THE FRIAR VIEWPOINTIEDUCATIONThe truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.
THE FRIAR VIEWPOINTIEDUCATIONThe truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.
THE FRIAR VIEWPOINTIEDUCATIONThe truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.
IEDUCATIONThe truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.
IEDUCATION
The truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.
The truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious, the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.
There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is one factor more for arrival at a safe port, onegreater facility which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end, it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive to the knowledge and possession of God—the supreme end, hence, the highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man, both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling man’s sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.
It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods of teaching for the attainmentof so sacred an end. It cannot be even doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths, in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries, covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages, which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties, and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion, and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7, and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi, which reads as follows.
“Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests who shall instructthe Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine.”
But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on November 4, which reads as follows: “We ask and request the archbishops and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means, to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their salvation, and follow in their government and method of life.” The fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20, 1686,1and those lawswere at the same time extended to Filipinas, since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely, “to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.,” as is said in the above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.
For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion, for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are found in the celebrated ordinances, first in thosegiven by Corcuera in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis, marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that ordinance says: “Through my desires of aiding with the greatest exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals, supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures, so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish, and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language), seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and receive education in that language and not in that of the country or any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor and justices shall seeto it that such people live in a Christian manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest, punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read, talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such posts must be given to such persons and not to others,” etc.
In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768, which reads as follows: “As it is very important that there be good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes, with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with the increase ofsalaries, better teachers can be had and the end of law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be better attained.” This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance or article 93, reading as follows: “In accordance with section 52 of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers, that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5, 1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that, if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter, especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall investigate withparticular care the observance of the abovesaid, and shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals, and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances preceding that law.”
Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading, blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages, for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian.2
In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument (which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as sensible and reasonable beings.
Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is fitting to ask: “Were those laws, given with the most just desire and the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay, more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them, was it within the bonds of reason to adapt themwith equal propriety and sufficiency to Filipinas?” If it is impossible to grant the first, it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.
It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v, of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired “with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could be well done by the sacristans,” who would immediately be Indians like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact, could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the latter, came by way of Acapulco—in America with an invaderwho carried almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass, is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?
Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which they were not made, and not even was that country known when law xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the ends whose attainment is desired.
On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory, with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation, etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies), abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them, entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result obtained by the last royaldecree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered “that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them and without expense;” and with this clause of voluntary instruction, without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers, not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language: was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding, it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely, to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars, innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses, and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit of those laws.
Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that, if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish, correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application, especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.
It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one side it is ordered “that schools be erected where the children of the natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language) seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500 [pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government.” This is ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity withSpaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that stating “because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be erected and established;” the only ones who were ordered to pay.
It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently, neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe penalties, and “the anger of the superior tribunals” nor the teachers “condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,” and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and in the official residence of the first authority of the islands, viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest, in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knowshow to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.
A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father Augustín María, O.S.A. in hisHistoria del Insigne convento de San Pablo de Manila[i.e.,History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent, when he says: “In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts, theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits came and opened public schools.” Passing by those teaching centers created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had already printed works entitled:Práctica del Ministerio que siguen los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas[i.e.,Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustinein Philippinas]; and thePráctica de párrocos dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,3given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the following: “It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture and profit which follow therefrom.” That document was providentially conserved in the secretary’s office of the convent of San Pablo in Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.
They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19,1698, was ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz “should make aPráctica del Ministerio” [i.e.,Practice of the Ministry] and after it was made to send it through the provinces, “so that all the religious might observe it;” he did that, signing the circular which accompanied saidPráctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From thisPráctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools: “Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary.” Beyond this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.
This samePráctica del Ministerioremarkably increased by its author, the reverend father FrayTomás Ortiz, was printed in “Manila, in the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the Angels], in the year 1731,” and we copy from it, for the eternal and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal paragraph, which reads as follows:
“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.
“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoidmany spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”
Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”
In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitledPráctica del párroco dominicana[i.e.,Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:
“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order toteach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief ortimaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.
“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.
“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend churchdaily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”
It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in thePrácticaand respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.
The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,4given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmedby the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.
In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows:
“The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in great measure supply this impossibility....” There was no need to put thisroyal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article of which orders that “there shall be a boys’ school and another school for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls.”
Article 2 of these regulations,5quite distinct from the path of the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it ordered that “the primary instruction should be compulsory for all the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to two reals.” Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given free to all thechildren by the teacher, who, at the proper time, shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest, in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos, according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso, or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family, and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.
Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity, were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the municipal captain “supervisor of the schools.” This blow must be judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge, both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree: “Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction to the parish priestsaccording to the regulations of December 1863, whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them; and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and the delegates of the principalía.”
At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter, because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in them with prior rank.
It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of “watching carefully over primary instruction” is conceded to the captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as follows: “To visit the schools as often as possible.” This is the first part of that article, and the second part “and to see that the regulations are observed,” whose art. 3 orders that “the teachers shall have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language,” is of identical meaning and effect with the power conceded to the captain, whichdeclares, “he shall demand that Castilian be taught in the schools.” This power is followed by those of “he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools, and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and rewards;” both powers similar to those which are conceded to the parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares, “To promote the attendance of children at the schools.” To supplement this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: “The reverend and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly, shall hold examinations every three months, etc.” By this one can see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this, over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied, in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: “He shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in meetings withthe parish priests and delegates of the principalía;” and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys’ schools, falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by decree and municipal regulations—it would result, we say—at each step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and counsel,6with the added abasement that “his presence shall not be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity of the deliberations,” as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain and of the board which is executive.
It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish priest in his duties as localsupervisor of schools result in the theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord, as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and peace of the villages.
And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space, as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest, who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude, and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.
Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians, the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores, until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored by most people,and recognized and praised by very few: are these not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle, of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges, it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary, superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever, through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,7one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrownthirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago, do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a supplement of that existing today.
The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who are persuaded, or appear to be so, that “what is of importance above all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand and to identify himself with the Castila,” are laboring under a false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,Don Patricio de la Escosura,8the least monastic man in España and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch, as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian, assigned in his famousMemoriaon Filipinas “of the parish priests, I say, little must be expected in this matter;” in order to affirm as follows: “And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;” and adding some years later in his prologue to the small workRecuerdos[i.e.,Remembrances] which could better be entitledInfundios[i.e.,Fables] of Señor Cañamaque: “Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed, and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe, where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority.” And that truth established, he immediately asked: “Why then is not that force utilized, in whose existence andsupreme efficacy all agree? Why are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental and administrative action in Filipinas?” Why? For a very simple reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent, and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian “so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian,” he adds, “speaks his primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas, and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear notions of his duties, and of his rights—he who cannot understand the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?...”
What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess of political or party idea!
That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary arguments which he was opposing, for, he was assertingin general that “neither the population through its number, nor the native race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part, distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle.” A few lines afterwards he says: “The Indians here, I repeat, can never become independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover with unfavorable caution.” What an illusion, and what an enormous disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended—perhaps four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas, in order to write thatMemoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters, engravers,normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains, past-captains,cuadrilleros,9and hundreds more of those who understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection, which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila, at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal, in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would the author of thatMemoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived, and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds, which become, as alogical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us; that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with result in those islands “certain literary and scientific professions;” namely, “that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive condition.” It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently as is found throughout in hisMemoria. How powerful is the strength of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the deepest and most righteous convictions.
But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of what exists today.
It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit, profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to facilitate their obligation accentuatedmore strongly the deficiency of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has already been made in thePráctica del Ministerioof 1712, circulated as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and printed in 1731; and theInstrucciones morales y religiosas[i.e.,Moral and religious Instructions],10printed in 1739 for the use of the Dominican fathers—a lamentable lack which disappeared with the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.
This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo, Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal, which has produced a notable increase in the European population,11and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of education and progress,which must be perfected and heightened so that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.
But even after this which we might call a giant’s step in the history of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa, within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago, while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason, but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little, and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].
If the greater number of roads in good condition with their corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done, it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolatedgroups of dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those already existing be united in such manner that they form districts of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.
Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition; and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens, or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation, capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals, in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them, the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity, which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.
It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.
An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome, and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause those two sacred loves—love of virtue and love of fatherland—to spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction andcare of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding love for España.
No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever is this means of regeneration demanded.
And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and information. That is the point on which these initiatives are wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and untiring Señor Gainza inregard to his school of Santa Isabel—the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres—who after having struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government, of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties, from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love, prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the schools already established, be they private or not, from being given in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation, that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at all preventing other languages from being taught.
For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident, must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for the nativesobeying a uniform plan of method and social education, in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious, and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details, so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.
The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies, opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods, which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government of the archipelago.
The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila; secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration; the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school, and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the present schedules, both for thenormal schools and in so far as the schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and immediate necessity.
The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue, but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen, for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting in proportion as time passesand their passions increase. These young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility, do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they have contracted are very different—habits of pastime, idleness, and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation, a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.
And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: “The first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader, is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions under which secondary teaching in this countryis found. Many of the young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point, for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it.”
Before such an inundation ofwise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of that inundation oflearningwhich parches the fields for lack of arms to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or carelesswith impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages, makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue, and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.
And as the above-mentioned author of the saidMemoriaadds: “It is apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations, in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but such efforts have had no result;” it is thoroughly necessary to create a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal, vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater, he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching, shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.
Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeedin giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics, who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España, which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards, brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian civilization and true progress.