[1] This society was founded in Manila in 1876 under the name of Liceo Artístico, which it changed in 1889 as above. Its purpose was to protect the moral and material interests of the Filipino musicians resident in the Philippines, and advance the musical progress and education of the natives. It gave with some irregularity a private monthly concert and three public concerts per year. It began to decline in 1891 and perished amid the political upheaval. See Archipiélago Filipino, i, p. 354. [↑]
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
Primary instruction cannot be considered in a backward state, and, indeed, I believe that, in proportion, there are more persons who can read and write in these islands than in España, and in some [other] civilized countries.[1] In each village there is a suitable building for the use of a school, to which all the children must go except during the months of sowing and of harvest. The master, and other expenses, are paid from the communal fund. In view of this I have wondered at seeing in many foreigners the strange belief that the government does not permit the learning of reading and writing; for I can assert that, in the archives of Manila I have found many old and recently-dictated decrees, with a spirit diametrically the contrary, which repeatedly enjoin the teaching of the Castilian language. Women also share in this benefit, and I have found girls who lived not only far from the capital, but in an isolated house distant from the village, and, notwithstanding, they had learned to read and write. One must confess, however, that they scarcely know other books than those of devotion, especially a poem entitled the Pasion de Cristo [i.e., Passion of Christ]. Besides the said schools, which are equal in number to the villages and the schools of some private masters,[2] both in the chief cities of the provinces and in the capital where their number is very considerable (there being among them not a few of music and drawing), there are found in Manila various public institutions of education for men and women. In regard to them one can form a correct judgment by the following explanation.
UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMÁS
This college was founded at the beginning of the seventeenth century; their Excellencies, Benavides and Soria, the one archbishop of Manila, and the other bishop of Nueva Segovia, giving their libraries for that purpose, and, in addition, the former giving 1,000 pesos and the latter 1,800. Already finished in 1619, it was admitted as a house of the province of Preachers in the islands, as appears from the records of the intermediary chapter celebrated in Santo Domingo, April 20, with the suitable license of the superior government and of the ordinary. In 1620 it already had lecturers and masters for public teaching, and November 27, 1623, his Majesty admitted it under his royal protection. It was erected into a university at the instance of the said monarch Felipe IV, by a bull of Innocent X, November 20, 1645, which was passed by the supreme Council of Indias July 28, 1646. By a decree of May 17, 1680, the university was received under the royal protection, his Majesty declaring himself its patron. In consequence of another decree of December 7, 1781, the rules were made, which, approved by the superior government October 20, 1786 as they were prepared are those which are in force at present. Their cloister is composed of various doctors, licentiates, and masters, although in reality only twenty-one of the first and second kinds form it. The number of collegiates is ruled by circumstances, and the college supports them, for they have to dress and provide shoes for many. Their funds are ministered by lay-brother religious. This college and royal university is in charge of the Dominican religious, who teach Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, moral and canon law, and theology. In addition there is a chair of institute, and another of native law. In this university 581 students are studying, who are classified thus:
| Collegiates | 61 |
| Capistas[3] | 15 |
| Day Pupils | 505 |
| Total | 581 |