e 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.

[Environs.] The country around Manila, 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 Ana and Mariquina. Most of
the country-seats are situated on the Pasig river; 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.

[The cemetery.] In one of our rides we made a visit to the Campo Santo
or cemetery, about four miles from Manila. It is small, but has many
handsome 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. Niche