[179] No provision was made in the third Cortes for substitute representation for Ultramar (except in the decree of August 21, 1836, calling a Cortes for October 24 under the rules of the Constitution of 1812), which is in point with the ignorance manifested throughout this period by the officials at Madrid with regard to the Philippines. This accounts for the islands having no representation for some of the sessions of the Cortes.
[180] Andrés García Camba resided in Manila during 1825-35, and became so popular that he was elected a deputy to the Spanish Cortes; he was afterward (August, 1837-December, 1838) governor of the Philippines, and wrote a book (published at Cádiz, 1839) regarding his experiences while holding that office. Himself liberally inclined, he was constantly opposed by reactionary influences. Although his name does not appear in the pamphlet Filipinas y su representación en Cortes, he is generally considered as its author; and he alludes to it in the memoir above mentioned. (Vindel, Cat. bib. filip., nos. 1881, 1886.)
[181] Foreman says that Lecaros was a mestizo; and Montero y Vidal that he was a Filipino lawyer. The board of electors was mainly composed of peninsulars.
[182] Camba proposed (Filipinas y su representación en Cortes, 1836) a special mode of election to Cortes for the Philippines, which was to be by the Manila Ayuntamiento, as that was the only political organization in the islands worth mentioning, and was in direct contact with affairs. The law to be adopted for Ultramar, Camba argued, must take into account the condition of the country and the inhabitants. During this session, the Philippine representatives presented two petitions to the Secretario, del Despacho de Hacienda, asking in one for a moderation of the excessive duties on the introduction of Spanish brandy into the Philippines, and in the other the sending of few pensioners and subaltern employes to the islands, as this was a prejudice to the native Philippine Spaniards. Lecaros presented a plan to Mendizábal, the provisional president of the Consejo de Ministros, for the suppression of the monopoly on tobacco in the Philippines, but Mendizábal took measures to make the monopoly more remunerative to the state. See Montero y Vidal, Historia general, ii. pp. 554, 555, note.