28 October 1888

Paris

28 October 1888

Valentin Ventura

Mr. José Rizal y Mercado

London

Dear Friend,

On hand are your two last letters, always pleasing, dated 2 and 4 instant respectively, which I have read and I am now going to answer them.

In your letter of the 4th you say I need not bother about sending you money until the 20th or 25th of September. Tell me frankly when you need funds, because depending upon your reply, I shall decide for or against a project that I have in my portfolio. You see, Friend Rizal, that there cannot be greater frankness on my part, bordering on impudence.

Our mutual friend Luna has received a letter from his brother Antonio requesting that we of the Filipino colony here contribute to a subscription opened in Madrid in favor of poor Graciano Lopez Jaena in order to remedy a little the critical situation in which this poor man is in. I have given very little, I would have liked to give more, but it has caught me in a very difficult time.

The truth is that I do not know if we do well or badly in giving something, because it seems to me that it is to enable him to embark for the Philippines. But I ask myself: And once over there, what will become of this poor lad? Is it futile to count on his relatives who formerly sent him his allowance, because from the moment the friars succeeded to make them withdraw the allowance, they will have to let him die of hunger. On the other hand, the friars will try to take advantage of this in order to show that without them nothing can be done and they are capable of saying, and there will be people who will believe them, that if Graciano is experiencing the difficulties that he is going through now, it is for having written against them.

Do that [and] in short we do not remedy Graciano’s situation, but rather we aggravate it by placing him within reach of our enemies, and we shall give them besides the very great satisfaction of having their victim in their possession.

I am saying this only to you as my own opinion, because I don’t dare say it to the initiators of the subscription for they can tell me in turn, “And you, what do you want this lad to do in Europe?” And as I cannot at present pledge to give him all that he needs to enable him to stay in Europe and finish his studies, I have to keep quiet.

If it concerned another colony which is not ours, a sum could be collected from among us every month to be advanced to him for his allowance and this he could quietly finish his studies. But as it is the Filipino colony, I would not even suggest anything for fear that it may turn out like the notorious Revisita.

In short, ellos cuidado,[1] as they say over there. But I am sorry to know these things, for I like to be able to remedy them.

Friend Ramirez is leaving for our country. Maybe he will go on the 16th of next month by way of Barcelona.

Elisa sends you many regards.

Receive a close embrace of your friends who esteems you.

Valentin Ventura

03-340 [Reformists]