ABSTRACT
ABOUT this was nothing sinister, illegal, revolutionary, affrighting, or incendiary, but the Spanish colony chose to view it with alarm. If Rizal had organized a prayer meeting or a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association these nervous folk would have seen in it only treason, stratagems, and spoils. On the Filipinos the effect was different. To the deliberate judgment of the intelligentsia the plan of the league appealed as the first practical suggestion of relief through peaceful agitation. With a novel sensation of hope, they took it to their bosoms. 1 Rapidly the membership increased; at last there was a promise of union and directed effort. And then the powers that stood behind the puppet governor-general and manipulated his movements decided that the ripe time had come to spring the trap; before this dangerous man should have back of him an organization able to realize his dreams he must be put to silence. Despujol sent for Rizal, leaped upon him as if from a machine with the leaflet, "The Poor Friars," that men said had been found in Lucia's baggage, and without trial or hearing ordered him to prison. From the spot where he stood in the governor-general's office a guard 247took him to Fort Santiago and thrust him into a cell. Another generation will not believe that this was done; and even in our own era, in which invasions of personal rights at times of great public excitement are not unknown, an act of such rank and impudent despotism seems improbable. There was not even a pretense of any legal proceeding, no warrant, no magistrate, no commitment. "Take this man to jail!" commands the governor-general. With an obedient start the guard sweeps away the prisoner, helpless in a square of rifles. It is enough to cause us to wonder if democracy and liberty are or can be more than veneer upon any old frame of European monarchy and whether time, in this conception of human society, must not necessarily stand stock-still.
