Printing Press, No. 25 Khulug St., in both Spanish and Tagálog. Those
parts printed (the ends, duties of the members, and the general rules)
contain some changes from Rizal's MS. Preceding the constitution
proper is the membership pledge to the Liga. It is as follows:
"Number ... To ... of ... I ... of ... years of age, of ... state,
profession ..., as a chosen son of Filipinas, declare under formal
oath that I know and entirely understand the ends aimed at by the Liga
Filipina, whose text appears on the back of the present. Therefore,
I submit myself, and of my own accord petition the chief ... of this
province, to admit me as a member and coworker in the same, and for
that purpose I am ready to unconditionally lend the necessary proofs
that may be demanded of me, in testimony of my sincere adhesion!" The
ends of this printed text are the same as those of the MS. The motto
is the same, and there is also a place for a countersign. The duties
of the members are somewhat changed, the changes being as follows:
"1. He shall pay two pesos for one single time, as an entrance fee, and
fifty centimos as monthly fee, from the month of his entrance. 2. With
the consciousness of what he owes to his fatherland, for whose
prosperity and through the welfare that he ought to covet for his
parents, children, brothers and sisters, and the beloved beings who
surround him, he must sacrifice every personal interest, and blindly
and promptly obey every command, every order, verbal or written, which
emanates from his Council or from the Provincial Chief. 3. He shall
immediately inform, and without the loss of a moment, the authorities
of his Council of whatever he sees, notes, or hears that constitutes
danger for the tranquillity of the Liga Filipina or anything touching
it. He shall earnestly endeavor to be sincere, truthful, and minute in
all that he shall have to communicate. 4. He shall observe the utmost
secrecy in regard to the deeds, acts, and decisions of his Council and
of the Liga Filipina in general from the profane, even though they be
his parents, brothers and sisters, children, etc., at the cost of his
own life, for this is the means by which the member will obtain what
he most desires in life." Articles 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are the same. The
general rules of the printed version are as follows: "In order that
the candidate may be admitted as a member to the Liga Filipina,
he must possess morality, good habits, not have been proceeded
against justifiably as a robber, shall not be a gambler, drunkard,
or libertine. The candidate must solicit and petition his entrance
from a member; and the latter shall communicate it to his Fiscal, for
the investigations that must be made in regard to his conduct." On
Dec. 30, 1903, a monument was erected to Rizal, to his companions,
and to other founders of the Liga Filipina by the village of Tondo,
on a site given by Timoteo Paez, one of the members of the Liga. On the
monument is the following inscription: "Remember [this word in English,
the rest in Spanish]. Facing this site and at house No. 176 Ilaya
St., Dr. Rizal founded and inaugurated on the night of July 3, 1892,
the Liga Filipina, a national secret society, with the assistance and
approval of the following gentlemen: Founder, Dr. Rizal; shot. Board of
directors--president, Ambrosio Salvador; arrested. Fiscal, Agustin de
la Rosa; arrested. Treasurer, Bonifacio Arevalo; arrested. Secretary,
Deodato Arellano; first president of the national war Katipunan
society; arrested. Members--Andres Bonifacio; supreme head of the
Katipunan, who uttered the first warcry against tyranny, August 24,
1896. Mamerto Natividad; seconded, in Nueva Écija, the movement of
Andres Bonifacio, August 28, 1896; shot. Domingo Franco; supreme
head of the Liga Filipina; shot. Moises Salvador; venerable master of
the respected lodge, Balagtas; shot. Numeriano Adriano; first guard
of the respected lodge, Balagtas; shot. José A. Dizon; venerable
master of the respected lodge, Taliba; shot. Apolinario Mabini;
legislator; arrested. Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista; first patriot of
'68; arrested. Timoteo Lanuza; initiator of the manifestation for
the expulsion of the friars in 1888; arrested. Marcelino de Santos;
arbitrator and protector of La Solidaridad, the Filipino organ in
Madrid; arrested. Paulino Zamora; venerable master of the respected
lodge, Lusong; deported. Juan Zulueta; member of the respected lodge,
Lusong; died. Doroteo Ongjunco; member of the respected lodge, Lusong;
owner of the house. Arcadio del Rosario; orator of the respected lodge,
Balagtas; arrested. Timoteo Paez; arrested."--Epifanio de Los Santos.
See Retana's account of the Liga in Nuestro Tiempo for Aug. 10, 1905,
pp. 202-211. He says mistakenly that the constitution was printed
in Hong-Kong.
[179] This was Fernando Primo de Rivera, whose term ended April
11, 1898.
[180] The Consejo de Ministros is the council formed by the ministers
of the various departments, in order to discuss the most important
and arduous matters, or for the purpose of working harmoniously in
the discharge of their respective duties. The sovereign presides,
or the minister chosen as chief of the cabinet, who is called
president of the Council of Ministers. These councils are ordinary and
extraordinary, according as they are held periodically or when demanded
by circumstances. Thus the meetings of the council are analogous to
those of the cabinet of the United States. See Dic. encic. Hisp.-Amer.,
v, p. 823.
[181] i.e., "Dumb dogs not able to bark," a portion of Isaias lvi, 10.
[182] The Spanish Cortes is made up of the Senate (Senado) and the
congress (congreso), and in them, together with the king, resides
the legislative power, according to the constitution of 1876. The
present Cortes is the outgrowth of the Cortes formerly assembled by
the king before the adoption of the constitution, or rather it is the
substitute that has supplanted them; for the inherent principle today
is that sovereignty resides in the nation instead of the king. See
Dic. encic. Hisp.-Amer., v, pp. 1166, 1167.
[183] See ante, pp. 195-201. See also North American Review, August,
1901, "The Katipunan of the Philippines," by Col. L. W. V. Kennon,
p. 212; and Primo de Rivera's Memorial.
[184] The original is carbonario, a word used to indicate the member
of a secret society, or the society itself. It is from the Italian
carbonaro, literally coal or charcoal dealer, and its origin is the
secret political sect of Italy, formed early in the nineteenth century,
with the avowed purpose of destroying tyranny and establishing freedom.
[185] The first Filipino freemason lodge in the Philippines was founded
in Cavite about 1860 by two Spanish naval officers under the name
of Luz Filipina. It was established under the auspices of the Gran
Oriente Lusitana, and was in correspondence with the Portuguese lodges
at Macao and Hong-Kong. Gradually other lodges were established and
natives and mestizos were admitted to membership. The "Gran Oriente"
of the text is the Spanish division of the order, Spain and Portugal
having split into two divisions after 1860. It is claimed by Catholics
that the Katipunan was the fighting branch of the masonic order. It
is probably true that it borrowed some few things from freemasonry in
matters of form, but there the analogy seems to end. For the friar
viewpoint of masonry in Spain and the Philippines, see Navarro's
Algunos asuntos de actualidad (Madrid, 1897), pp. 221-277; and
Pastells's La masonización de Filipinas. Sawyer's account (Inhabitants
of the Philippines, pp. 79-81) is very inadequate.
[186] i.e., "It is better to die than to federate."
[187] This passage (1 Machabees, iii, 59), reads in the English Douay
version: "For it is better for us to die in battle, than to see the
evils of our nation, and of the holies."
[188] i.e., "As long as I am the apostle, I shall honour my ministry,"
a portion of Romans, xi, 13.
[189] In the Ayer collection is a document dated Manila, January 17,
1888, by one Candido Garcia, a native Filipino, an inhabitant of San
Felipe Neri, in which he complains against the friar parish priest
Gregorio Chagra, O.S.F., who has endeavored to have him deported as
anti-Spanish. The reason of this is because Garcia had complained
that the friar disobeyed the law in regard to burials as well as other
laws. He also accuses the friars of not wishing to have the Filipinos
learn Spanish, as they desire them to have no communication with
Spaniards. He thus charges the friars with disobedience and disloyalty.
[190] A brief statement by the pope of errors condemned in 1864,
and known under the title Syllabus errorum. It was appended to
the encyclical Quanta cura, condemning eighty doctrines, which it
calls "the principal errors of our times." These heresies had all
previously been pointed out by Pius IX in consistorial allocutions,
and encyclical and other apostolic letters. It is a protest against
atheism, materialism, and other forms of infidelity. It condemns
religious and civil liberty, separation of Church and State, and
preëminence of the Church of Rome. See Philip Schaff's Creeds of
Christendom (New York, 1877), i, pp. 128-134 and ii, pp. 213-233
(this last the Latin and English text of the Syllabus.)
[191] We have taken the reading of the English Douay
version. Translated directly from the Spanish, this verse reads:
"If you be reproached for the name of Christ, you will be blessed; for
the honor, glory, and virtue of God, and His own spirit rest upon you."
[192] Bartolomé de las Casas or Casaus, who was born in Sevilla in
1474, and died in Madrid, in July, 1569, and because of his great
exertions for the Indians called the "apostle of the Indies." Much
has been written concerning this romantic and sincere character of
early American history. He wrote various books, some of which have
been published. Mr. Ayer of Chicago possesses one volume in MS. of
his three-volume Historia general de Indias. This history (covering
the years 1492-1520) was begun in 1527 and completed in 1559.
[193] Aguinaldo states that after he had been driven to the mountains
in May, 1897, he established a republic. See North Amer. Rev., August,
1901, p. 212. See also the constitution of the so-called republic in
Constitución política de la Republica Filipina promulgada el dia 22
de Enero de 1899 (1899).
[194] See ante, p. 176.
[195] This is Psalm 34 in the Douay version, but, as here, 35, in the
Vulgate, and common English versions. Psalm 9 in the Douay version
is equivalent to 9 and 10 in the other versions. After verse 21 in
the Douay version is the sub-head "Psalm according to the Hebrews,"
and the following verses are numbered from unity. The Vulgate has
the same heading, but regards the subject-matter as a new psalm.
[196] We follow the Douay version to the word "good" (Psalm 34, 11,
and part of 12). The rest of the passage we translate directly, as it
has no exact equivalent in this Psalm. The direct translation of the
first two clauses of the Spanish is "Unjust witnesses have risen up,
and charged me with things of which I am ignorant."
[197] i.e., "Let another praise thee, and not thy own mouth," the
first half of Proverbs xxvii, 2.
[198] In the Douay version this verse reads: "For so is the will
of God, that by doing well you may put to silence the ignorance of
foolish men."
[199] The Douay version reads: "But we renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word
of God; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to
every man's conscience, in the sight of God." The last clause above
is evidently taken from 2 Cor. i, 12.
[200] A reference to Matthew, v, 13-16.
[201] The first reference is to Psalm cviii, 2 (Douay version) but
cxix, common English version. The second reference is to 1 Peter, iii,
16. Neither one is an exact quotation, and hence we translate directly.
[202] The cuadrilleros formerly acted as a police in the
Philippines. (See VOL. XVII, p. 333.) The guardia civil or civil
guard was created in imitation of the guardia civil of Spain (the
most efficient body of police of that country, and analogous to the
carabinieri of Italy) in 1869. (See Montero y Vidal, Historia general,
iii, p. 494.)
[203] Or robbers. They generally went in bands and had their retreats
in the woods and hills.
[204] See Col. L. W. V. Kennon's article in the North Amer. Review,
for August, 1901, "The Katipunan of the Philippines." Many other
writers speak of this society, but as yet no real authentic account
of it has appeared, as we are still too near it.
[205] This was Governor Fernando Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, who
wrote a Memorial on his record in the Philippines, which was published
at Madrid in 1898.
[206] A required paper of identification carried by the natives,
and for which they were taxed.
[207] This was Pedro Alejandro Paterno.
[208] These three sections are as follows:
45. The entire direction of public schools, in which the youth of
Christian states are educated, except (to a certain extent) in the
case of episcopal seminaries, may and must pertain to the civil power,
and belong to it so far that no other authority whatsoever shall be
recognized as having any right to interfere in the discipline of the
schools, the arrangement of the studies, the taking of degrees or
the choice and approval of the teachers.
47. The best theory of civil society requires that popular schools
open to the children of all classes, and, generally, all public
institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophy, and
for conducting the education of the young, should be freed from all
ecclesiastical authority, government, and interference, and should
be fully subject to the civil and political power, in conformity with
the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of the age.
48. This system of instructing youth, which consists in separating
it from the Catholic faith and from the power of the Church, and in
teaching exclusively, or at least primarily, the knowledge of natural
things and the earthly ends of social life alone, may be approved
by Catholics.
It must be understood that Pius IX condemns these three sections as
the entire eighty of the Syllabus as errors or heresies. (See Schaff's
Creeds of Christendom, ii, pp. 224, 225.)
[209] This section or error is as follows:
53. The laws for the protection of religious establishments, and
securing their rights and duties, ought to be abolished: nay, more,
the civil government may lend its assistance to all who desire to quit
the religious life they have undertaken, and break their vows. The
government may also suppress religious orders, collegiate churches, and
simple benefices, even those belonging to private patronage, and submit
their goods and revenues to the administration and disposal of the
civil power. (See Schaff's Creeds of Christendom, ii, pp. 226, 227.)
[210] See VOL. LI, pp. 146, 147, note 103; and ante, pp. 83, 84,
note 33.
[211] The Código de las siete partidas, so called because divided
into seven parts, were compiled by Alfonso the Wise, the work of
compilation beginning June 23, 1256, and being concluded probably in
1265. See Dic. encic. Hisp.-Amer., xiv, pp. 982, 983.
[212] See Synopsis and extracts of the instructions given to Legazpi
in our VOL. II, pp. 89-100.
[213] i.e., "The offscouring;" literally "worthless soul."
[214] i.e., "We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring
of all even until now," the last part of 1 Cor., iv, 13.
[215] This Memorial is most inadequately published in the Rosary
Magazine (a Dominican periodical) for 1900, by Ambrose Colman, O.P. It
is translated only in part, the translation often being faulty and
giving a wrong meaning, and translation and synopsis not always being
sufficiently indicated.
[216] This "notice" does not appear in the copy printed (probably
from one of the fifty copies) at the press of Viuda de M. Minuesa de
los Rios, Madrid.
[217] A Tagálog word, meaning "that which is in partnership."
[218] Pacto de retrovendendo: "A certain agreement accessory to the
contract of purchase and sale, by which the buyer obliges himself
to return the thing sold to the seller, the latter returning to
the buyer the price which he gave for it, within a certain time, or
when the seller shall require it, according to the terms in which
the agreement is drawn up." (Diccionario of the Academy, cited by
Dominguez.) Cf. the political use of the same phrase in the treaty
of Zaragoza (VOL. 1, p. 232).
[219] The word "composition" (Spanish, composición) as here used has "a
technical meaning as applied to lands, and may be defined as a method
by which the State enabled an individual who held its lands without
legal title thereto to convert his mere possession into a perfect
right of property by virtue of compliance with the requirements of
law. Composition was made in the nature of a compact or compromise
between the State and the individual who was illegally holding lands
in excess of those to which he was legally entitled, and, by virtue
of his compliance with the law, the State conferred on him a good
title to the lands that he had formerly held under a mere claim of
title." Under Spanish administration, there was great confusion and
uncertainty in land-titles; the laws in force were too complicated and
slow in operation, and left too much power in the hands of indifferent
or mercenary officials. Some benefits were yielded by regulations for
the composition of State lands which were in force from 1880 to 1894,
and in the latter year more definite and positive provisions were
made by royal decree (constituting the "public-land law" in force in
the islands when occupied by the United States) for the settlement
of uncertain land-titles; but in neither case were the results very
satisfactory. The same may be said of the registration system known
as the Ley hipotecaria (or mortgage law), which in 1889 was extended
to Filipinas. During the period of revolution and war (1896-99) many
of the land records were destroyed in the provinces, which further
complicated questions of land ownership; and the U. S. Philippine
Commission was obliged to make provision for the settlement of these
by the "Land Registration Act," which became effective on February 1,
1903. For account of its provisions and mode of operation, see the
chapter on "Land Titles" (pp. 127-137) in Official Handbook of the
Philippines--where also is presented a more detailed account of the
regulations made by the Spanish laws.
[220] At the foot of the last printed page is a note, evidently
written by some person in the secretary's office of the Council of
Indias (to which body this copy of the decree appears to have been
sent), which reads in translation: "It came with a letter from the
governor of Philipinas, Don Joseph de Basco y Vargas, dated June 16,
1784, and received at the secretary's office on March 19, 1785." A
penciled memorandum on the fly-leaf indicates that it was published
at Sampaloc, 1784.
[221] By royal decree of Feb. 26, 1886, the alcaldes-mayor of the
provinces were restricted to judicial functions, and in others they
were replaced by civil governors.
[222] Bernáldez, in his account (dated 1827) of "Reforms needed in
Filipinas" (already presented in our VOL. LI) says of this association
(fol. 29): "Although in Manila there is an Economic Society organized
to promote public prosperity by means of the industries of the country,
composed as it is of miscellaneous members, nominated without [their
own] solicitation, and without inclination for that sort of occupation,
there is little, if anything, to be expected from the activities of a
body which has already gone to pieces once through its own inaction,
and has been reëstablished only to comply with the sovereign's command,
and not by the activity or encouragement of the citizens of Filipinas
themselves."
[223] Evidently referring to the pamphlet, Noticia del origen y hechos
notables de la Real Sociedad ... segun sus actas y documentos oficiales
(Manila, 1860); but this is a second edition, the first having been
issued in 1855.
[224] Probably referring to the book The Lancasterian System of
Education, with Improvements, published (Baltimore, 1821) by Joseph
Lancaster on his newly-invented educational system (commonly known as
the "monitorial"). He was an Englishman, born in 1778, and a member
of the Society of Friends; he visited the United States, where he
published the above work; and his death occurred in 1838.
[225] See account of this periodical in VOL. LI, p. 48, note 16.
[226] This was Paul de la Gironière, a French surgeon who went to
Manila in 1820, and who escaped, almost by a miracle, from the massacre
of foreigners by the natives in that year. He married a Spanish lady
of Manila, the Marquesa de las Salinas, and spent twenty years in the
islands, where he founded a colony at Jala-Jala, and kept a large
estate under cultivation, besides performing, at various times,
official functions entrusted to him by the Manila government. He
returned to France, where he died about 1865. He was author of a book,
Aventures d'un gentilhomme breton aux îles Philippines (Paris, 1855),
which had considerable vogue, and is regarded as an interesting
and in many respects valuable description of the islands, their
resources and people, and social conditions there. He also wrote
Vingt années aux Philippines (Paris, 1853), of which an English
abridgment was published in London soon afterward, called Twenty
Years in the Philippines. (See Pardo de Tavera, Biblioteca filipina,
pp. 185-186.) An English translation with the same title was published
at New York (1854), "revised and extended by the author."
[227] Apparently alluding to the short-lived periodical Precios
corrientes de Manila (1639-41); see VOL. LI, p. 71, note 31.
[228] One of the largest and richest towns of the province of
Bulacán; and both town and province are renowned for various native
manufactures--hats, cigar-cases, piña fabrics, and petates (i.e.,
mats)--of fine quality, and often very costly. See Jagor's account
(Reisen, p. 48) of the manufacture of these cigar-cases at Balivag;
the fibers of which they are made are obtained from a certain
species of Calamus (rattar), and the cases cost from two to fifty
pesos each. It appears that the word petaca comes (as does petate,
"mat") from the Mexican word petlatl, meaning "a mat."
[229] "In 1848 were procured from London the steamers 'Magallanes,'
'Elcano,' and 'Reina de Castilla,' which were the first vessels
of this class that were seen in Filipinas; and to their excellent
services are due the rapid transformation which was wrought in the
prosperity of the country, and the repression of the piracies of the
Moro Malays." (Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, iii, p. 87.)
[230] In the Archivo general de Indias at Sevilla are MS. reports of
this society's labors for a number of consecutive years.
[231] Jiguilete (or xiquilite): the name given in India to the indigo
shrub. The cerpentaria here mentioned is not identifiable, unless it be
some other species of Indigofera, several of which are cultivated in
Filipinas. The "Vanilla" is presumably a plant described by Blanco,
which he calls Vanilla ovalis, greatly resembling V. aromatica,
except that it lacked the fragrant odor of the latter.
[232] See Jagor's chapter (Reisen, pp. 309, 310) on the opium
monopoly which was established in Filipinas on Jan. 1, 1844, and
later continued by the Spanish government, after much discussion and
controversy. Various arguments of policy, health, and morality were
brought forward on both sides, but that which finally triumphed was
evidently the one thus stated by the governor-general, "The revenue
from opium is indispensable for our treasury." The use of opium in the
islands was intended for the Chinese residing there (being forbidder to
the Indians and mestizos), and then only under certain restrictions;
but Jagor found that, besides the 478 public opium-joints--which were
"actual hotbeds of immorality, and always full of Chinese"--hundreds
of individuals were allowed, contrary to the law and to the intentions
of the government, to smoke opium in their own houses. The revenue
from opium amounted in 1860 to 98,000 escudos; in the fiscal year of
1865-66, to 140,000; and in 1866-67, to 207,000. Montero y Vidal cites
in Archipiélago filipino (published in 1886), the tariff schedule of
1874, "The importation of opium is prohibited; and only that will be
allowed which, in small quantities, is destined for the pharmacies,
and all that which may be imported by the lessees of the right to sell
this drug to whom the Treasury has granted that exclusive right in the
provinces there--in which case it will pay duty according to item 80"
(that is, at eight per cent).
[233] A tree found in China (Stillingia sebifera), which yields a
substance resembling tallow, which is used for the same purpose as
the latter.
[234] Regarding the gutta-percha industry, see Official Handbook of
the Philippines, pp. 91-95.
[235] The water supply of Manila is taken from the Mariquina River,
eight miles from the city, being pumped thence to a reservoir halfway
to Manila, from which it is distributed. "The works are owned by the
municipality, having been largely paid for with a fund, the proceeds
of a legacy, left by the will of a citizen, Francisco Carriedo,
who died in 1743." (Official Handbook, p. 269.) This was one of the
obras pias founded by a public-spirited citizen, Francisco Carriedo
y Peredo; he was born in the town of Santander in 1690, and died at
the age of 53, "having during his life conferred immense benefits on
Filipinas." (Vindel, Catálogo, i, pp. 155, 156.)