[The second letter is one from the Manila Ayuntamiento, dated July 12, 1804. This letter is highly laudatory of the friars, who spare no pains to fulfil their duties. The native secular priests however, are only in few instances found efficient, and are in general only fit to act as assistants to the friar curas. The Filipinos with their weak intellects, seem unfitted for the office of priest, by reason of their lack of constancy. They have not the education requisite for the office of priest, for the conciliar seminaries are little more than a name in which a few native secular priests, themselves without sufficient education, attempt to teach. The regulars subjected to the royal patronage would be much better than any native seculars. After Mindoro was transferred from the Recollects to the native seculars, the missions quickly declined, churches were ruined, Moro raids increased, and the tribute of the villages fell off. In consequence, the government now wishes to replace the native clergy by the Recollects. The regulars also further the temporal affairs, and have done notable things in agriculture. The Ayuntamiento hopes that the complaints against the regulars will be disregarded, "for although there are some defects which they may have, they are always useful to religion and the state."] [The third citation is from San Agustin's famous letter on the character of the natives. [15]] Taking the Christian religion as the foundation upon which our domination is sustained, it is evident that everything that contributes to destroy the religious spirit, destroys and undermines this foundation. Under this idea nothing can have more direct harm than the degradation and corruption of the minister of divine worship, and experience has demonstrated this truth. For just as the first sectarians of Jesus Christ extended his religion rapidly by means of the enthusiasm which took possession of their minds, and by means of the martyrdoms which they suffered, so also, in all places where the priests have given themselves to effeminacy, to feasting, to ambition, and to vices, the belief of the peoples has diminished from that moment, and they have ended by falling into religious indifference. The government ought, then, to consider the clergy as a power; and just as great care is taken not to introduce insubordination and demoralization into an army, so also the government ought to watch over the conduct of the curas. Let them have all the influence possible over the village, but let them always be Spanish Europeans, and allow them to feel no other interest than España. This is the vital question. If the matter be considered under this point of view, one cannot exaggerate the harm that a goodly portion of the friars are doing, and the moral force that our government is losing because of the manner in which they are living. The most general weakness is that of concubinage. Many keep a mistress (who is there called a stewardess [despensera]), inside