Individual friars were sometimes, nay, often, very worthy parish priests. I have known many such. But a community is often worse than the individuals of which it is composed. One might say with the Italian musician who had served for many years in a cathedral, and had obtained the promise of every individual canon to support his application for a pension, when he was told that the chapter had unanimously refused his request: "The canons are good, but the chapter is bad." A board will jointly do a meaner action than the shadiest director amongst them, and should it comprise one or two members of obtrusive piety, that circumstance enables it to disregard the ordinary standard of right and wrong with more assurance. There is a law in metallurgy which has a curious analogy to this law of human nature. It is this: An alloy composed of several metals of different melting-points, will fuse at a lower temperature than that of its lowest fusing constituent. The Orders, then, have been of the greatest service in the past; they have brought the Philippines and their inhabitants to a certain pitch of civilisation, and credit is due to them for this much, even if they could go no farther. For years their influence over the natives has been decreasing, and year by year the natives have become more and more antagonistic to priestly rule. A considerable intellectual development has taken place of late years in the Philippines. The natives are no longer content to continue upon the old lines; they aspire to a freer life. Many even harbour a sentiment of nationality such as was never thought of before. But if the Orders had lost ground with the natives and with many Spaniards, their influence still preponderated. Owners of vast estates, possessors of fabulous riches, armed with spiritual authority, knowing the secrets of every family, holding the venal courts of justice as in the hollow of their hand, dominating the local government, standing above the law, and purchasing the downfall of their enemies from the corrupt ministries in Madrid, these giant trusts, jealous of each other, yet standing firmly shoulder to shoulder in the common cause, constitute a barrier to progress that can have no place nor use under an American Protectorate. They are an anachronism in the twentieth century, and they must disappear as corporations from the Philippines. They should not, however, be buried under an avalanche of contumely and slander; their long and glorious past should be remembered, and in winding up their estates due regard should be paid to the interests of every member. I cannot here intimate how this is to be done, for it is an intricate subject, rendered more complex by the reluctance of the American Government to interfere in religious matters, even though they are so bound up with the politics of the Philippines that no pacification can be effected without following popular sentiment upon this point.