History of Philippine press / Carson Taylor.

History of the Philippine Press 13
shipment of books, apparently for the reason that they contained matter objectionable to the church. The article was
addressed:
"Sefiores Editores de La Filantropia" and began with
"You, who know all, and to whom, as a consequence, all
bring their troubles, can possibly tell me whether the collector of customs has personally reassumed the functions of
the abolished inquisition.
"Don't be surprised at my question because this good
man is exercising a censorship of books with as much rigor
as it could have been done in the days of Torquemada, holding them up in the custom house until he looks them over
and then passing them or denying admission at his pleasure."
Then follows a long article bitterly attacking the offending official claiming that the question was a matter for
the court to decide, that there was no law authorizing him
to take such action and suggesting:
"The most the collector could do as a most zealous
Catholic would be to submit to the Pope all suspicious books
and get a judgement in proper form, prohibiting their reading and employing against those who disobeyed, the punishments of the church."
Apparently the title of the book in question was "Contrata Social" and some were gotten through by falsifying
the invoices to read "Contratas Mercantiles," as the article
finishes with this question:
"Is it not a ridiculous thing that in order to get into
Manila a few miserable copies of 'Contrata Social' it was
necessary to invoice them under the title of 'Contratas Mercantiles,' when the work in question was published last year
in Madrid and sold everywhere under the eyes of the authorities of the nation? Under what reign do we live? That
of Fernando the Great or Felipe of The Escorial? How
long must we allow ourselves to be saddled by the first who
wishes to mount us"?
The same number contains some sarcastic verses directed at the collector of customs and a letter from one D. G.
Fernandes, challenging one who had attacked his treatise
on colera morbus.
The editors of La Filantropia appear to have made an
effort to live up to the name. Number 17, dated December 22, 1821, contains the following editorial comment:
"In number 16 we inserted three communicated articles against our paper. As there is no other public paper
in this city through which our antagonists may alleviate