The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 36

Penalties
Deprivation of Total no.
[rears] Death Imprisonment Ofce and Of
other
Sentences
correctives
i I837]............ 699 7 122
1838]............ 6 140 169 313
I839]............ 6 192 46 244
1840]............ 7 31 19 157
[ 841]............ 3 I73 77 253
28 735 328 Io89
Total number of causes sentenced in the first five years........... 41 I
Idem........................................................... 607
Increasing the latter.............................................1196
[Here follows a report in tabular form showing
the number of causes in each province for the years
1840 and I84I. This table is compiled at least in
part from the guide of Manila for the year 1840;
the population of each province being taken therefrom. Thirty-three provinces are enumerated. The
total number of causes for I840 was 295, and for
1841, 499.]
The first thing which arrests the attention in these
reports is the increase of crime. The fiscal, whom
I questioned in regard to this matter, told me that
now many causes are elevated to process which were
before finished in the inferior courts, and that during
these latter years many old causes had been sentenced. This may be true, but in regard to the accumulation of back cases that have been sentenced,
I believe that that can only be understood from the
year 1838, or even from that of 1839, because of the
lack of judges in which the court found itself in
1837. No matter how it is considered, the increase
is palpable, for the causes alone for murder of last
year amount to more than all those of any of the