tratively liable to the same in accordance with this law, and judicially to the courts for the crimes and offenses which they may commit.

ART. 209. Besides the administrative appeals established by this law, any resident or property owner of the town has a right of action to the courts of justice in order to denounce and criminally prosecute mayors, deputy mayors, or aldermen and associates, whenever in the establishment, distribution, and collection of taxes and imposts they have been guilty of fraud or of illegal exactions, and more especially in the following cases:

1. If any of the councilors or associates, during the year they are such, pay a quota lower by way of assessment, tax, or license, compared with the year preceding the discharge of their office, the total amount assessable being equal or higher, unless they prove that their wealth has diminished sufficiently to justify such reduction.

2. When the total products of the assessments and taxes distributed exceed the amount mentioned in the budget and six per cent extra authorized by rule 5 of article 150 of this law.

3. When the quotas determined by the means are higher than the law allows.

4. Whenever any kind of imposts not included in the budget are established and collected.

The courts of justice, after the act has been proved, and without prejudice to the provisions of the penal code, shall make the following declarations:

First case. Imposition of a double quota upon the guilty parties. Second and third cases. Annulment of the assessment, in so far as it exceeds the amount authorized, and return of the taxes collected, with a fine equal to the excess conjointly imposed upon the guilty councilors and associates.

Fourth case. Annulment of the tax imposed, and return of the amounts collected, with a fine equal to their value, demanded in the manner mentioned in the foregoing case.

ART. 210. Every member of a municipal corporation who may have made a ruling or voted for a resolution injurious to the rights of private parties shall be liable for indemnification or for restitution to the persons prejudiced before the courts which, according to the cases, are of competent jurisdiction, during the time said liability is not extinguished according to ordinary legal rules.

TITLE VI.-POLITICAL GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPAL DISTRICTS.

FIRST AND LAST CHAPTER.

ART. 211. Mayors, besides the administrative functions which appertain to them as executors of the resolutions of municipal councils, have the representation and delegation of the government, and in this character they shall discharge all the duties intrusted to them by the laws, working under the direction of the Governor-General, as said laws may determine, in all that refers to the publication and execution of the laws and general provisions of the government or of the Governor-General and provincial deputation, as well as in all that refers to public order and to the other functions intrusted to them.

ART. 212. In all that relates to the political government of the municipal district the authority, duties, and liability of the mayor are independent of the respective municipal council.

ART. 213. Deputy mayors, in their respective sections, shall always act by delegation and under the direction of the mayor as the representatives of the government in the same manner as the

the municipal district.

mayor does in ART. 214. Ward mayors, in their respective wards, exercise the functions of the political government when, in accordance to law, they are delegated thereto by the mayors or deputy mayors, in all cases complying with the provisions of the former and of the delegate of the governor.

ART. 215. The Governor-General and the colonial secretary, in the respective cases, exercise the high inspection over all the services of the island, no matter in what shape they may be rendered, in accordance with the powers inherent to the sovereignty reserved by the laws to the government of the nation.

ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS.

1. All prior laws and provisions relating to the municipal government of the island of Porto Rico are hereby repealed.

2. The laws, decrees, royal orders, and regulations in force in the Peninsula which decide special points of municipal administration, or which are a complement or development unforeseen in this law, shall govern as suppletory legislation, in so far as they may be applied to the special case in question, and in the lack of a legal precept or administrative provision issued to the contrary for the island of Porto Rico.

3. The Government shall issue, in accordance with this law, the provisions necessary for its execution.

Madrid, December 31st, 1896.
Approved by Her Majesty.

CASTELLANO.

(TRANSLATION.)

LAWS RELATING TO THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO.

DIVISION OF CUSTOMS AND INSULAR AFFAIRS,

WAR DEPARTMENT,

AUGUST, 1899.

COLONIAL DEPARTMENT.

LAW.

Don Alfonso XIII, by the grace of God and the constitution, King of Spain, and in his name and during his minority the Queen Regent of the Realm:

Know ye, all who may see these presents and understand them, that the Cortes have decreed and we have sanctioned the following:

(All of the text of Article 1 has been omitted as it refers exclusively to Cuba.)

ART. 2. The régime of the government and the civil administration of the island of Porto Rico shall be in accordance with the following bases:

Basis 1.-The municipal law in force in the island is hereby modified in so far as necessary for the following purposes:

The questions relating to the organization of the municipalities or of the municipal corporations (addition, survey of districts, incidents of elections, qualifications of officers-elect, and other similar ones) shall be decided without further appeal by the provincial deputation. The councilors elected by the municipal councils shall be the mayors until the Governor-General sees fit to appoint another member of the corporation. Mayors shall exercise, besides the regular functions of the administration as executors of the resolutions of municipal councils, the representation and delegation of the government.

In all cases of administrative suspension of municipal resolutions the question shall immediately pass for action of the ordinary court, if the suspension was ordered by reason of delinquency, or it shall pass to the provincial deputation in order that it may confirm or annul the suspension, if the reason for the latter was that the resolution referred to questions positively foreign to the municipal competency or on account of infraction of laws.

The delegates of the General Government may suspend the resolutions of the municipal corporations and warn, reprimand, fine, or suspend its members when they exceed the limits of the municipal competency.

For the administrative removal of mayors and councilors in the cases determined by the law, the Governor-General must first necessarily hear the council of administration.

Every member of a municipal administration who may have issued a ruling or voted for a resolution injurious to the rights of private parties, shall be liable for indemnification or restitution to the persons injured before the courts which, according to the cases, are of