To facilitate the understanding of the historical materials which will be collected in this series and to lay the foundation for a just and appreciative comparison of the institutions of the Philippines with those of other European dependencies in the tropics, it will be my aim now to bring into relief the distinctive features of the work wrought in the islands which raised a congeriesof Malay tribes to Christian civilization, and secured for them as happy and peaceful an existence on as high a plane as has yet been attained by any people of color anywhere in the world, or by any orientals for any such length of time.

Such a survey of Philippine life may well begin with a brief account of the government of the islands. This will be followed by a description of the commercial system and of the state of the arts and of education, religion, and some features of social life during the eighteenth century and in the first years of the nineteenth before the entrance of the various and distracting currents of modern life and thought. In some cases significant details will be taken from the works of competent witnesses whose observations were made somewhat earlier or later. This procedure is unobjectionable in describing a social condition on the whole so stationary as was that of the Philippines before the last half century.

From the beginning the Spanish establishments in the Philippines were a mission and not in the proper sense of the term a colony. They were founded and administered in the interests of religion rather than of commerce or industry. They were an advanced outpost of Christianity whence the missionary forces could be deployed through the great empires of China and Japan, and hardly had the natives of the islands begun to yield to the labors of the friars when some of the latter pressed on adventurously into China and found martyrs' deaths in Japan. In examining the political administration of the Philippines then, we must be prepared to find it a sort of outer garment under which the living body is ecclesiastical. Against this subjection to the influence and interests of the Church energetic governors rebelled, and the history of the Spanish domination is checkered with struggles between the civil and religious powers which reproduce on a small scale the medieval contests of Popes and Emperors.

Colonial governments are of necessity adaptations of familiar domestic institutions to new functions. The government of Spain in the sixteenth century was not that of a modern centralized monarchy but rather of a group of kingdoms only partially welded together by the possession of the same sovereign, the same language, and the same religion. The King of Spain was also the ruler of other kingdoms outside of the peninsula. Consequently when the New World was given a political organization it was subdivided for convenience into kingdoms and captaincies general in each of which the administrative machinery was an adaptation of the administrative machinery of Spain.

In accordance with this procedure the Philippine islands were constituted a kingdom and placed under the charge of a governor and captain general, whose powers were truly royal and limited only by the check imposed by the Supreme Court (the Audiencia) and by the ordeal of the residencia at the expiration of his term of office. Among his extensive prerogatives was his appointing power which embraced all branches of the civil service in the Islands. He also was ex officio the President of the Audiencia. (52) His salary was $8,000 (53) a year, but his income might be largely augmented by gifts or bribes. (54)

The limitations upon the power of the Governor imposed by the Audiencia, in the opinion of the French astronomer Le Gentil, were the only safeguard against an arbitrary despotism yet Zúñiga, a generation later, pronounced its efforts in this direction generally ineffectual. (55) The residencia to which reference has been made was an institution peculiar in modern times to the Spanish colonial system. It was designed to provide a method by which officials could be held to strict accountability for all acts during their term of office.

Today reliance is placed upon the force of public opinion inspired and formulated by the press and, in self-governing communities, upon the holding of frequent elections. The strength of modern party cohesion both infuses vigor into these agencies and neutralizes their effectiveness as the case may be. But in the days of the formation of the Spanish Empire beyond the sea there were neither free elections, nor public press, and the criticism of the government was sedition. To allow a contest in the courts involving the governor's powers during his term of office would be subversive of his authority. He was then to be kept within bounds by realizing that a day of judgment was impending, when everyone, even the poorest Indian, might in perfect security bring forward his accusation. (56)

In the Philippines the residencia for a governor lasted six months and was conducted by his successor and all the charges made were forwarded to Spain. (57) The Italian traveler Gemelli Careri who visited Manila in 1696 characterizes the governor's residencia as a "dreadful Trial, the strain of which would sometimes break their hearts." (58)

On the other hand, an acute observer of Spanish American institutions of the olden time intimates that the severities of the residencia could be mitigated and no doubt such was the case in the Philippines. (59) By the end of the eighteenth century the residencia seems to have lost its efficacy.(60) The governorship was certainly a difficult post to fill and the remoteness from Europe, the isolation, and the vexations of the residencia made it no easy task to get good men for the place.

An official of thirty years experience, lay and ecclesiastical, assures us in the early seventeenth century that he had known of only one governor really fitted for the position, Gomez Perez Dasmariñas. He had done more for the happiness of the natives in three years than all his predecessors or successors. Some governors had been without previous political experience while others were deficient in the qualities required in a successful colonial ruler. (61)
 

The supreme court or Audiencia was composed of four judges (oidores, auditors), an attorney-general (fiscal), a constable, etc. The governor who acted as president had no vote.(62) Besides the functions of this body as the highest court of appeal for criminal and civil cases it served as has been said as a check upon the governor. Down to 1715 the Audiencia took charge of the civil administration in the interim between the death of a governor and the arrival of his successor, and the senior auditor assumed the military command.(63) Attached to the court were advocates for the accused, a defender of the Indians, and other minor officials. In affairs of public importance the Audiencia was to be consulted by the governor for the opinions of the auditors. (64)

For the purposes of local administration the islands were subdivided into or constituted Provinces under alcaldes mayores who exercised both executive and judicial functions, and superintended the collection of tribute. (65) The alcaldes mayores were allowed to engage in trade on their own account which resulted too frequently in enlisting their interest chiefly in money making and in fleecing the Indians. (66)

The provincial court consisted of the alcalde mayor, an assessor who was a lawyer, and a notary. The favoritism and corruption that honeycombed the civil service of Spain in the colonies in the days of her decline often placed utterly unfit persons in these positions of responsibility. A most competent observer, Tomás de Comyn, many years the factor of the Philippine Commercial Company, has depicted in dark colors, and perhaps somewhat overdrawn the evils of the system. (67)

The subdivision of the provinces was into pueblos each under its petty governor or gobernadorcillo. The gobernadorcillo was an Indian and was elected annually. In Morga's time the right of suffrage seems to have been enjoyed by all married Indians,(68) but in the last century it was restricted to thirteen electors. (69) The gobernadorcillo was commonly called the "captain." Within the pueblos the people formed little groups of from forty to fifty tributes called barangays under the supervision of cabezas de barangay. These heads of barangay represent the survival of the earlier clan organization and were held responsible for the tributes of their groups. Originally the office of cabeza de barangay was no doubt hereditary, but it became generally elective. (70) The electors of the gobernadorcillo were made up of those who were or had been cabezas de barangay and they after three years of service became eligible to the office of petty governor.
 

In the few Spanish towns in the islands the local government was similar to that which prevailed in America, which in turn was derived from Spain. That of Manila may be taken as an example. The corporation, El Cabildo (chapter) consisted of two ordinary alcaldes, eight regidores, a registrar, and a constable. The alcaldes were justices, and were elected annually from the householders by the corporation. The regidores were aldermen and with the registrar and constable held office permanently as a proprietary right. These permanent positions in the cabildo could be bought and sold or inherited. (71)