8. All the other expenses which may be clearly and precisely required by this and by other laws in the part to be complied with by the province.

ART. 78. The vote of an absolute majority of the total number of deputies is necessary for the approval of the budget. If the budget should not be approved at the beginning of the fiscal year, the previous budget shall remain in force in its necessary parts, or in a proper case the provisions of article 74 shall be observed.

ART. 79. In order to cover the expenditures specified in the provincial budget, the deputation shall use as receipts or revenues:

1. The income and product of the property belonging to the province and to the establishments and institutions the government and direction of which appertains to the provincial deputation.

2. The penalties authorized by law and enacted by the deputation, on the taxes and imposts of the State, the collection of which is intrusted to the general intendance of the Treasury.

3. The assessment which for the balance shall be assigned to the municipalities as a provincial proportion, in relation to what each one pays as direct taxation and to the entity of the corresponding budgets.

ART. 80. This proportion shall be included in the budget of each town, and its entire amount shall be paid in the treasurer's office at the time of the ordinary collection, or before should the municipal councils voluntarily make the payment thereof.

ART. 81. The provisions of articles 165, 166, 169, 170, and 178 of the municipal law are applicable to the deputation in all that appertains to the collection, management, and custody of the provincial funds.

ART. 82. The deputation shall audit, and in a proper case approve, the accounts of the provincial budget, which shall be made and submitted every year by the section of local administration.

TITLE III.-DEPENDENCY AND LIABILITY OF DEPUTIES AND AGENTS OF THE PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION.

ART. 83. The provincial deputation and the committee are subject to the proper administrative liability in all matters that do not come under their jurisdiction, in conformity with the laws.

The Governor-General, as the superior chief of all the authorities. of the island, shall execute all the resolutions of the deputation of a final character, and it is his duty to forward to the same and to the committee the laws, provisions, and instructions communicated to him by the colonial secretary, in all that concerns them.

The section of local administration in the general government and by delegation of the same shall have in charge for this purpose the services paid for from the provincial budget and the accounting system in reference thereto, and shall be liable for the nonobservance of the laws and of the legitimate resolutions of the deputation. ART. 84. The provincial deputation shall be liable:

1. By reason of manifest infraction of the law in its actions or resolutions, whether it be on account of its having transcended its powers or abused those appertaining to it.

2. By reason of disobedience to the supreme Government or to the Governor-General in the matters in which it acts by delegation and under orders from them.

3. By disrespect to the authority.

4. By reason of negligence or carelessness causing injury to the interests or services intrusted to it.

ART. 85. The liability shall be demanded administratively or judicially, in a proper case, according to the nature of the act or omission.

The liability shall only be demanded from the deputies who incurred the omission or took a direct part in the act or resolution which caused it.

ART. 86. The administrative liability includes the warning, fine, and suspension which it is the duty of the Governor-General to impose.

The provisions of article 191 of the municipal law are applicable to these penalties.

ART. 87. The following rules shall be borne in mind for the imposition or exaction of fines:

1. The determination of the amount appertains to the GovernorGeneral.

2. The fines shall not exceed 500 pesetas.

3. The fines imposed on the deputies can not be paid from the provincial funds.

4. The provisions of articles 194, 195, and 196 of the municipal law are applicable to these fines.

ART. 88. Suspension is in order in the cases stated in article 199 of the municipal law.

The provisions of articles 200, 201, and 204 of the municipal law are applicable to the proceedings for the suspension of provincial deputies.

The provisions of article 203 of the municipal law shall be observed should criminal liability exist.

ART. 89. The Governor-General, after hearing the board of authorities, may suspend the deputation, or, without that requisite, he may order of his own accord the suspension of its members, provided there remains a sufficient number of them to deliberate:

1. When the deputation or any of its members exceeds the limit of its legitimate faculties with injury to the governmental or judicial authority or endangering public order.

2. By reason of delinquency.

In the first case he shall immediately notify the Government, in order that the latter may raise the suspension or order the removal, by reason of the resolutions adopted by the council of secretaries, within the period of two months counted from the date on which the first direct steamer leaves for the Peninsula, after the lapse of which without either ruling the suspension shall be raised by reason of right. In the second case the proper courts shall immediately take cognizance of the matter, and whatever these may decide shall be carried into execution, not only in regard to the suspension but also to the final liabilities.

ART. 90. Any deputy who has been removed from office can not be reelected until six years at least have elapsed, unless the sentence does not impose a penalty of disqualification for a longer period.

ART. 91. The audiencia of the territory shall be the competent court in first instance, with the appeals to the supreme court authorized by the laws, in the offenses committed by the deputation in a body and by the provincial deputies in the exercise of their functions.

ART. 92. The employees and agents of the provincial administration appointed by the deputation shall render obedience to the same and are liable to it in accordance with this law.

ART. 93. The Governor-General and the colonial secretary in the proper cases, shall exercise the high inspection over all the services of the island, in whatsoever manner they may be rendered, in accordance with the faculties inherent to the sovereignty reserved by the laws to the government of the nation.

ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS.

1. All former laws and provisions relative to the provincial government of the island of Porto Rico are hereby repealed.

2. The laws, decrees, royal orders, and regulations in force in the Peninsula deciding concrete points of the provincial administration, or which are a complement or developments unforeseen by this law, shall govern as supplementary legislation in so far as they may be applied to the special case in question, and in the lack of a legal cept or governmental provision issued to the contrary for the island of Porto Rico.

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3. The Government shall draft, in accordance with this law, the necessary provisions for the execution of the same.

Madrid, December 31, 1896.

Approved by Her Majesty.

CASTELLANO.

ROYAL DECREE.

In view of the provisions of the law of March 15, 1895, which authorizes my Government to modify the municipal régime in force in the island of Porto Rico in accordance with the conditions established in basis 1 of article 2 of said law, at the suggestion of the Colonial Secretary, in concurrence with the council of secretaries, In the name of my august son the King, Don Alfonso XIII, and as Queen Regent of the Realm,

I decree the following:

ARTICLE 1. The annexed municipal law is approved.

ART. 2. The municipal law approved by this decree shall be promulgated and enforced in the island of Porto Rico.

Given at the Palace on December 31, 1896.

TOMAS CASTELLANO Y VILLARROYA,

Colonial Secretary.

MARIA CRISTINA.