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               Noli Me Tangere Quarter-Centennial Series

                         Edited by Austin Craig



                            THE PHILIPPINES

                            A CENTURY HENCE





                             By JOSE RIZAL





                              Manila: 1912

                      Philippine Education Company

                               34 Escolta













        "In the Philippine Islands the American government has

        tried, and is trying, to carry out exactly what the

        greatest genius and most revered patriot ever known in

        the Philippines, Jose Rizal, steadfastly advocated."



            --From a public address at Fargo, N.D., on April

            7th. 1903, by the President of the United States.













INTRODUCTION





As "Filipinas dentro de Cien Anos", this article was originally

published serially in the Filipino fortnightly review "La Solidaridad",

of Madrid, running through the issues from September, 1889, to

January, 1890.



It supplements Rizal's great novel "Noli Me Tangere" and its sequel

"El Filibusterismo", and the translation here given is fortunately by

Mr. Charles Derbyshire who in his "The Social Cancer" and "The Reign

of Greed" has so happily rendered into English those masterpieces

of Rizal.



The reference which Doctor Rizal makes to President Harrison had in

mind the grandson-of-his-grandfather's blundering, wavering policy

that, because of a groundless fear of infringing the natives' natural

rights, put his country in the false light of wanting to share in

Samoa's exploitation, taking the leonine portion, too, along with

Germany and England.



Robert Louis Stevenson has told the story of the unhappy

condition created by that disastrous international agreement

which was achieved by the dissembling diplomats of greedy Europe

flattering unsophisticated America into believing that two monarchies

preponderating in an alliance with a republic would be fairer than

the republic acting unhampered.



In its day the scheme was acclaimed by irrational idealists as a

triumph of American abnegation and an example of modern altruism. It

resulted that "the international agreement" became a constant cause

of international disagreements, as any student of history could have

foretold, until, disgusted and disillusioned, the United States

tardily recalled Washington's warning against entanglements with

foreign powers and became a party to a real partition, but this time

playing the lamb's part. England was compensated with concessions

in other parts of the world, the United States was "given" what it

already held under a cession twenty-seven years old,--and Germany

took the rest as her emperor had planned from the start.



There is this Philippine bearing to the incident that the same stripe

of unpractical philanthropists, not discouraged at having forced

the Samoans under the ungentle German rule--for their victims and not

themselves suffer by their mistakes, are seeking now the neutralization

by international agreement of the Archipelago for which Rizal gave

his life. Their success would mean another "entangling alliance"

for the United States, with six allies, or nine including Holland,

China and Spain, if the "great republic" should be allowed by the

diplomats of the "Great Powers" to invite these nonentities in world

politics, with whom she would still be outvoted.



Rizal's reference to America as a possible factor in the Philippines'

future is based upon the prediction of the German traveller Feodor

Jagor, who about 1860 spent a number of months in the Islands and later

published his observations, supplemented by ten years of further study

in European libraries and museums, as "Travels in the Philippines",

to use the title of the English translation,--a very poor one, by the

way. Rizal read the much better Spanish version while a student in the

Ateneo de Manila, from a copy supplied by Paciano Rizal Mercado who

directed his younger brother's political education and transferred to

Jose the hopes which had been blighted for himself by the execution of

his beloved teacher, Father Burgos, in the Cavite alleged insurrection.



Jagor's prophecy furnishes the explanation to Rizal's public life. His

policy of preparing his countrymen for industrial and commercial

competition seems to have had its inspiration in this reading done

when he was a youth in years but mature in fact through close contact

with tragic public events as well as with sensational private sorrows.



When in Berlin, Doctor Rizal met Professor Jagor, and the distinguished

geographer and his youthful but brilliant admirer became fast friends,

often discussing how the progress of events was bringing true the

fortune for the Philippines which the knowledge of its history and the

acquaintance with its then condition had enabled the trained observer

to foretell with that same certainty that the meteorologist foretells

the morrow's weather.



A like political acumen Rizal tried to develop in his countrymen. He

republished Morga's History (first published in Mexico in 1609) to

recall their past. Noli Me Tangere painted their present, and in El

Filibusterismo was sketched the future which continuance upon their

then course must bring. "The Philippines A Century Hence" suggests

other possibilities, and seems to have been the initial issue in the

series of ten which Rizal planned to print, one a year, to correct the

misunderstanding of his previous writings which had come from their

being known mainly by the extracts cited in the censors' criticism.



Jose Rizal in life voiced the aspirations of his countrymen and as

the different elements in his divided native land recognized that

these were the essentials upon which all were agreed and that their

points of difference among themselves were not vital, dissension

disappeared and there came an united Philippines. Now, since his death,

the fact that both continental and insular Americans look to him as

their hero makes possible the hope that misunderstandings based on

differences as to details may cease when Filipinos recognize that

the American Government in the Philippines, properly approached,

is willing to grant all that Rizal considered important, and when

Americans understand that the people of the Philippines, unaccustomed

to the frank discussions of democracy, would be content with so little

even as Rizal asked of Spain if only there were some salve for their

unwittingly wounded amor propio.



A better knowledge of the writings of Jose Rizal may accomplish this

desirable consummation.





    "I do not write for this generation. I am writing for other

    ages. If this could read me, they would burn my books, the

    work of my whole life. On the other hand, the generation which

    interprets these writings will be an educated generation; they

    will understand me and say: 'Not all were asleep in the night-time

    of our grandparents'."



                            --The Philosopher Tasio, in Noli Me Tangere.













JAGOR'S PROPHECY



    The Prophecy Which Prompted Rizal's Policy of Preparation

    For the Philippines





This extract is translated from Pages 287-289 of "Reisen in den

Philippinen von F. Jagor: Berlin 1873".



"The old situation is no longer possible of maintenance, with the

changed conditions of the present time.



"The colony can no longer be kept secluded from the world. Every

facility afforded for commercial intercourse is a blow to the old

system, and a great step made in the direction of broad and liberal

reforms. The more foreign capital and foreign ideas and customs

are introduced, increasing the prosperity, enlightenment, and self

respect of the population, the more impatiently will the existing

evils be endured.



"England can and does open her possessions unconcernedly to the

world. The British colonies are united to the mother country by the

bond of mutual advantage, viz., the production of raw material by

means of English capital, and the exchange of the same for English

manufactures. The wealth of England is so great, the organization of

her commerce with the world so complete, that nearly all the foreigners

even in the British possessions are for the most part agents for

English business houses, which would scarcely be affected, at least

to any marked extent, by a political dismemberment. It is entirely

different with Spain, which possesses the colony as an inherited

property, and without the power of turning it to any useful account.



"Government monopolies rigorously maintained, insolent disregard

and neglect of the half-castes and powerful creoles, and the example

of the United States, were the chief reasons of the downfall of the

American possessions. The same causes threaten ruin to the Philippines;

but of the monopolies I have said enough.



"Half-castes and creoles, it is true, are not, as they formerly were

in America, excluded from all official appointments; but they feel

deeply hurt and injured through the crowds of place-hunters which

the frequent changes of Ministers send to Manila.



"Also the influence of American elements is at least discernible

on the horizon, and will come more to the front as the relations of

the two countries grow closer. At present these are still of little

importance; in the meantime commerce follows its old routes, which

lead to England and the Atlantic ports of the Union. Nevertheless,

he who attempts to form a judgment as to the future destiny of the

Philippines cannot fix his gaze only on their relations to Spain;

he must also consider the mighty changes which within a few decades

are being effected on that side of our planet. For the first time in

the world's history, the gigantic nations on both sides of a gigantic

ocean are beginning to come into direct intercourse: Russia, which

alone is greater than two divisions of the world together; China,

which within her narrow bounds contains a third of the human race;

America, with cultivable soil enough to support almost three times

the entire population of the earth. Russia's future role in the

Pacific Ocean at present baffles all calculations. The intercourse

of the two other powers will probably have all the more important

consequences when the adjustment between the immeasurable necessity

for human labor-power on the one hand, and a correspondingly great

surplus of that power on the other, shall fall on it as a problem."



"The world of the ancients was confined to the shores of the

Mediterranean; and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans sufficed at one

time for our traffic. When first the shores of the Pacific re-echoed

with the sounds of active commerce, the trade of the world and the

history of the world may be really said to have begun. A start in that

direction has been made; whereas not so very long ago the immense ocean

was one wide waste of waters, traversed from both points only once a

year. From 1603 to 1769 scarcely a ship had ever visited California,

that wonderful country which, twenty-five years ago, with the exception

of a few places on the coast, was an unknown wilderness, but which is

now covered with flourishing and prosperous towns and cities, divided

from sea to sea by a railway, and its capital already ranking among

the world's greatest seaports.



"But in proportion as the commerce of the western coast of America

extends the influence of the American elements over the South Sea, the

ensnaring spell which the great republic exercises over the Spanish

colonies will not fail to assert itself in the Philippines also. The

Americans appear to be called upon to bring the germ planted by the

Spaniards to its full development. As conquerors of the New World,

representatives of the body of free citizens in contradistinction to

the nobility, they follow with the axe and plow of the pioneer where

the Spaniards had opened the way with cross and sword. A considerable

part of Spanish America already belongs to the United States, and has,

since that occurred, attained an importance which could not have been

anticipated either during Spanish rule or during the anarchy which

ensued after and from it. In the long run, the Spanish system cannot

prevail over the American. While the former exhausts the colonies

through direct appropriation of them to the privileged classes, and

the metropolis through the drain of its best forces (with, besides, a

feeble population), America draws to itself the most energetic element

from all lands; and these on her soil, free from all trammels, and

restlessly pushing forward, are continually extending further her

power and influence. The Philippines will so much the less escape

the influence of the two great neighboring empires, since neither

the islands nor their metropolis are in a condition of stable

equilibrium. It seems desirable for the natives that the opinions

here expressed shall not too soon be realized as facts, for their

training thus far has not sufficiently prepared them for success in

the contest with those restless, active, most inconsiderate peoples;

they have dreamed away their youth."













THE PHILIPPINES A CENTURY HENCE





I.



Following our usual custom of facing squarely the most difficult and

delicate questions relating to the Philippines, without weighing the

consequences that our frankness may bring upon us, we shall in the

present article treat of their future.



In order to read the destiny of a people, it is necessary to open

the book of its past, and this, for the Philippines, may be reduced

in general terms to what follows.



Scarcely had they been attached to the Spanish crown than they had to

sustain with their blood and the efforts of their sons the wars and

ambitions of conquest of the Spanish people, and in these struggles,

in that terrible crisis when a people changes its form of government,

its laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs the Philippines were

depopulated, impoverished and retarded--caught in their metamorphosis,

without confidence in their past, without faith in their present and

with no fond hope for the years to come. The former rulers who had

merely endeavored to secure the fear and submission of their subjects,

habituated by them to servitude, fell like leaves from a dead tree, and

the people, who had no love for them nor knew what liberty was, easily

changed masters, perhaps hoping to gain something by the innovation.



Then began a new era for the Filipinos. They gradually lost their

ancient traditions, their recollections--they forgot their writings,

their songs, their poetry, their laws, in order to learn by heart

other doctrines, which they did not understand, other ethics,

other tastes, different from those inspired in their race by their

climate and their way of thinking. Then there was a falling-off,

they were lowered in their own eyes, they became ashamed of what was

distinctively their own, in order to admire and praise what was foreign

and incomprehensible: their spirit was broken and they acquiesced.



Thus years and centuries rolled on. Religious shows, rites that

caught the eye, songs, lights, images arrayed with gold, worship in

a strange language, legends, miracles and sermons, hypnotized the

already naturally superstitious spirit of the country, but did not

succeed in destroying it altogether, in spite of the whole system

afterwards developed and operated with unyielding tenacity.



When the ethical abasement of the inhabitants had reached this stage,

when they had become disheartened and disgusted with themselves,

an effort was made to add the final stroke for reducing so many

dormant wills and intellects to nothingness, in order to make of

the individual a sort of toiler, a brute, a beast of burden, and to

develop a race without mind or heart. Then the end sought was revealed,

it was taken for granted, the race was insulted, an effort was made

to deny it every virtue, every human characteristic, and there were

even writers and priests who pushed the movement still further by

trying to deny to the natives of the country not only capacity for

virtue but also even the tendency to vice.



Then this which they had thought would be death was sure

salvation. Some dying persons are restored to health by a heroic

remedy.



So great endurance reached its climax with the insults, and the

lethargic spirit woke to life. His sensitiveness, the chief trait of

the native, was touched, and while he had had the forbearance to suffer

and die under a foreign flag, he had it not when they whom he served

repaid his sacrifices with insults and jests. Then he began to study

himself and to realize his misfortune. Those who had not expected this

result, like all despotic masters, regarded as a wrong every complaint,

every protest, and punished it with death, endeavoring thus to stifle

every cry of sorrow with blood, and they made mistake after mistake.



The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had

been awakened in only a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely

and consumingly propagated, thanks to abuses and the stupid endeavors

of certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments. Thus when

a flame catches a garment, fear and confusion propagate it more and

more, and each shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to fan

it into life.



Undoubtedly during all this time there were not lacking generous and

noble spirits among the dominant race that tried to struggle for the

rights of humanity and justice, or sordid and cowardly ones among

the dominated that aided the debasement of their own country. But

both were exceptions and we are speaking in general terms.



Such is an outline of their past. We know their present. Now, what

will their future be?



Will the Philippine Islands continue to be a Spanish colony, and if

so, what kind of colony? Will they become a province of Spain, with

or without autonomy? And to reach this stage, what kind of sacrifices

will have to be made?



Will they be separated from the mother country to live independently,

to fall into the hands of other nations, or to ally themselves with

neighboring powers?



It is impossible to reply to these questions, for to all of them

both yes and no may be answered, according to the time desired to be

covered. When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less

must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility

and movement! So it is that in order to deal with these questions, it

is necessary to presume an unlimited period of time, and in accordance

therewith try to forecast future events.









II.



What will become of the Philippines within a century? Will they

continue to be a Spanish colony?



Had this question been asked three centuries ago, when at Legazpi's

death the Malayan Filipinos began to be gradually undeceived and,

finding the yoke heavy, tried in vain to shake it off, without

any doubt whatsoever the reply would have been easy. To a spirit

enthusiastic over the liberty of the country, to those unconquerable

Kagayanes who nourished within themselves the spirit of the Magalats,

to the descendants of the heroic Gat Pulintang and Gat Salakab of

the Province of Batangas, independence was assured, it was merely a

question of getting together and making a determined effort. But for

him who, disillusioned by sad experience, saw everywhere discord and

disorder, apathy and brutalization in the lower classes, discouragement

and disunion in the upper, only one answer presented itself, and it

was: extend his hands to the chains, bow his neck beneath the yoke and

accept the future with the resignation of an invalid who watches the

leaves fall and foresees a long winter amid whose snows he discerns the

outlines of his grave. At that time discord justified pessimism--but

three centuries passed, the neck had become accustomed to the yoke,

and each new generation, begotten in chains, was constantly better

adapted to the new order of things.



Now, then, are the Philippines in the same condition they were three

centuries ago?



For the liberal Spaniards the ethical condition of the people

remains the same, that is, the native Filipinos have not advanced;

for the friars and their followers the people have been redeemed from

savagery, that is, they have progressed; for many Filipinos ethics,

spirit and customs have decayed, as decay all the good qualities of

a people that falls into slavery that is, they have retrograded.



Laying aside these considerations, so as not to get away from our

subject, let us draw a brief parallel between the political situation

then and the situation at present, in order to see if what was not

possible at that time can be so now, or vice versa.



Let us pass over the loyalty the Filipinos may feel for Spain;

let us suppose for a moment, along with Spanish writers, that there

exist only motives for hatred and jealousy between the two races;

let us admit the assertions flaunted by many that three centuries

of domination have not awakened in the sensitive heart of the native

a single spark of affection or gratitude; and we may see whether or

not the Spanish cause has gained ground in the Islands.



Formerly the Spanish authority was upheld among the natives by a

handful of soldiers, three to five hundred at most, many of whom were

engaged in trade and were scattered about not only in the Islands but

also among the neighboring nations, occupied in long wars against

the Mohammedans in the south, against the British and Dutch, and

ceaselessly harassed by Japanese, Chinese, or some tribe in the

interior. Then communication with Mexico and Spain was slow, rare

and difficult; frequent and violent the disturbances among the ruling

powers in the Islands, the treasury nearly always empty, and the life

of the colonists dependent upon one frail ship that handled the Chinese

trade. Then the seas in those regions were infested with pirates,

all enemies of the Spanish name, which was defended by an improvised

fleet, generally manned by rude adventurers, when not by foreigners

and enemies, as happened in the expedition of Gomez Perez Dasmarinas,

which was checked and frustrated by the mutiny of the Chinese rowers,

who killed him and thwarted all his plans and schemes. Yet in spite of

so many adverse circumstances the Spanish authority has been upheld

for more than three centuries and, though it has been curtailed,

still continues to rule the destinies of the Philippine group.



On the other hand, the present situation seems to be gilded and

rosy--as we might say, a beautiful morning compared to the vexed and

stormy night of the past. The material forces at the disposal of

the Spanish sovereign have now been trebled; the fleet relatively

improved; there is more organization in both civil and military

affairs; communication with the sovereign country is swifter and surer;

she has no enemies abroad; her possession is assured; and the country

dominated seems to have less spirit, less aspiration for independence,

a word that is to it almost incomprehensible. Everything then at

first glance presages another three centuries, at least, of peaceful

domination and tranquil suzerainty.



But above the material considerations are arising others, invisible,

of an ethical nature, far more powerful and transcendental.



Orientals, and the Malays in particular, are a sensitive people:

delicacy of sentiment is predominant with them. Even now, in spite

of contact with the occidental nations, who have ideals different

from his, we see the Malayan Filipino sacrifice everything--liberty,

ease, welfare, name, for the sake of an aspiration or a conceit,

sometimes scientific, or of some other nature, but at the least word

which wounds his self-love he forgets all his sacrifices, the labor

expended, to treasure in his memory and never forget the slight he

thinks he has received.



So the Philippine peoples have remained faithful during three

centuries, giving up their liberty and their independence, sometimes

dazzled by the hope of the Paradise promised, sometimes cajoled by

the friendship offered them by a noble and generous people like the

Spanish, sometimes also compelled by superiority of arms of which

they were ignorant and which timid spirits invested with a mysterious

character, or sometimes because the invading foreigner took advantage

of intestine feuds to step in as the peacemaker in discord and thus

later to dominate both parties and subject them to his authority.



Spanish domination once established, it was firmly maintained, thanks

to the attachment of the people, to their mutual dissensions, and

to the fact that the sensitive self-love of the native had not yet

been wounded. Then the people saw their own countrymen in the higher

ranks of the army, their general officers fighting beside the heroes

of Spain and sharing their laurels, begrudged neither character,

reputation nor consideration; then fidelity and attachment to Spain,

love of the fatherland, made of the native, encomendero [1] and even

general, as during the English invasion; then there had not yet been

invented the insulting and ridiculous epithets with which recently

the most laborious and painful achievements of the native leaders

have been stigmatized; not then had it become the fashion to insult

and slander in stereotyped phrase, in newspapers and books published

with governmental and superior ecclesiastical approval, the people

that paid, fought and poured out its blood for the Spanish name,

nor was it considered either noble or witty to offend a whole race,

which was forbidden to reply or defend itself; and if there were

religious hypochondriacs who in the leisure of their cloisters dared

to write against it, as did the Augustinian Gaspar de San Agustin and

the Jesuit Velarde, their loathsome abortions never saw the light,

and still less were they themselves rewarded with miters and raised

to high offices. True it is that neither were the natives of that time

such as we are now: three centuries of brutalization and obscurantism

have necessarily had some influence upon us, the most beautiful work

of divinity in the hands of certain artisans may finally be converted

into a caricature.



The priests of that epoch, wishing to establish their domination over

the people, got in touch with it and made common cause with it against

the oppressive encomenderos. Naturally, the people saw in them greater

learning and some prestige and placed its confidence in them, followed

their advice, and listened to them even in the darkest hours. If

they wrote, they did so in defense of the rights of the native and

made his cry reach even to the distant steps of the Throne. And not a

few priests, both secular and regular, undertook dangerous journeys,

as representatives of the country, and this, along with the strict

and public residencia [2] then required of the governing powers,

from the captain-general to the most insignificant official, rather

consoled and pacified the wounded spirits, satisfying, even though

it were only in form, all the malcontents.



All this has passed away. The derisive laughter penetrates like

mortal poison into the heart of the native who pays and suffers and

it becomes more offensive the more immunity it enjoys. A common sore,

the general affront offered to a whole race, has wiped away the old

feuds among different provinces. The people no longer has confidence

in its former protectors, now its exploiters and executioners. The

masks have fallen. It has seen that the love and piety of the past

have come to resemble the devotion of a nurse who, unable to live

elsewhere, desires eternal infancy, eternal weakness, for the child in

order to go on drawing her wages and existing at its expense; it has

seen not only that she does not nourish it to make it grow but that

she poisons it to stunt its growth, and at the slightest protest she

flies into a rage! The ancient show of justice, the holy residencia,

has disappeared; confusion of ideas begins to prevail; the regard

shown for a governor-general, like La Torre, becomes a crime in

the government of his successor, sufficient to cause the citizen to

lose his liberty and his home; if he obey the order of one official,

as in the recent matter of admitting corpses into the church, it is

enough to have the obedient subject later harassed and persecuted in

every possible way; obligations and taxes increase without thereby

increasing rights, privileges and liberties or assuring the few in

existence; a regime of continual terror and uncertainty disturbs the

minds, a regime worse than a period of disorder, for the fears that

the imagination conjures up are generally greater than the reality;

the country is poor; the financial crisis through which it is passing

is acute, and every one points out with the finger the persons who

are causing the trouble, yet no one dares lay hands upon them!



True it is that the Penal Code has come like a drop of balm to such

bitterness. [3] But of what use are all the codes in the world, if by

means of confidential reports, if for trifling reasons, if through

anonymous traitors any honest citizen may be exiled or banished

without a hearing, without a trial? Of what use is that Penal Code,

of what use is life, if there is no security in the home, no faith in

justice and confidence in tranquility of conscience? Of what use is

all that array of terms, all that collection of articles, when the

cowardly accusation of a traitor has more influence in the timorous

ears of the supreme autocrat than all the cries for justice?



If this state of affairs should continue, what will become of the

Philippines within a century?



The batteries are gradually becoming charged and if the prudence

of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that

are accumulating, some day the spark will be generated. This is

not the place to speak of what outcome such a deplorable conflict

might have, for it depends upon chance, upon the weapons and upon

a thousand circumstances which man can not foresee. But even though

all the advantage should be on the government's side and therefore

the probability of success, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, and no

government ought to desire such.



If those who guide the destinies of the Philippines remain obstinate,

and instead of introducing reforms try to make the condition of

the country retrograde, to push their severity and repression to

extremes against the classes that suffer and think, they are going

to force the latter to venture and put into play the wretchedness

of an unquiet life, filled with privation and bitterness, against

the hope of securing something indefinite. What would be lost in

the struggle? Almost nothing: the life of the numerous discontented

classes has no such great attraction that it should be preferred

to a glorious death. It may indeed be a suicidal attempt--but then,

what? Would not a bloody chasm yawn between victors and vanquished,

and might not the latter with time and experience become equal in

strength, since they are superior in numbers, to their dominators? Who

disputes this? All the petty insurrections that have occurred in the

Philippines were the work of a few fanatics or discontented soldiers,

who had to deceive and humbug the people or avail themselves of

their power over their subordinates to gain their ends. So they all

failed. No insurrection had a popular character or was based on a

need of the whole race or fought for human rights or justice, so it

left no ineffaceable impressions, but rather when they saw that they

had been duped the people bound up their wounds and applauded the

overthrow of the disturbers of their peace! But what if the movement

springs from the people themselves and bases its cause upon their woes?



So then, if the prudence and wise reforms of our ministers do not find

capable and determined interpreters among the colonial governors and

faithful perpetuators among those whom the frequent political changes

send to fill such a delicate post; if met with the eternal it is out

of order, proffered by the elements who see their livelihood in the

backwardness of their subjects; if just claims are to go unheeded, as

being of a subversive tendency; if the country is denied representation

in the Cortes and an authorized voice to cry out against all kinds

of abuses, which escape through the complexity of the laws; if, in

short, the system, prolific in results of alienating the good will

of the natives, is to continue, pricking his apathetic mind with

insults and charges of ingratitude, we can assert that in a few years

the present state of affairs will have been modified completely--and

inevitably. There now exists a factor which was formerly lacking--the

spirit of the nation has been aroused, and a common misfortune, a

common debasement, has united all the inhabitants of the Islands. A

numerous enlightened class now exists within and without the Islands,

a class created and continually augmented by the stupidity of certain

governing powers, which forces the inhabitants to leave the country,

to secure education abroad, and it is maintained and struggles thanks

to the provocations and the system of espionage in vogue. This class,

whose number is cumulatively increasing, is in constant communication

with the rest of the Islands, and if today it constitutes only the

brain of the country in a few years it will form the whole nervous

system and manifest its existence in all its acts.



Now, statecraft has various means at its disposal for checking a people

on the road to progress: the brutalization of the masses through

a caste addicted to the government, aristocratic, as in the Dutch

colonies, or theocratic, as in the Philippines; the impoverishment

of the country; the gradual extermination of the inhabitants; and

the fostering of feuds among the races.



Brutalization of the Malayan Filipino has been demonstrated to be

impossible. In spite of the dark horde of friars, in whose hands rests

the instruction of youth, which miserably wastes years and years

in the colleges, issuing therefrom tired, weary and disgusted with

books; in spite of the censorship, which tries to close every avenue

to progress; in spite of all the pulpits, confessionals, books and

missals that inculcate hatred toward not only all scientific knowledge

but even toward the Spanish language itself; in spite of this whole

elaborate system perfected and tenaciously operated by those who

wish to keep the Islands in holy ignorance, there exist writers,

freethinkers, historians, philosophers, chemists, physicians, artists

and jurists. Enlightenment is spreading and the persecution it suffers

quickens it. No, the divine flame of thought is inextinguishable

in the Filipino people and somehow or other it will shine forth and

compel recognition. It is impossible to brutalize the inhabitants of

the Philippines!



May poverty arrest their development?



Perhaps, but it is a very dangerous means. Experience has everywhere

shown us and especially in the Philippines, that the classes

which are better off have always been addicted to peace and order,

because they live comparatively better and may be the losers in

civil disturbances. Wealth brings with it refinement, the spirit of

conservation, while poverty inspires adventurous ideas, the desire to

change things, and has little care for life. Machiavelli himself held

this means of subjecting a people to be perilous, observing that loss

of welfare stirs up more obdurate enemies than loss of life. Moreover,

when there are wealth and abundance, there is less discontent, less

complaint, and the government, itself wealthier, has more means for

sustaining itself. On the other hand, there occurs in a poor country

what happens in a house where bread is wanting. And further, of what

use to the mother country would a poor and lean colony be?



Neither is it possible gradually to exterminate the inhabitants. The

Philippine races, like all the Malays, do not succumb before the

foreigner, like the Australians, the Polynesians and the Indians

of the New World. In spite of the numerous wars the Filipinos have

had to carry on, in spite of the epidemics that have periodically

visited them, their number has trebled, as has that of the Malays

of Java and the Moluccas. The Filipino embraces civilization and

lives and thrives in every clime, in contact with every people. Rum,

that poison which exterminated the natives of the Pacific islands,

has no power in the Philippines, but, rather, comparison of their

present condition with that described by the early historians, makes

it appear that the Filipinos have grown soberer. The petty wars

with the inhabitants of the South consume only the soldiers, people

who by their fidelity to the Spanish flag, far from being a menace,

are surely one of its solidest supports.



There remains the fostering of intestine feuds among the provinces.



This was formerly possible, when communication from one island

to another was rare and difficult, when there were no steamers or

telegraph-lines, when the regiments were formed according to the

various provinces, when some provinces were cajoled by awards of

privileges and honors and others were protected from the strongest. But

now that the privileges have disappeared, that through a spirit of

distrust the regiments have been reorganized, that the inhabitants

move from one island to another, communication and exchange of

impressions naturally increase, and as all see themselves threatened

by the same peril and wounded in the same feelings, they clasp hands

and make common cause. It is true that the union is not yet wholly

perfected, but to this end tend the measures of good government,

the vexations to which the townspeople are subjected, the frequent

changes of officials, the scarcity of centers of learning, which

forces the youth of all the Islands to come together and begin to

get acquainted. The journeys to Europe contribute not a little to

tighten the bonds, for abroad the inhabitants of the most widely

separated provinces are impressed by their patriotic feelings,

from sailors even to the wealthiest merchants, and at the sight of

modern liberty and the memory of the misfortunes of their country,

they embrace and call one another brothers.



In short, then, the advancement and ethical progress of the Philippines

are inevitable, are decreed by fate.



The Islands cannot remain in the condition they are without requiring

from the sovereign country more liberty Mutatis mutandis. For new men,

a new social order.



To wish that the alleged child remain in its swaddling-clothes is to

risk that it may turn against its nurse and flee, tearing away the

old rags that bind it.



The Philippines, then, will remain under Spanish domination, but

with more law and greater liberty, or they will declare themselves

independent, after steeping themselves and the mother country in blood.



As no one should desire or hope for such an unfortunate rupture,

which would be an evil for all and only the final argument in the most

desperate predicament, let us see by what forms of peaceful evolution

the Islands may remain subjected to the Spanish authority with the very

least detriment to the rights, interests and dignity of both parties.









III.



If the Philippines must remain under the control of Spain, they

will necessarily have to be transformed in a political sense, for

the course of their history and the needs of their inhabitants so

require. This we demonstrated in the preceding article.



We also said that this transformation will be violent and fatal if

it proceeds from the ranks of the people, but peaceful and fruitful

if it emanate from the upper classes.



Some governors have realized this truth, and, impelled by their

patriotism, have been trying to introduce needed reforms in order

to forestall events. But notwithstanding all that have been ordered

up to the present time, they have produced scanty results, for the

government as well as for the country. Even those that promised only

a happy issue have at times caused injury, for the simple reason that

they have been based upon unstable grounds.



We said, and once more we repeat, and will ever assert, that reforms

which have a palliative character are not only ineffectual but even

prejudicial, when the government is confronted with evils that must

be cured radically. And were we not convinced of the honesty and

rectitude of some governors, we would be tempted to say that all

the partial reforms are only plasters and salves of a physician who,

not knowing how to cure the cancer, and not daring to root it out,

tries in this way to alleviate the patient's sufferings or to temporize

with the cowardice of the timid and ignorant.



All the reforms of our liberal ministers were, have been, are, and

will be good--when carried out.



When we think of them, we are reminded of the dieting of Sancho

Panza in his Barataria Island. He took his seat at a sumptuous and

well-appointed table "covered with fruit and many varieties of food

differently prepared," but between the wretch's mouth and each dish

the physician Pedro Rezio interposed his wand, saying, "Take it

away!" The dish removed, Sancho was as hungry as ever. True it is

that the despotic Pedro Rezio gave reasons, which seem to have been

written by Cervantes especially for the colonial administrations:

"You must not eat, Mr. Governor, except according to the usage and

custom of other islands where there are governors." Something was

found to be wrong with each dish: one was too hot, another too moist,

and so on, just like our Pedro Rezios on both sides of the sea. Great

good did his cook's skill do Sancho! [4]



In the case of our country, the reforms take the place of the dishes,

the Philippines are Sancho, while the part of the quack physician is

played by many persons, interested in not having the dishes touched,

perhaps that they may themselves get the benefit of them.



The result is that the long-suffering Sancho, or the Philippines,

misses his liberty, rejects all government and ends up by rebelling

against his quack physician.



In like manner, so long as the Philippines have no liberty of the

press, have no voice in the Cortes to make known to the government

and to the nation whether or not their decrees have been duly obeyed,

whether or not these benefit the country, all the able efforts of

the colonial ministers will meet the fate of the dishes in Barataria

island.



The minister, then, who wants his reforms to be reforms, must begin

by declaring the press in the Philippines free and by instituting

Filipino delegates.



The press is free in the Philippines, because their complaints rarely

ever reach the Peninsula, very rarely, and if they do they are so

secret, so mysterious, that no newspaper dares to publish them,

or if it does reproduce them, it does so tardily and badly.



A government that rules a country from a great distance is the one that

has the most need for a free press, more so even than the government

of the home country, if it wishes to rule rightly and fitly. The

government that governs in a country may even dispense with the press

(if it can), because it is on the ground, because it has eyes and ears,

and because it directly observes what it rules and administers. But

the government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the

truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel,

so that it may weigh and estimate them better, and this need increases

when a country like the Philippines is concerned, where the inhabitants

speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities. To govern

in any other way may also be called governing, but it is to govern

badly. It amounts to pronouncing judgment after hearing only one of

the parties; it is steering a ship without reckoning its conditions,

the state of the sea, the reefs and shoals, the direction of the winds

and currents. It is managing a house by endeavoring merely to give

it polish and a fine appearance without watching the money-chest,

without looking after the servants and the members of the family.



But routine is a declivity down which many governments slide, and

routine says that freedom of the press is dangerous. Let us see

what History says: uprisings and revolutions have always occurred in

countries tyrannized over, in countries where human thought and the

human heart have been forced to remain silent.



If the great Napoleon had not tyrannized over the press, perhaps it

would have warned him of the peril into which he was hurled and have

made him understand that the people were weary and the earth wanted

peace. Perhaps his genius, instead of being dissipated in foreign

aggrandizement, would have become intensive in laboring to strengthen

his position and thus have assured it. Spain herself records in her

history more revolutions when the press was gagged. What colonies

have become independent while they have had a free press and enjoyed

liberty? Is it preferable to govern blindly or to govern with ample

knowledge?



Some one will answer that in colonies with a free press, the prestige

of the rulers, that prop of false governments, will be greatly

imperiled. We answer that the prestige of the nation is preferable to

that of a few individuals. A nation acquires respect, not by abetting

and concealing abuses, but by rebuking and punishing them. Moreover,

to this prestige is applicable what Napoleon said about great men and

their valets. We, who endure and know all the false pretensions and

petty persecutions of those sham gods, do not need a free press in

order to recognize them; they have long ago lost their prestige. The

free press is needed by the government, the government which still

dreams of the prestige which it builds upon mined ground.



We say the same about the Filipino representatives.



What risks does the government see in them? One of three things:

either that they will prove unruly, become political trimmers, or

act properly.



Supposing that we should yield to the most absurd pessimism and admit

the insult, great for the Philippines, but still greater for Spain,

that all the representatives would be separatists and that in all

their contentions they would advocate separatist ideas: does not a

patriotic Spanish majority exist there, is there not present there

the vigilance of the governing powers to combat and oppose such

intentions? And would not this be better than the discontent that

ferments and expands in the secrecy of the home, in the huts and in

the fields? Certainly the Spanish people does not spare its blood

where patriotism is concerned, but would not a struggle of principles

in parliament be preferable to the exchange of shot in swampy lands,

three thousand leagues from home, in impenetrable forests, under a

burning sun or amid torrential rains? These pacific struggles of ideas,

besides being a thermometer for the government, have the advantage of

being cheap and glorious, because the Spanish parliament especially

abounds in oratorical paladins, invincible in debate. Moreover, it is

said that the Filipinos are indolent and peaceful--then what need the

government fear? Hasn't it any influence in the elections? Frankly,

it is a great compliment to the separatists to fear them in the midst

of the Cortes of the nation.



If they become political trimmers, as is to be expected and as they

probably will be, so much the better for the government and so much

the worse for their constituents. They would be a few more favorable

votes, and the government could laugh openly at the separatists,

if any there be.



If they become what they should be, worthy, honest and faithful to

their trust, they will undoubtedly annoy an ignorant or incapable

minister with their questions, but they will help him to govern and

will be some more honorable figures among the representatives of

the nation.



Now then, if the real objection to the Filipino delegates is that they

smell like Igorots, which so disturbed in open Senate the doughty

General Salamanca, then Don Sinibaldo de Mas, who saw the Igorots

in person and wanted to live with them, can affirm that they will

smell at worst like powder, and Senor Salamanca undoubtedly has no

fear of that odor. And if this were all, the Filipinos, who there in

their own country are accustomed to bathe every day, when they become

representatives may give up such a dirty custom, at least during the

legislative session, so as not to offend the delicate nostrils of

the Salamancas with the odor of the bath.



It is useless to answer certain objections of some fine writers

regarding the rather brown skins and faces with somewhat wide

nostrils. Questions of taste are peculiar to each race. China, for

example, which has four hundred million inhabitants and a very ancient

civilization, considers all Europeans ugly and calls them "fan-kwai,"

or red devils. Its taste has a hundred million more adherents than

the European. Moreover, if this is the question, we would have to

admit the inferiority of the Latins, especially the Spaniards, to

the Saxons, who are much whiter.



And so long as it is not asserted that the Spanish parliament

is an assemblage of Adonises, Antinouses, pretty boys, and other

like paragons; so long as the purpose of resorting thither is to

legislate and not to philosophize or to wander through imaginary

spheres, we maintain that the government ought not to pause at these

objections. Law has no skin, nor reason nostrils.



So we see no serious reason why the Philippines may not have

representatives. By their institution many malcontents would be

silenced, and instead of blaming its troubles upon the government,

as now happens, the country would bear them better, for it could at

least complain and with its sons among its legislators would in a

way become responsible for their actions.



We are not sure that we serve the true interests of our country by

asking for representatives. We know that the lack of enlightenment, the

indolence, the egotism of our fellow countrymen, and the boldness,

the cunning and the powerful methods of those who wish their

obscurantism, may convert reform into a harmful instrument. But

we wish to be loyal to the government and we are pointing out to

it the road that appears best to us so that its efforts may not

come to grief, so that discontent may disappear. If after so just,

as well as necessary, a measure has been introduced, the Filipino

people are so stupid and weak that they are treacherous to their

own interests, then let the responsibility fall upon them, let them

suffer all the consequences. Every country gets the fate it deserves,

and the government can say that it has done its duty.



These are the two fundamental reforms, which, properly interpreted

and applied, will dissipate all clouds, assure affection toward Spain,

and make all succeeding reforms fruitful. These are the reforms sine

quibus non.



It is puerile to fear that independence may come through them. The free

press will keep the government in touch with public opinion, and the

representatives, if they are, as they ought to be, the best from among

the sons of the Philippines, will be their hostages. With no cause

for discontent, how then attempt to stir up the masses of the people?



Likewise inadmissible is the objection offered by some regarding the

imperfect culture of the majority of the inhabitants. Aside from the

fact that it is not so imperfect as is averred, there is no plausible

reason why the ignorant and the defective (whether through their own

or another's fault) should be denied representation to look after

them and see that they are not abused. They are the very ones who

most need it. No one ceases to be a man, no one forfeits his rights

to civilization merely by being more or less uncultured, and since

the Filipino is regarded as a fit citizen when he is asked to pay

taxes or shed his blood to defend the fatherland, why must this

fitness be denied him when the question arises of granting him some

right? Moreover, how is he to be held responsible for his ignorance,

when it is acknowledged by all, friends and enemies, that his zeal for

learning is so great that even before the coming of the Spaniards every

one could read and write, and that we now see the humblest families

make enormous sacrifices in order that their children may become a

little enlightened, even to the extent of working as servants in order

to learn Spanish? How can the country be expected to become enlightened

under present conditions when we see all the decrees issued by the

government in favor of education meet with Pedro Rezios who prevent

execution thereof, because they have in their hands what they call

education? If the Filipino, then, is sufficiently intelligent to pay

taxes, he must also be able to choose and retain the one who looks

after him and his interests, with the product whereof he serves the

government of his nation. To reason otherwise is to reason stupidly.



When the laws and the acts of officials are kept under surveillance,

the word justice may cease to be a colonial jest. The thing that makes

the English most respected in their possessions is their strict and

speedy justice, so that the inhabitants repose entire confidence in

the judges. Justice is the foremost virtue of the civilizing races. It

subdues the barbarous nations, while injustice arouses the weakest.



Offices and trusts should be awarded by competition, publishing the

work and the judgment thereon, so that there may be stimulus and

that discontent may not be bred. Then, if the native does not shake

off his indolence he can not complain when he sees all the offices

filled by Castilas.



We presume that it will not be the Spaniard who fears to enter into

this contest, for thus will he be able to prove his superiority by

the superiority of intelligence. Although this is not the custom in

the sovereign country, it should be practiced in the colonies, for

the reason that genuine prestige should be sought by means of moral

qualities, because the colonizers ought to be, or at least to seem,

upright, honest and intelligent, just as a man simulates virtues

when he deals with strangers. The offices and trusts so earned will

do away with arbitrary dismissal and develop employees and officials

capable and cognizant of their duties. The offices held by natives,

instead of endangering the Spanish domination, will merely serve

to assure it, for what interest would they have in converting the

sure and stable into the uncertain and problematical? The native

is, moreover, very fond of peace and prefers an humble present to

a brilliant future. Let the various Filipinos still holding office

speak in this matter; they are the most unshaken conservatives.



We could add other minor reforms touching commerce, agriculture,

security of the individual and of property, education, and so on,

but these are points with which we shall deal in other articles. For

the present we are satisfied with the outlines, and no one can say

that we ask too much.



There will not be lacking critics to accuse us of Utopianism:

but what is Utopia? Utopia was a country imagined by Thomas Moore,

wherein existed universal suffrage, religious toleration, almost

complete abolition of the death penalty, and so on. When the book was

published these things were looked upon as dreams, impossibilities,

that is, Utopianism. Yet civilization has left the country of Utopia

far behind, the human will and conscience have worked greater miracles,

have abolished slavery and the death penalty for adultery--things

impossible for even Utopia itself!



The French colonies have their representatives. The question has also

been raised in the English parliament of giving representation to

the Crown colonies, for the others already enjoy some autonomy. The

press there also is free. Only Spain, which in the sixteenth century

was the model nation in civilization, lags far behind. Cuba and

Porto Rico, whose inhabitants do not number a third of those of

the Philippines, and who have not made such sacrifices for Spain,

have numerous representatives. The Philippines in the early days

had theirs, who conferred with the King and the Pope on the needs

of the country. They had them in Spain's critical moments, when she

groaned under the Napoleonic yoke, and they did not take advantage of

the sovereign country's misfortune like other colonies, but tightened

more firmly the bonds that united them to the nation, giving proofs of

their loyalty; and they continued until many years later. What crime

have the Islands committed that they are deprived of their rights?



To recapitulate: the Philippines will remain Spanish, if they

enter upon the life of law and civilization, if the rights of their

inhabitants are respected, if the other rights due them are granted,

if the liberal policy of the government is carried out without trickery

or meanness, without subterfuges or false interpretations.



Otherwise, if an attempt is made to see in the Islands a lode to

be exploited, a resource to satisfy ambitions, thus to relieve the

sovereign country of taxes, killing the goose that lays the golden

eggs and shutting its ears to all cries of reason, then, however

great may be the loyalty of the Filipinos, it will be impossible to

hinder the operations of the inexorable laws of history. Colonies

established to subserve the policy and the commerce of the sovereign

country, all eventually become independent, said Bachelet, and before

Bachelet all the Phoenecian, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, English,

Portuguese and Spanish colonies had said it.



Close indeed are the bonds that unite us to Spain. Two peoples

do not live for three centuries in continual contact, sharing the

same lot, shedding their blood on the same fields, holding the same

beliefs, worshipping the same God, interchanging the same ideas,

but that ties are formed between them stronger than those fashioned

by arms or fear. Mutual sacrifices and benefits have engendered

affection. Machiavelli, the great reader of the human heart, said:

la natura degli huomini, e cosi obligarsi per li beneficii che essi

fanno, come per quelli che essi ricevono (it is human nature to be

bound as much by benefits conferred as by those received). All this,

and more, is true, but it is pure sentimentality, and in the arena

of politics stern necessity and interests prevail. Howsoever much

the Filipinos owe Spain, they can not be required to forego their

redemption, to have their liberal and enlightened sons wander about

in exile from their native land, the rudest aspirations stifled in

its atmosphere, the peaceful inhabitant living in constant alarm,

with the fortune of the two peoples dependent upon the whim of one

man. Spain can not claim, not even in the name of God himself, that

six millions of people should be brutalized, exploited and oppressed,

denied light and the rights inherent to a human being, and then heap

upon them slights and insults. There is no claim of gratitude that

can excuse, there is not enough powder in the world to justify, the

offenses against the liberty of the individual, against the sanctity

of the home, against the laws, against peace and honor, offenses that

are committed there daily. There is no divinity that can proclaim

the sacrifice of our dearest affections, the sacrifice of the family,

the sacrileges and wrongs that are committed by persons who have the

name of God on their lips. No one can require an impossibility of the

Filipino people. The noble Spanish people, so jealous of its rights

and liberties, can not bid the Filipinos renounce theirs. A people

that prides itself on the glories of its past can not ask another,

trained by it, to accept abjection and dishonor its own name!



We who today are struggling by the legal and peaceful means of debate

so understand it, and with our gaze fixed upon our ideals, shall not

cease to plead our cause, without going beyond the pale of the law,

but if violence first silences us or we have the misfortune to fall

(which is possible, for we are mortal), then we do not know what

course will be taken by the numerous tendencies that will rush in to

occupy the places that we leave vacant.



If what we desire is not realized....



In contemplating such an unfortunate eventuality, we must not turn

away in horror, and so instead of closing our eyes we will face what

the future may bring. For this purpose, after throwing the handful

of dust due to Cerberus, let us frankly descend into the abyss and

sound its terrible mysteries.









IV.



History does not record in its annals any lasting domination exercised

by one people over another, of different race, of diverse usages and

customs, of opposite and divergent ideals.



One of the two had to yield and succumb. Either the foreigner was

driven out, as happened in the case of the Carthaginians, the Moors

and the French in Spain, or else these autochthons had to give way

and perish, as was the case with the inhabitants of the New World,

Australia and New Zealand.



One of the longest dominations was that of the Moors in Spain, which

lasted seven centuries. But, even though the conquerors lived in the

country conquered, even though the Peninsula was broken up into small

states, which gradually emerged like little islands in the midst

of the great Saracen inundation, and in spite of the chivalrous

spirit, the gallantry and the religious toleration of the califs,

they were finally driven out after bloody and stubborn conflicts,

which formed the Spanish nation and created the Spain of the fifteenth

and sixteenth centuries.



The existence of a foreign body within another endowed with strength

and activity is contrary to all natural and ethical laws. Science

teaches us that it is either assimilated, destroys the organism,

is eliminated or becomes encysted.



Encystment of a conquering people is impossible, for it signifies

complete isolation, absolute inertia, debility in the conquering

element. Encystment thus means the tomb of the foreign invader.



Now, applying these considerations to the Philippines, we must

conclude, as a deduction from all we have said, that if their

population be not assimilated to the Spanish nation, if the dominators

do not enter into the spirit of their inhabitants, if equable laws and

free and liberal reforms do not make each forget that they belong to

different races, or if both peoples be not amalgamated to constitute

one mass, socially and politically homogeneous, that is, not harassed

by opposing tendencies and antagonistic ideas and interests, some

day the Philippines will fatally and infallibly declare themselves

independent. To this law of destiny can be opposed neither Spanish

patriotism, nor the love of all the Filipinos for Spain, nor the

doubtful future of dismemberment and intestine strife in the Islands

themselves. Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows,

and necessity is the resultant of physical forces set in operation

by ethical forces.



We have said and statistics prove that it is impossible to exterminate

the Filipino people. And even were it possible, what interest would

Spain have in the destruction of the inhabitants of a country she

can not populate or cultivate, whose climate is to a certain extent

disastrous to her? What good would the Philippines be without

the Filipinos? Quite otherwise, under her colonial system and

the transitory character of the Spaniards who go to the colonies,

a colony is so much the more useful and productive to her as it

possesses inhabitants and wealth. Moreover, in order to destroy the

six million Malays, even supposing them to be in their infancy and

that they have never learned to fight and defend themselves, Spain

would have to sacrifice at least a fourth of her population. This we

commend to the notice of the partizans of colonial exploitation.



But nothing of this kind can happen. The menace is that when the

education and liberty necessary to human existence are denied by

Spain to the Filipinos, then they will seek enlightenment abroad,

behind the mother country's back, or they will secure by hook or

by crook some advantages in their own country, with the result that

the opposition of purblind and paretic politicians will not only be

futile but even prejudicial, because it will convert motives for love

and gratitude into resentment and hatred.



Hatred and resentment on one side, mistrust and anger on the other,

will finally result in a violent and terrible collision, especially

when there exist elements interested in having disturbances, so that

they may get something in the excitement, demonstrate their mighty

power, foster lamentations and recriminations, or employ violent

measures. It is to be expected that the government will triumph

and be generally (as is the custom) severe in punishment, either

to teach a stern lesson in order to vaunt its strength or even to

revenge upon the vanquished the spells of excitement and terror

that the danger caused it. An unavoidable concomitant of those

catastrophes is the accumulation of acts of injustice committed

against the innocent and peaceful inhabitants. Private reprisals,

denunciations, despicable accusations, resentments, covetousness,

the opportune moment for calumny, the haste and hurried procedure of

the courts martial, the pretext of the integrity of the fatherland

and the safety of the state, which cloaks and justifies everything,

even for scrupulous minds, which unfortunately are still rare, and

above all the panic-stricken timidity, the cowardice that battens upon

the conquered--all these things augment the severe measures and the

number of the victims. The result is that a chasm of blood is then

opened between the two peoples, that the wounded and the afflicted,

instead of becoming fewer, are increased, for to the families and

friends of the guilty, who always think the punishment excessive

and the judge unjust, must be added the families and friends of the

innocent, who see no advantage in living and working submissively

and peacefully. Note, too, that if severe measures are dangerous in

a nation made up of a homogeneous population, the peril is increased

a hundred-fold when the government is formed of a race different from

the governed. In the former an injustice may still be ascribed to one

man alone, to a governor actuated by personal malice, and with the

death of the tyrant the victim is reconciled to the government of

his nation. But in a country dominated by a foreign race, even the

justest act of severity is construed as injustice and oppression,

because it is ordered by a foreigner, who is unsympathetic or is

an enemy of the country, and the offense hurts not only the victim

but his entire race, because it is not usually regarded as personal,

and so the resentment naturally spreads to the whole governing race

and does not die out with the offender.



Hence the great prudence and fine tact that should be exercised

by colonizing countries, and the fact that government regards the

colonies in general, and our colonial office in particular, as training

schools, contributes notably to the fulfillment of the great law that

the colonies sooner or later declare themselves independent.



Such is the descent down which the peoples are precipitated. In

proportion as they are bathed in blood and drenched in tears and gall,

the colony, if it has any vitality, learns how to struggle and perfect

itself in fighting, while the mother country, whose colonial life

depends upon peace and the submission of the subjects, is constantly

weakened, and, even though she make heroic efforts, as her number is

less and she has only a fictitious existence, she finally perishes. She

is like the rich voluptuary accustomed to be waited upon by a crowd of

servants toiling and planting for him, and who, on the day his slaves

refuse him obedience, as he does not live by his own efforts, must die.



Reprisals, wrongs and suspicions on one part and on the other

the sentiment of patriotism and liberty, which is aroused in these

incessant conflicts, insurrections and uprisings, operate to generalize

the movement and one of the two peoples must succumb. The struggle

will be brief, for it will amount to a slavery much more cruel than

death for the people and to a dishonorable loss of prestige for the

dominator. One of the peoples must succumb.



Spain, from the number of her inhabitants, from the condition of her

army and navy, from the distance she is situated from the Islands,

from her scanty knowledge of them, and from struggling against a people

whose love and good will she has alienated, will necessarily have to

give way, if she does not wish to risk not only her other possessions

and her future in Africa, but also her very independence in Europe. All

this at the cost of bloodshed and crime, after mortal conflicts,

murders, conflagrations, military executions, famine and misery.



The Spaniard is gallant and patriotic, and sacrifices everything,

in favorable moments, for his country's good. He has the intrepidity

of his bull. The Filipino loves his country no less, and although he

is quieter, more peaceful, and with difficulty stirred up, when he

is once aroused he does not hesitate and for him the struggle means

death to one or the other combatant. He has all the meekness and all

the tenacity and ferocity of his carabao. Climate affects bipeds in

the same way that it does quadrupeds.



The terrible lessons and the hard teachings that these conflicts will

have afforded the Filipinos will operate to improve and strengthen

their ethical nature. The Spain of the fifteenth century was not the

Spain of the eighth. With their bitter experience, instead of intestine

conflicts of some islands against others, as is generally feared,

they will extend mutual support, like shipwrecked persons when they

reach an island after a fearful night of storm. Nor may it be said

that we shall partake of the fate of the small American republics. They

achieved their independence easily, and their inhabitants are animated

by a different spirit from what the Filipinos are. Besides, the danger

of falling again into other hands, English or German, for example,

will force the Filipinos to be sensible and prudent. Absence of

any great preponderance of one race over the others will free their

imagination from all mad ambitions of domination, and as the tendency

of countries that have been tyrannized over, when they once shake off

the yoke, is to adopt the freest government, like a boy leaving school,

like the beat of the pendulum, by a law of reaction the Islands will

probably declare themselves a federal republic.



If the Philippines secure their independence after heroic and stubborn

conflicts, they can rest assured that neither England, nor Germany,

nor France, and still less Holland, will dare to take up what Spain

has been unable to hold. Within a few years Africa will completely

absorb the attention of the Europeans, and there is no sensible nation

which, in order to secure a group of poor and hostile islands, will

neglect the immense territory offered by the Dark Continent, untouched,

undeveloped and almost undefended. England has enough colonies in the

Orient and is not going to risk losing her balance. She is not going

to sacrifice her Indian Empire for the poor Philippine Islands--if

she had entertained such an intention she would not have restored

Manila in 1763, but would have kept some point in the Philippines,

whence she might gradually expand. Moreover, what need has John

Bull the trader to exhaust himself for the Philippines, when he is

already lord of the Orient, when he has there Singapore, Hongkong

and Shanghai? It is probable that England will look favorably upon

the independence of the Philippines, for it will open their ports to

her and afford greater freedom to her commerce. Furthermore, there

exist in the United Kingdom tendencies and opinions to the effect

that she already has too many colonies, that they are harmful, that

they greatly weaken the sovereign country.



For the same reasons Germany will not care to run any risk, and because

a scattering of her forces and a war in distant countries will endanger

her existence on the continent. Thus we see her attitude, as much in

the Pacific as in Africa, is confined to conquering easy territory

that belongs to nobody. Germany avoids any foreign complications.



France has enough to do and sees more of a future in Tongking and

China, besides the fact that the French spirit does not shine in zeal

for colonization. France loves glory, but the glory and laurels that

grow on the battlefields of Europe. The echo from battlefields in the

Far East hardly satisfies her craving for renown, for it reaches her

quite faintly. She has also other obligations, both internally and

on the continent.



Holland is sensible and will be content to keep the Moluccas and

Java. Sumatra offers her a greater future than the Philippines, whose

seas and coasts have a sinister omen for Dutch expeditions. Holland

proceeds with great caution in Sumatra and Borneo, from fear of

losing everything.



China will consider herself fortunate if she succeeds in keeping

herself intact and is not dismembered or partitioned among the European

powers that are colonizing the continent of Asia.



The same is true of Japan. On the north she has Russia, who envies and

watches her; on the south England, with whom she is in accord even

to her official language. She is, moreover, under such diplomatic

pressure from Europe that she can not think of outside affairs until

she is freed from it, which will not be an easy matter. True it is

that she has an excess of population, but Korea attracts her more

than the Philippines and is, also, easier to seize.



Perhaps the great American Republic, whose interests lie in the

Pacific and who has no hand in the spoliation of Africa, may some day

dream of foreign possession. This is not impossible, for the example

is contagious, covetousness and ambition are among the strongest

vices, and Harrison manifested something of this sort in the Samoan

question. But the Panama Canal is not opened nor the territory of

the States congested with inhabitants, and in case she should openly

attempt it the European powers would not allow her to proceed, for they

know very well that the appetite is sharpened by the first bites. North

America would be quite a troublesome rival, if she should once get

into the business. Furthermore, this is contrary to her traditions.



Very likely the Philippines will defend with inexpressible valor the

liberty secured at the price of so much blood and sacrifice. With the

new men that will spring from their soil and with the recollection of

their past, they will perhaps strive to enter freely upon the wide

road of progress, and all will labor together to strengthen their

fatherland, both internally and externally, with the same enthusiasm

with which a youth falls again to tilling the land of his ancestors,

so long wasted and abandoned through the neglect of those who have

withheld it from him. Then the mines will be made to give up their

gold for relieving distress, iron for weapons, copper, lead and

coal. Perhaps the country will revive the maritime and mercantile

life for which the islanders are fitted by their nature, ability and

instincts, and once more free, like the bird that leaves its cage,

like the flower that unfolds to the air, will recover the pristine

virtues that are gradually dying out and will again become addicted

to peace--cheerful, happy, joyous, hospitable and daring.



These and many other things may come to pass within something like a

hundred years. But the most logical prognostication, the prophecy based

on the best probabilities, may err through remote and insignificant

causes. An octopus that seized Mark Antony's ship altered the face of

the world; a cross on Cavalry and a just man nailed thereon changed

the ethics of half the human race, and yet before Christ, how many

just men wrongfully perished and how many crosses were raised on

that hill! The death of the just sanctified his work and made his

teaching unanswerable. A sunken road at the battle of Waterloo buried

all the glories of two brilliant decades, the whole Napoleonic world,

and freed Europe. Upon what chance accidents will the destiny of the

Philippines depend?



Nevertheless, it is not well to trust to accident, for there is

sometimes an imperceptible and incomprehensible logic in the workings

of history. Fortunately, peoples as well as governments are subject

to it.



Therefore, we repeat, and we will ever repeat, while there is time,

that it is better to keep pace with the desires of a people than

to give way before them: the former begets sympathy and love, the

latter contempt and anger. Since it is necessary to grant six million

Filipinos their rights, so that they may be in fact Spaniards, let

the government grant these rights freely and spontaneously, without

damaging reservations, without irritating mistrust. We shall never

tire of repeating this while a ray of hope is left us, for we prefer

this unpleasant task to the need of some day saying to the mother

country: "Spain, we have spent our youth in serving thy interests in

the interests of our country; we have looked to thee, we have expended

the whole light of our intellects, all the fervor and enthusiasm of our

hearts in working for the good of what was thine, to draw from thee a

glance of love, a liberal policy that would assure us the peace of our

native land and thy sway over loyal but unfortunate islands! Spain,

thou hast remained deaf, and, wrapped up in thy pride, hast pursued

thy fatal course and accused us of being traitors, merely because we

love our country, because we tell thee the truth and hate all kinds

of injustice. What dost thou wish us to tell our wretched country,

when it asks about the result of our efforts? Must we say to it that,

since for it we have lost everything--youth, future, hope, peace,

family; since in its service we have exhausted all the resources of

hope, all the disillusions of desire, it also takes the residue which

we can not use, the blood from our veins and the strength left in our

arms? Spain, must we some day tell Filipinas that thou hast no ear for

her woes and that if she wishes to be saved she must redeem herself?"













RIZAL'S FAREWELL ADDRESS



ADDRESS TO SOME FILIPINOS





"Countrymen: On my return from Spain I learned that my name had been

in use, among some who were in arms, as a war-cry. The news came as a

painful surprise, but, believing it already closed, I kept silent over

an incident which I considered irremediable. Now I notice indications

of the disturbances continuing, and if any still, in good or bad faith,

are availing themselves of my name, to stop this abuse and undeceive

the unwary I hasten to address you these lines that the truth may

be known.



"From the very beginning, when I first had notice of what

was being planned, I opposed it, and demonstrated its absolute

impossibility. This is the fact, and witnesses to my words are now

living. I was convinced that the scheme was utterly absurd, and,

what was worse, would bring great suffering.



"I did even more. When later, against my advice, the movement

materialized, of my own accord I offered not alone my good offices,

but my very life, and even my name, to be used in whatever way might

seem best, toward stifling the rebellion; for, convinced of the ills

which it would bring, I considered myself fortunate, if, at any

sacrifice, I could prevent such useless misfortunes. This equally

is of record. My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one most

anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of

them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people,

that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an

individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties. I

have recommended in my writings the study of civic virtues, without

which there is no redemption. I have written likewise (and repeat

my words) that reforms, to be beneficial, must come from above,

that those which come from below are irregularly gained and uncertain.



"Holding these ideas, I cannot do less than condemn, and I do condemn,

this uprising,--as absurd, savage, and plotted behind my back,--which

dishonors us Filipinos and discredits those who could plead our

cause. I abhor its criminal methods and disclaim all part in it,

pitying from the bottom of my heart the unwary who have been deceived.



"Return, then, to your homes, and may God pardon those who have worked

in bad faith.





    Jose Rizal.



                                    "Fort Santiago, December 15th, 1896.





The Spanish judge-advocate-general commented upon the address:





"The preceding address to his countrymen which Dr. Rizal proposes

to direct to them, is not in substance the patriotic protest

against separatist manifestations and tendencies which ought to

come from those who claim to be loyal sons of Spain. According

to his declarations, Don Jose Rizal limits himself to condemning

the present insurrectionary movement as premature and because he

considers now its triumph impossible, but leaves it to be inferred

that the wished-for independence can be gained by procedures less

dishonorable than those now being followed by the rebels, when the

culture of the people shall be a most valuable asset for the combat

and guarantee its successful issue.



"For Rizal the question is of opportuneness, not of principles nor of

aims. His manifesto might be summarized in these words: 'Because of

my proofs of the rebellion's certainty to fail, lay down your arms,

my countrymen. Later I shall lead you to the Promised Land.'



"So far from being conducive to peace, it could advance in the

future the spirit of rebellion. For this reason the publication of

the proposed address seems impolitic, and I would recommend to Your

Excellency to forbid its being made public, but to order that all

these papers be forwarded to the Judge Advocate therein and added to

the case against Rizal."



                                          "Manila, December 19th, 1896."













RIZAL'S DEFENCE





These "Additions" were really Doctor Rizal's defence before the

court martial which condemned him and pretended to have tried him,

on the charge of having organized revolutionary societies and so

being responsible for the rebellion.



The only counsel permitted him, a young lieutenant selected from the

junior Spanish army officers, risked the displeasure of his superiors

in the few words he did say, but his argument was pitiably weak. The

court scene, where Rizal sat for hours with his elbows corded back of

him while the crowd, unrebuked by the court, clamored for his death,

recalls the stories of the bloody assizes of Judge Jeffreys and of

the bloodthirsty tribunals of the Reign of Terror. He was compelled

to testify himself, was not permitted to hear the testimony given for

the prosecution, no witness dared favor him, much less appear in his

behalf, and his own brother had been tortured, with the thumbscrews

as well as in other mediaeval and modern ways, in a vain endeavor to

extort a confession implicating the Doctor.









ADDITIONS TO MY DEFENCE



Don Jose Rizal y Alonso respectfully requests the Court Martial to

consider well the following circumstances:



First.--Re the rebellion. From July 6th, 1892, I had absolutely no

connection with politics until July 1st of this year when, advised

by Don Pio Valenzuela that an uprising was proposed, I counselled

against it, trying to convince him with arguments. Don Pio Valenzuela

left me convinced apparently; so much so that instead of later taking

part in rebellion, he presented himself to the authorities for pardon.



Secondly.--A proof that I maintained no political relation with any

one, and of the falsity of the statement that I was in the habit of

sending letters by my family, is the fact that it was necessary to

send Don Pio Valenzuela under an assumed name, at considerable cost,

when in the same steamer were travelling five members of my family

besides two servants. If what has been charged were true, what occasion

was there for Don Pio to attract the attention of any one and incur

large expenses? Besides, the mere fact of Sr. Valenzuela's coming to

inform me of the rebellion proves that I was not in correspondence

with its promoters for if I had been then I should have known of

it, for making an uprising is a sufficiently serious matter not to

hide it from me. When they took the step of sending Sr. Valenzuela,

it proves that they were aware that I knew nothing, that is to say,

that I was not maintaining correspondence with them. Another negative

proof is that not a single letter of mine can be shown.



Thirdly.--They cruelly abused my name and at the last hour wanted

to surprise me. Why did they not communicate with me before? They

might say likewise that I was, if not content, at least resigned to my

fate, for I had refused various propositions which a number of people

made me to rescue me from that place. Only in these last months, in

consequence of certain domestic affairs, having had differences with

a missionary padre, I had sought to go as a volunteer to Cuba. Don

Pio Valenzuela came to warn me that I might put myself in security,

because, according to him, it was possible that they might compromise

me. As I considered myself wholly innocent and was not posted on the

details of the movement (besides that I had convinced Sr. Valenzuela)

I took no precautions, but when His Excellency, the Governor General,

wrote me announcing my departure for Cuba, I embarked at once,

leaving all my affairs unattended to. And yet I could have gone to

another part or simply have staid in Dapitan for His Excellency's

letter was conditional. It said--"If you persist in your idea of

going to Cuba, etc." When the uprising occurred it found me on board

the warship "Castilla", and I offered myself unconditionally to His

Excellency. Twelve or fourteen days later I set out for Europe, and

had I had an uneasy conscience I should have tried to escape in some

port en route, especially Singapore, where I went ashore and when

other passengers who had passports for Spain staid over. I had an

easy conscience and hoped to go to Cuba.



Fourthly.--In Dapitan I had boats and I was permitted to make

excursions along the coast and to the settlements, absences which

lasted as long as I wished, at times a week. If I had still had

intentions of political activity, I might have gotten away even in

the vintas of the Moros whom I knew in the settlements. Neither would

I have built my small hospital nor bought land nor invited my family

to live with me.



Fifthly.--Some one has said that I was the chief. What kind of a

chief is he who is ignored in the plotting and who is notified only

that he may escape? How is he chief who when he says no, they say yes?



--As to the "Liga":



Sixthly.--It is true that I drafted its By-Laws whose aims were to

promote commerce, industry, the arts, etc., by means of united action,

as have testified witnesses not at all prejudiced in my favor, rather

the reverse.



Seventhly.--The "Liga" never came into real existence nor ever got

to working, since after the first meeting no one paid any attention

to it, because I was exiled a few days later.



Eighthly.--If it was reorganized nine months afterwards by other

persons, as now is said, I was ignorant of the fact.



Ninthly.--The "Liga" was not a society with harmful tendencies and

the proof is the fact that the radicals had to leave it, organizing

the Katipunan which was what answered their purposes. Had the "Liga"

lacked only a little of being adapted for rebellion, the radicals

would not have left it but simply would have modified it; besides,

if, as some allege, I am the chief, out of consideration for me and

for the prestige of my name, they would have retained the name of

"Liga". Their having abandoned it, name and all, proves clearly that

they neither counted on me nor did the "Liga" serve their purposes,

otherwise they would not have made another society when they had one

already organized.



Tenthly.--As to my letters, I beg of the court that, if there are

any bitter criticisms in them, it will consider the circumstances

under which they were written. Then we had been deprived of our two

dwellings, warehouses, lands, and besides all my brothers-in-law

and my brother were deported, in consequence of a suit arising from

an inquiry of the Administracion de Hacienda (tax-collecting branch

of the government), a case in which, according to our attorney (in

Madrid), Sr. Linares Rivas, we had the right on our side.



Eleventhly.--That I have endured exile without complaint, not because

of the charge alleged, for that was not true, but for what I had

been able to write. And ask the politico-military commanders of

the district where I resided of my conduct during these four years

of exile, of the town, even of the very missionary parish priests

despite my personal differences with one of them.



Twelfthly.--All these facts and considerations destroy the

little-founded accusation of those who have testified against me,

with whom I have asked the Judge to be confronted. Is it possible

that in a single night I was able to line up all the filibusterism,

at a gathering which discussed commerce, etc., a gathering which went

no further for it died immediately afterwards? If the few who were

present had been influenced by my words they would not have let the

"Liga" die. Is it that those who formed part of the "Liga" that night

founded the Katipunan? I think not. Who went to Dapitan to interview

me? Persons entirely unknown to me. Why was not an acquaintance sent,

in whom I would have had more confidence? Because those acquainted

with me knew very well that I had forsaken politics or that, realizing

my views on rebellion, they must have refused to undertake a mission

useless and unpromising.



I trust that by these considerations I have demonstrated that neither

did I found a society for revolutionary purposes, nor have I taken

part since in others, nor have I been concerned in the rebellion,

but that on the contrary I have been opposed to it, as the making

public of a private conversation has proven.





    Fort Santiago, Dec. 26, 1896.



        JOSE RIZAL.













RESPECTING THE REBELLION.



    The remarks about the rebellion are from a photographic copy

    of the pencil notes used by Rizal for his brief speech. The

    manuscript is now in the possession of Sr. Eduardo Lete, of

    Saragossa, Spain.





I had no notice at all of what was being planned until the first or

second of July, in 1896, when Pio Valenzuela came to see me, saying

that an uprising was being arranged. I told him that it was absurd,

etc., etc. and he answered me that they could bear no more. I advised

him that they should have patience, etc., etc. He added then that

he had been sent because they had compassion of my life and that

probably it would compromise me. I replied that they should have

patience and that if anything happened to me I would then prove my

innocence. "Besides, said I, don't consider me but our country which

is the one that will suffer." I went on to show how absurd was the

movement.--This later Pio Valenzuela testified.--He did not tell me

that my name was being used, neither did he suggest that I was its

chief, nor anything of that sort.



Those who testify that I am the chief (which I do not know nor do I

know of having ever treated with them), what proofs do they present of

my having accepted this chiefship or that I was in relations with them

or with their society? Either they have made use of my name for their

own purposes or they have been deceived by others who have. Where is

the chief who dictates no order nor makes any arrangement, who is not

consulted in any way about so important an enterprise until the last

moment, and then, when he decides against it, is disobeyed? Since the

seventh of July of 1892 I have entirely ceased political activity. It

seems some have wished to avail themselves of my name for their

own ends.













              A plant I am, that scarcely grown,

            Was torn from out its Eastern bed,

            Where all around perfume is shed,

            And life but as a dream is known;

            The land that I can call my own,

            By me forgotten ne'er to be,

            Where trilling birds their song taught me,

            And cascades with their ceaseless roar,

            And all along the spreading shore

            The murmurs of the sounding sea.



              While yet in childhood's happy day,

            I learned upon its sun to smile,

            And in my breast there seemed the while

            Seething volcanic fires to play;

            A bard I was, and my wish alway

            To call upon the fleeting wind,

            With all the force of verse and mind:

            "Go forth, and spread around its fame,

            From zone to zone with glad acclaim,

            And earth to heaven together bind!"



                                          From "Mi Piden Versos" (1882),

                                      verses from Madrid for his mother.









              One by one they have passed on,

            All I loved and moved among;

            Dead or married--from me gone,

            For all I place my heart upon

            By fate adverse are stung.



              Go thou too, O Muse, depart;

            Other regions fairer find;

            For my land but offers art

            For the laurel, chains that bind,

            For a temple, prisons blind.



              But before thou leavest me, speak;

            Tell me with thy voice sublime,

            Thou couldst ever from me seek

            A song of sorrow for the weak,

            Defiance to the tyrant's crime.



                                                From "A Mi Musa" (1884),

                                    requested by a young lady of Madrid.













NOTES





[1] An encomendero was a Spanish soldier who as a reward for faithful

service was set over a district with power to collect tribute and

the duty of providing the people with legal protection and religious

instruction. This arrangement is memorable in early Philippine annals

chiefly for the flagrant abuses that appear to have characterized it.



[2] No official was allowed to leave the Islands at the expiration

of his term of office until his successor or a council appointed by

the sovereign inquired into all the acts of his administration and

approved them. (This residencia was a fertile source of recrimination

and retaliation, so the author quite aptly refers to it a little

further on as "the ancient show of justice."



[3] The penal code was promulgated in the Islands by Royal Order of

September 4, 1884.



[4] Cervantes' "Don Quijote," Part II, chapter 47.













End of Project Gutenberg's The Philippines A Century Hence, by Jose Rizal