But for 300 years they have been ground to the earth with oppression. They have been crushed by tyranny; their spirit has been tortured by abuse and contempt, and brutalized by ignorance; in a word, there is no injustice that has not been inflicted on them, short of depriving them of their liberty; and in a work published at Madrid in 1819 (Estado de las Yslas Filipinas, par [sic; for por] Don Tomas Comyn), whose author was a factor of the Phillippine company, a whole chapter (the 4th) is devoted to the mild and humane project "of establishing Spanish agriculturists throughout the islands," who are, "to require a certain number of Indians from the governors of towns and provinces, who are to be driven to the plantations, where they are to be obliged to work a certain time, the price of their labour being fixed, and then to be relieved by a fresh drove!" [49] Such a system, incredible as it may appear, has been proposed to a Spanish cortes; and still more wonderful, plans like these excited no reprobation in Manila. Such were Spanish ideas of governing Indians! Justice would almost tempt us to wish that this scheme had been carried into execution, and that the Indian had risen and dashed his chains on the heads of the authors of such an infernal project. And yet the Indian is marked out as little better than a brute; so many of them are, but to the system of government, and not to the Indian, is the fault to be ascribed. 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.