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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
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