M A N I L L A. 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 1834 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 the 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 w T hole 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, 



