uties alluded to more immediately belong." If to the above we
add the preamble of the 43rd article of the new decree of 1803, the
recommendation, made to the company, to contribute to the prosperity
of the agriculture and manufacturing industry of the Islands, will
appear as a limited and secondary consideration; for even if the
question were carried to extremes, it could never extend to any more
than the application of four per cent of the annual profits of the
company indistinctly to both branches. If, however, any doubts still
remained, the explanation or solution recently given to this question
would certainly remove them; because, by the simple fact of its being
expressed in the latter part of the aforesaid 43rd article, [Profit
percent to go to Spain.] "That the above-mentioned four per cent was to
be laid out, with the king's approbation, in behalf of the agriculture
and manufacturing industry of Spain and the Philippine Islands," it is
clear that the king reserves and appropriates to himself the investment
of the amount to be deducted from the general dividends, in order to
apply it where and how may be deemed most advisable. Consequently,
far from considering the company in that respect under an obligation to
contribute to the improvement of the Philippines exclusively, the only
thing that can be required of them, when their charter is withdrawn,
is, the repayment to the royal treasury of the four per cent on their
profits, for a purpose so vaguely defined. In following up this same
train of argument, it would seem that, in order to render the amount
to be deducted from the eventual profits of the company, in the course
of time, a productive capital in the hands of the sovereign, the funds
of the society not only ought not to be diverted to the continuation
of projects which consume them, but, on the contrary, it is necessary
to place at their disposal the direct means by which these funds can
be increased, in order to make up to the company in some measure the
enormous losses experienced of late years, and at once free their
commerce from the shackles with which it has hitherto been obstructed.

[Need of special privileges] Finally, after twenty-four years of
impotent and gratuitous efforts in the Philippines, and of the most
obstinate opposition on the part of their rivals, it is now time for
the company, by giving up the ungrateful struggle, to reform in every
respect their expensive establishment in Manila,