THE PHILIPPINES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Wrench's reference in his last article on "The English-Speaking World" to possible impending changes in the future government of the Philippine Islands is full of interest for one who has lately enjoyed, as I have, the opportunity of seeing the effect of American administration in Cuba and on the Isthmus of Panama. It would be superfluous to praise that supreme triumph of constructive engineering skill, the Panama Canal itself. But at Colon, as at Havana, there are practically two cities : one the old, unhealthy, ill-con- structed and ill-repaired city of native local origin, the other the city which attests by all its wealth of scientific inventions and improvements the great practical civic ability of the United States. I do not doubt—for it has been stated to me on good authority—that the lesson of Havana and Colon is repeated and even reinforced in the Philippine Islands. To remove the control of the United States from these islands would be to plunge them again in servitude and misery. It can be no wonder then that General Wood, the Governor of the Philippine Islands, should have tele- graphed to Washington that, if self-government were granted now to the islands, "it would be a disastrous blow to Western civilization, and no more brutal justice could be inflicted on the Filipinos than to abandon them under the guise of granting them independence."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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