of the ordinance, but by virtue of the ordinary authority of law, and the privileges of public protection—­citing [the paragraph] ne delicta, etc., in case that it was unable, because of the crime and the person, to be secure in any other way than by imprisonment which befits the crime, and in accordance with the teaching of the law divi fratres f fin ff de poen. [35] Therefore the Audiencia ought to arrest the governor for four murders that he has lately committed (and which will be told later), solely to assure and advise your Majesty, with judicial consideration, so that you might decree your pleasure in respect to his person.  But [they ought] to punish his accomplices, who were numerous, and who are not near [to the king], but most of them men who, without that crime, deserve to be severely punished for others; but they are all passed by, in virtue of peace and harmony, by Licentiate Hieronimo de Legaspi and Don Juan de Valderrama, the
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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.