r iiiu rT iN K a r c h ip e la g o a-m Ph il ip p in e archipelago
gyhorimdoneltUkva. In civil oausos fclio jurisdiction of Itlie Ural) la limited (to ths value
ot 100I luwd dollars, and ot tho last to two tails of gold, or M dollar* ; In both cum
sulmvt to appeal In criminal matters, tho authority of tho hoadfl of townships In
limited to apprehending malofaotors and taking informations. Tho power of tho
sueaUfos, or provincial governors, extends to all criminal matters, but eight day*
detention is the limit of their power to punish, without tho confirmation of tho
supreme court, or Heal Audienoia. In the person of those functionaries, thoroforo,
are united executive, fiscal, magisterial, and military authority. The parties thus
empowered are generally military officers, mid in all cases without legal education.
At every stop of a process, therefore, they have to refer to an assessor, a functionary
not present, being an advocate of the supremo oourt residing at tho capital. The
salaries ot the provincial governors are most inadequate, and to make up for their
deficiency they enjoy tiie privilege of trading. Out of a list of 23 governors, or
alcaldes, 1, receive salaries of (500 hard dollars, or about 130/. a-yoar; and tills is
the highest amount given, except in the single iustauoo of Mindoro whore it is 1000
dollars, or about 21(5/. Five of tho governors receive only 300 dollars, or 66/. For
the privilege of trading, these functionaries, moreover, pay yearly sums varying from
40 to 800 dollars, 1 he privilege, however, during tho six years to whioh the tenure
of office is limited, is estimated to be worth from 40,000 to 50,000 hard dollars. This
barbarous form of administration seems to unite every vice of a judioial system, in so
tar as the omee of the alcaldes or provisional governors is concerned.
,, — .form ®ome jdea the state of crime and the administration of justice in
the Philippines, from the schedule of trials in the Real Audienoia. The trials in the
hve years ending 1841 amounted to 1607, of which tho acquittals were 518, and the condemnations
10b9. The offences were classed as follow,—rebellion and conspiracy, 2;
homicide, 48. ; robbery, theft, and imposture, 270; incendiarism, 26; commotion
and libel, 1'- ; falsehood and perjury, 19; scandal and immorality, 212 ; injuries and
misdemeanours, 227. The capital punishments amounted to 28, and the condemnations
to penal servitude to 735. The minor punishments, such as deprivation of
office and the like, amounted to 328. This was for a population of about three
millions and a half m round numbers, and does not imply either a great amount of
ennie or a harsh administration of justice.
The ecclesiastical establishment of the Spanish Philippines consists of a metropolitan
and three suffragans,—namely, the Archbishop of Manilla, and the Bishops of
. ew Segovia, of hew Carceres, and of Cebu. The metropolitan, besides his general superintendence^
has under his immediate charge nine provinces, having 167 parishes, served
by 9a tegular and /L secular priests. The Bishop of New Segovia’s diocese consists
of six provinces, with 92 parishes, served by 80 regular and 12 secular priests. The
diocese of h ew Carceres consists of five provinces, with 84 parishes, served bv 27
regular and 5, secular priests. The bishopric of Cebu extends over eleven provinces
which contain 143 parishes, served by 86 regular and 57 secular priests. The three
first-named dioceses are wholly confined to the great island of Luzon; that of Cebu
embraces ail the Bisaya islands, with Mindano and the remote Marians.
We see from this statement that the number of parishes in the Phiiippines is 486
served by the same number of priests. The whole number of ecclesiastics, however
33 “ “ P“ ? . at 1150> of whom 450 are Europeans, and 700 mestizo-Europeans, or
mestizo-Chinese, or natives of pure blood. The capitation-tax for ecclesiastical
purposes is three reals, of about 6d. each, on every taxable inhabitant. Reckoning
the parties subject to this impost at 700,000, its produce will be 52,000/. per annum
But independent of this a large portion of the land belongs to the Church, or to
conventual establishments, and the parochial clergy are maintained out of the special
funds of the township®, or by fees, so that the income of a parish priest is estimated
to be equal to a hard dollar a head for each tribute payer within his cure, so that if a
parish should contain 1500 tribute payers, his income would amount to the same
“ “ “ r f S t0 ,about 325L a year. When the parish exceeds this
number of tnbute-payers, the pnest is allowed an assistant, who, besides a house and
provisions, is allowed an income varying from 35 to 40 hard dollars a month. The
e^leaaaticalestebhahment now sketched began with the conquest, and has been
extended with i t The monastic orders have, however, been the most active instrumenta,
not only m the religious, but virtually, also, in the civil conquest of the
islands. The chief ment belongs to the Augustines, the Dominicans, and the Franciscans,
for the -Jesuits did not interfere until the main work had been accomplished
From toe account now given, it will be seen that in their religious establishment, as
well as in their other institutions, the Philippines bear a much nearer resemblance to
PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO 347 FH1L1PPINK A1NJH]TELA0 0_
UP IStU'OpOim colony than any of tho Asiatic possessions of iim other European nation*,
in whioh tho ecolesiastical ostahlisKmonW are trilling, and the convert* to Ohratianity,
Instead of being tho majority, are but exception*. , „ , .
Tho education of tho native* bo*, by no mean*, been neglected by the fymmh
government. In every township there i* a school of primary infraction mmwtemed
from tho funds of the commune. “ Elementary education, *ay* the author of the
1 uformo sobro las Ida* Folipinas, “ cannot be con*idercd in a back ward fa te . On
tho contrary, I really believe that there i* a larger proportion of person* who em
road and write in tho Philippine* than in Bpairi, or any other eiyilueed w n u ir y ; and
this favourable opinion i* confirmed by a very intelligent English traveller, the author
of the “ Recollection* of Manil la and the Philippine»/' Beyond mere reading, writing,
and a littlo religious instruction, however, education has made no comnderable
advance, and the Philippine islander* are certainly »till a* superstate«» as any people
of Asia, while their superstitions are of an excitable character, which lead* to toe
commission of dangerous excesses. They still practise circumcision, because A"*1*
forefathers did, to the great scandal of their present spiritual instructors, and they
still believe in sorcery and witchcraft, notwithstanding the pains taken by toease
instructors to disabuse them. . , , _ .
The military of the Philippines consists of five regiments of regular infantry, a
battalion of artillery, a regiment of cavalry, and an embodied regiment of nahtia.
Besides this, there is the provincial militia, dispersed over the different province*,
under the orders of the Alcaldes, amounting to about 2000. The entire force amounts to
9200 infantry, 1000 cavalry, and a field-train of 24 guns. The rank and file of all these
different arms is native, the commissioned and non-commissioned officers only being
European, somewhat after the manner of our Indian sepoy force, but much inferior,
from the inferiority of the native raw material of men, and for the cavalry, of toe
horses also, which are mere ponies. The force is one wholly incapable of defending
the islands against the invasion of an European maritime power, which would easily
capture Manilla, defeat the main force, and, if necessary, capture one island after
another in detail, without any serious resistance. The climate, and the army of
ecclesiastics, however, would offer a far more formidable resistance. Ho power,
however, can have any interest in conquering, and still less in retaining, th e Philippines,
which will probably remain to Spain long after she has lost ail her other
colonies. ■ ', „ , , ,
The Philippine local marine consists of about 68 small armed vessels, under t he
names of goletas, lamkas, faluccas, &c., with crews, in all, of about eleven hundred
men. Their object is the protection of the trade and coasts of the islands from
piracy and inroads of the Mahommedan marauders, that have harassed th a n from the
first moment of the conquest. For this purpose their large draught of water and
want of speed have rendered them very inefficient, and steam vessels, with great
advantage, have been recently in great part substituted for them.
In so far as the civilised nations of Europe are concerned, the history « t h e
Philippine Archipelago begins with the day of its discovery by Magellan, before which
it was as unknown to them as the Columbian. “ There being in this regkm, =3g3
Pigafetta, “ many islands, and their discovery having been made on Sunday, the
anniversary of St. Lazarus, we called them the Archipelago of San Lazaro. The day
of the discovery was Passion Sunday, the 17 th of March, 1521, nine and twenty
years after the discovery of America, and two after the conquest of Mexico. The
name given by Magellan was changed for its present one by Villalobos, the leader of
the second unsuccessful expedition, in honour of the unworthy son and snceessor of
Charles the Fifth, Philip the Second, who, at the time, was Prince of toe Asftmas.
The Philippines, although wholly unknown to the Europeans of antiquity, or the
middle ages, were not so to the Malays, the Javanese, the Chinese, and Japanese, who
appear to have frequented them for ages, for the purposes of trade, and oocasaonaUy
for settlement. _ , , . , , . . .
When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, they found the inhabitants everywhere
divided into small, independent, and often hostile tribes, or hordes, governed
by elective elders, and no state or principality existed of any extent, socb. as the
Portuguese found in the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The name by winch the
tribe or horde was known was barangai, and their chiefs were called mangmnoo
or dato,—the first a native, and the last a Malay word, signifying chieftain, or eider.
The people were divided into three classes,—nobles, free labourers, and slaves. Ut
the origin of the inhabitants of the Philippines, nothing is or can be knowa.
writers attempt to trace them to Borneo and the other islands of the Malayan Arena