notwithstanding, the only ones whom the ministers can choose for those offices, because they are likewise the only ones who can outbid others in the sale of them. These positions are also of little advantage, because in the immense extension of the military jurisdiction, among the wealthy persons of Filipinas, the tribunal of the War Department has drawn to itself all the civil causes of importance in the islands; and the Audiencia has been reduced to criminal causes, and the minor controversies over land among the Indians, for which reason it is impossible to have educated Europeans who will purchase those posts and serve in them. The consequence of this is that the offices of the Audiencia are in the utmost disorder; that they do not contain even the books of entry which the laws provide for, or registers, citations, or reports of cases; that in order to record a decree or an official report it is necessary for a minister to take upon himself the task of doing that; and, finally, that the administration of justice must necessarily be slow. [Bernaldez therefore recommends that the ministers of the Audiencia be promoted at least every ten years to other appointments; that the minor offices be no longer purchasable or renunciable, but filled directly by royal appointment, and given to suitable persons, with good salaries (which are specified); and that the government of the islands provide some expedient for raising money to pay the salary of an attorney-general in each province.] Of the alcaldes-mayor and military governors of the provinces