MANILLA. 
303 
There are many facilities for the transaction of business, as far as 
the shipment of articles is concerned; but great difficulties attend the 
settling of disputed accounts, collecting debts, &c.; in the way of which 
the laws passed in 1S34 have thrown many obstacles. All commercial 
business of this kind goes before, first, the Junta de Comercio, and then 
an appeal to the Tribunal de Comercio. This appeal, however, is 
merely nominal; for the same judges preside in each, and they are said 
to be susceptible of influences that render an appeal to them by honest 
men at all times hazardous. The opinion of those who have had the 
misfortune to be obliged to recur to these tribunals is, that it is better 
to suffer wrong than encounter both the expense and vexation of a 
resort to them for justice. In ihe first of these courts the decision is 
long delayed, fees exacted, and other expenses incurred; and when 
judgment is at length given, it excites one party or the other to appeal: 
other expenses accrue in consequence, and the advocates and judges 
grow rich while both the litigants suffer. I understood that these 
tribunals were intended to simplify business, lessen the time of suits, and 
promote justice; but these results have not been obtained, and many 
believe that they have had the contrary effect, and have opened the 
road to further abuses. 
The country around Manilla, though no more than an extended 
plain for some miles, is one of great interest and beauty, and affords 
many agreeable rides on the roads to Santa Anna and Maraquino. 
Most of the country-seats are situated on the river Pasig; they may 
indeed be called palaces, from their extent and appearance. They 
are built upon a grand scale, and after the Italian style, with terraces, 
supported by strong abutments, decked with vases of plants. The 
grounds are ornamented with the luxuriant, lofty, and graceful trees 
of the tropics; these are tolerably well kept. Here and there fine 
large stone churches, with their towers and steeples, are to be seen, 
the whole giving the impression of a wealthy nobility, and a happy 
and flourishing peasantry. 
In one of our rides we made a visit to the Campo Santo or ceme¬ 
tery, about four miles from Manilla. It is small, but has many hand¬ 
some trees about it; among them was an Agati, full of large white 
flowers, showing most conspicuously. The whole place is as unlike a 
depository of the dead as it well can be. Its form is circular, having 
a small chapel, in the form of a rotunda, directly opposite the gate, or 
entrance. The walls are about twenty feet high, with three tiers of 
niches, in which the bodies are enclosed with quicklime. Here they 
are allowed to remain for three years, or until such time as the niches 
may be required for further use. Niches may be purchased, however, 
