It is therefore expedient, in order to cut short these noisy controversies, which have so mischievous consequences for the internal peace of the communities in the islands, that his Majesty be pleased to command that the government there shall oblige all the villages and private land-owners in them to have authenticated before the respective alcaldes-mayor of the provinces the documents for their ownership, both private and communal. Strict obligation should be imposed on them to surround their lands with trees--achiote, [144] mulberry, cotton, cinnamon, cacao--under penalty of losing their title to the land. The documents should be registered in the tribunals of the respective alcaldes, who at the end of every year should send to the capital the original books of record, in order that these may be kept there securely in the archives, for which provision shall be made by the government, not admitting in the courts or declaring lawful any other titles of ownership to lands than those which are supported by those necessary conditions. Of the ecclesiastical orders which are conferred on Indians and mestizos The irregular procedure of the reverend archbishops and bishops of the islands in conferring ecclesiastical orders on the Indians and mestizos there, will be in that colony, as it has already been in America, one of the causes which most incite revolutions. The Indians receive through the priesthood a standing which they cannot worthily sustain, because they never lay aside the affections, passions, and usages of Indians. Educated by the religious, they afterward come to be their decided enemies; they divide with the religious the opinions of the villagers, who finally, even though they know the deficient morals of the native priests, always respect the sacred functions which these exercise. The least political evil which the latter occasion is [through] their neglect of their obligations as parish priests, the irregularity of their mode of life, and their carelessness in everything pertaining to divine worship. The inhabitants of the villages administered by Indian curas are very different from those of the religious from Europa, whose people are distinguished by their simplicity, docility, and religious training. He who knows the active and leading part played by this class of persons in accomplishing the independence of America will not be surprised that in the establishment of the constitution in Filipinas Indian curas have almost all been the directors of the elections in their villages, the electors, and the deputies in Cortes and for the province--in all these functions distinguishing themselves by their officiousness, and their pretensions against the legitimate government of the islands.