Against one bugaboo of the timid, and even to this day a favorite device of the crafty, he brought to bear a destructive logic. It was urged that if the Philippines were free they would instantly be snapped up by some powerful and greedy neighbor. The functions of a shield against these ravenous wild beasts, a function later supposed to be performed unselfishly by the United States, was then imagined to fall to the lot of mighty Spain. But for her frowning guns and men-of-war, behold the Philippines a breakfast any morning for Japan or for Great Britain! In those days there were a few Filipinos that were impressed with these fantasies, or said to be; in later times the superior white man often seemed strangely infected with them. To one inclined to take them seriously Rizal’s words might have been commended then, or may be now. [[174]]
It appears that he had been applying to his country the lessons of the American Revolution.
If the Philippines [he says] succeed in winning their independence at the close of a heroic and bitterly contested war, their people can rest assured that neither England, Germany, France, nor Holland will dare to pick up the territory that Spain could not retain. Within a few years, Africa will absorb all the attention of the great European nations, and none of them would neglect the immense territories and opportunities that will open in the Dark Continent for the sake of a handful of rugged islands at the other end of the world.
As to England, she has already enough of colonies in the Orient, and she is too wise to imperil her equilibrium by adding more. She does not wish to run the risk of losing her great empire in India for the sake of the comparatively poorer Philippine Archipelago. If England had even thought of taking the Philippines, she would never have retired from Manila after she had captured it in 1763; she would have retained that great vantage-point and so would have spread her power from Island to Island until all should be hers. For her the game was not worth the candle, and is not. Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, mean much more to British trade and the empire than the Philippines could ever mean, and she has no idea of risking these great possessions for the sake of a domain so dubious and restless as these Islands. For all reasons of common sense and commercial advantage, England would look with favor upon a state of independence that would open the Philippine ports to British trade. [[175]]
There is, besides, in England a feeling always growing that the country has gone too far in imperialism and expansion, that the colonies have already begun to weaken the mother-country and there must be no additions to them.
He proceeds next to discuss the probable policies of Germany, China, Holland, Japan, and the United States toward Philippine independence. None of them, in his view, would feel any temptation to interfere with it or to seize the Islands for itself. But, in any event, he says:
The Philippines would defend with the utmost ardor and courage the liberty bought with so much blood and sacrifice. A new man will spring from the Philippine bosom; with new energy he will dedicate himself to progress; he will labor with all his resources to strengthen his country at home and abroad. Gold will be dug from the Philippine soil; copper, lead, coal, and other minerals will be developed. The country will revive the maritime and mercantile activities to which the Islanders are especially adapted by nature, instincts, and aptitude. Filipinas will recover those good qualities that she had centuries ago and has since been losing.[2] Easily, then, we can [[176]]see her once more a lover of peace, a home of justice, and as of old merry, smiling, hospitable, audacious.
SCULPTURE BY RIZAL WHEN A MERE STUDENT, “THE POWER OF SCIENCE OVER DEATH”
He recounts then some of the existing evils in his country and inquires what, if one can imagine another century of such servitude, the Philippines will be reduced to in that time? But without circumlocution he warns the Government that the servitude cannot possibly continue. Unless the prudence of the Government provides remedies that are real, the grievances now accumulating will have but one result.