[220] At the foot of the last printed page is a note, evidently written by some person in the secretary's office of the Council of Indias (to which body this copy of the decree appears to have been sent), which reads in translation: "It came with a letter from the governor of Philipinas, Don Joseph de Basco y Vargas, dated June 16, 1784, and received at the secretary's office on March 19, 1785." A penciled memorandum on the fly-leaf indicates that it was published at Sampaloc, 1784. [221] By royal decree of Feb. 26, 1886, the alcaldes-mayor of the provinces were restricted to judicial functions, and in others they were replaced by civil governors. [222] Bernáldez, in his account (dated 1827) of "Reforms needed in Filipinas" (already presented in our VOL. LI) says of this association (fol. 29): "Although in Manila there is an Economic Society organized to promote public prosperity by means of the industries of the country, composed as it is of miscellaneous members, nominated without [their own] solicitation, and without inclination for that sort of occupation, there is little, if anything, to be expected from the activities of a body which has already gone to pieces once through its own inaction, and has been reëstablished only to comply with the sovereign's command, and not by the activity or encouragement of the citizens of Filipinas themselves." [223] Evidently referring to the pamphlet, Noticia del origen y hechos notables de la Real Sociedad ... segun sus actas y documentos oficiales (Manila, 1860); but this is a second edition, the first having been issued in 1855. [224] Probably referring to the book The Lancasterian System of Education, with Improvements, published (Baltimore, 1821) by Joseph Lancaster on his newly-invented educational system (commonly known as the "monitorial"). He was an Englishman, born in 1778, and a member of the Society of Friends; he visited the United States, where he published the above work; and his death occurred in 1838. [225] See account of this periodical in VOL. LI, p. 48, note 16.