A misconception appears to exist as to the state of society at Manilla, people at a distance for the most part labouring under the erroneous impression that it remains stationary, and is today as much behind the rest of the world as it was thirty years ago; and that it can support no newspaper or other publication. Now, during my residence at Manilla, there have been various periodicals published daily, bi-weekly, and weekly; but at the end of last year (1850), these had all given place to one daily newspaper, called the Diario de Manilla, which being more carefully conducted than any of its predecessors, still continues to enjoy its popularity.

It is under the direction of an editor, who being in his youth trained up to commercial pursuits, and having spent some years of his life in Great Britain in order to conduct the business of his Spanish friends, has insensibly acquired ideas during his residence there which are, no doubt, more exact and unprejudiced than those of the bulk of his countrymen, so that he understands the duties of a journalist, and manages his paper better than these things were formerly done. Of course, however, he must study not to trespass on the existing regulations of the censor, if he would avoid the scissors of that officer, whose duties are, to prevent any statement obnoxious to the powers that be from seeing the light. This, of course, is a great check to the spread of information, especially of a political character; and articles written and printed, have frequently to be suppressed in the succeeding impressions of the paper. The power is sometimes exercised when there is very little occasion for the interference of authority, and, of course, must very materially interfere with the mode of conducting an efficient newspaper.

To give the censor time to examine its contents, the Diario is printed the afternoon preceding its publication, and is issued every day except Monday, thus leaving the printers free from work and at liberty on Sunday.

The Diario has a large circulation in Manilla and the different provinces of the islands, besides having agents at Madrid, Cadiz, and Paris; it is also obtainable in the Havana, at Hongkong, and at Singapore.

The subscription is one dollar a month, which is moderate enough; and advertisements are inserted in its columns without charge.

Once a week it includes a list of the shipping in the harbour, and also of the arrivals and departures, and reports every morning the arrivals and cargoes of any vessels that have come in on the previous day from the provinces. It also publishes a weekly price-current of the produce of the country.

A well-conducted periodical of this nature is of great importance in a commercial point of view, not only from the advertisements circulated by its means throughout the Philippines, but from the variety of facts and information which the country alcaldes address to the Manilla Government, in which they are required to give a list of the prices-current for the various articles of produce grown in their different provinces; a regulation which, of course, tends to keep the trade on a sound footing, and to prevent reckless speculation, which the want of market information usually induces.

The Diario is delivered at the houses of Manilla subscribers at about daylight every morning, so that they may make themselves masters of its contents while sipping their chocolate, before engaging in the business of the day. This is no slight luxury, I assure the reader, and it is not at all diminished by the place being so remote from the sound of Bow-bells and the region of Cockaigne, although it is true that the contents of the paper are not composed of exciting parliamentary reports, or of leading articles equal in talent to those of the Times or Morning Chronicle.

The mail bags are carried to the provinces by mounted couriers, and the north post, arriving at Manilla every Friday morning, brings communications from the important provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Zambales, Pampanga, Nueva Eciga, Pangasinan, Ilocos (North and South), Abra, and Cagayan; and is despatched from the capital to all these districts every Monday at noon.

The south post, embracing the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Mindoro, the islands of Masbate and Ticao, Camarines (North and South), Albay, Samars, and Leyte, reaches Manilla every Tuesday morning, and is despatched from it in return every Wednesday at noon. To the arsenal of Cavite there is a daily post, excepting on Sundays; and to the islands of Visayas, the Marianas, and Batanes, the correspondence is forwarded by the first ships bound for any of those places, as they are obliged to give notice to the postmaster two days before starting for them.

It would be difficult to over-estimate the advantages of this line of postal communication, which affords the native traders in remote places the best facilities for the prosecution of their trade in the various articles of commerce produced in the districts where they live.

There are, of course, several things which might be improved in the administration of the post-office, as is the case in every country, without bringing Spain and her colonies in question; but, no doubt, these will be found out by-and-by, and an alteration for the better will take place.

The press of Manilla is much more active than is commonly supposed, as, besides the Diario, there are several other periodicals printed in the place. Among them may be mentioned the Guia de Forasteros, and an Almanac, which is printed at the College of Santo Tomas, being entirely got up and sold by the priests of that institution, the proceeds being devoted to charitable purposes.

Various religious and polemical works also emanate at different times from the press, all of them neatly and well printed, nay, highly creditable to the Indian compositors who execute them.

I have frequently seen it stated in books, the authors of which should have been better informed, that no periodical publications exist at Manilla. Certainly there is much less appetite there for such things, than is exhibited among my own countrymen, whose birthright it is to grumble at the conduct of authorities, and to show up delinquencies with the most unsparing zeal, neither of which would be quite safe to attempt at Manilla, although it is so in Great Britain, and all her colonies and dependencies.