ed by fear and threats, as
well as restrained by the sub-governors and other inferior officers of
justice, who, being dependent upon, and holding their situations from
the magistrates, are interested in their monopolies and extortionate
acts being kept from public view.

[Less complaisant laws needed.] If, therefore, it is not possible
entirely to eradicate the vices under which the interior administration
of these Islands labors, owing to the difficulty of finding persons
possessed of the necessary virtues and talents to govern, in an upright
and judicious manner, let us at least prevent the evils out of the
too great condescension of our own laws. In the infancy of colonies,
it has been the maxim of all governments to encourage the emigration
and settlement of inhabitants from the mother-country, without paying
much attention to the means by which this was to be done. It was not to
be wondered at that, for reasons of state, defects were overlooked,--at
such periods were even deemed necessary. Hence the relaxation in the
laws in favor of those who, quitting their native land, carried over
with them to strange countries their property and acquirements. Hence,
no doubt, also are derived the full powers granted to those who took
in charge the subjection and administration of the new provinces,
in order that they might govern, and at the same time carry on their
traffic with the natives, notwithstanding the manifest incompatibility
of the two occupations; or rather, the certainty that ought to have
been foreseen that public duties would generally be postponed, when
placed in competition with private interests and the anxious desire
of acquiring wealth.

Subsequently that happened which was, in fact, to be dreaded, viz.,
what at first was tolerated as a necessary evil, sanctioned by the
lapse of time has at length become a legitimate right, or rather a
compensation for the supposed trouble attached to the fulfillment of
the duties of civil magistrates; whilst they, as already observed,
think of nothing but themselves, and undergo no other trouble or
inconvenience than usually fall on the lot of any other private
merchant. In the Philippines, at least, many years having elapsed
since the natives peaceably submitted to the dominion of the king,
every motive has ceased that could formerly, and in a certain degree,
justify the indulgence so much abused, at the same time that no
plausible pretext whatever exists for its furthe