l not free itself from this tutelage. The Government looks to
no vigorous future; it's an arm, the head is the convent. Through
its inertia, it allows itself to be dragged from abyss to abyss; its
existence is no more than a shadow. Compare our system of government
with the systems of countries you have visited----"

"Oh!" interrupted Ibarra, "that is going far. Let us be satisfied that,
thanks to religion and the humanity of our rulers, our people do not
complain, do not suffer like those of other countries."

"The people do not complain because they have no voice; if they
don't revolt, it is because they are lethargic; if you say they do
not suffer, it is because you have not seen their heart's blood. But
the day will come when you will see and hear. Then woe to those who
base their strength on ignorance and fanaticism; woe to those who
govern through falsehood, and work in the night, thinking that all
sleep! When the sun's light shows the sham of all these phantoms,
there will be a frightful reaction; all this strength conserved for
centuries, all this poison distilled drop by drop, all these sighs
strangled, will find the light and the air. Who pay these accounts
which the people from time to time present, and which History preserves
for us in its bloody pages?"

"God will never permit such a day to come!" replied Ibarra, impressed
in spite of himself. "The Filipinos are religious, and they love
Spain. There are abuses, yes, but Spain is preparing reforms to
correct them; her projects are now ripening."

"I know; but the reforms which come from the head are annulled
lower down, thanks to the greedy desire of officials to enrich
themselves in a short time, and to the ignorance of the people, who
accept everything. Abuses are not to be corrected by royal decrees,
not where the liberty of speech, which permits the denunciation of
petty tyrants, does not exist. Projects remain projects; abuses,
abuses. Moreover, if by chance some one coming to occupy an office
begins to show high and generous ideas, immediately he hears on all
sides--while to his back he is held a fool: 'Your Excellency does
not know the country, Your Excellency does not know the character of
the Indians, Your Excellency will ruin them, Your Excellency will do
well to consult this one and that one,' and so forth, and so on. And
as in truth His Excellency does not know the country, which hitherto
he had supposed to be in America, and since, like all