adrupled by increased taxation, the Filipinos were
as happy a community as could be found in any colony. The population
greatly multiplied; they lived in competence, if not in affluence;
cultivation was extended, and the exports steadily increased.--Let us
be just; what British, French, or Dutch colony, populated by natives
can compare with the Philippines as they were until 1895?" [124]

These striking judgments, derived from such a variety of sources, are a
sufficient proof that our popular ideas of the Spanish colonial system
are quite as much in need of revision as popular ideas usually are.

Yet one must not forget that the Spanish mission system, however useful
and benevolent as an agency in bringing a barbarous people within the
pale of Christian civilization, could not be regarded as permanent
unless this life is looked upon simply as a preparation for heaven. As
an educative system it had its bounds and limits; it could train to a
certain point and no farther. To prolong it beyond that stage would be
to prolong carefully nurtured childhood to the grave, never allowing
it to be displaced by self-reliant manhood. The legal status of the
Indians before the law was that of minors, and no provision was made
for their arriving at their majority. The clergy looked upon these
wards of the State as the school-children of the church, and compelled
the observance of her ordinances even with the rod. La Perouse says:
"The only thought was to make Christians and never citizens. This
people was divided into parishes, and subjected to the most minute
and extravagant observances. Each fault, each sin is still punished
by the rod. Failure to attend prayers and mass has its fixed penalty,
and punishment is administered to men and women at the door of the
church by order of the pastor." [125] Le Gentil describes such a
scene in a little village a few miles from Manila, where one Sunday
afternoon he saw a crowd, chiefly Indian women, following a woman who
was to be whipped at the church door for not having been to mass. [126]

The prevalence of a supervision and discipline so parental for the
mass of the people in the colony could but react upon the ruling
class, and La Perouse remarks upon the absence of individual liberty
in the islands: "No liberty is enjoyed: inquisitors and monks watch
the consciences; the oidors (judges of the Audiencia) all private
affairs; the governor, the most innocent movements; an excursion to
the in