t to conquest solely on the religious
theory. He affirms that the Spanish kings inherited a divine right
to these Islands, their dominion being directly prophesied in Isaiah
xviii. He assures us that this title from Heaven was confirmed by
apostolic authority, [2] and by "the many manifest miracles with
which God, the Virgin, and the Saints, as auxiliaries of our arms,
demonstrated its unquestionable justice." Saint Augustine, he states,
considered it a sin to doubt the justice of war which God determines;
but, let it be remembered, the same _savant_ insisted that the world
was flat, and that the sun hid every night behind a mountain!

An apology for conquest cannot be rightly based upon the sole desire
to spread any particular religion, more especially when we treat of
Christianity, the benign radiance of which was overshadowed by that
debasing institution the Inquisition, which sought out the brightest
intellects only to destroy them. But whether conversion by coercion
be justifiable or not, one is bound to acknowledge that all the
urbanity of the Filipinos of to-day is due to Spanish training,
which has raised millions from obscurity to a relative condition
of culture. The fatal defect in the Spanish system was the futile
endeavour to stem the tide of modern methods and influences.

The government of the Archipelago alone was no mean task.

A group of islands inhabited by several heathen races--surrounded
by a sea exposed to typhoons, pirates, and Christian-hating
Mussulmans--had to be ruled by a handful of Europeans with inadequate
funds, bad ships, and scant war material. For nearly two centuries
the financial administration was a chaos, and military organization
hardly existed. Local enterprise was disregarded and discouraged so
long as abundance of silver dollars came from across the Pacific. Such
a short-sighted, unstable dependence left the Colony resourceless
when bold foreign traders stamped out monopoly and brought commerce
to its natural level by competition. In the meantime the astute
ecclesiastics quietly took possession of rich arable lands in many
places, the most valuable being within easy reach of the Capital
and the Arsenal of Cavite. Landed property was undefined. It all
nominally belonged to the State, which, however, granted no titles;
"squatters" took up land where they chose without determined limits,
and the embroilment continues, in a measure, to the present day.

About the year 1885 the q