The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 4

Weyler is a small man who does not look like a soldier. He is clever, but it is more the cleverness of a sharp attorney than of a general or statesman.

Curiously enough the Segundo Cabo at this time was an absolute contrast. Don Manuel Giron y Aragon, Marquis of Ahumada, is descended from the Kings of Aragon, and to that ill.u.s.trious lineage he unites a n.o.ble presence and a charm of manner that render him instantly popular with all who have the good fortune to meet him. No more dignified representative of his country could be found, and I send him my cordial salutation wherever he is serving.

During Weyler's term another expedition to Mindanao was made and some advantages secured. Some disturbances occurred which will be mentioned in another chapter, and secret societies were inst.i.tuted amongst the natives. Otherwise the usual bribery and corruption continued unchecked.

There was a great increase in the smuggling of Mexican dollars from Hong Kong into Manila, where they were worth 10 per cent. more. The freight and charges amounted to 2 per cent., leaving 8 per cent. profit, and according to rumour 4 per cent. was paid to the authorities to insure against seizure, as the importation was prohibited under heavy penalties.

At this time I was Government Surveyor of Shipping, and one day received an order from the captain of the port to proceed on board the steamer Espana with the colonel of carbineers and point out to him all hollow places in the ship's construction where anything could be concealed. This I did, but remembering Talleyrand's injunction, and not liking the duty, showed no zeal, but contented myself with obeying orders. The carbineers having searched every part of the ship below, we came on deck where the captain's cabin was. A corporal entered the cabin and pulled open one of the large drawers. I only took one glimpse at it and looked away. It was chock full of small canvas bags, and no doubt the other drawers and lockers were also full. Yet it did not seem to occur to any of the searchers that there might be dollars in the bags, and it was no business of mine. Nothing contraband had been found in the ship, and a report to that effect was sent in. I sent the colonel an account for my fee, which was duly paid from the funds of the corps.

Weyler returned to Spain with a large sum of money, a far larger sum than the whole of his emoluments. He had remitted large sums in bills, and having fallen out with one of his confederates who had handled some of the money, this man exhibited the seconds of exchange to certain parties inimical to Weyler, with the result that the latter was openly denounced as a thief in capital letters in a leading article of the Correspondencia Militar of Madrid. Weyler's attorneys threatened to prosecute for libel, but the editor defied them and declared that he held the doc.u.ments and was prepared to prove his statement. The matter was allowed to drop. Weyler was thought to have received large sums of money from the Augustinians and Dominicans for his armed support against their tenants. It was said that the Chinese furnished him with a first-rate cook, and provided food for his whole household gratis, besides making presents of diamonds to his wife. And for holding back certain laws which would have pressed very hardly upon them, it was a.s.serted that the Celestials paid him no less than $80,000. This is the man who afterwards carried out the reconcentrado policy in Cuba at the cost of thousands of lives, and subsequently returning with a colossal fortune to Spain, posed as a patriot and as chief of the military party.

Despujols.

To Weyler succeeded a man very different in appearance and character, Don Emilio Despujols, Conde de Caspe.

Belonging to an ancient and n.o.ble family of Catalonia, holding his honour dear, endowed with a n.o.ble presence and possessed of an ample fortune, he came out to uplift and uphold the great charge committed to him, and rather to give l.u.s.tre to his office by expending his own means than to economise from his pay, as so many colonial governors are accustomed to do. He established his household upon a splendid scale, and seconded by his distinguished countess, whose goodness and munificent charities will ever be remembered, he entertained on a scale worthy of a viceroy and in a manner never before seen in Manila.

Despujols rendered justice to all. Several Spaniards whose lives were an open scandal, were by his order put on board ship and sent back to Spain. Amongst these was one who bore the t.i.tle of count, but who lived by gambling.

Another was a doctor who openly plundered the natives. Like a Mahometan Sultan of the old times, Despujols was accessible to the poorest who had a tale of injustice and oppression to relate.

The news that a native could obtain justice from a governor-general flew with incredible rapidity. At last a new era seemed to be opening. A trifling event aroused the enthusiasm of the people. Despujols and his countess drove to the Manila races with their postillions dressed in shirts of Jusi and wearing silver-mounted salacots instead of their usual livery. I was present on this occasion and was struck with the unwonted warmth of the governor-general's reception from the usually phlegmatic natives. Despujols became popular to an extent never before reached. He could do anything with the natives. Whenever his splendid equipages appeared in public he received an ovation. Quite a different spirit now seemed to possess the natives. But not all the Spaniards viewed this with satisfaction; many whose career of corruption had been checked, who found their illicit gains decreased, and the victims of their extortion beginning to resist them, bitterly criticised the new governor-general.

The religious orders finding Despujols incorruptible and indisposed to place military forces at the disposal of the Augustinians and Dominicans to coerce or evict refractory tenants, then took action. Their procurators in Madrid made a combined attack on Despujols, both in the reptile press and by representations to the ministry. They succeeded, and Despujols was dismissed from office by cable. Rumour has it that the Orders paid $100,000 for Despujols's recall. For my own part I think this very likely, and few who know Madrid will suppose that this decree could be obtained by any other means.

He laboured under a disadvantage, for he did not pay for his appointment as some others did. If he had been paying $30,000 a year to the wife of a powerful minister, he would not have been easily recalled. Or if, like another governor-general, he had been in debt up to the eyes to influential creditors, these would have kept him in power till he had ama.s.sed enough to pay them off.

I am of opinion that had Despujols been retained in Manila, and had he been given time to reform and purify the administration, the chain of events which has now torn the Philippines for ever from the grasp of Spain would never have been welded. Whoever received the priests'

money, whoever they were who divided that Judas-bribe, they deserve to be held in perpetual execration by their fellow-countrymen, and to have their names handed down to everlasting infamy.

Despujols left Manila under a manifestation of respect and devotion from the foreign residents, from the best Spaniards and from every cla.s.s of the natives of the Philippines, that might well go far to console him for his unmerited dismissal. He must have bitterly felt the injustice with which he was treated, but still he left carrying with him a clear conscience and a harvest of love and admiration that no previous governor-general had ever inspired.

For if Moriones manifested courage, energy and incorruptible honesty under what would have been an irresistible temptation to many another man, that rude soldier was far from possessing those personal gifts, the fine presence and the sympathetic address of Despujols, and inspired fear rather than affection.

Yet both were worthy representatives of their country; both were men any land might be proud to send forth. Those two n.o.ble names are sufficient to redeem the Spanish Government of the Philippines from the accusation of being entirely corrupt, too frequently made against it. They deserve an abler pen than mine to extol their merits and to exalt them as they deserve above the swarm of pilferers, and sham patriots, who preceded and succeeded them. To use an Eastern image, they may be compared to two n.o.ble trees towering above the rank vegetation of some poisonous swamp. For the honour of Spain and of human nature in general, I have always felt grateful that I could say that amongst the governors-general of the Philippines whom I had known there were at least two ent.i.tled to the respect of every honest man.

CHAPTER IV.

COURTS OF JUSTICE.

Alcaldes--The Audiencia--The Guardia Civil--Do not hesitate to shoot--Talas.

The foulest blot upon the Spanish Administration in all her former colonies was undoubtedly the thorough venality of her infamous Courts of Justice. Unfortunately, amongst the heterogeneous population of the Philippines, a low standard of morality prevails and has prevailed from the earliest times. The natives at the time of the conquest were partly civilised, so far as building houses and cultivating their lands by slave labour is concerned. But notwithstanding the a.s.sertions of the Filipinos, the late Dr. Rizal and others, a study of the ancient authors demonstrates that they were sunk in ignorance and superst.i.tion, and that their customs were those of semi-savages. When they came under the rule of the Spaniards, they might have made great advances if the administration of the laws had been confided to persons of honour capable of interpreting that wise code, the "Laws of the Indies,"

in the n.o.ble and Christian spirit which had inspired their makers.

But what cla.s.s of man was it that the Spaniards appointed to this office?

Thomas de Comyn, p. 134, says: "It is quite common to see a barber or footman of a governor, a sailor or a deserter, transformed into an Alcalde-Mayor, Sub-delegate, and War Captain of a populous province, without other counsel than his own rude intelligence (understanding) nor other guide than his pa.s.sions."

What could be expected from such men as these, living in such an atmosphere? And if some solitary alcalde might cherish in his heart some spark of honour, some lingering love of justice, there were two elements in the country to extinguish that spark, to smother that feeling.

Woe betide the alcalde who would decide a case, whatever its merits, adversely to any one of the religious orders. I personally knew an alcalde who (at a great price) had obtained the government of the province of Batangas, from whence his immediate predecessor, also well-known to me, had retired with a large fortune, but leaving everybody contented so far as could be seen. He had kept on good terms with the priests. His successor unfortunately forgot this cardinal rule and allowed himself to be identified with some anti-clerical Spaniards.

Every kind of trouble fell upon that man, and finally he was recalled to Manila and received a severe reprimand from General Primo de Rivera, who was said to have received $12,000 for turning him out.

He was removed from wealthy Batangas and sent to the fever-stricken capital of Tayabas, a wretchedly poor Government, affording few opportunities for peculation. He escaped with his life, but his wife, a very charming Spanish lady, succ.u.mbed to the malaria. Similar instances of the results of being, or being thought to be, an anti-clerical, will occur to old residents in the Philippines. The arm of the Church was long and its hand was a heavy one.

The second influence I referred to is the presence of the heathen Chinee in the islands. To a Chinaman the idea that a judge should take bribes seems as natural a thing as that a duck should take to the water. And yet the Chinaman will not, unless he knows he is on the right track, brutally push his bribe under the judge's nose. Either he or one of his countrymen will from the judge's arrival have rendered him good service. Does the judge want a gardener or cook? Ah-sin soon provides an excellent one who never asks for his wages. Have some visitors arrived at the Alcaldia Ah-sin sends in a dozen chickens, a turkey, and the best fruits. Is it the judge's name-day? The wily Celestial presents a few cases of wine and boxes of fine cigars. Is the roof of the Alcaldia leaking--a couple of Chinese carpenters will set it right without sending a bill for it. Then, having prepared the way, should Ah-sin be summoned before the alcalde, he may confidently hope that his patron will not hurriedly give judgment against him, and that he will probably get a full opportunity to present substantial reasons why the suit should be decided in his favour. In fact, the practice of the alcalde's courts was only a shade better than that of the Chinese Yamens, where the different cases are put up to auction amongst the magistrates and knocked down to the highest bidders, who then proceed on a course of extortion, by arrest and by the torture of witnesses, to make all they can out of them.

In an alcalde's court, there would be several mestizo or native writers or auxiliaries. Some of them were what is called meritorios, that is, unpaid volunteers. Of course, they expect to receive gratuities from the suitors and would take care to mislay their doc.u.ments if they were neglected. Sometimes the alcalde was so lazy that he left the whole matter in the hands of his subordinates and signed whatever they laid before him. I have been a witness of this, and have even remonstrated with a judge for so doing. He, however, said he had the greatest confidence in his subordinates and that they dare not deceive him.

Bad as the alcalde's courts were, I think that the culminating point of corruption was the Audiencia of Manila. Escribano, abogado, juez, auditor, fiscal, vied with each other in showing that to them, honour and dignity were mere empty words. They set the vilest examples to the mestizos and natives, and, unfortunately, these have been only too apt pupils, and having little to lose, were often ready to go one better than the Spaniards, who after all had to keep up appearances. I cannot adequately express the loathing I feel for all this tribe. I look upon a highwayman as a gentleman compared to them, for he does risk his life, and you may get a shot at him, but these wretches ruin you in perfect safety.

They dress their wives, they nourish their children, upon the reward of roguery, the price of perjury, the fruits of forgery, the wages of some wicked judgment.

What can be expected of the sp.a.w.n of these reptiles, what but by the process of evolution to be more envenomed than their progenitors? Is there not amongst all the mult.i.tudinous Philippines some desert island where the people trained in the Spanish courts and all their breed could be deported, where they might set up a court, and bring actions against each other and cheat and lie and forge till they die?

What a G.o.dsend for the Philippines were this possible, if besides getting rid of the Spanish judges, they could now get rid of their aiders and abettors, their apt pupils and would-be successors.

Bribery is a fine art, and there were those in Manila who were well versed in its intricacies. We heard one day of a decree by a judge against the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Club gossip a.s.serted that the judge who issued the decree had lost some hundreds of dollars at the gambling table of the Casino the night before, and that the artistic corrupter had called on him in the morning with the means to pay the debt of honour and to try his luck again. The judge was known not to have the means of paying, yet he paid and simultaneously issued his decree. Old Manila hands drew their inference.

The record of these courts from the earliest times is one long-continued infamy. Thank G.o.d that is over and a new chapter has begun. I rejoice exceedingly that their sins have at last overtaken them, and I recognise that, though

"The mills of G.o.d grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small."

Owing to the demoralisation of the mestizo and native lawyers by these vile examples, it will be very difficult to break the traditions of venality and to find men worthy to occupy the bench.

These courts were not only corrupt, but they were inept. At a time when brigandage prevailed and many notorious criminals were apprehended almost red-handed, convictions could not be got, and the bandits were liberated on various pretexts.

So great was the scandal that Moriones issued a decree that all persons accused of gang-robbery should be tried by a military tribunal. And he appointed a permanent court-martial for this purpose, to the great disgust of all the lawyer element. These courts were abolished some years later after his return to Spain; then the Guardia Civil made their own arrangements, and the mortality amongst bandits was excessive. When some well-known robber was by any chance taken alive, he always, so they said, tried to escape by running away from his captors, and this obliged them to fire upon him. They never missed on these occasions, and it was thought that the range never exceeded ten paces and was often less.

However necessary this military action may be, it is, undoubtedly liable to abuse, and the power of life and death is a great one to put in the hands of a junior officer or non-commissioned officer of police. The Guardia Civil, an armed force with Spanish officers and native soldiers, was organised in 1867, and I must say that I looked upon it as an excellent inst.i.tution, the terror of evil-doers and a protection to all law-abiding people. My native friends, however, are of a different opinion. They accuse the Guardia Civil, both Spaniards and natives, of behaving in an arbitrary and cruel manner, and with practising extortion upon defenceless natives. They are accused of torturing witnesses to extort evidence, and this charge was no doubt true in many cases.

On the other hand, the bandits or tulisanes were exterminated by this corps of picked men, and security to life and property was a.s.sured. At the formation of this corps the officers and men were very carefully selected. The Governor-General himself examined the records of every officer, and only Spanish gentlemen of the highest character were appointed. Similarly the soldiers were natives who had served their time in the army without having a crime noted against them. But in later years this precaution was relaxed, and colonels of regiments were allowed to dump their rubbish into this corps.

I knew of a case where a Filipino with Irish blood in him was posted as a lieutenant to this corps and behaved most abominably. I am glad to say, however, that he was sent out of the islands. This was only another instance of the fact that whatever the natives have to complain of the Spaniards, the mestizos, and their own rich people, treat them and have always treated them far worse.

Both officers and men were well paid and were dressed in a very smart and neat uniform, well suited to the climate, which they kept spick and span whatever service they were on. They were armed with Remington rifles and bayonets, and in addition carried a heavy chopping knife. They were posted at all the chief towns of Luzon and in some of the Visayas Islands. The greatest crime a native could commit was to kill a Guardia Civil, and such a matter never came before a Civil Court. If the slayer by any chance was not killed on the spot, he would probably be shot at sight. If apprehended, he would be tried by a court-martial composed of officers of the Guardia Civil, and, needless to say, there would be no monkeying with the verdict nor with the sentence, which would be promptly carried out.