; but after full and public notice has been given by the
respective judicial authorities, of the titles about to be granted,
the counter claims the natives may seek to put in after the lapse of
the period prefixed, should be peremptorily disregarded. Although at
first sight this appears a direct infringement on the imprescriptible
rights of property, it must be considered that in some cases individual
interests ought to be sacrificed to the general good, and that the
balance used, when treating of the affairs of State, is never of
that rigid kind as if applied to those of minor consideration. The
fact is, that by this means many would be induced to form estates,
who have hitherto been withheld by the dread of involving themselves,
and spending their money in law suits; at the same time the natives,
gradually accustoming themselves to this new order of things, would
lay aside that disposition to strife and contention, which forms so
peculiar a trait in their character, and that antipathy and odium would
also disappear with which they have usually viewed the agricultural
undertakings of Spaniards.

[Compulsory labor.] Proceeding to the consideration of the second
means of accelerating the improvement of agriculture, viz., the
distribution of the natives, it will suffice to say that it would be
equally easy to show that it is absolutely necessary rigorously to
carry into effect, in the Philippine Islands, whatever the laws on this
subject prescribed, otherwise we must give up all those substantial
hopes entertained of the felicity of the colony. We are no longer in
a situation to be restricted to the removal of ordinary obstacles,
and the season is gone by in which, as heretofore, it entered into
our policy to employ no other than indirect stimulants--in order to
incline the Filipino to labor. It is evident that admonitions and
offers of reward no longer suffice; nor indeed have the advantageous
terms proposed to them by some planters, with a view to withdraw
the lower orders of the natives, such as the timauas and caglianes
plebeians, from the idle indifference in which they are sunk, been of
any avail. Their wants and wishes being easily supplied, the whole
of their happiness seems to depend on quiet and repose, and their
highest enjoyment on the pleasure of sleep. Energy, however, and a
certain degree of severity must be employed, if permanent resources
are to be called forth, and if the progressive settlement of Europe