Chapter III: Part 3

Thus far I have given minute details on the three principles which, in my opinion, I said it was necessary to adopt as basic policies in order to conserve the Filipinas: namely, to avoid the increase of the white population; make of the colored population, a docile and well-inclined mass; and reform the present administration. I have still to add that I conceive it to be of the foremost interest to always have in that treasury a sufficient store of spare funds to at least cover the expenses of one year. [It will be impossible to realize loans in case of either internal or external war. The treasury has been continually exhausted for years, and has drawn on the obras pías. Notes have been drawn on the Manila treasury for over three million pesos, on which interest is being paid, and there is no hope of paying the principal.] Such a method of doing things, is, in my opinion, a political imprudence twice over--in the first place because the islands are left exposed to reverses from a faction or from a foreign enemy; in the second, because it causes certain murmurs among their inhabitants, and a discontent difficult to conceive of here, and which may precipitate their ruin.

After having discussed the means of conserving the colony, supposing that this is always the intention of the government, let us consider the other extreme, taken in review, namely, to resolve to emancipate it and prepare it for giving it liberty.

In order to attain this end, it becomes natural, as is necessary, to adopt a system diametrically opposed to the first. The chief object must be that it does not cause the shedding of blood, that the relations of friendship and of trade with España are not interrupted, that the European Spaniards living there do not lose their chattels or landed property, and, especially, that our race there, the Filipino-Spaniards, preserve their estates and their rights of naturalization, and free from the unfortunate fate that threatens them, and which is even inevitably expected for them, if the colony separates by force and at this moment. It is needful to encourage public instruction in all ways possible, permit newspapers subject to a liberal censure, to establish in Manila a college of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy: in order to break down the barriers that divide the races, and amalgamate them all into one. For that purpose, the Spaniards of the country, the Chinese mestizos, and the Filipinos shall be admitted with perfect equality as cadets of the military corps; the personal-service tax shall be abolished, or an equal and general tax shall be imposed, to which all the Spaniards shall be subject. This last plan appears to me more advisable, as the poll-tax is already established, and it is not opportune to make a trial of new taxes when it is a question of allowing the country to be governed by itself. Since the annual tribute is unequal, the average shall be taken and shall be fixed, consequently, at fifteen or sixteen reals per whole tribute, or perhaps one peso fuerte annually from each adult tributary person. This regulation will produce an increase in the revenue of 200,000 or 300,000 pesos fuertes, and this sum shall be set aside to give the impulse for the amalgamation of the races, favoring crossed marriages by means of dowries granted to the single women in the following manner. To a Chinese mestizo woman who marries a Filipino shall be given 100 pesos; to a Filipino woman who marries a Chinese mestizo, 100 pesos; to a Chinese mestizo woman who marries a Spaniard, 1,000 pesos; to a Spanish woman who marries a Chinese mestizo, 2,000 pesos; to a Filipino woman who marries a Spaniard, 2,000 pesos; to a Spanish woman who marries a Filipino chief, 3,000 or 4,000 pesos. Some mestizo and Filipino alcaldes-mayor of the provinces shall be appointed. It shall be ordered that when a Filipino chief goes to the house of a Spaniard, he shall seat himself as the latter's equal. In a word, by these and other means, the idea that they and the Castilians are two kinds of distinct races shall be erased from the minds of the natives, and the families shall become related by marriage in such manner that when free of the Castilian dominion should any exalted Filipinos try to expel or enslave our race, they would find it so interlaced with their own that their plan would be practically impossible.

After some years, when this population was sufficiently trimmed off, an assembly of deputies shall be formed from the people, in order that they may hold sessions in Manila for two or three months every year. In those sessions they shall discuss public affairs, especially those treating of taxes and budgets. Then after some time of such political education, our government may be withdrawn without fear, fixing before doing that the kind of government that is to be established--probably some constitutional form analogous to those of Europe, with a royal prince at its head chosen from among our infantes.

My task is concluded. Which of the two plans, above analyzed, it is the most just or advisable to follow, does not concern me to recommend, much less propose.

I will add, however, a page to express my opinion as an individual of the Spanish nation. If I had to choose I would vote for the last. I cannot see what benefits we have had from the colonies: depopulation, decadence in the arts, and the public debt, which come in great measure from them. The interest of a state consists, as I see it, in having a dense and well-educated population, and I do not speak only of literary or political education, but of that general education, which makes each one perfect in his trade, I mean in that education which constitutes a cabinet-maker, a weaver, a blacksmith, the best cabinet-maker, weaver, or blacksmith possible. The greater or less number of machines is, in our century, an almost sure thermometer by which to gage the power of empires.

A colony cannot be useful except with the end of filling one of the following three objects: to make of it a tributary country, for the increase of the income of the mother-country (as Holland effects by means of a compulsory and exclusive system); to erect it into a second country, and a place of immigration of the surplus population (such as are especially Australia, Van Diemen's land and New Zealand); finally to procure in it, a place wherein to expend the products of the national manufactures (as is the principal aim of the modern colonial establishments). For the first, we have already seen that the Filipinas are a poor resource, and will be for a long time; and I shall not wonder that before losing them, they will cost us, on the contrary, some millions. As for the second, they are not necessary, for we have no surplus population to unload. And for the third they are useless, for we ourselves have no manufactures to export. Barcelona, which has the most factories in the Peninsula, does not have the least direct communication with the islands. All that is taken there from Cadiz consists of a little paper, oil, and liquors. If it were not for the tobacco and the passengers who go and come, one or two vessels annually would be enough to take care of all the mercantile speculations between both countries. [Separation will not deprive Spain of a future rich market in the Philippines, as the case of the American colonies and England shows. Even if Spain should have a surplus population within a century, the Philippines will also have no lack of inhabitants, and it will be necessary for the Spaniards to emigrate to the Marianas. Mas is not concerned by the argument that separation would mean the loss of the Christian religion in the islands. To the argument that the islands might fall into the hands of the British, French, Dutch, or Chinese, he asks why Spain should become a knight errant for all unprotected peoples. Spaniards in the islands can always return to Spain. People assert that since Spain has spent over 300,000,000 pesos on the islands, it is but proper that that country be reimbursed; but although it has also spent much on the holy land, it never expects any return therefor. Let the Filipinos pay heavier taxes under their own government; why is that any concern? Even if ninety per cent of the population should desire to remain under Spain's domination, that is no sign that there may not be a better condition.] In conclusion, if we are conserving the islands for love of the islanders, we are losing our time, and merit, for gratitude is sometimes met with in persons, but never can it be hoped for from peoples; and indeed through our love, why do we fall into an anomaly, such as combining our claim for liberty for ourselves, and our wish at the same time to impose our law on remote peoples? Why do we deny to others the benefit which we desire for our fatherland? By these principles of universal morality and justice, and because I am persuaded that in the midst of the political circumstances in which España is at present, the condition of that colony will be neglected; that none of the measures which I propose for its conservation (this is my conviction) will be adopted; and that it will emancipate itself violently with the loss of considerable property and many lives of European Spaniards and Filipinos: I think that it would be infinitely more easy, more useful, and more glorious for us to acquire the glory of the work by being the first to show generosity. Hence, the foreign authors who have unjustly printed so many calumnies against our colonial governments, authors belonging to nations who never satisfy their hunger for colonies, would have to say at least this once: "The Spaniards crossing new and remote seas, extended the domain of geography by discovering the Filipinas Islands. They found anarchy and despotism there, and established order and justice. They encountered slavery and destroyed it, and imposed political equality. They ruled their inhabitants with laws, and just laws. They christianized them, civilized them, defended them from the Chinese, from Moro pirates, and from European aggressors; they spent much gold on them, and then gave them liberty." [34]

MATTA'S REPORT, 1843

Communication from the intendant of the army and treasury [Intendente de Ejercito y Hacienda] of the Filipinas Islands, Don Juan Manuel de la Matta, [35] to the governor and captain-general of said islands, Don Marcelino Oraá, in regard to the moral condition of the country after the insurrection of a portion of the troops of the third regiment of the line, which happened at daybreak of the twenty-first of last January; and declaration of the chief legislative reforms, and of the peremptory measures of precaution and security, demanded by said condition.

[The recent disaffection of a portion of the Philippine troops has caused the government to issue instructions in case of the occurrence of any excitement, insurrection, or alarm in the city of Manila and its environs. Matta, on receiving these instructions, has transmitted secretly to the commander of the revenue guard [36] (whom he has advised in case of any danger to assemble all his command in the tobacco factory of Binondo) the portion of the instructions that concerns him. Also the forces of the station of San Fernando are to be embarked on the boats in the river belonging to the revenue guard, and placed in command of the port captain. In addition to the instructions above cited, it seems advisable, "considering the moral condition of the country, to adopt radical measures to avoid the evil before having to punish it, thereby to shelter the colony from new seditions, which cannot be repeated without imminent risk of sad consequences." The suppression of the attempts of the insurgents and the calming of Manila was due to the loyalty of the artillerymen quartered at the fort of Santiago and the presence of other loyal troops.]

The sedition of Apolinario [37] in the province of Tayabas, at the end of October, 1841, and the insurrection of part of the third regiment of the line, which occurred in the capital at daybreak of January 21, [38] have in little more than one year placed these important possessions at the verge of a terrible civil war, and have compromised great interests.

[The discipline of the third regiment of the line before the insurrection was poor, a fact that was attributed, among other things, to the bad condition of the barracks. On the other hand, a corps composed of native troops recruited from Manila and the neighboring places remained loyal, and was used to good effect in putting down the insurrection. In the opinion of many, native troops officered by Spaniards (even to the sergeants and corporals) would prevent disaffection in the future, and be much better than Peninsular troops. In this treatise it is Matta's purpose to set forth "the measures by which the tranquillity of these inhabitants and the conservation of this precious portion of the Spanish monarchy, will be conserved in the future." The moral condition of the islands is most delicate and merits the close attention of the government, "and most especially of your Excellency, to whom is chiefly confided the tranquillity and conservation of these important possessions--which now demand radical administrational and economic reforms that will permit the development of the wealth of their fertile soil, and the welfare of all their inhabitants; and peremptory measures of foresight and security, which will render those advantages lasting, keep the country loyal, and inalterably bind the union of the islands with the mother-country." In consequence of the civil wars in Spain, the Spanish government has been compelled to draw heavy sums against the treasury of the Philippines, by which not only has the treasury been exhausted but a debt of more than four million pesos incurred--a debt that cannot be met for years, "both because the needs of the colony are increasing annually, and because the remainder left from the revenues, after covering the ordinary obligations of the budgets, is almost all spent in tobacco leaf, which is sent for the consumption of the mother-country, in accordance with the orders of the government." In regard to the military defense of the country, conditions are as bad. "There are but few arms and they are in poor shape. The provinces are undefended. The army is composed almost exclusively of natives, and they are so few in number that the army is insufficient to defend the capital and fort of Cavite in case of a foreign invasion." Indeed, in case of invasion it might be best to raze the fortifications built at the expense of so great sacrifices.]

In general there is to be seen considerable indifference, and even disaffection, to Peninsular interests. Ideas of emancipation are sheltered in many bosoms. Discontent swarms in all places. It is given utterance with effrontery, and is developed and fomented in various manners. Since the beginning of the colony, boldness, deceit, and acrimonious speech have had a foremost seat, but greed is today the dominant passion in the white people. Their needs are many and there are few means of satisfying them. The hot climate especially contributes to captiousness, and the development of vehement passions. A multitude of jealous, complaining, and evil-intentioned men foment the discontent, to which also pusillanimous persons contribute by their indiscreet and excessive fear. Although by means of different passions, there is a manifest tendency to constantly discredit the dispositions of the government, to attack maliciously the authorities who represent it, and to foment rivalry and discord among them, to which both the complexity of the legislation and the burning climate lend themselves. Thus all concur in weakening the prestige that gives force to the government. The malcontents have the necessary time to gather new proselytes, to consolidate a faction against the mother-country, to prepare the will of the masses; and they await the time and opportunity for the realization of their desires. This plan is not in writing, but is engraved in the hearts of those who direct it, shows itself by its works, and is the result of the tendency of the age, of the calamitous circumstances in which the mother-country finds itself, and of the kind of abandonment in which these important possessions are held.

[Notwithstanding the royal order of April 25, 1837, prohibiting publications that might disturb public order and weaken the prestige of the government, such publications have circulated freely in Manila, thus increasing the discontent. In such publications the followers of Apolinario are called innocent, and the execution of the rebels in the camp of Alitao has been termed assassination. All things have combined to destroy in Manila "the prestige and moral force that have been hitherto the principal foundation of our domination."]

[Although the provinces are not yet so greatly disaffected as is Manila], their moral condition is very different from that when they generally pronounced against the English in 1762 and gave the victory to Anda. Mejico belonged to España, and its treasury contributed to the support of the islands, which had the exclusive benefit of a traffic which the public especially valued, and whose conservation was inseparable from union to the mother-country. North-American independence and the French revolution had not yet come to fix the future destiny of all the colonial possessions of the world. [39] The regular clergy, the principal base of our domination, then exercised an influence over the inhabitants, which time has almost entirely vitiated. Little care is taken for the instruction of their members, from which it results that some of them with their gross manners, stupid pretensions, and exactions from the chiefs of the provinces, and the gobernadorcillos and notables of the villages, occasion anger, quarrels, and discord which disturb the quiet of the inhabitants, distract and embarrass the authorities, and nourish those indiscreet and tenacious struggles in which all lose, and which have contributed so greatly to the rapid undermining of the base of our power in the provinces. The mistrust of a sad future leads many of them to engage in commercial business, and conduces to avarice and to a worldly life, so that they have lost their religious prestige, without gaining the respect and the consideration due to eminent and beneficent citizens. Without doubt there are respectable men among the individuals of the regular clergy, who, superior to circumstances, devote themselves entirely to the fulfilment of the duties of their sacred ministry; who as true fathers of their parishioners, look carefully after their comfort and welfare; and who, for that reason possessing their esteem, are, consequently, one of the chief supports of the action of the government in the villages. It is with reference to these that I have remarked in another place that both religion and policy recommend them. Let all be placed in the same category, and let strict watch be put on the instruction and conduct of the parish priests, in which, truly, there is much to correct; and the happiness of the provinces will be secure, if, in addition, the improvements demanded by the state of civilization and of wealth in some of the provinces, and by the genius and circumstances of the various races inhabiting them, and the differences of the times in which we are living, are made in their government and administration.

For that purpose it must be kept in mind that ambition is wont to affect the Spanish people transplanted to these distant and hot climes; that arrogant presumption is the distinctive characteristic of their descendants; and we must consider duly the characteristic qualities of the natives.

As I have remarked to your Excellency on a different occasion, I consider the moral picture of the Indian as very difficult to draw, for frequently one finds united in him abjectness and ferocity, timidity and a wonderful fearlessness and courage in danger, and indolent laziness and slovenliness combined with industry and avaricious self-interest. It is impossible to represent exactly under one single stroke all the phases of their contradictory character. But in general the Indian is pacific, superstitious, indolent, respectful to authority, heedless, distrustful, and deceitful. Dominated by his first sensations, and most fertile in expedients to extricate himself from difficulties, or to carry out his design at a moment's notice, he must be considered as a minor who follows the dictates of his own will; and, as such, he must be directed for his own good, his difficulties must be forestalled, corrected and punished. The natives are also spiteful and revengeful when they believe themselves offended; and at such times, hiding their ill-will under the veil of a deceitful humility, they await the opportunity for satisfying it, and generally give rein suddenly to their ill-will with perfidy and ferocity.

[The contradictory character of the Filipino native explains the ease with which a large province can be governed by one official with the aid of the parish priests and two or three dozen soldiers; while, on the other hand, the insurance companies of India refuse to stand the risks of mutiny in a vessel employing half a dozen natives from Manila in its crew. The natives know no middle path between abject respect and insolent contempt, in their attitude toward the whites. In case of a foreign or internal war the governors or alcaldes-mayor of the provinces would be the least capable of directing affairs, because of their ignorance of the native languages and customs, and because they are in continual conflict with the natives over the collection of the tribute, while at the same time they exercise a monopoly in trade.]

For a very long period the elements of discord among the authorities have been numerous for lack of a special and analogous legislation, enacted with regard to the genius and circumstances of the various peoples inhabiting these islands and the enormous distance separating them from the mother-country. During these latter years, there have been heaped up on this unfavorable foundation the elements emanating from the civil war which has covered the mother-country with mourning, and those of our own political dissensions; the development and tendencies of the revolutionary principles common to all the colonial possessions of the world, and which only force, supported by the interest of self-preservation, is capable of restraining; and lastly the impressions which it has been impossible to keep from transmission to the natives and other races, in proportion as the knowledge of our language becomes general to them, and as they become civilized, and contract our tastes and necessities through the increase of commerce and industry, and observe from anear the confusion resulting from our lack of harmony. This is, in my opinion, the chief cancer of this body politic, and will finish it very speedily unless your Excellency, acting with the discretion and the energy so strongly charged in the laws, and especially in the royal order of April 25, 1837, apply the remedy peremptorily demanded by our situation.

[Discord and confusion and the spirit of resistance are rife throughout the provinces. The events of 1820 and 1823, the sedition of Apolinario in October, 1841, and the mutiny of the troops, although different in their origin, all exhibit the "perfidy and ferocity that always accompany movements of color in Ultramar." The prestige of the government is weakened, which formerly was, with religion, the chief foundation of Spanish domination. The political factions that have arisen in the last six years, and which are now perfectly organized, are greatly to blame. The Peninsulars and Spanish Filipinos will end by destroying each other if the fitting remedy is not speedily applied. In a report made to the government after the sedition of Apolinario had been put down, Matta said that the origin of the confraternity consisted "only in the character of the superstition which distinguishes these natives, who most readily believe whatever is presented to them under the veil of religion and of the marvellous; asserted that it became fanaticism as soon as measures were taken against Apolinario and his confreres, and that it became a declared sedition when the unfortunate Ortega attacked them in Ygsaban with more valor than prudence; and that from that time presenting the appearance of a near insurrection in the neighboring provinces, it is to be feared that it would have been converted into a revolution capable of compromising the conservation of these important possessions had not the seditious ones been promptly defeated and severely punished in Alitao." Matta's report also said that probably Apolinario's expulsion from the hospital of San Juan de Dios in Manila, and the measures taken against his associates, together with the suggestions of the adherents of independence, contributed to the holding of the novena in Tayabas in spite of the precautions taken by the military and ecclesiastical authorities. These occurrences were principally the effect of superstition and fanaticism; and although the ideas of emancipation have been present in the Philippines, as in all colonies since the Spanish-American revolution, yet ideas of emancipation are limited in the islands to a few Spaniards who do not even form a political party, but only a crowd of complainers who are either not government employees, or are employees who take it ill that Spaniards are sent from the Peninsula to fill offices that they believe belong properly to themselves. [40] The ideas of emancipation have not yet contaminated, nor will they in a long time contaminate the Chinese, the Chinese mestizos, Spanish mestizos, or the natives, with the exception of a few of the "secular clergy, as insignificant because of their ignorance and few resources as by their lack of influence among their countrymen." Whatever be the opinions of the influential Spaniards born in the islands, they recognise that political upheavals would be as fatal to themselves as to the Peninsulars. In the insurrection of last January, among the six white officers assassinated or wounded, three of those killed and one wounded belonged to the revolting regiment, while the two remaining who were wounded were Europeans. The safety of all lies in the stability of the government; but it must be noted that events are daily more serious and that the discontent is spreading. Important reforms are necessary, but matters must be viewed only in the light of the public cause. "Without virtues there can be no prestige; and, without prestige, it will also be impossible for the lesser part to dominate the great whole." The conservation of the islands depends on "radical reforms in their legislation, and peremptory measures of precaution and security." Such reforms are:]

1st. The formation of a special law for these islands, analogous and framed with reference to the genius and circumstances of the various peoples inhabiting them, and to their great distance from the mother-country. [Matta believes in a law that will outline the duties of the governor and captain-general, and place under his general supervision real heads of the various departments of government, who shall be responsible. A Colonial Council or Cabinet for consultation on affairs of general public interest should also be formed. This separation of duties into specific classes, the heads of each department to be subordinate to the governor, in accordance with law ii, título ii, book iii, will ensure the right use of the governing functions. To continue so many unconnected duties under the governor will only add to the confusion.]

2d. The improvement of the government and administration of the provinces by organizing them with reference to their present state of civilization and wealth. For they cannot now, without serious inconveniences, without transcendental harm, have the government, judicial, military and revenue functions, together with commercial occupations and cares, united under one person alone. [The system of placing one person in command of all these departments is opposed to civilization and to the mercantile spirit that has penetrated into the provinces. Civil governors should be appointed who should have charge of the government, administration of justice, and the promotion of the welfare of the inhabitants. Such governors should have learned the native tongue and should know something of the native manners and customs. The collection of tributes should not be entrusted to them, and their posts should be permanent, except for transfers, promotions, and suspension by the governor and captain-general, or sentence by the suitable tribunal. This will give such provincial chiefs the necessary prestige, in accordance with the royal order of December 10, 1839. In the provinces, passion often takes the place of reason, and anything at all can be justified because of the facility with which the natives contradict and perjure themselves. The position of the provincial chief demands that his authority be very vigorous and held in respect. The native must be kept respectful by tact, justice, punishment, and energy. Jueces pesquisidores [41] and judges to take the residencia should not be sent to the provinces, as that tends to weaken the authority of the provincial chief. Easy recourse can be had in the provinces to the tribunals and superior authorities of the islands, while the natives and Chinese can appeal to their protectors, who are generally very zealous in their behalf.]

3rd. The suppression of the colleges of Santo Tomas, San Jose, [42] and San Juan de Letran of this capital, and the conciliar seminaries of the bishoprics, as perpetual nurseries of corruption, laziness, or subversive ideas, as contrary to the quiet and welfare of the villages as to peninsular interests. [The suppression of the last three can be made at once, and they should be replaced with schools of agriculture, [43] arts, [44] and commerce, which will conduce to the prosperity of the colony. As regards Santo Tomas, inasmuch as immediate suppression would anger the Spaniards and Chinese mestizos who have control of almost all the capital of the islands, a new plan should be adopted by which desire to attend it would be gradually decreased until it can be suppressed without any trouble. Sensible Spaniards generally believe that the suppression of these institutions would conduce to the good of the islands and of Spain. From them come the swarms of ignorant and vicious secular priests, and the pettifogging lawyers, who stir up so much trouble among the natives, and cause the provincial chiefs so great inconvenience. Although not much attention is paid to this class, they are the most vicious and worthless in the islands. Public convenience demands the teaching of agriculture, the arts, and commerce, instead of the theology and law to which the institutions above mentioned are devoted. It should not be forgotten that the Spanish-American revolutions were fostered by curas and lawyers, who since they know both the native language and Spanish, have great influence with the masses. The influence of the friar parish priests is now very much weakened, for they have almost entirely abandoned the spiritual administration to their native assistants. These assistants, by working on the superstitious character of the natives, can rouse them to any act that will satisfy their own desires for vengeance.]

4th. The eternal abolition of the sentences of residencia, to which, as governors, the captains-general of the provinces of Ultramar are still subject. [These sentences have been of no use to the inhabitants of the islands, but on the contrary of great harm. Appeal lies to the Audiencia from the judicial acts of the governor, and to the Spanish court from his purely administrational acts. The free press, in which all things are bruited, is also of great use. Communication with Spain is now frequent. The governor and the chief of the treasury have been divested of almost all governmental authority through the residencia. The judicial and contentious have invaded everything and obscured the action of the provincial chiefs as well as the superintendent and intendant and the governor. The chief authorities of the islands need more energy and freer action.]

5th. [The adoption of various other legislative and economic measures which Matta has before proposed to the government.]

[Capitalists and workers are needed in the islands, but, in order to attract them, there must be governmental and administrational reforms. The natives must be considered and various reforms made concerning them, and the heavy tribute on the Chinese must be reduced to not more than the twelve reals per annum for those engaging in agriculture. The public wealth of the islands must be increased. Whites, Chinese, and mestizos must be encouraged to go to the islands in greater numbers, in order to correct the laziness of the natives, and, by their wealth and prestige, to offset the numerical majority of the natives. The increase of consumers in the islands will give a greater outlet to Spanish products from the Peninsula. The revenues must be increased in proportion to the public wealth, in order to sustain the increase of necessary forces.]

[The reforms looking toward security and conservation which are urgently demanded by the moral condition of the country are as follows:]

1st. The reëstablishment of the well-organized military commission of police, vigilance, and public safety. [This would be able to check all sorts of disorder and conspiracy. Its members should be paid by the state, such pay to come from the licenses issued to travelers going to the interior, from licenses to carry arms, from fines, and from the fourth part of all contraband goods confiscated.]

2d. The institution of night-watches in the city and villages outside its walls, which require them, as almost all the traders and a considerable portion of the white population live therein. [These night-watches would relieve the troops of patrol duty in many instances. They would be under the alcaldes-in-ordinary, and paid from the municipal funds.]

3rd. The constant maintenance of a guard of at least one thousand European troops. [These are necessary for the garrisoning of the fort at Santiago, the palace, the Parián gate, and the other necessary points. Matta's plan also calls for the reëstablishment of the Spanish guard of halberdiers of one hundred men, to act as interior palace guard, and serve as a source of supply for sergeants for the native regiments. He recommends the establishment of Tagálog academies in order that the Spanish officers and sergeants may learn the native language. [45] Certain privileges are proposed for the European soldiers, whereby their pay may be greater than that of the native soldiers, for their necessities are greater. The term of service in the Philippines ought to be eight years, as provided by royal order of July 26, 1836; but those who are fit ought to be allowed to reënlist and be transferred to the revenue guard [cuerpo del resguardo], in order to save cost on transportation. Matta is against having fewer Europeans in the service as has been urged by many persons of experience in the Philippines. The system outlined by him is not one merely of military occupation, but looks to a close bond with the mother-country and to the industrial development of the islands. Agriculture is the best occupation for the whites, and is in fact the only one that will give a good comfortable living. A greater number of Europeans will mean a greater proportion of mestizos; [46] and if these, together with the Chinese and some of the whites, engage in agriculture they will throw their influence on the side of the government, because of self-interest. Exaggerated ideas are voiced regarding the Peninsulars. They are never more dangerous than during the first few years in the islands; but, as they become accustomed to the climate and learn to know the inhabitants, their ideas moderate. Consequently, for this reason, and because of the expense, Matta is against frequent reliefs of soldiers. Vacancies in the ranks should always be filled with recruits from Spain, and never with natives. Discipline must not be relaxed on the voyage from Spain; and the soldiers must be kept in good form physically. A special boat is recommended for the transport of soldiers to and from Spain; and cost of transport can be reduced.]

4th. The completion of the organization of the valuable corps of the revenue guards [cuerpo del resguardo]. [This can be done by carrying out the royal order of October 18, 1837, and the three parts of the regulations drawn up by Matta's predecessor June 4, 1841, the first two parts of which have already been approved. Matta has endeavored without avail, and supported by various officials, to gain the governor's approval to the third part. The corps of the revenue guards is always loyal to the governor. With the increase provided in the plan for organization, this corps will be the most suitable to defend the country either against foreign or internal foes. Since the immediate object of the revenue guards is the custody, defense, and guard of the revenues, they ought to depend immediately on the treasury department, although they may be available when the public safety demands it for any other duty. By a decree of Matta's predecessor, of April 25, 1839, the revenue guards of the various departments--those of the Bay, and of the tobacco and wine and liquor monopoly revenues--were united into one corps. This extensive corps, which absorbs annually the sum of 191,589 pesos, has no adequate organization, a matter to which immediate attention should be given.]

5th and last. That the attempt be made, in a truly impartial and foresighted system, to conciliate the minds of people, and to put an end to that pernicious mistrust that has been introduced between the peninsular Spaniards and the sons of the country [i.e., the Spaniards born in the Philippines], which is so contrary to the common interest. [The government must not be partial to any one class of men, for each class contains good men who should be rewarded and advanced, and bad men who should be closely watched and punished. Merit should be the only cause for advancement. In closing Matta says that his private life in the islands and his long public service have given him abundant opportunity to observe and study people and conditions. This memorial is dated Manila, February 25, 1843.] [47]

THE PHILIPPINES, 1860-1898--SOME COMMENT AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

BY JAMES A. LEROY

The "modern era" in the Philippine Islands--which indeed, in certain respects, did not really begin until after the establishment of American rule--coincides roughly with the last half of the nineteenth century. It is impossible to assign arbitrarily any date as precisely that of its commencement. One will be inclined to lay stress upon this or that circumstance, and to choose this or that date, as he places importance mostly upon matters connected with economic development, or with social progress, or with political reforms. The truth is that there was advancement in all these lines, as also there were hindrances to progress in each of them, and that only by surveying it in each of these phases of its development can we come to understand in how considerable a degree Philippine society was remade during this period.

Looking primarily at the expansion of trade and foreign relations, we might date the new era in the Philippines from the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Yet that event, while greatly stimulating trade and agricultural development, did not inaugurate the modern era in that respect. The presence of foreign traders, introducing agricultural machinery and advancing money on crops, was the chief stimulus to the opening of new areas of cultivation, the betterment of methods of tilling and preparing crops for the market, and the consequent growth of exports; indeed, one may almost say that certain American (United States) and English trading houses nurtured the sugar and hemp crops of the Philippines into existence. And their pioneer work in this respect was done before the opening of the Suez Canal brought the Philippines into vital touch with Europe by means of steam navigation--American influence being then, in fact, already on the wane. One might more readily, from this point of view, assign importance as a date to 1856, when Iloilo (and soon after Sebú) was opened to foreign trade (hitherto confined to one port of entry, Manila) and foreigners were permitted to open business houses outside of Manila and to trade and traffic in the provinces; or, even, to 1859, when the first steam sugar-mill was set up in Negros island. But the entering wedge had been driven by foreign traders into Spain's policy of exclusion even before the cessation of the galleon-trade, the monopoly which confined Manila's trade to a few Spaniards resident there and their backers in Mexico, who saw in Manila only a depot of exchange for Chinese and other Oriental commodities, and commonly despised the idea of giving any attention to the crude products of the Philippines or endeavoring to stimulate Philippine agriculture and exportation properly so called. From the date when this ruinous monopoly expired with the occupation by Mexican insurgents of Acapulco, the port to which the galleons brought their silks, cottons, etc., attention was perforce turned upon Philippine products as a source of trade, and Philippine exports began to grow. [48] Spanish traders being too few, and utterly untrained in the ways of competition, and Spanish ships being scarce in the Orient, foreign traders and foreign ships gathered the bulk of the business even in the face of useless and annoying restrictions, until finally these foreigners had broken down the barriers sufficiently to enter and take a hand in actively fostering agricultural development in the Philippines. Hence, the opening of the Suez Canal only gave a new turn and a great acceleration to a movement that, as regards Philippine internal development, may more logically be dated from 1815, the year of the last voyage of the galleon.

In one sense, indeed, the opening of the Suez Canal tended to lessen, relatively, the influence of foreign business and banking houses in the development of the Philippines, in that it led to direct steamship connection with Spain, awakening interest at home in this hitherto neglected colony and bringing to the Philippines for the first time in three hundred years more than a mere handful of Spaniards. After the early adventurers and encomenderos had disappeared, the number of Spanish civilians in private life was few indeed, numbering the favored merchants who had shares in the galleon trade-monopoly, and an occasional planter, descended perhaps from a family of encomenderos rooted in the Philippines, or being an ex-army officer who had remained in the islands. Moreover, the small army maintained in the islands was to a considerable extent officered by Mexican creoles or half-castes, its soldiers being mostly Filipinos and Mexicans. The list of civilian officials was itself small, the governor (alcalde mayor) of a province combining with his executive functions and (very commonly) his command of the troops garrisoned therein, the powers of a superior judge for both civil and criminal jurisdictions. The members of the religious orders constituted the largest numerically, as well as the most influential, element of Spaniards in the Philippines. Outside of this class, the Spanish population of the archipelago, always very small even in its total, was mostly gathered in a few places, Manila containing by far the greater proportion. The general rule in the provinces was that only one white man, the friar-curate, was to be found in a town, a number of the smaller towns, moreover, not having a friar-curate, but a Filipino secular priest. [49] The movement of Spaniards to the Philippines had, indeed, begun before the opening of the Suez Canal. The inauguration of the Spanish-Philippine Bank in Manila in 1852 afforded evidence much less, however, of the growth of Spanish commercial interests than of a desire to foster the growth of such interests by supplying credit facilities more nearly up to date than those hitherto available (at ruinous rates of interest) from the old "pious funds" [obras pías] of various sorts, especially since the foreign trading houses were virtually performing the functions of banks in their ways of extending credit to agriculturists, or were being aided by private bankers associated with them. [50] The loss of Spain's colonies on the mainland, besides turning many loyal or proscribed Spaniards toward Cuba and the Peninsula, had in a small degree encouraged such emigration to the more distant Philippines, and the history of certain of the most prominent Spanish families in the Philippines dates from the decades immediately following the political upheavals in Spanish-America. In the main, however, such immigrants as came to the Philippines in this way were government employees who, being ousted from the American continent, must rest as pensioners on the home government if the latter could not find them places in the Spanish Antilles or the Philippines. Such immigration, it need not be said, was not altogether an unmixed good; and some of the various "administrative reforms" designed for the Philippines in the fifties and sixties showed the influence of this pressure to provide places for officeholders with a claim on the government. The number of Spaniards who came to the Philippines on their private initiative was very small until direct steam communication with the Peninsula was opened, and though it never became large during the last thirty years of Spanish rule, Spanish commercial interests in the islands gained relatively on those of foreigners after the opening of the canal. A direct steamship line from Barcelona was soon established under subsidy. The domestic shipping laws of Spain were even more fully extended over the Philippine archipelago, and the already existing preferential customs duties and regulations aided the growth of Spanish trade in the islands thereafter more than they had done before. [51]

The opening of the Suez Canal and the entry of Spaniards into the archipelago in greater numbers marks an epoch even more in a social way than as respects trade and commerce. And the new social era then inaugurated was closely allied thenceforward with the discussion of political reforms, with the essay of some such reforms on the part of government, and finally with an organized Filipino propaganda for greater social and political freedom. When the Spanish revolution of 1868 occurred the Philippines were still far remote from the mother-country, with its disturbing agitations, wherein violence and utopianism were destined to prepare the way for the reaction; the new governor-general sent out by the reformers who expelled Isabel II came to Manila by the Cape of Good Hope, the old voyage which took four months or more to bring even the news of what was going on in Spain. The Constitution of 1868 had been proclaimed in the Philippines but a few months back when, early in 1870, the first steamer arrived direct from Barcelona via Suez. Thenceforward, the capital of this remote Spanish outpost in the Orient was but one month distant from Barcelona for mail and passengers; soon after ocean cables to the ports of China (eventually extended to Manila) put the Philippines in daily touch, as it were, with important occurrences in Spain. The old régime of slumbering exclusion, already breaking down under the influence of trade, was ended.

The influx of Spaniards from this time forward had in it, from the first to the last, more of "politics" than of individual initiative. More of them came out to take governmental positions than to engage in trade, or, less frequently, in agriculture, though many who lost their places by changes in administration stayed in the islands and occupied themselves in private enterprises. It was the "reformers" of the revolutionary period in Spain who first undertook to make a "clean sweep" of the offices in the Philippines, putting in their friends. Administrative reforms, and to a considerable extent a change of officials, was needed; but a more or less complicated bureaucracy was introduced along with some laudable reforms, and there was then inaugurated the pernicious custom of changing the lower Spanish officials in the Philippines, as well as the higher, with every change of administration in Spain--the "dance and counter-dance of employees," as one writer has named it. [52]

There is undoubtedly some truth in the charge made by the defenders of the Philippine friars that the entry of Spaniards, especially officeholders, during the latter part of the nineteenth century lowered the prestige of the Spanish name in the islands, and was a cause (the friars would make it the chief or sole cause) of the discontent, eventually the rebellion, of the Filipinos. Administrative reforms, some of which were highly beneficial, such as the abolition of the tobacco monopoly [53] and the reorganization of provincial governments, nevertheless had the chief effect, in the eyes of the Filipinos, of raising direct taxes and of burdening them with the support of new sets of officeholders, whose presence was not infrequently distasteful. By far too large a proportion of these officeholders, who came out to an unhealthful clime to take places which were miserably paid and might be taken away from them in two or three years, were concerned rather with the "pickings" than with the duties attached to their offices. Some were openly contemptuous of the natives, and thus helped to destroy the former good feeling between the races. The grievance of the friars was, however, far more frequently vented upon a class of Spanish officeholders quite different from those who gained odium through tyranny or corruption or both; the special hostility of the friars was visited upon their countrymen who gained great popularity with the natives, because of their more democratic beliefs and manners. Such men were commonly of the anti-clerical party in Spain, and the bitterest element in home politics was thus transferred to the Philippines. One may recognize that such men were all too commonly quixotic and indiscreet, as Spanish Liberals notoriously are. To refuse to kiss the friar's hand, and to speak contemptuously of him and all his kind (perhaps even to stir up scandal against them), may have seemed to such men a very natural and proper method of asserting their political beliefs and their sense of individual independence; yet the friars have rightly said that such actions, and the many things growing out of them, struck a blow at the very foundations of the structure upon which Spanish supremacy had been built in the islands. Hence it was that not infrequently a more far-seeing Liberal, after some years of experience in the islands, would come out as a defender of the Philippine friars and their views as to the political régime to be maintained there; he would perhaps explain it by saying that he was "a Liberal at home, but in the Philippines all ought to be Spaniards and only that."

Even if we give full faith to the complaints of the friars' defenders on this score--and their representations of the last half of the nineteenth century are very one-sided--even if we admire and accept as truthful the picture they draw of a sort of Eden in the Philippines back of 1860, and particularly in the two preceding centuries, wherein the humble Filipino lived practically free of taxation, exempt from abuses from above, guileless of serious crime, and watched over by a paternal superior who directed his steps to the eternal bliss of the other world: still, accepting the friars' case at its face value, it is plain that they asked for and expected the impossible when they fought to perpetuate medieval conditions in a country opened to trade and commerce and to modern thought and contact with the world at large. We may doubt that ignorance was bliss even in the "good old days;" but it was certain that those days must come to an end when the Philippines were awakened by steamships, telegraph lines, newspapers, and books (even though under clerical and political censorship). Clear-sighted prophecy was that of Feodor Jagor, the German scientist who traveled through the Philippines just before 1860, and who, though he found much to praise in the old paternal régime, said:

"The old situation is no longer possible of maintenance, with the changed conditions of the present time. The colony can no longer be shut off from the outside. Every facility in communication opens a breach in the ancient system and necessarily leads to reforms of a liberal character. The more that foreign capital and foreign ideas penetrate there, the more they increase prosperity, intelligence, and self-esteem, making the existing evils the more intolerable." [54]