tions and appointments than the criterion of the present Government would permit, but which would effect a real progress under the sole condition of their being actually carried into effect.

To this end, the provisions of the additional law relating to entrance and promotion being in the essence respected, the undersigned secretary having believed that his right to change by a decree the series of succession established in favor of certain classes is at least doubtful, the temporary provisions, the raison d'être of which has disappeared, shall be without force; a minimum limit of two years is fixed as a prerequisite to promotion from one category to another; the Government renounces the freedom given to it by the law to select for promotion officers of the immediate list, no matter what position said officers may occupy; and the observance of the series of succession is regulated by means of registry books accessible to those interested, open to the public (which is the highest guaranty of modern organizations), whenever such publicity is advisable, for the defense of a right or the denouncement of an abuse or negligence; all guarantied by real competitions for filling the positions of a social importance not lower than that of professors or registers of property, and with administrative and litigative appeals which demand from persons who rashly persist in an error, or in the violation of a right which should be respected, a moderate liability, which for that very reason is apparently true and efficacious.

Much will be left for further work, even after securing by these means the strict fulfillment of the law in force. But it has already been said by one of our statesmen of the seventeenth century "that there is no high aim without much labor," and the undersigned secretary must bear this saying in mind in order not to fall into the error of attractive but ephemeral improvisations; and when the entrance and promotions shall have been regulated in law and in practice, and when the consequences of past modifications shall have vanished, greater and bolder steps may safely be undertaken in the great work of making the judicial organism as vigorous as is demanded by the institutions of a country having parliamentary rule.

At the royal feet of Your Majesty.

MADRID, April 3, 1884.

FRANCISCO SILVELA.

ROYAL DECREE.

In conformity with the suggestion of the secretary of grace and justice, with the approval of the council of secretaries, I decree the following:

ART. 1. The application of all the temporary provisions of the additional law to the organic law on judiciał power of October 14, 1882, is hereby declared at an end, and therefore the other precepts of the said law remain in force and must be rigorously observed.

ART. 2. A promotion can not be granted to any officer in the judicial service who has not filled for at least two years an office of the class next lower in the respective list.

In default of an officer filling for two years the office in the next lower class in the list, the officer occupying the first place on the graded list shall be promoted.

ART. 3. In the four series of succession fixed in Arts. 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 of the said additional law, the power which is granted the Government to appoint officers of the class next lower, whatever may be their number on the graded scale, shall be reduced to those who are included in the first two-thirds of their respective grade.

ART. 4. To procure due guaranty and regularity for the series of succession established by the additional law, there shall be kept in the bureau of personnel of audiencias and inferior courts of this department the following books corresponding to the order of promotion established in the said law:

1. For the vacancies of inferior courts of the entrance category.

2. For the vacancies of inferior courts of the promotion category and of the public prosecutors (abogacias fiscales) of criminal audiencias.

3. For the vacancies of the inferior courts of the final category, of the public prosecutors (abogacias fiscales) of territorial audiencias, and of the tenientes fiscales of criminal audiencias.

4. For the vacancies of the associate justices of criminal audiencias, tenientes fiscales of territorial audiencias, and abogados fiscales of the audiencia of Madrid.

5. For the vacancies of the presiding judges and fiscales of criminal audiencias, and of associate justices of territorial audiencias, and of the judges of Madrid.

6. For the vacancies of presiding judges of chambers of territorial audiencias, fiscales, associate justices of the territorial audiencia of Madrid, tenientes fiscales of the same, or abogados fiscales of the supreme court.

7. For the vacancies occurring in the office of associate justices of the supreme court.

ART. 5. In these books, which shall be kept and rubricated by the chief of personnel under the immediate direction of the assistant secretary of this department, there shall be recorded the appointments made in each group of those established by the law, with the observance of the series of succession in the order fixed by the additional law, which shall be counted for vacancies occurring from the date of the publication of this decree in the Gaceta de Madrid. These books shall be open to the active and suspended officers of the judicial service who may request to see them at the assistant secretary's office of the department, and said officers shall be given, upon request, certified extracts from these books, at their expense.

ART. 6. The officers who believe themselves to have been prejudiced by an appointment made with an improper modification of the series of succession, may appeal to the secretary through administrative channels. In such an appeal a hearing must be given to the section of grace and justice of the council of state, and legal steps of a litigative character may be brought against the decision of the secretary.

If the litigation shall have demonstrated an improper modification of the series of succession and the illegality of the appointment, the costs of the litigation shall be charged personally to the secretary who may have disregarded the administrative complaint, if the decision of the council of state was not observed.

ART. 7. All the vacancies of the judicial service shall be announced for the purpose of filling them in the Gaceta de Madrid as soon as they are officially communicated to the department, and those desiring to be appointed to fill said vacancies shall send within the period of twenty days, counting from the date of the publication of the announcement, their written petitions, accompanied by documents proving their legal eligibility. The bureau of the department shall classify them and shall make a list, making a succinct statement of the proceedings, showing the names of the applicants and their merits, which shall be published with the appointment.

ART. 8. If in any of the series of succession no officers request the promotion due them, that series of succession shall be passed over, a memorandum to that effect being entered in the proper book, and the vacancy being filled from the series of succession next in order.

ART. 9. The duties to be discharged in vacant offices while the steps for filling said offices are in progress may be discharged through a commission for service, which may be intrusted to officers of the same or the next lower category if the circumstances should make it advisable that they should be performed by the person who ordinarily should do so temporarily.

Given at the Palace on April 3, 1884.

FRANCISCO SILVELA,

Secretary of Grace and Justice.

ALFONSO.

(Gaceta of April 4.)

ROYAL ORDER OF MARCH 14, 1885, FOR TAKING POSSESSION OF OFFICES, DURATION AND POSTPONEMENT THEREOF, AND TRANSFERS OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS.

The attention of this department has been called to the repeated petitions of officers in the judicial and public prosecution service who have taken part in competitions, asking for prolongation of the period fixed by law for taking possession for the purpose of performing their duties and requesting at the same time transfers to positions other than those which must be filled and to which said officers have solicited appointment; as well as to the fact that similar requests of postponement of taking possession are made by many officers who in compliance with their wishes have been transferred without sufficient grounds in either case, except in cases of duly proven sickness that can not be foreseen

by said officers before taking part in the competition for appointment or before asking for a transfer. The granting of such postponements, besides necessitating a long temporary filling of vacancies, on account of which the offices remain vacant during the time of competitive examination, as well as during the time of transfer to take possession of the office, causes serious delay in the transaction of business and disturbs the good administration of justice, because the regular incumbents are not performing their duties. The above applies especially to courts of first instance and examination, because frequently the municipal judge who should replace the regular officer in the exercise of his jurisdiction is not a lawyer-a circumstance which again proves to be the cause of a further delay and impediment to the transaction of business. With the object of remedying these evils, removing the inconveniences produced thereby in the ordinary and normal routine of courts, His Majesty the King (whom God preserve) has decreed the following:

1. Officers who in virtue of a competition have been promoted to the vacancies which they desired to fill must take possession of their offices within the period fixed for the purpose in the provisional law on judicial power, which can not be extended, except in case of sickness duly proven. If said period has elapsed, and the officers in question have not taken possssion of their offices, it shall be presumed that said officers renounce the promotion, and another officer shall be selected from among those who have applied to fill the same vacancies and have taken part in the same competitive examinations while the former shall remain in the offices they previously held, if their filling has not already been announced, in which latter case they shall be given another office of the same class and category.

2. A promoted officer can not request a transfer until at least one year has elapsed from the date of his promotion, except in cases of incompatibility, when a change of place with another officer should be solicited by means of a petition, or in cases when the officer in question is prevented by serious causes from remaining in the place in which he performs his duties.

3. An extension of the period for taking possession of offices shall not be granted to the officers who have been transferred at their own request, except in cases of sickness duly proven, a statement concerning which must appear in the petition. Said petition shall be directed through the proper channels, and therein the petitioner shall comply with the other requirements which for petitions for leaves and their extensions are fixed by the royal order of July 24, 1878, issued by the treasury department for carrying into effect the provisions of article 43 of the budget law of said year.

4. Every request for transfer shall be made in the form of a petition directed through the respective presiding judges of territorial audiencias, in which there shall be stated the reasons for the request, for which purpose there shall be kept in this department a registry in which a memorandum of said petitions shall be made.

I communicate this to you for your information and that of the officers of that judicial territory, and for other purposes in connection therewith. May God preserve you many years.

MADRID, March 14, 1985.

To the Presiding Judge and the Fiscal of the Audiencia of

(Gaceta of March 18.)

SILVELA.

LAW OF AUGUST 19, 1885, ON THE UNIFICATION OF THE JUDICIAL AND THE PUBLIC PROSECUTION SERVICES OF THE PENINSULA AND THE COLONIES.

Don Alfonso XII, by the grace of God, constitutional King of Spain.
To all who shall hear or see these presents:

Be it known that the Cortes have decreed and we have sanctioned the following:

ART. 1. The judicial and public prosecution services of the Peninsula and the colonies are hereby united, and equal rights are granted to the officers of the same within their respective categories, subject to the laws in force in so far as they are not modified by the present one.

ART. 2. For the fulfillment of the provisions of the preceding article the following grades are established in the judicial service:

1. The presiding judge of the supreme court.

2. The presiding judges of the chambers of the same.

3. The associate justices of same court.

4. The presiding judge and the presiding judges of chambers of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana.

5. The associate justices of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana and the presiding judge and the presiding judges of chambers of territorial audiencias. 6. The associate justices of territorial audiencias, presiding judges of criminal audiencias, and the judges of first instance of Madrid and Habana.

7. The associate justices of criminal audiencias.

8. The judges of first instance of the final category.

9. The judges of the promotion category.

10. The judges of the entrance category.

ART. 3. The hierarchical order of the department of public prosecution shall be as follows:

1. The fiscal of the supreme court.

2. The teniente fiscal of the same and the fiscales of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana.

3. The abogados fiscales of the supreme court, the tenientes fiscales of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana, and the fiscales of territorial audiencias. 4. The fiscales of criminal audiencias.

5. The tenientes fiscales of territorial audiencias and the abogados fiscales of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana.

6. The abogados fiscales of territorial audiencias, the tenientes fiscales of criminal audiencias, and the promotores fiscales of the audiencia of Habana. 7. The abogados fiscales of criminal audiencias and the promotores of the final category serving in the colonies.

8. The promotores of the promotion category serving in the colonies. 9. The promotores of the entrance category serving in the colonies. ART. 4. The first grade in the public prosecution service is equivalent to the second grade in the judicial service; the second of the former to the fourth of the latter; the third of the former to the fifth of the latter; the fourth of the former to the sixth of the latter, and to that of the secretary of the supreme court; the fifth of the public prosecution to the seventh of the judicial; the sixth to the eighth, and to that of the secretaries of chamber and of administration of the audiencias of Madrid and Habana; the seventh of the former to the ninth of the latter and to that of secretaries of chamber and of administration of the territorial audiencia; the eighth to the tenth of the judicial service and to that of the secretaries of territorial audiencias, and the ninth to that of vice-secretaries.

ART. 5. The department of grace and justice shall arrange the general graded list within the period of three months, counting from the date of the promulgation of this law, in which there shall be included all the officers of the judicial service and of the department of public prosecution of the whole kingdom, in conformity with the provisions of the royal decree of September 27, 1878.

The department of the colonies shall forward to the department of grace and Justice the necessary data in order that there may be included in the graded list the officers of the said services who fill offices or are on the list of suspended officers of America and Asia. It shall likewise forward also within the first fifteen days of each year a statement of the changes occurring in the partial graded list which said department must make in its turn in order to make the proper corrections in the general one.

ART. 6. Entrance into the judicial service in the Peninsula shall take place as judge of the entrance category by means of a competitive examination, in conformity with the provisions of article 35 of the additional law to the provisional law or organization of the judicial power, and without prejudice to the power granted to the Government to name a fourth series of succession for those possessing the qualifications required by article 40 of the law above mentioned.

Until the present organization in the colonies is modified entrance into the service shall take place as promotor of the entrance category, the appointee being required to possess the qualifications prescribed in article 19 of the royal decree of September 20, 1875, excepting the power which in the provision in question and in the additional law is reserved to the Government. To the colonies there shall be extended the articles of the above-mentioned law that establish the series of succession for filling vacancies, including therein promotores and other judicial officers in their proper places according to the classification of article 4 of this law.

ART. 7. The secretaries of grace and justice and the colonial secretary, in conformity with the said series of succession and taking into account the organi

zation of the superior courts of their respective departments, shall fill the vacancies that occur with officers dependent on said departments, and may appoint in the third and fourth series the officers who request transfer or promotion from one to the other. In order to aspire to the former the officers of the colonial department must have served four years in the colonies, or in the direction of grace and justice of the colonial department, and two years in the category. This last condition is required also of those serving in the Peninsula who request a transfer to the said provinces. For a promotion the officers of either department must possess the qualifications required by the law cited. Should duly qualified candidates be wanting, or should they not possess the qualifications required by law, appointments shall be made from among the officers selected from said series.

ART. 8. The places referred to in article 46 of the said additional law and included in the respective grades of articles 2 and 3 of the present law shall be filled in the manner prescribed by the former, one of each three vacancies occurring in the Peninsula or in the colonies being given to officers of the colonies or of the peninsula belonging to the classes specified in said articles, who must have served for two years in their category and must request the appointment.

ART. 9. The secretaries referred to above shall take into consideration, in filling the position referred to in articles 46, 47, and 48 of the said additional law, the seniority granted in the general graded list to the officers eligible for the positions in question, and the merits that commend them for the vacancies occurring in their respective departments.

ART. 10. For the purposes of article 50 of the additional law the associate Justice of the greatest seniority of the audiencia of Habana is hereby granted the same privileges as are given by said article to the associate justice of the greatest seniority of the audiencia of Madrid.

ART. 11. In filling offices of secretaries of chamber and administration of the final category of the territorial audiencias of the Kingdom, and the offices of the secretary and the vice secretary of the supreme court, articles 54 and 55 of the said additional law shall be observed.

ART. 12. For the transfer or promotion of the officers referred to in this law from the Peninsula to the colonies, or vice versa, a request must be made by the officers themselves. Those of the colonies must also have to their credit four years of residence in said colonies and two years of service in the category, unless the appointment conforms with the succession by seniority.

The petitions shall be addressed to the secretary making the appointment, through the department in which the petitioner serves, who in passing upon the petition shall add a report of the career and memoranda concerning the officer in question and his record of service. The latter shall be published in the Gaceta de Madrid, together with the appointment, with a citation of the article of the law on which it is based.

ART. 13. The categories and privileges acquired in conformity with the provisions and laws in force granted to those holding the same shall be respected. The officers who entered the service in the colonies without a competitive examination, subsequently to the date of the promulgation of the organic law on judicial power, shall be required to serve the time of service equivalent to that which the additional law on law practice fixes for lawyers for entering the respective category, before they can be transferred to the Peninsula, and two years more before they can be promoted.

ART. 14. The officers who are lawyers of the department of grace and justice, and those of the direction of grace and justice of the colonial department, shall preserve the category and position in the graded list that may have been granted them, when they have completed the length of service required to this effect of the officers of the same rank in the judicial and the public prosecution services. Those who hereafter enter either service can not aspire to the categories, and consequently can not be included in the graded list if they do not belong to the same, in which case their categories shall not be accepted as superior to that which they had and with which they entered the department. Those who shall hereafter enter the service in the direction of grace and justice in the same manner as the officers of that department can not be promoted without having completed the necessary time of service required for promotion in their respective category.

ART. 15. The provisions on incompatibility prescribed for judicial officers by article 111 of the organic law on judicial power shall be rigorously enforced in the colonies. From this provision shall be excepted, as long as the present organization in the Philippines is preserved, the judges of the Philippines who