Such was the outline of the state of these islands in 1822. Severe and frequent as the censures are which are passed in the foregoing pages, the writer is not conscious that they are in any instance unjust or exaggerated, or that praise has been withheld wherever it might be due. The unprejudiced, honourable, and well-informed, will, he hopes, think so, the opinion of others is indifferent to him: they will perhaps too believe, that his object has neither been to flatter nor to wound, but, if a sketch like this had originally any object, a hope that when their true state was better known these islands might be better appreciated--perhaps better governed; that a cruelly-abused class of men (the natives) might one day find their condition ameliorated; and lastly, that when this fair and rich portion of the earth shall be visited by men of science, a few general remarks on their state at any given period, however ill drawn up, might be of some use. Who indeed can but reflect with pain, that while the torch of science has blazed in the western hemisphere, from Greenland to the Antarctic, bearing with it light, and life, and hope, and blessings, few are even aware how very much it has yet to illumine in the East! Finis REFORMS NEEDED IN FILIPINAS Opinion regarding the causes which antagonize the security and progress of the Filipinas Islands Most Excellent Sir: The Filipinas Islands, on account of their great extent, their advantageous location in the center of the commercial world of Asia, their considerable population, and the fertility of their soil--which is capable of yielding all the products which are grown between the two tropics--require from his Majesty's paternal government a carefully planned system of measures which shall strengthen their peace and internal security, and at the same time advance their agriculture, industry, and commerce to that high degree to which they have been destined by Providence. As I am charged by order of the king our sovereign to furnish information regarding the measures which can contribute to objects so important, it will be my plan to point out (but with that circumspection which is so necessary in matters of colonial policy and administration) the causes which today are antagonizing both the internal and external security of those islands and their successful administration--civil, economic, and commercial--proposing in regard to each one of these the correctives which have been impressed upon me by my experience as consulting attorney [asesor] and judge in all the public affairs of justice, army and navy, the government, revenues, and commerce; and my own observations under popular revolutions, changes in the system of government, and other vicissitudes and critical positions in which that colony has been seen during the long period of my residence therein.