persons may reproach us with partiality; neither will we cite those
of other Filipinos who write in the newspapers; but we shall confine
ourselves to translating the words of a modern French traveler who
was in the Philippines for a long time:

"The good curate," he says with reference to the rosy picture a friar
had given him of the Philippines, "had not told me about the governor,
the foremost official of the district, who was too much taken up
with the ideal of getting rich to have time to tyrannize over his
docile subjects; the governor, charged with ruling the country and
collecting the various taxes in the government's name, devoted himself
almost wholly to trade; in his hands the high and noble functions he
performs are nothing more than instruments of gain. He monopolizes
all the business and instead of developing on his part the love
of work, instead of stimulating the too natural indolence of the
natives, he with abuse of his powers thinks only of destroying all
competition that may trouble him or attempt to participate in his
profits. It matters little to him that the country is impoverished,
without cultivation, without commerce, without, industry, just so
the governor is quickly enriched!"

Yet the traveler has been unfair in picking out the governor
especially: Why only the governor?

We do not cite passages from other authors, because we have not their
works at hand and do not wish to quote from memory.

The great difficulty that every enterprise encountered with the
administration contributed not a little to kill off all commercial
and industrial movement. All the Filipinos, as well as all those who