vails among
them, I may mention a circumstance which struck me much at the time:--

Being near the cathedral at Manilla one evening in April last, I
entered an open door of the edifice and wandered into a room attached
to it, where several people were in waiting, and among them several
women with children to be baptized. I stopped to witness the ceremony,
and had the curiosity to look into the register where their names were
enrolled; in that book, two of them were described as illegitimate
children, and the third was the only one born in matrimony.

Although the custom does not prevail to anything like the extent
of two-thirds of the population, still it is a very frequent one,
and proves among other things, that the sort of religion prevailing
among the people is only that of forms, possessing no sufficient hold
over their minds to regulate their conduct.

Compare their religious ideas with those of the old Scottish
covenanters, or English puritans, and how different are the effects
of faith; but perhaps they are not more dissimilar than the natures
of the two races are. For there is no race in the world with all the
good qualities of the Celtic breed crossed by the Saxon, and that
again by the Norman; for depend upon it, blood tells in every human
being--aye, and as much in men as in dogs or horses.

But, unfortunately for ourselves, men pay less attention to the innate
qualities and virtues of blood and pedigree, when selecting a mate for
themselves, than they do when their dogs or horses are in question,
as then no trouble is spared to trace out and scrutinise the qualities
of _their_ sires, and to breed only from a good stock.

By pedigree, of course not the worldly station of men is meant, but
the history of their lives and reputations, as good and useful men of
their time. Of necessity both parents affect the character of their
offspring, and so we frequently see a great and good man leaving
behind him none in his family capable of supplying his place. Now,
how is this? Why, it comes from the mistake he has made in selecting
his mate, for if he had been more cautious in that respect the produce
would have been equal to the promise.

How often do we see wise men with silly wives and tall men with short
wives. The only wonder is, that the offspring of such couples are
not worse than they are.

CHAPTER X.

The intercourse between the Spaniards and many of the foreigners
residing at Manilla is not