Note 43 — Chapter VI · THE AUDIENCIA AND THE GOVERNOR: GENERAL RELATIONS

It seems that the above prohibition did not apply with the same force to fiscales as to magistrates. This is illustrated by a case which arose in 1804 when Fiscal Miguel Díaz de Rivera was deprived of his office by royal decree for having married without the permission of the Council of the Indies.43 The fiscal had married the daughter of the corregidor of Pangasinán, who was a colonel in the Spanish army. The mother of the girl was a Eurasian from Madras, and had been a subject of Great Britain. Under the date of May 27, 1805, Díaz sent a petition to the king, bearing the endorsement of Governor Aguilar, demanding his restoration to office. Among the reasons cited for the proposed reinstatement of the fiscal, it was said that Díaz, being a prosecutor and not a magistrate, was not subject to the same regulations and conditions as the oidores, whose judicial duties rendered impossible their marriage within the Islands. Aguilar stated that the purpose of the law had been to debar ministers from making such marriage connections as would diminish the respect which the community should have for them as oidores of a royal audiencia, thus undermining their standing as magistrates. In this instance there could have been no case of degradation because of the high standing of the mother and father. Moreover, a fiscal could not be regarded as a magistrate, and the same laws did not apply to both classes of officials. As an outcome of these representations Díaz was restored to office by the royal decree of October 13, 1806.44