The Philippine Islands | Page 9

long as abundance of silver dollars came from across
the Pacific. Such a short-sighted, unstable dependence left the Colony
resourceless when bold foreign traders stamped out monopoly and
brought commerce to its natural level by competition. In the meantime
the astute ecclesiastics quietly took possession of rich arable lands in
many places, the most valuable being within easy reach of the Capital
and the Arsenal of Cavite. Landed property was undefined. It all
nominally belonged to the State, which, however, granted no titles;
"squatters" took up land where they chose without determined limits,
and the embroilment continues, in a measure, to the present day.
About the year 1885 the question was brought forward of granting
Government titles to all who could establish claims to land. Indeed, for
about a year, there was a certain enthusiasm displayed both by the
applicants and the officials in the matter of "Titulos Reales." But the
large majority of landholders--among whom the monastic element
conspicuously figured--could only show their title by actual possession.
[3] It might have been sufficient, but the fact is that the clergy favoured
neither the granting of "Titulos Reales" nor the establishment of the
projected Real Estate Registration Offices.
Agrarian disputes had been the cause of so many armed risings against
themselves in particular, during the nineteenth century, that they
opposed an investigation of the land question, which would only have
revived old animosities, without giving satisfaction to either native or
friar, seeing that both parties were intransigent. [4]
The fundamental laws, considered as a whole, were the wisest
devisable to suit the peculiar circumstances of the Colony; but whilst
many of them were disregarded or treated as a dead letter, so many
loopholes were invented by the dispensers of those in operation as to
render the whole system a wearisome, dilatory process. Up to the last
every possible impediment was placed in the way of trade expansion;
and in former times, when worldly majesty and sanctity were a joint

idea, the struggle with the King and his councillors for the right of
legitimate traffic was fierce.
So long as the Archipelago was a dependency of Mexico (up to 1819)
not one Spanish colonist in a thousand brought any cash capital to this
colony with which to develop its resources. During the first two
centuries and a quarter Spain's exclusive policy forbade the
establishment of any foreigner in the Islands; but after they did settle
there they were treated with such courteous consideration by the
Spanish officials that they could often secure favours with greater ease
than the Spanish colonists themselves.
Everywhere the white race urged activity like one who sits behind a
horse and goads it with the whip. But good advice without example
was lost to an ignorant class more apt to learn through the eye than
through the ear. The rougher class of colonist either forgot, or did not
know, that, to civilize a people, every act one performs, or intelligible
word one utters, carries an influence which pervades and gives a colour
to the future life and thoughts of the native, and makes it felt upon the
whole frame of the society in embryo. On the other hand, the value of
prestige was perfectly well understood by the higher officials, and the
rigid maintenance of their dignity, both in private life and in their
public offices, played an important part in the moral conquest of the
Filipinos. Equality of races was never dreamed of, either by the
conquerors or the conquered; and the latter, up to the last days of
Spanish rule, truly believed in the superiority of the white man. This
belief was a moral force which considerably aided the Spaniards in
their task of civilization, and has left its impression on the character of
polite Philippine society to this day.
Christianity was not only the basis of education, but the symbol of
civilization; and that the Government should have left education to the
care of the missionaries during the proselytizing period was
undoubtedly the most natural course to take. It was desirable that
conversion from paganism should precede any kind of secular tuition.
But the friars, to the last, held tenaciously to their old monopoly; hence
the University, the High Schools, and the Colleges (except the Jesuit

Schools) were in their hands, and they remained as stumbling-blocks in
the intellectual advancement of the Colony. Instead of the State holding
the fountains of knowledge within its direct control, it yielded them to
the exclusive manipulation of those who eked out the measure as it
suited their own interests.
Successful government by that sublime ethical essence called "moral
philosophy" has fallen away before a more practical régime. Liberty to
think, to speak, to write, to trade, to travel, was only partially and
reluctantly yielded under extraneous pressure. The venality