live in idleness, and,
as much as possible, without working, or much trouble. As long as
hopes are entertained of doing something in the Acapulco speculations,
every other pursuit is viewed with indifference, and the office of
district or provincial magistrate is only solicited when all other
resources have failed, or as a remedy against want. As the applicants
for these situations are therefore not among the most select classes,
it very frequently happens that they fall into extremely improper
and unworthy hands.

It is in fact common enough to see a hairdresser or a lackey converted
into a governor; a sailor or a deserter transformed into a district
magistrate, collector, or military commander of a populous province,
without any other counsellor than his own crude understanding,
or any other guide than his passion. Such a metamorphosis would
excite laughter in a comedy or farce; but, realized in the theatre
of human life, it must give rise to sensations of a very different
nature. Who is there that does not feel horror-struck, and tremble
for the innocent, when he sees a being of this kind transferred from
the yard-arm to the seat of justice, deciding, in the first instance,
on the honor, lives, and property of a hundred thousand persons, and
haughtily exacting the homage and incense of the spiritual ministers
of the towns under his jurisdiction, as well as of the parish curates,
respectable for their acquirements and benevolence, and who, in their
own native places, would possibly have rejected as a servant the very
man whom in the Philippines they are compelled to court and obey as
a sovereign.

In vain do the laws ordain that such offices shall not be given away to
attendants on governors and members of the high court of justice, for
under pretext of the scarcity of Europeans experienced in the colony,
means are found to elude the statute, by converting this plea into an
exception in favor of this description of persons. By such important
offices being filled in this manner, it is easy to conceive the various
hardships to which many of the provinces and districts are exposed;
nor can any amelioration be expected as long as this plan is persisted
in and the excesses of the parties go without punishment.

[Evils from officials in trade.] Independent, however, of the serious
injuries and great errors persons of the class above described cannot
fail to commit in the exercise of their functions, purely judicial, the