ubi numerosior justo est nobilitas, erit plebs vilis et ignava; atque eo demum res redibit, ut nec centesimum quodque caput sit ad galeam portandam idoneum; præsertim si peditatum spectes, qui exercitus plerunque est robur præcipuum; unde succedet magna populatio, vires exiguæ. Nusquam gentium hoc quod dico luculentius comprobatum est, quam exemplis Angliæ et Galliæ; quarum Anglia, quamvis territorio et numero incolarum longe inferior, potiores tamen partes fere semper in bellis obtinuit; hanc ipsam ob causam, quod apud Anglos coloni et inferioris ordinis homines militiæ habiles sint, rustici Galliæ non item. Qua in re mirabili quadam et profunda prudentia excogitatum est ab Henrico Septimo Angliæ rege (id quod in Vitæ ejus Historia fusius tractavimus), ut prædia minora atque domus agricolationis instituerentur, quæ habeant certum eumque mediocrem agri modum annexum, qui distrahi non possit; eo fine ut ad victum liberaliorem sufficiat, utque agricultura ab iis exerceretur qui domini fuerint fundi, aut saltem usufructuarii, non conductitii aut mercenarii. Nam ita demum characterem illum, quo antiquam Italiam insignivit Virgilius, merebitur regio aliqua;

Terra potens armis, atque ubere gleba.1

Neque prætereunda est illa pars populi (quæ Angliæ fere est peculiaris, nec alibi (quod scio) in usu, nisi forte apud Polonos), famuli scilicet Nobilium. Hujus enim generis etiam inferiores, quoad peditatum, agricolis ipsis minime cedunt. Quare certissimum est, quod magnificentia et splendor ille hospitalis, atque famulitia et veluti satellitia ampla, quæ in more sunt

1 Virg. Æn. i. 531.

apud Nobiles et Generosos in Anglia, ad potentiam militarem apprime conducant; ubi contra, Nobilium obscura et magis privata et in se reducta vitæ ratio copias militares minuit.

4. Danda est omnino opera ut Arbor ista Monarchiæ, qualis fuit Nebuchadnezzaris, truncum habeat satis amplum et robustum ad ramos suos et frondes sustentandos; hoc est, ut numerus indigenarum ad subditos extraneos cohibendos satis superque sufficiat. Illi igitur status ad Imperii Magnitudinem bene comparati sunt, qui Jus Civitatis facile et libenter largiuntur. Vana siquidem fuerit opinio, posse manipulum hominum, utcunque animis et consilio excellant, regiones nimio plus amplas et spatiosas imperii jugo cohibere et frænare. Id ad tempus fortasse facere possint, sed diuturnitatem hæc. res non assequitur. Spartani parci fuerunt et difficiles in cooptandis novis civibus. Unde, donec intra parvos limites dominati sunt, res eorum firmæ fuerunt et stabiles; at postquam limites suos cœpissent proferre, et latius dominari quam ut stirps Spartanorum turbam exterorum imperio commode coercere posset, potentia eorum subito corruit. Nulla unquam respublica sinus suos ad novos cives recipiendos tam profuse laxavit, quam respublica Romana. Itaque par erat instituto tam prudenti fortuna; cum in imperium toto orbe amplissimum succreverint. Moris apud eos erat, Jus Civitatis prompte elargiri; idque in supremo gradu; hoc est, non solum Jus Commercii, Jus Connubii, Jus Hæreditatis; verum etiam Jus Suffragii, et Jus Petitionis sive Honorum; hocque rursus non singulis tantum personis, sed totis familiis, imo civitatibus, et nonnunquam integris nationibus, 1 Daniel, c. iv.

communicarunt. Huc adde consuetudinem deducendi Colonias, quibus Romanæ stirpes in solum exterum transplantabantur. Quæ duo instituta si simul componas, dices profecto non Romanos se diffudisse super universum orbem; sed contra orbem universum se diffudisse super Romanos; quæ securissima proferendi imperii est ratio. Subit mirari sæpius imperium Hispanorum, quod tam paucis indigenis tot regna et provincias amplexari et frænare possit. At certe Hispaniæ ipsæ pro arboris stemmate satis grandi haberi debent; cum longe ampliorem contineant regionum tractum quam Romæ aut Spartæ sub initiis suis contigerat. Porro, quanquam Jus Civitatis satis parce soleant Hispani impertire, quod proximum tamen est faciunt ; quippe qui cujuscunque nationis homines ad militiam suam ordinariam promiscue admittant. Quinetiam summum belli imperium haud raro ad duces natione non Hispanos deferunt.1 Attamen et illam ipsam videntur non ita pridem indigena: um paucitatem sensisse, eique succurrere cupiisse; ut ex Pragmatica Sanctione, hoc anno promulgata, cernere est.2

1 E. g. Bourbon, Prosper Colonna, Pescara, Egmont, Castaldo, Parma, Piccolomini, Spinola. Of these, however, one or two might almost be called Spaniards; and it must be remembered that the dominions both of Charles V. and of his successors extended beyond the natural limits of the Spanish monarchy.

2 In 1618, the Cortes, among other projects of reformation, petitioned the king not to grant any licences for monastic foundations.

The excessive multiplication of religious houses had attracted the atten tion of the government long before; and the opinions of a number of ecclesiastics were taken on the subject, in 1603, but nothing further seems to have been done. Subsequently however to the representation of the Cortes, the state of the kingdoms belonging to the crown of Castile was referred by the king to the council of Castile; and their report, which is given at full length in Davila's Life of Philip the Third (see chap. 86.), is known as the Gran Consulta de 1619. The distress and depopulation of the parts of Spain to which it refers are stated in very strong language, the causes assigned being mainly excessive and oppressive taxation, the

5. Certissimum est Artes Mechanicas Sedentarias, quæ non sub dio sed sub tecto exercentur, atque increase of luxury, and the non-residence of the rich on their estates. To relieve the revenue, the revocation of royal grants, when any fair reason could be found for doing so, is recommended. Sumptuary laws are also proposed, and some regulations tending to the relief of the agricultural class. The king is also advised to be cautious in granting licenses to religious houses. Ortiz states expressly that no measures were taken to carry out the recommendation of the council during the reign of Philip the Third; a statement which seems to be fully confirmed by the silence of so copious and seemingly so painstaking an annalist as Gonzalez Davila. The assertion to be found in some French and English books, that the king made a decree in virtue of which those who introduced agricultural improvements on their estates were ennobled, is in itself exceedingly improbable, and has perhaps no other foundation than the imagination of some French economist who may have been misled by the circumstance that in the Cortes of 1618 something was done with respect to proofs of nobility. I speak however without having seen Navarrete's Conservacion della Monarquia. Soon after the accession of Philip the Fourth a royal decree or Pragmática was published which attempted to carry out some of the recommendations of the council, and which gave certain privileges to persons who married, and further immunities to those who had six children. For some account of its provisions, see Cespedes' History of the first Six Years of Philip the Fourth (published at Lisbon in 1631, and reprinted in Spain in 1634), book 3. cc. 17, 18. Cespedes does not precisely fix the date of the decree, but it was plainly issued some time in the summer of 1622, and is no doubt that to which Bacon refers. The date assigned by Desormeaux, namely the 10th of February 1624, is manifestly wrong; the sumptuary part of the enactment was suspended on the occasion of the visit of Prince Charles in 1623. See Mead's Letters to Stuteville, in Ellis's Letters.

It is a historical commonplace to assert that the depopulation of Spain was caused by the expulsion of the Moriscos, but this alone could not have produced so permanent an effect. The energies of the country were exhausted by excessive and unequal taxation; and the increase of the number of religious houses, especially of those belonging to the Mendicant Orders, aggravated the evil. Ranke has justly remarked that Spain must always have been a thinly peopled country; and he might have added, a country in which there seems always to have been a tendency to become depopulated. Thus in a passage of the Siete Pirtidas, quoted in the Gran Consulta, it is said to be part of the duty of the king to see that the population of places does not fall off. Even the word despoblado suggests a different idea from that which is expressed by weald or wilderness. It may be well to remark that there seems no reason to doubt that the population of Spain is much greater now than it was in the 16th century, although for a considerable time there must have been a decrease. Cassmany, in an interesting essay on the subject, has shown how much exaggeration there is

Manufacturas Delicatas (quæ digitum potius quam brachium requirunt), sua natura militaribus animis esse contrarias. In universum, populi bellicosi feriari gaudent; et pericula quam labores minus exhorrent. Atque in hoc ingenio suo non sunt admodum reprimendi, si animos ipsorum in vigore conservare cordi nobis sit. Magno itaque adjumento Spartæ, Athenis, Romæ, aliisque antiquis rebuspublicis fuit, quod habuerint non Ingenuos, sed Servos plerunque, quorum laboribus istiusmodi opificia expediebantur. Verum mancipiorum usus, post legem Christianam receptam, maxima ex parte abiit in desuetudinem. Huic vero rei proximum est, ut artes istæ alienigenis tantum permittantur, qui propterea alliciendi aut saltem facile recipiendi sunt. Nativorum autem plebs ex tribus generibus hominum constare debet; nempe ex agricolis, famulis ingenuis, et artificibus quorum opera robur et lacertos viriles postulant; cujusmodi sunt fabri ferrarii, lapidarii, lignarii, et similes; non annumerando militiam descriptam.

6. Ante omnia ad Imperii Magnitudinem confert, ut gens aliqua armorum studium profiteatur, tanquam decus suum, et institutum vitæ primarium, et in præcipuo honore habitum. Quæ enim a nobis adhuc dicta sunt, ad habilitates tantum erga arma spectant; quorsum autem habilitas, si non rei ipsi incumbitur, ut producatur in actum? Romulus (ut narrant, aut fingunt) postquam e vivis excesserat illud civibus suis legavit, ut ante omnia rem militarem colerent, unde in caput orbis terrarum urbs eorum insurgeret.1 Imperii Spartani fabrica universa (non nimis prudenter quidem,

in the statements made by Spanish writers of the 16th and 17th centuries, as to the population and manufacturing industry of the country in earlier times. According to him the population reached its minimum about 1700. 1 Liv. i. 16.