The insurrection in Luzon is obviously serious. Aguinaldo has issued
a proclamation stating that the Filipinos prefer even Spaniards to Americans, and plainly ordering a massacre of the latter, and on Wednesday the insurgents endeavoured to act on his advice. They fired Manila in many places, burnt one whole quarter, and shot all the Americans they could reach. They were shot and arrested in hundreds, and the fire was at last quelled ; but General Otis is evidently hardly pressed. The facts have, however, developed energy in Washington, six thousand seasoned troops have been ordered to reinforce General Otis, and the increase of the Army to one hundred thousand men will be sanc- tioned for the presen'. Moreover, the lower population of the islands, who fret under the ascendency of the Tagals, have declared for the Americans, have surrendered two of the
islands to their officers, and offer to enlist to the number of one hundred thousand men. That movement., if it is as genuine as it appears to be, will not only yield the Americans material for a Sepoy army, but, what is more important, will furnish them with a moral justification for their Empire. The majority, they will say, which in their view is equivalent to saying the Deity, has voted in their favour. The Tagals are only a fifth of the total population.
