the Tropics to adopt the characteristics
and thought of a Temperate Zone people. The Filipinos are not an
industrious, thrifty people, or lovers of work, and no power on earth
will make them so. The Colony's resources are, consequently, not a
quarter developed, and are not likely to be by a strict application
of the theory of the "Philippines for the Filipinos." But why
worry about their lethargy, if, with it, they are on the way to
"perfect contentment"?--that summit of human happiness which no one
attains. Ideal government may reach a point where its exactions tend
to make life a burden; practical government stops this side of that
point. White men will not be found willing to develop a policy which
offers them no hope of bettering themselves; and as to labour--other
willing Asiatics are always close at hand. Uncertainty of legislation,
constantly changing laws, new regulations, the fear of a tax on
capital, and general prospective insecurity make large investors pause.

Democratic principles have been too suddenly sprung upon the
masses. The autonomy granted to the provinces needs more control
than the civil government originally intended, and ends in an
appeal on almost every conceivable question being made to one
man--the Gov.-General: this excessive concentration makes efficient
administration too dependent on the abilities of one person. There
are many who still think, and not without reason, that ten years of
military rule would have been better for the people themselves. Even
now military government might be advantageously re-established in Samar
Island, where the common people are not anxious for the franchise,
or care much about political rights. A reasonable amount of personal
freedom, with justice, would suffice for them; whilst the trading class
would welcome any effective and continuous protection, rather than have
to shift for themselves with the risk of being persecuted for having
given succour to the _pulajanes_ to save their own lives and property.

Civil government, prematurely inaugurated, without sufficient
preparation, has had a disastrous effect, and the present state of
many provinces is that of a wilderness overrun by brigand bands too
strong for the civil authority to deal with. But one cannot fail to
recognize and appreciate the humane motives which urged the premature
establishment of civil administration. Scores of nobodies before the
rebellion became somebodies during the four or five yea