A misconception appears to exist as to the state of society at Manilla,
people at a distance for the most part labouring under the erroneous
impression that it remains stationary, and is today as much behind
the rest of the world as it was thirty years ago; and that it can
support no newspaper or other publication. Now, during my residence
at Manilla, there have been various periodicals published daily,
bi-weekly, and weekly; but at the end of last year (1850), these had
all given place to one daily newspaper, called the _Diario de Manilla_,
which being more carefully conducted than any of its predecessors,
still continues to enjoy its popularity.
It is under the direction of an editor, who being in his youth trained
up to commercial pursuits, and having spent some years of his life in
Great Britain in order to conduct the business of his Spanish friends,
has insensibly acquired ideas during his residence there which are,
no doubt, more exact and unprejudiced than those of the bulk of his
countrymen, so that he understands the duties of a journalist, and
manages his paper better than these things were formerly done. Of
course, however, he must study not to trespass on the existing
regulations of the censor, if he would avoid the scissors of that
officer, whose duties are, to prevent any statement obnoxious to the
powers that be from seeing the light. This, of course, is a great check
to the spread of information, especially of a political character;
and articles written and printed, have frequently to be suppressed
in the succeeding impressions of the paper. The power is sometimes
exercised when there is very little occasion for the interference of
authority, and, of course, must very materially interfere with the
mode of conducting an efficient newspaper.
To give the censor time to examine its contents, the _Diario_ is
printed the afternoon preceding its publication, and is issued every
day except Monday, thus leaving the printers free from work and at
liberty on Sunday.
The _Diario_ has a large circulation in Manilla and the different
provinces of the islands, besides having agents at Madrid, Cadiz,
and Paris; it is also obtainable in the Havana, at Hongkong, and
at Singapore.
The subscription is one dollar a month, which is moderate enough;
and advertisements are inserted in its columns without charge.
Once a week it includes a list of the shipping in the harbour, and
also of the arrivals and departures, and reports every morning the
arrivals and cargoes of any vessels that have come in on the previous
day from the provinces. It also publishes a weekly price-current of
the produce of the country.
A well-conducted periodical of this nature is of great importance in a
commercial point of view, not only from the advertisements circulated
by its means throughout the Philippines, but from the variety of
facts and information which the country alcaldes address to the
Manilla Government, in which they are required to give a list of the
prices-current for the various articles of produce grown in their
different provinces; a regulation which, of course, tends to keep
the trade on a sound footing, and to prevent reckless speculation,
which the want of market information usually induces.
The _Diario_ is delivered at the houses of Manilla subscribers at about
daylight every morning, so that they may make themselves masters of
its contents while sipping their chocolate, before engaging in the
business of the day. This is no slight luxury, I assure the reader,
and it is not at all diminished by the place being so remote from
the sound of Bow-bells and the region of Cockaigne, although it is
true that the contents of the paper are not composed of exciting
parliamentary reports, or of leading articles equal in talent to
those of the _Times_ or _Morning Chronicle_.
The mail bags are carried to the provinces by mounted couriers, and
the north post, arriving at Manilla every Friday morning, brings
communications from the important provinces of Bulacan, Bataan,
Zambales, Pampanga, Nueva Eciga, Pangasinan, Ilocos (North and South),
Abra, and Cagayan; and is despatched from the capital to all these
districts every Monday at noon.
The south post, embracing the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Mindoro,
the islands of Masbate and Ticao, Camarines (North and South), Albay,
Samars, and Leyte, reaches Manilla every Tuesday morning, and is
despatched from it in return every Wednesday at noon. To the arsenal of
Cavite there is a daily post, excepting on Sundays; and to the islands
of Visayas, the Marianas, and Batanes, the correspondence is forwarded
by the first ships bound for any of those places, as they are obliged
to give notice to the postmaster two days before starting for them.
It would be difficult to over-estimate the advantages of this line
of postal communication, which affords the native traders in remote
places the best facilities for the prosecution of their trade in the
various articles of commerce produced in the districts where they live.
There are, of course, several things which might be improved in the
administration of the post-office, as is the case in every country,
without bringing Spain and her colonies in question; but, no doubt,
these will be found out by-and-by, and an alteration for the better
will take place.
The press of Manilla is much more active than is commonly supposed,
as, besides the _Diario_, there are several other periodicals printed
in the place. Among them may be mentioned the _Guia de Forasteros_,
and an _Almanac_, which is printed at the College of Santo Tomas,
being entirely got up and sold by the priests of that institution,
the proceeds being devoted to charitable purposes.
Various religious and polemical works also emanate at different
times from the press, all of them neatly and well printed, nay,
highly creditable to the Indian compositors who execute them.
I have frequently seen it stated in books, the authors of which should
have been better informed, that no periodical publications exist at
Manilla. Certainly there is much less appetite there for such things,
than is exhibited among my own countrymen, whose birthright it is to
grumble at the conduct of authorities, and to show up delinquencies
with the most unsparing zeal, neither of which would be quite safe
to attempt at Manilla, although it is so in Great Britain, and all
her colonies and dependencies.