overnment monopolies rigorously maintained,
insolent disregard and neglect of the mestizos and powerful creoles,
and the example of the United States, were the chief reasons of the
downfall of the American possessions. The same causes threaten ruin
to the Philippines: but of the monopolies I have said enough.

[Growing American influence.] Mestizos and creoles, it is true, are
not, as they formerly were in America, excluded from all official
appointments; but they feel deeply hurt and injured through the
crowds of place-hunters which the frequent changes of ministries
send to Manila. The influence, also, of the American element is at
least visible on the horizon, and will be more noticeable when the
relations increase between the two countries. At present they are
very slender. The trade in the meantime follows in its old channels to
England and to the Atlantic ports of the United States. Nevertheless,
whoever desires to form an opinion upon the future history of the
Philippines, must not consider simply their relations to Spain,
but must have regard to the prodigious changes which a few decades
produce on either side of our planet.

[Powerful neighbors] For the first time in the history of the world
the mighty powers on both sides of the ocean have commenced to enter
upon a direct intercourse with one another--Russia, which alone is
larger than any two other parts of the earth; China, which contains
within its own boundaries a third of the population of the world;
and America, with ground under cultivation nearly sufficient to feed
treble the total population of the earth. Russia's future role in
the Pacific Ocean is not to be estimated at present.

[China and America.] The trade between the two other great powers will
therefore be presumably all the heavier, as the rectification of the
pressing need of human labor on the one side, and of the corresponding
overplus on the other, will fall to them.

[Nearing predominance of the Pacific.] The world of the ancients was
confined to the shores of the Mediterranean; and the Atlantic and
Indian Oceans sufficed at one time for our traffic. When first the
shores of the Pacific re-echoed with the sounds of active commerce,
the trade of the world and the history of the world may be really
said to have begun. A start in that direction has been made; whereas
not so very long ago the immense ocean was one wide waste of waters,
traversed from both points only once a year. From 16