The above practices were never more prominently evident than during the constitutional reforms from 1810 to 1823. [349] That period, of course, was a time of change and stress, and the audiencia seems to have been regarded as the one stable authority in the Philippines. Cédulas and executive orders were issued to the audiencia without regard to the department of government to which they applied. By the cédula of June 14, 1811, the audiencia was made responsible for the execution of all the orders of the superior government. On March 18, 1812, oaths of all civil and judicial officials were ordered to be administered by the audiencia. A royal order was received by the Audiencia of Manila on January 19, 1813, which forbade the existence of free-masonry in the Islands. The audiencia was made responsible for the execution of all these cédulas and decrees. On August 6, 1813, the tribunal acknowledged receipt of the law of April 25, 1810, which forbade foreigners to land in the Islands without passports. The audiencia was again made responsible for the execution of the reforms of 1812, 1815, 1823, 1834, and 1835, by which the entire administrative and judicial systems of the colony were reorganized. The conduct of officials was continually under the observation of the oidores, and special reports were frequently sent to the Council from the audiencia in review of the progress of the government in general, or in elucidation of some special phase of it. [350] A few more examples of these investigations which were charged upon the oidores may be reviewed here, together with the reports made by the magistrates in compliance with royal instructions. The king, on August 9, 1609, wrote to the audiencia, asking for information concerning the truth of a certain report which had come to him regarding a custom practiced among the natives before the arrival of the Spaniards, and which was said still to be in operation. It had been asserted that the children of a free man and a slave woman would be half-slave and half-free, and the progeny of these children by subsequent marriage would be classed as a fourth, an eighth, or a sixteenth slave or free. It was said that the natives recognized varying degrees of freedom and slavery. The king, in the letter above referred to, expressed a desire to know the truth of these reports, and he ordered the audiencia to instruct him fully concerning these alleged practices and customs. He called attention to the existing law which forbade Spaniards to hold slaves, and he requested information as to how great a hold this barbarous custom had upon the natives, and how it might be eradicated with the least possible inconvenience and loss. [351]