diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

the Franciscans and Governor de la Torre. Almonacid showed that he wasmuch more in touch with reality, it is true, but Madridejos was sufficientlymore prudent. One of the new Provincial's early decisions was to withdrawhis trust in Fray Joaquin de Coria, till then Commissar in Madrid of theProvince and a trusted man of Madridejos. In his place was named FrayVicente del Moral.By Christmas 1870, Almonacid made a courtesy call on the governorgeneral and the civil governor of Manila, after which he admitted "havinglittle confidence in the officials of this epoch," although, he continued, "Godcan make use of these same men to carry out His will."'" Some weeks later,the decree from the Madrid government reached the Philippines, in virtue of-which was granted the faculty to secularize the friars in the Philippines whoasked for it, the confiscation of their properties, and the secularization of theUniversity of Santo Tomas. Deeply affected by the effects theimplementation of these decrees could have in the life of the Franciscanprovince, the Provincial summed up his anxiety in two very significantphrases: "The revolution is now at home,"" "We are going through a fatefulepoch, and our hands are tied."'"However, none of these decrees was carried out due to, among otherreasons, the opposition of persons most affected by them, but especiallybecause de la Torre ignored them and informed Madrid about the negativeresults that would follow if they were obeyed. In his opinion, it should be theCortes, not a mere provisional government that should introduce substantialchanges in the manner of governing the colonies.As indicated above, and as is well known, de la Torre has entered historyas a liberal governor frustrated in his Philippine policies because of theinterference and pressure made to bear on him by the friars. That actually isnot the conclusion one draws from what we have discussed in the precedingpages. De la Torre himself strongly stated so in his brief when he handed theoffice over to Izquierdo. After repeating he had always wanted to bereconciliatory, that he never allowed himself to mix his own political creedwith his duties as governor and never allowed any interference by anybody,he analyzed the tensions to which he had been subjected both politically andeconomically, focusing them especially on two groups. For greater clarity, Iquote his words:I shall put down those who were expecting much from the revolution for theirown personal interests, not for those of the country, and much less for theinterests of Spain. They were the secular clergy, the three dozen Spaniards156