To face p. 75.
In present circumstances I venture to say that a garrison would be needed at each estate to protect an administrator or collector, for the Tagal tenants are as averse to paying rent for land as any bog-trotter in Tipperary. I do not envy anybody who purchases these estates, nor would I consider the life of such a one a good risk for an insurance company, if he intended to press the tenants for rents or arrears.
To sum up the Religious Orders, they were hardy and adventurous pioneers of Christianity, and in the evangelisation of the Philippines, by persuasion and teaching, they did more for Christianity and civilisation than any other missionaries of modern times.
Of undaunted courage they have ever been to the front when calamities threatened their flocks; they have witnessed and recorded some of the most dreadful convulsions of nature, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and destructive typhoons. In epidemics of plague and cholera they have not been dismayed, nor have they ever in such cases abandoned their flocks.
When an enemy has attacked the islands they have been the first to face the shot. Only fervent faith could enable these men to endure the hardships, and overcome the dangers that encompassed them.
They have done much for education, having founded schools for both sexes, training colleges for teachers, the university of St. Thomas in Manila, and other institutions.
Hospitals and asylums attest their charity. They were formerly, and even lately, the protectors of the poor against the rich, and of the native against the Spaniard. They have consistently resisted the enslavement of the natives.
They restrained the constant inclination of the natives to wander away into the woods and return to primitive savagery by keeping them in the towns, or, as they said, “Under the bells.”
On the other hand, peace and plenty (those blessings for which we pray), have corrupted and demoralised the Orders. No longer liable at any moment to be called upon to fight for their lives, the sterner virtues have decayed. Increased production and export enriched the people, a gold coinage was introduced, and the friars allowed avarice to possess their souls.
In those lands of perpetual summer no death duties have to be paid to a Chancellor of the Exchequer, as in this island of fog and mist.