vide_ p. 56).

I knew a planter in Negros Island who was charged with homicide. The
judge of his province acquitted him, but fearing that he might
again be arrested on the same charge, he came up to Manila with me
to procure a ratification of the sentence in the Supreme Court. The
legal expenses were so enormous that he was compelled to fully mortgage
his plantation. Weeks passed, and having spent all his money without
getting justice, I lent his notary L40 to assist in bringing the case
to an end. The planter returned to Negros apparently satisfied that he
would be troubled no further, but later on, the newly-appointed judge
in that Island, whilst prospecting for fees by turning up old cases,
unfortunately came across this one, and my planter acquaintance was
sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, although the family lawyer,
proceeding on the same shifty lines, still hoped to find defects in
the sentence in order to reverse it in favour of his client.

Availing one's self of the dilatoriness of the Spanish law, it was
possible for a man to occupy a house, pay no rent, and refuse to quit
on legal grounds during a couple of years or more. A person who had
not a cent to lose could persecute another of means by a trumped-up
accusation until he was ruined, by an "_informacion de pobreza_"--a
declaration of poverty--which enabled the persecutor to keep the
case going as long as he chose without needing money for fees. [111]
A case of this kind was often started at the instigation of a native
lawyer. When it had gone on for a certain time, the prosecutor's
adviser would propose an "extra-judicial arrangement," to extort
costs from the wearied and browbeaten defendant.

About the year 1886 there was a _cause celebre_, the parties being
the firm of Jurado & Co. _versus_ the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation. The Bank had agreed to make advances on goods to be
imported by the firm in exchange for the firm's acceptances. The
agreement was subject to six months' notice from the Bank. In
due course the Bank had reason to doubt the genuineness of certain
documents. Mr. Jurado was imprisoned, but shortly released on bail. He
was dismissed from his official post of second chief of Telegraphs,
worth P4,000 a year. Goods, as they arrived for his firm, were
stored pending litigation, and deteriorated to only a fraction of
their original value. His firm was forced by these circumstances into
liquidation, and Mr. Jurado sued t