The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)Cunningham, Charles Henry
History
The Audiencia in the Spanish Colonies: As illustrated by the Audiencia of Manila (1583-1800)
Cunningham, Charles Henry
Philippines -- History -- 1521-1812; Spain -- Colonies -- Administration
the audiencia were animated so much by motives of right and justice
as they were influenced by personal feelings.
The rule of Archbishop Rojo from 1761 to 1764 was a notable one
in the history of the Philippines. The principal event during
his administration was the capture of Manila by the British. This
furnished the occasion for the resistance of Oidor Simón de Anda y
Salazar, in the name of the audiencia, both to the English and to
the archbishop who had ordered his surrender. These events show
the complete incapacity of an ecclesiastical governor of Rojo's
type and personality to fulfill the military requirements of his
position. In the operations of Anda we note how a man of decisive
action, energy, courage, and loyalty was able to force the issue and
deprive the archbishop-governor of the executive functions which
he had assumed legally, but which he was unable to dispense. This
episode illustrates, furthermore, the general disregard of the laws
which placed the governorship in the hands of a man who was unfit
for its exercise, showing again that in the selection of a person to
carry out the duties of governor the military side of the situation
could not be disregarded.
Anda, at the time of the accession of Rojo, was a junior magistrate
in the audiencia, having arrived in Manila on July 21, 1761. [654]
The British squadron entered Manila Bay on September 22, 1762. The
British subsequently attacked the city, the fall of which seemed
imminent on account of the neglectful state into which the defense had
fallen. [655] The proposition was made to the archbishop-governor by
Fiscal Francisco Leandro de Viana and the audiencia that Oidor Anda
should be dispatched to the provinces with the title of Governor
and Captain-general of the Islands for the purpose of maintaining
and defending them under the sovereignty of the Spanish monarch,
[656] and "in order that he might keep the natives quiet in their
Christian instruction and in their obedience to the king." [657] The
archbishop refused to accede to this proposition on the grounds that
"neither he nor the Audiencia had any authority to create a governor
and captain-general, which was the proper privilege of his Majesty;
and that it was enough to give him the title of visitor of the land
... and ... of lieutenant of the captain-general." [658] This was done,
therefore, and Anda left on the night of October 3, 1762, with these
titles and powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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