Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/271

 married are not a very dangerous class of people, the commissary may in a case of flight exercise leniency, by allowing them to come and present themselves under a sufficient security, corresponding to their station and means.

21. A sequestration of property is very injurious to a person, especially in the Indias, where all the value of property depends upon its management. The commissary ought not therefore, in any case, to do this; on the contrary, the arrested person shall permit suitable provision for his property, according to his own preference, entrusting it by means of an inventory to some person in whom he has confidence. The latter shall bind himself, in due form, to be the depositary of such goods as the prisoner may leave in his charge on account of his arrest; and in such manner that it may not seem to be a deposit or a sequestration by the Holy Office, but simply a contract between two parties. This accomplished, the commissary shall obtain very minute information about the station of the prisoner, his mode of life, and the means and property that he may possess. If he has any reason to suspect that either the prisoner or the person to whom he has entrusted his property on account of the arrest, is endeavoring to hide, or squander, or alienate the property, he shall be careful not to allow such alienation or any other mismanagement of the property; until the Holy Office, having examined his offense, shall make suitable provision for a legal sequestration: for in punishing a crime, the property of the guilty person is always regarded as an accessory element, to be used in behalf of the person to whom it shall belong after the culprit is released from prison.