According to an essay in the Revue Nationale, April, 1867, Spain has had, from 1834 to 1862, i.e. since the accession of Isabella, 4 Constitutions, 28 Parliaments, 47 Chief Ministers, 529 Cabinet Ministers, and 68 Ministers of the Interior; of which last class of officials each, on an average, was in power only six months.  For ten years past the Minister of Finance has not remained in office longer than two months; and since that time, particularly since 1868, the changes have followed one another with still greater rapidity.

[245] The reason of this premiun on silver was, that the Chinese bought up all the Spanish and Mexican dollars, in order to send them to China, where they are worth more than other dollars, being known from the voyage of the galleon thither in olden times, and being current in the inland provinces. (The highest price there can be obtained for a Carlos iii.)

A mint erected in Manila since that time, which at least supports itself, if the goverment has derived no other advantage from it, has removed this difficulty.  The Chinese are accustomed to bring gold and silver as currency, mixed also with foreign coinage, to Manila for the purpose of buying the produce of the country; and all this the native merchants had recoined.  At first only silver ounces were usually obtainable in Manila, gold ounces very rarely.  This occasioned such a steady importation that the conditions were completely reversed.  In the Insular Treasury the gold and silver dollar are always reckoned at the same value.

[246] The Chinese were generally known in the Philippines as “Sangleys”; according to Professor Schott, “sang-lui (in the south szang-loi, also senng-loi) mercatorum ordo.”  “Sang” is more specially applied to the travelling traders, in opposition to “ku,” tabernarii.

[247] ......  “They are a wicked and vicious people, and, owing to
their numbers, and to their being such large eaters, they consume
the provisions and render them dear ......It is true the town cannot
exist without the Chinese, as they are the workers in all the trades
and business, and very industrious, and work for small wages; but
for that very reason a lesser number of them would be sufficient.”—­
Morga, p. 349.

[248] “Recopilacion,” Lib. iv., Tit. xviii., ley. 1.

[249] “Informe,” I., iii., 73.

[250] The Chinese were not permitted to live in the town, but in a district specially set apart for them.

[251] Velarde, 274.

[252] See following chapter.

[253] Zuniga, xvi.

[254] No single people in Europe can in any way compare with the inhabitants of California, which, in the early years of its existence, was composed only of men in the prime of their strength and activity, without aged people, without women, and without children.  Their activity, in a country where everything had to be provided (no civilised neighbors living within some hundred miles or so), and where all provisions