nto one stock, as is now the case, and directly administered by the
government, they produce a more general utility. The head town of
the province A, for example, requires to rebuild the public prison
or town-hall, and its own private funds are not sufficient to defray
the expenses of the work in question. In this case, therefore, the
government gives orders for the other dependent towns to make up the
deficiency by taking their proportions from their respective coffers,
as all have an equal interest in the proposed object being carried
into effect. The king's officers, in consequence thereof, draw the
corresponding sums from these funds, the whole of which is under their
immediate superintendence. And in order that the surplus of this stock
may not stand still, but obtain every possible increase in a country
where the premium for money is excessive, when let out at a maritime
risk, it is ordered that some part shall be appropriated in this way,
and on the same terms as those observed by the administrators of the
charity funds belonging to the Misericordia (Charity) establishment,
and the third order of St. Francis, which is another of the great
advantages of assembling this class of property.

In consequence of this judicious regulation, and the success with
which this measure has hitherto been attended, the Community fund
has gone on increasing in such a way that, notwithstanding the sums
drawn from it for the purpose of constructing causeways, bridges,
and other municipal objects, at the commencement of 1810, the stock
in hand amounted to no less than $200,000; and it is natural to
suppose when the outstanding premiums due shall have been paid in,
a considerable augmentation will take place. This branch, although
not exactly comprehended in those which constitute the revenue of the
government, has so obvious an analogy with that of tributes, that I
have not deemed it any essential deviation from the order and method
I have hitherto observed in this work, to introduce it in this place,
as in itself it did not deserve to be classed under a distinct head.

[Tribute burdensome.] Notwithstanding the truth of what has been
said with regard to the moderate rate of the tribute imposed on the
native of the Philippine Islands, it would be extremely desirable if
he could be altogether exonerated from a charge which he bears with
great repugnance, by some other substitute being adopted, indirectly
producing an equivalent compen