tual directors of the provinces so much reason to
complain, than the little discernment with which they have sometimes
been judged and condemned, by causing the misconduct of some of their
individual members to affect the whole body. Hence is it that no one
can read without shame and indignation, the insidious suggestions and
allusions, derogatory to their character, contained in the Regulations
of Government framed at Manila in the year 1758, and which although
modified by orders of the king, are at the present moment still in
force, owing to the want of others, and found in a printed form in
the hands of every one. Granting that in some particular instances,
real causes of complaint might have existed, yet in the end, what
does it matter if here and there a religious character has abused
the confidence reposed in him, as long as the spirit by which the
generality of them are actuated, corresponds to the sanctity of their
state, and is besides conformable to the views of government? Why
should we be eternally running after an ideal of perfection which
can never be met with? Nor, indeed, is this necessary in the present
construction of society.

[Testimony in their behalf] If, however, any weight is to be attached
to imposture with which, from personal motives, attempts have been
made to obscure the truth, and prejudice the public mind against
the regular clergy; or, if the just defense on which I have entered,
should be attributed to partiality or visionary impressions, let the
Archives of the Colonial Department be opened, and we shall there
find the report drawn up by order of the king on November 26, 1804, by
the governor of the Philippine Islands, Don Rafael Maria de Aguilar,
with a view to convey information regarding the enquiries at that
time instituted respecting the reduction of the inhabitants of the
Island of Mindoro; a report extremely honorable to the regular clergy,
and dictated by the experience that general had acquired during a
period of more than twelve years he had governed. Therein also will
be seen the answer to the consultation addressed to his successor in
the command, Don Mariano Fernandez de Folgueras, under date of April
25, 1809, in which he most earnestly beseeches the king to endeavor,
by every possible means, to send out religious missionaries; deploring
the decline and want of order he had observed with his own eyes in the
towns administered by native clergymen, and pointing out the urgen