, to
advance its ideal, inspired by the purest loyalty to Spain. How
did the Spanish Government fulfil, on its part, the decree
spontaneously issued in 1868? By prosecuting and banishing the
reformists, and employing a system of terror to damp the courage
of the Filipinos. Vain, ridiculous fallacy!--for it ought to
have known better after three centuries of rule of that country
of intelligence, birthplace of Rizal, Luna, Rosario and other
living examples of Philippine energy. The Filipinos, lovers
of their liberty and independence, had no other recourse open
to them than an appeal to arms, to bring force against force,
terror against terror, death for death, resolute and sworn to
practise the system of fire and blood, until they should attain
for the whole Philippine Archipelago absolute freedom from the
ignominious sovereignty of Spain. Now let us continue our comments
on the _Manifiesto_.

Senor Paterno says that a long time ago he risked his existence
for the rights and liberties of the Philippine people, even at
the cost of his health and his fortune. We, however, do not see
how he put into practice such magnificent ideas, for what we do
know is that Senor Paterno passed his younger days in Madrid,
where, by dint of lavish expenditure, he was very well treated
by the foremost men in Spanish politics, without gaining from
Spain anything whereby the Philippine people were made free and
happy during that long period of his brilliant existence. On
the contrary, the very epoch of the persecutions narrated above
coincided with the period of Don Pedro A. Paterno's brilliant
position and easy life in Madrid, where, because he published a
collection of poems under the title of "Sampaguitas," he became
distinguished by the nickname of _Sampaguitero_. We know, also,
that Senor Paterno came back to this, his native soil, appointed
director of a Philippine Library and Museum not yet established,
without salary, but with the decoration of the Grand Cross of
Isabella the Catholic. This was no gain to us, no distinction to
him, seeing that the same decoration was given to the Chinaman
Palanca and two others, without their leaving their homes to
obtain them.

How are we then to understand those generous sacrifices of health
and fortune for the cause of Philippine liberty? Perhaps