. The Philippine Islands . rts in tlie colony : one inManila ; the other in Cebii. The President of the one in Manilahas a salary of 87,000 a year ; that of Cebu, $6,000. There arealso 41 Superior Courts, of various degrees of importance, thesalary of the judges ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per department of Justice alone costs the colony about $350,000 ayear. The Spanish Colonial Government. 65 The dilatoriness of the courts has become proverbial. It is,in fact, years before a case can be brought to a close. Mean-time, the litigant has been fleeced out of an amount perhaps ahundred
. The Philippine Islands . rts in tlie colony : one inManila ; the other in Cebii. The President of the one in Manilahas a salary of 87,000 a year ; that of Cebu, $6,000. There arealso 41 Superior Courts, of various degrees of importance, thesalary of the judges ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per department of Justice alone costs the colony about $350,000 ayear. The Spanish Colonial Government. 65 The dilatoriness of the courts has become proverbial. It is,in fact, years before a case can be brought to a close. Mean-time, the litigant has been fleeced out of an amount perhaps ahundred times the value of the article under litigation. Theislands are fall of native pettifoggers from the law schools ofManila, who have learned too well the meaning of the SpanishiiiaTiaiia. A suit can never be considered as disposed of; foranother judge, scenting the faint possibility of a fee, may againhave it retried. Thus I have seen the lives of acquitted personsagain brought into jeopardy by the meddlesome otficiousness. A BUSINESS STREET IX OLD MANILA, and the grasping greed of a new judge. He that goes to courtin the Philippines must not do so without reckoning the cost. Commenting on this; a recent English traveler says : Avail-ing one self of the dilatoriness of the Spanish law, it is possiblefor a man to occupy a house, pay no rent, and refuse to quit onlegal grounds during a couple of years or more. A person who 66 The Philippine Islands. has not a cent to lose can persecnte another by means of atrumped up accusation, until he is ruined by an informacion depobreza —a declaration of poverty—which enables the perse-cutor to keep the case going as long as he chooses, without need-ing money for fees. A NEW YORKERS EXFEKIEXCE. The following experience of an American friend of mine,whom I knew very well in Manila, will bring out in a graphicway the course of justice in the Philippines. Xor is his experienceuncommon. It is, in fact, the usual one of the stranger or thenat
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectphilippinesdescripti
