He laboured under a disadvantage, for he did not pay for his appointment as some others did. If he had been paying $30,000 a year to the wife of a powerful minister, he would not have been easily recalled. Or if, like another governor-general, he had been in debt up to the eyes to influential creditors, these would have kept him in power till he had amassed enough to pay them off. I am of opinion that had Despujols been retained in Manila, and had he been given time to reform and purify the administration, the chain of events which has now torn the Philippines for ever from the grasp of Spain would never have been welded. Whoever received the priests' money, whoever they were who divided that Judas-bribe, they deserve to be held in perpetual execration by their fellow-countrymen, and to have their names handed down to everlasting infamy. Despujols left Manila under a manifestation of respect and devotion from the foreign residents, from the best Spaniards and from every class of the natives of the Philippines, that might well go far to console him for his unmerited dismissal. He must have bitterly felt the injustice with which he was treated, but still he left carrying with him a clear conscience and a harvest of love and admiration that no previous governor-general had ever inspired. For if Moriones manifested courage, energy and incorruptible honesty under what would have been an irresistible temptation to many another man, that rude soldier was far from possessing those personal gifts, the fine presence and the sympathetic address of Despujols, and inspired fear rather than affection. Yet both were worthy representatives of their country; both were men any land might be proud to send forth. Those two noble names are sufficient to redeem the Spanish Government of the Philippines from the accusation of being entirely corrupt, too frequently made against it. They deserve an abler pen than mine to extol their merits and to exalt them as they deserve above the swarm of pilferers, and sham patriots, who preceded and succeeded them. To use an Eastern image, they may be compared to two noble trees towering above the rank vegetation of some poisonous swamp. For the honour of Spain and of human nature in general, I have always felt grateful that I could say that amongst the governors-general of the Philippines whom I had known there were at least two entitled to the respect of every honest man. CHAPTER IV. COURTS OF JUSTICE. Alcaldes--The Audiencia--The Guardia Civil--Do not hesitate to shoot--Talas.