Note 21 — PART I

It is not here meant to accuse the Spanish laws; many of them are excellent, and would appear to have been dictated by the very spirit of philanthropy. But these are rarely enforced, or if they are, delay vitiates their effect. That this colony, the most favoured perhaps under heaven by nature, should have remained till the present day almost a forest, is a circumstance which has generally excited surprise in those who are acquainted with it, and has as generally been accounted for by attributing it to the laziness of the Spaniards and Indians. This is but a superficial view of the subject; one of those general remarks which being relatively a little flattering to ourselves, pass current as facts, and then “we wonder how any one can doubt of what is so generally received.”—The cause lies deeper, man is not naturally indolent. When he has supplied his necessities, he seeks for superfluities—if he can enjoy them in security and peace;—if not—if the iron gripe of despotism (no matter in what shape, or through what form it is felt), is ready to snatch his earnings from him, without affording him any equivalent—then indeed he becomes indolent, that is, he merely provides for the wants of to-day. This apathy is perpetuated through numerous generations till it becomes national habit, and then we falsely call it nature. It cannot be too often repeated, that from the poles to the equator, man is the creature of his civil institutions, and is active in proportion to the freedom he enjoys. Who that has perused the History of Java by Sir S. Raffles,21 and seen the effects of government planned by the talents of Minto in the spirit of the British constitution in that country, will now accuse the Javanese of unwillingness to work, if the fruits of his labour are secured to him? And yet we remember when a Javanese was another name for every thing that is detestable. It is ever thus—we blame the race, because that flatters our pride—we should first look to their institutions. I return to the Phillippines.