on to serve for three years,
and only enjoy exemption from the payment of tribute and _polos_. [105]
The cuadrilleros are armed with old guns and spears, perform police
duty, and guard the tribunal, prison, and the royal or government
house. They also go in pursuit of criminals.

Some provinces (for instance, the majority of those in Luzon) are
ruled by legal alcaldes-mayor who are lawyers, who exercise the
civil government, and are at the same time judges of first instance,
sub-delegates of the treasury and of local departments, administrators
of the posts, military commandants, and presiding officers of the
meetings for auctions and for primary instruction. They were also
formerly collectors of tobacco, in the provinces where that plant is
cultivated. [106]

Other provinces, such as those of Visayas and Mindanao, are ruled
by politico-military governors, belonging to the army and fleet,
who also unite duties identical to those of the alcaldes-mayor--with
the difference that in these provinces there are judges for the
administration of justice; while in the provinces of Luzon the
governors conduct the court of justice, with a lawyer as advisory
assistant [_asessor_], who is the judge of the next province. In
those provinces where no department of the public treasury exists,
they are also directors of economic matters.

A governor and captain-general exercises the supreme authority in
Filipinas. In his charge is the direction of all civil and military
matters, and even the direction of ecclesiastical matters in so far
as they touch the royal patronage. Until 1861, when the council of
administration was created, he also had charge of the presidency of
the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria there.

The authority, then, of the governor-general is complete, and such
a number of attributes conferred on one functionary (incompetent,
as a general rule, for everything outside of military matters),
is certainly prejudicial to the right exercise of his duty.

Until the year 1822, private gentlemen, magistrates, military men,
sailors, and ecclesiastics, without any distinction, were appointed
to fill so lofty a post; and they have borne the title and exercised
the functions of captain-general to suit their own convenience.

During the vacancies, political authority resided in the royal
assembly--the Audiencia in full [107] and the military authority in an
auditor (magistrate), with the title of captain-general _ad interim_.