. The Assembly agreed to and proposed
good and appropriate reforms, amongst which was that relating
to the incumbencies which were monopolized by the friars. What
did the Spanish Government do with these reforms? What did the
friars do? Ah! though it may appear cruel to Senor Paterno,
historical facts oblige us to remind him that the Government,
in agreement with the friars, engineered the military rising
of the City of Cavite in January, 1872, and at the instigation
of its authors and accomplices, sentenced the secular priests
Father Jose Burgos, Father Jacinto Zamora, Father Mariano Gomez,
parish priests of Manila, Santa Cruz (suburb), and Bacoor (Cavite)
respectively, to be garotted. Moreover, another secular priest,
Father Agustin, the Philippine lawyers and landed proprietors, Don
Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Don Antonio Regidor, Don Pedro Carrillo,
Don Jose Basa, and others, amongst whom was Don Maximo Molo
Paterno, the father of Don Pedro, were banished to the Ladrone
Islands. This virtuous grand old man (Don Maximo Paterno) did
indeed (and we proclaim it with pride) make sacrifices of health
and fortune for the advancement of the liberties of his native
country. From the year 1872 the Spanish Government carried on a
persistent persecution of all the Philippine reformers by unjust
imprisonment and banishment. In 1888 the authorities went so far
as to prosecute 700 representative men of the suburbs of Manila,
simply for having presented a petition of rights and aspirations
to the Gov.-General Don Emilio Terrero. There is not a single
insalubrious island or gloomy corner in the country which has not
been the forced home of some banished Filipino. No one was sure
of his personal liberty; none were safe in their homes, and if
three or four Filipinos met together for an innocent purpose,
they were spied, arrested, and banished. Calumny has brought
about enough banishments to Fernando Po, Chafarinas Islands,
Ceuta, and other African and Spanish places to demonstrate the
bad faith, cruelty, and injustice of the Spanish Government with
respect to the Philippine people. This virile, intelligent people
received the supreme decree of reforms with joy and enthusiasm,
sharing the feelings of those who felt in their souls the flame
of liberty. This people worked, through legitimate channels