Masonry grows and flourishes in spite of them all. To give an example. Many years ago, in the very Catholic city of Lima, I attended the civil funeral of a priest, the learned Doctor Don Francisco de Paula Gonzales Vigil, who died excommunicate. Twelve thousand men, including the Masons with their insignia, deputations from the Senate and Chamber, from the Municipality, Army, Navy, and other bodies, formed the funeral cortège. The Municipality presented a tomb in the public cemetery, which is one of the finest in the world, and an orator pronounced an impassioned eulogy upon the virtues and patriotism of the deceased. It was a wonderful manifestation, and remains graven upon my memory. On that day every priest and friar found something to occupy himself with at home. Whatever may be the case in Great Britain or in the United States, there can be no doubt that in Catholic countries the lodges are antagonistic to the clergy and the Church. The lodges in the Philippines were founded by anti-clerical Spaniards of liberal views, and the Creoles, Mestizos and natives who joined them found brethren disposed to sympathise with them and to work with them against the friars. There was no idea of revolting against the mother country, but rather to introduce a more liberal government, with representation for the civilised provinces in the Spanish Córtes. It must be remembered that this representation had already existed, and only required to be revived. There had been deputies to the Córtes-Generales from 1810 to 1814, and from 1820 to 1823, and Procuradores from 1834 to 1837. The Córtes of Cadiz, on 14th October, 1810, declared:-- "The kingdoms and provinces of America and Asia are, and ought to have been always, reputed an integral part of the Spanish monarchy, and for that same, their natives and free inhabitants are equal in rights and privileges to those of the peninsula." These are very noble words, and, delivered in the majestic language of Castile by some enthusiastic orator, must have gone straight to the hearts of those that heard them. Spain is as celebrated for orators as Great Britain for the lack of them. Our generation has never produced a speaker like Castelar. But, unfortunately for the Philippines, these grand and sonorous phrases dissolved in air, and led to nothing practical. The friars stoutly opposed what to them seemed dangerous innovations; they were successful, and darkness again prevailed. The insurrection of Cavite, in 1872, resulted in the execution or exile of many members of the masonic body, and the brotherhood was for some years under a cloud. The Peninsular Spaniards dissociated themselves from the revolutionary party. To use a simile which has been employed in England to describe the difference between Liberals and Radicals, they were "going by the same train, but not going so far."