In addition to this the circumstance that all
criminal causes in the islands had to be sent for review to the proper
_audiencia_, caused a large accumulation of old cases in these higher
courts, and this alone made their disposition a matter of some years.

To-day the procedure is rapid. Information having been brought against
the defendant, the trial is had in the same term or at most during
the next term of court. Sometimes the trial is suspended owing to the
non-appearance of witnesses, but it can be said that cases are rare
where causes are pending in the docket of the court for a longer period
than two terms. Causes appealed to the Supreme Court are disposed of
promptly, and as a general rule it does not take over six months to
get a decision.

Defendants in criminal cases have now been granted by the Philippine
Bill certain fundamentally important rights which they did not formerly
enjoy; namely, to appear and defend in person or by counsel at every
stage of the proceedings; to be informed of the nature and cause of the
accusation; to testify as witnesses in their own behalf; to be exempt
from testifying against themselves; to be confronted at the trial by,
and to cross-examine, the witnesses against them; to have compulsory
process issue for obtaining witnesses in their own favour; to have
speedy and public trials; to be admitted to bail with sufficient
sureties in all cases, except for capital offences. None of these
rights were enjoyed under the procedure in effect during the Spanish
regime. A man was prosecuted without being notified of the charges
against him, and he was only made aware of the case against him after
the _sumario_. When all of the evidence of the prosecution had been
taken the accused was heard in his own defence. He was compelled
to testify, and was subjected to a very inquisitorial examination,
including questions which incriminated him. Although he had the right
to compel witnesses for the prosecution to ratify over their signatures
the evidence against him given during the _sumario_, as the defence of
the majority of the accused was in the hands of attorneys _de officio_
they nearly always renounced this privilege of the defendant, and,
as has already been said, bail was not admitted in any grave offence
during the trial.

No sentence of acquittal in a criminal case can now be appealed from
by the government. Under the Spanish system sentences of acquittal of
courts of first instance ha