ere is no doubt that it so continued until, the number of the
new colonists, as well the effective force of the royal authority,
increasing with the lapse of time, it was possible to make the
governing system uniform with that which rules in the other ordinary
establishments of Espana.

"Further, this same is deduced from the fragments which even yet
remain of that first constitution in the islands of Batanes and
the missions of Cagayan, which are administered spiritually and
temporally by the Dominican fathers; and from what can be noted at
every step in the other provinces, by whoever gives the matter but a
little attention. For although the civil magistracies are regulated
now, and their respective attributes determined with all precision,
it has been as yet impossible to lay aside, however much they have
tried to show the contrary, the personal authority which the parish
priests hold among their parishioners; on the contrary, the government
has indeed seen itself constantly under the necessity of making use
of this same authority, as the most powerful instrument to acquire
respect and due subordination. Consequently, although the parish
priests are not today authorized to intervene by law in the civil
administration, they become in fact the real rulers.

"It certainly is the case that, since the parish priest is the
consoler of the afflicted, the pacifier of families, the promoter of
useful ideas, the preacher and example of all good; as generosity
is conspicuous in him, and the Indians see him alone among them,
without relatives, without trade, and always engaged in their greater
good--they are accustomed to live contentedly under his paternal
direction, and to give him their whole confidence. Master in this way
of their wills, nothing is done without the counsel--or, to speak more
correctly, without the consent--of the cura. The gobernadorcillo, on
receiving an order from the alcalde, goes first to get the permission
of the father; and it is the latter who, in strict terms, tacitly
sees to its fulfilment, or prevents its course. The father concludes
or directs the suits of the village; makes the writs; goes up to the
capital to plead for his Indians; opposes their petitions, and at
times their threats, to the violences committed by the alcaldes-mayor;
and manages everything by the standard of his own desire. In a word,
it is impossible for there to be any human institution, at once so
simple and so firmly ground