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.  Niches may be purchased, however, and permanently closed up; but in the whole cemetery there were but five thus secured.  This would seem to indicate an indifference on the part of the living, for their departed relatives or friends; at least such was my impression at the time.  The center of the enclosure is laid out as a flower-garden and shrubbery, and all the buildings are washed a deep buff-color, with white cornices; these colors, when contrasted with the green foliage, give an effect that is not unpleasing.  In the chapel are two tombs, the one for the bishop, and the other for the governor.  The former, I believe, is occupied, and will continue to be so, until another shall follow him; but the latter is empty, for, since the erection of the cemetery, none of the governors have died.  In the rear of the chapel is another small cemetery, called Los Angeles; and, further behind, the Osero.  The former is similar