2. The maximum period of leaves, which can not be extended, shall be regulated as follows:

Six months for officers of the Philippine Islands and four for those of the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, who have fulfilled the conditions established in the preceding rule; nine months and six months, respectively, for officers of the said islands, if they have remained in the condition established by rule 1 for six consecutive years; twelve months and eight months, respectively, for officers of said islands, if their uninterrupted active service has reached the period of ten years. 3. Making use of leaves, on whatever condition they may have been granted, deprives the officer of the privilege of requesting another until the conditions which, according to the case, are specified in rules 1 and 2 shall have been again fulfilled.

4. Leaves shall be requested by the officers concerned of the colonial department, in due form and through the proper channel.

5. Only in case of serious sickness, duly proved, and which endangers the life of the officers interested, may governors-general grant leaves for Europe, for half the time, respectively, fixed in rule 2, after a proper investigation, instituted by the immediate superiors of the

officers.

6. Both in making investigations to prove the causes for which leave is asked and in the payment of salary during the said leave, according to whether it has been granted an account of sickness or for personal matters, there shall be taken into account the provisions of the preceding rule, and further that it is obligatory to grant every leave in which the officer requesting it has proved his ill health, and that such officer shall draw only the personal salary assigned to his office from the day on which he ceases to perform his duties until the day on which he resumes them.

ART. 501. Leaves for any point of Asia or America not included in the colonial provinces shall be granted by governors-general for the period of forty-five days, an extension being limited to twenty-two days more, in cases of sickness that has been proved, the officers on such leaves drawing the pay and the extra pay corresponding to their office.

When leaves are granted for personal matters, they shall in no case exceed forty-five days, during which the officer on leave shall not draw any pay whatsoever.

ART. 502. Leaves for the interior of the islands in which the officers of the judicial and of the public prosecution services fill offices shall be granted by the proper superior authorities in conformity with the following rules:

1. Employees of the said services can not absent themselves from the town in which they perform their special duties without leave granted by the proper authority. An officer absenting himself without leave shall be considered as resigning his office, and shall be declared suspended, this provision being without prejudice to the other liabilities that may arise.

2. Leaves must be asked for in writing and through the immediate superior. If they are made on account of ill health, it is necessary to justify the request by a medical certificate.

If the justification presented by the petitioner appears insufficient, in the opinion of his chief, the latter may order that they be amplified.

In a petition for leave the employee presenting it shall state the leaves he has enjoyed during the three preceding years.

3. Immediate superiors, in passing upon requests for leaves, shall inform themselves as to the necessity for said leaves to employees, and as to the possibility of granting them without prejudice to the service. 4. Leaves in case of sickness shall be granted with full salary for one month only, and with half salary for fifteen days more; those granted for other reasons shall be without salary.

5. Leaves taken by employees shall be noted in their record of service and in their personal record.

6. An employee who has obtained leave during three consecutive years shall not obtain another one during the next three years.

ART. 503. A leave granted an employee shall be null if, before making use of it, the employee is transferred to another office, a new order being required in order that he may make use of the same in his new position.

ART. 504. A report shall be made to the colonial department on every leave granted to said employees in order that a memorandum of it may be made in the respective personal record.

ART. 505. The period of residence referred to in rules 1 and 2 of article 500 shall not be considered as interrupted by obtaining leaves asked for by the interested party or by a voyage or residence in the Peninsula to which the officers are compelled, when by order of the Government they are transferred from the Philippine Islands to those of Cuba and Porto Rico and vice versa.

ART. 506. Authorization of residence of colonial officers after the periods of leaves fixed by the regulations have elapsed is absolutely prohibited.

ART. 507. Leaves for the Peninsula shall not be granted at the same time to two associate justices of the same court in case of a criminal audiencia, or to more than one-third of the associate justices in case of a territorial audiencia, including that of Habana. Leaves, likewise, shall not be taken at the same time by two officers of the department of public prosecution belonging to the same superior court or by the judge and the promotor of the same district. Only in the audiencia of Habana may two officers of the department of public prosecution make use of leaves for the Peninsula at the same time.

In granting leaves in the cases referred to above, preference shall be given to the officer who shall have served a longer period without taking a leave.

ART. 508. When officers who have obtained leaves make a direct voyage for the Peninsula or to any other point of Europe, Asia, or America, the day of landing shall be considered as the date on which their leave begins, which they shall prove in a certificate, issued by the captain of a port or by the Spanish consul, according as to whether the point of destination of the voyage is in the Peninsula or outside thereof, respectively.

If the voyage is not direct, the time of the leave shall be counted from the date of embarkation from the colonial province in which the employee resides.

ART. 509. To fulfill the obligations imposed upon an officer on leave he shall conform to the following rules:

1. Employees making use of a leave must have their return embarkation certified to before the time allowed for the leave has ex

pired. This shall be effected by means of a certification of the captain of the port of embarkation from the Peninsula or of the Spanish consul of the place abroad from which they begin their journey.

They shall likewise prove their arrival at the point of their office by a certificate of the captain of the port.

Both certifications shall be made in duplicate. One of these they shall send to the colonial department and the other to the intendant or director of the treasury of the province in which they serve.

2. Any voluntary detention or interruption of the return voyage after having made use of a leave shall cause the forfeiture of the office. 3. Whenever, at the expiration of the time allowed for a leave, the employees to whom said leaves have been granted do not have their reembarkation for the point at which they hold offices certified, they shall be declared suspended, counting from the date of expiration of the term of the leave.

4. Leaves shall become void which are not made use of within two months after having been communicated to the persons interested if said leaves have been granted for Europe and between Asia and America, and within one month if issued for points on the same or neighboring islands, whether of the Antilles or of the Philippine archipelago. Those granted to employees obtaining new offices shall likewise become void, without regard as to whether said employees are making use of the same or not.

5. Transportation expenses shall not be paid under any circumstances to employees on leave, no matter what is the cause thereof or to what point the employee on leave may go.

CHAPTER III.-Commissions.

ART. 510. Commissions for service in the Peninsula shall be conferred only on account of extraordinary and urgent needs of the State, shown in a written communication of the higher authorities of the colonies, if the granting of the same emanates from these authorities, or in a royal order if they are determined by the colonial depart

ment.

ART. 511. Said concessions can only be conferred for the period of four months, which can not be extended, counting from the time of landing at a port of the Peninsula after a direct voyage from the place of employment, to the presiding judges and fiscales of territorial audiencias, with a right during the entire duration of the commission to the personal pay of the office which they fill regularly and one-half in addition, and to the traveling expenses both ways, duly justified.

ART. 512. Officers coming to the Peninsula from the said provinces in commission of the service shall prove immediately on presenting themselves at the colonial department that they have made a direct voyage. If they should not have done so, they shall lose the right to transportation at the expense of the State and to the emoluments allowed them on account of their extraordinary duties, and shall be obliged to refund to the public treasury the sum advanced to them on either account. In such case they shall be obliged to return to the place of the office which they regularly fill within the period of thirty days, which can not be extended, counted from the date of their landing, during which period they shall have no right to any pay.

ART. 513. Extraordinary commissions for the service may also be conferred in special circumstances for places within the colonial province in which the employee who is given the same fills his office, and if said employee must leave the place of his residence he shall have a right to the pay, extra pay, and in addition one-half of the total pay during the duration of the commission, which can never exceed three months. They shall also be allowed traveling expenses both ways.

ART. 514. In the future no addition of the officers of the colonial possessions to the colonial department or to any other office of the administration of the Peninsula shall be decreed.

ART. 515. Every officer coming to the Peninsula otherwise than under the conditions established in this decree-law, on leave or in commission for the service, even if either has been granted through an error or the negligence of his hierarchical superiors, shall be discharged from the service. The order of discharge shall be retroactive to the day on which said officer ceased to perform the regular duties of his office.

ART. 516. Notwithstanding the provisions of article 514, officers of the judicial and the public prosecution services may be detailed to the codification commission of the colonial provinces for the period of four months at the utmost, which can not be extended. To said details only such officers can be appointed who actually hold the office of associate justice of a territorial audiencia, in the proportion of one officer for each of the same and two officers for that of Habana. The number of officers thus detailed can not exceed three.

ART. 517. The period of four months shall be counted from the date of landing in the Peninsula for the officers who obtain a commission while residing in the colonial provinces at the time when the same is conferred, and from the date of the royal order conferring the commission for those residing in the Peninsula at the time thereof.

ART. 518. The officer who, in any of the cases referred to in this chapter, has not had his embarkation certified to within the period for which the commission is conferred, shall be considered as resigning his office and shall be declared suspended.

ART. 519. The provisions of this title are hereby extended to the officers of the department of public prosecution.

FINAL PROVISION.

All legal provisions conflicting with those of this decree-law are hereby repealed.

Approved by Her Majesty:

MADRID, January 5, 1891.

FABIÉ.

APPENDICES.

ROYAL DECREE OF APRIL 3, 1884, DECLARING THE TERMINATION OF THE APPLICATION OF ALL THE TEMPORARY PROVISIONS OF THE ADDITIONAL LAW TO THE ORGANIC LAW ON JUDICIAL POWER."

STATEMENT.

SIR: Few subjects have been the object of such varying laws as the appointment and promotion of the officers of the administration of justice. The noble purpose to give due consideration to legitimate aspirations and interests, together with the great changes in the organization of courts, has produced such a complication of series of succession, categories, assimilations of rank, entrance into the service, and provisional powers that it is very difficult, even with the best intentions, now to proceed in so delicate a matter without offending legitimate hopes, and even rights that should be respected. Nevertheless, it is necessary to devise a remedy for a state of things which has been disturbing, for reasons lying beyond the control of anyone, the personnel of so important a branch of service, unexpected promotions being given to some, others being forced to wait, while, on the other hand, persons have been taken into the service who, according to the laws, could not hope for admission.

Reforms of so radical a type as would conform with the desires of the undersigned secretary can not be proposed by him to Your Majesty at the present time, as he has too much respect for matters which, directly or indirectly, are of a judicial character to interfere with them to any extent without a previous decision of the Parliament; but one painful, though brief, experience has demonstrated to him the imperative necessity of regulating without delay that organism which, more than any other branch of the service, demands order and respect, seniority and hierarchy, modest, but certain, hopes of reward for diligence in work and the removal of personal influence, and which, unfortunately for some time, has been suffering from defects diametrically opposed to such conditions.

The only thing which can for the present be effected, and which is really of the greatest urgency, is to limit arbitrary ministerial decisions, which seldom prove beneficial in countries which, like our own, have a political parliamentary government, united with a social democratic organization, and to secure this it is probably more important, instead of elaborating new substantive precepts, to seek a method of procedure which will insure a vigorous fulfillment of the precepts which have already been promulgated.

It is sad to say it, but in this, as in the other branches of our administrative legislation, the perfection of the written law contrasts with the difficulties of long-sustained and efficacious practice. Thus the artistic and complicated provisions concerning series of succession of the organic law of 1870, and of the additional law of 1882, satisfy the most exacting spirit by their variety and method; but the provisions on the bureau of personnel seem never to have acquired an actual application, certainly not by the fault of the governments, but for want of regulations to carry these precepts into effect. This consideration awakens in the undersigned secretary a fear that he may not be more successful in the future; but he has been moved by the desire to make the greatest endeavor in seeking additional formulas and guaranties for carrying iuto effect the law which is in force, and the provisions of which are more ample in what refers to the freedom of ministerial powers in matters of promo

All the articles of this decree are still in force except articles 7 and 8, which were repealed by royal decree of April 8, 1886; consequently it must be observed, taking into consideration the provisions of subsequent decisions concerning the various series of succession.