300 Voyage of the Novara. 



For what privations must not such a source of pure exquisite 

 enjoyment indemnify the ascetic brethren of the cloister! 

 That spiritual meditation and converse however do not form 

 the sole topics discussed in these departments, was abund- 

 antly evidenced by the hints let fall by several of the monks 

 who conducted us tlu-ough the various corridors and apart- 

 ments, and who were constantly indulging in visions of 

 Carlist supremacy and a return of the halcyon days of mon- 

 asticism. On our remarking that so far as worldly consider- 

 ation was concerned, the cloister enjoyed far more cordial 

 support in Manila than either in Spain or Cuba, one of the 

 Augustinians who was accompanying us, a tall commanding 

 figure, attired in the plain garb of the order, replied: '' The 

 Government knows that it has need of us, that it could not 

 get on a day without us, therefore it leaves us in peace, and 

 places no impediments in our path as in Spain."* And 

 he was right. Whensoever the monks lift the finger, Spain 

 has ceased to rule in the Philippines. The spiritual reins 

 have ever bridled the secular authority, and such a state of 

 things is the severest impediment to the development of the 

 country and its intellectual growth. 



* This opinion of our Augustinian guide is not shared out there. An Austrian 

 traveller, as widely renowned as highly cultivated, Baron Von Hiigel, relates, in his 

 Diary already alluded to, the following singular revelations by a friar in Manila : 

 " The Philippine Islands belong to the Augustine monks ; in Manila, Don Pasquale 

 (the then Governor) or another may ruffle it and talk large, — in the interior we 

 are the true masters. Tell me where you want to go and everything shall be laid 



open for you! Police in the interior? It is laughable to hear 



of such an idea ! As if such were possible ! and I should be glad to make the ac- 



