month earlier than in France, viz. in September and October; but the raisins or dried grapes are gathered in June. The other fruits are equally rich; olives, oranges, lemons, almonds, and in the warmest provinces the pomegranate and the palm. The kitchen gardens are chiefly cultivated by irrigation, the water being raised by a wheel: the common products are onions, garlic, melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers. Instead of butter the Spaniards use olive oil, which, from misma nagement in the manufacture, is less pure than that of France or Italy, though the fruit from which it is made is superior.

Cultivation of every kind is as yet very backward. Catholic superstition maintains undivided sway, and the observance of an absurd number of holidays has perpetuated indolent habits, and made the inhabitants of many fertile districts confine their labor to the mere supply of their wants. Corn, from the badness of the roads and the want of canals, may be dear in one district and cheap in another. The purchase made for the granaries is seldom to an extent sufficient to meet the wants of a bad season. Catalonia, since increasing its manufactures and its population, has been supplied with provisions not from the back provinces so much as from other countries. Of the domestic animals of Spain the cattle are less numerous than the wants of the country require, or the extent of pasture in the higher grounds would afford the means of rearing. Mules are in general use for travelling; and, as to horses, the famed breed of Andalusia is degenerating and very limited in number.

One cause of the backwardness of Spanish agriculture, and of the productive industry of Spain in general, is the loss of time in church holidays. A minor cause is the distance of part of the cultivated lands from the dwellings of the peasantry, the latter living not in detached houses, but in villages. There is also a general complaint of want of hands in Spain; the church having absorbed in its monasteries, as well as in its less humble functions, many who might have been useful as cultivators or manufacturers. A further loss is sustained by the undue proportion of lawyers, students, and genteel professions; while of the lower classes, an extra number become men servants, and the lowest of all are not ashamed to go a begging. It is supposed that the agriculturists, who in France form two-thirds of the population, do not in Spain exceed onethird. Add to this, as further discouragements of agriculture, the prohibitions on the export of corn, the injudicious taxes, the difficulty of procuring water during the summer; the vast hereditary properties, and the right vested in the church and certain large sheep owners. The latter have a right and deed, that of the Mesta, of driving large flocks at certain seasons cver the entire soil. Bodies of about 10,000 sheep are conducted from province to province in the spring by about fifty shepherds, under the charge of a mayoral or officer of responsibility. The progress of such numerous flocks is necessarily slow, a journey of 400 or 500 miles requiring thirty or thirty-five days. It is usual to shear the sheep by the way, in the large buildings called Esquileios, erected for that purpose. In autumn a similar journey

is requisite, to bring the flocks from the high ground to the plains. Migrations of so frequent occurrence, and to so great an extent, necessarily required specific regulations, and gave rise to the Mesta, an association authorised by government to decide all questions between the shepherds and the farmers through whose lands the migrations take place. Such questions are decided by special courts, who perform a kind of circuit for the purpose. Of the propriety of law and regulation on such a head there can be no doubt; but great exception is made to several of the existing enactments, such as, that no land that has been once in pasturage shall be cultivated until offered to the Mesta at a certain rate; that a road of 240 feet in width shall be left in the cultivated fields, &c. The number of migratory sheep is necessarily various of late years it has been computed at 5,000,000. The quality of the Spanish wool has long been celebrated; but it is not clear that that of the migratory sheep surpasses that of the others.

:

Trade and manufactures.-In a country abounding with fine wool, and not deficient in provisions, flourishing manufactures might be expected; but such are the effects of misgovernment that Spain is obliged to import part of her broad-cloth, flannel, and serges, from England and France. In like manner, notwithstanding the productive iron mines of Biscay, she imports great part of her hardware; so that if we except Catalonia, where both silks and cottons are made, the only manufactures conducted with spirit in Spain are the twisting of silk, the tanning of leather, and the working of Sparto or Esparto grass (Spanish broom) into mats, baskets, and shoes.

In the middle ages the commerce of Spain with foreign countries was confined to a few towns of importance, as Venice, Genoa, Ghent, and Bruges. The discovery of America opened a prospect which would have been eagerly embraced by an active people: in the hands of the Spaniards, it was soon miserably cramped by the spirit of monopoly. Confined at first to Seville, transferred to Cadiz after 1720, and relieved from part of its absurd restrictions in 1739 and 1764, it was at last thrown open, after 1778, to a number of the chief sea-ports. This was productive of the best effects, and the mercantile shipping of Spain received a considerable increase; but the trade in question never acquired an importance to be compared to that of England with the United States. The Spanish Americans were indolent, had few wants, and but limited means. Part of their imports were long supplied by the English from Jamaica and Trinidad, and a farther part from the United States; and now, that the shackles of monopoly are definitively broken, there seems little doubt the chief supplies will be received direct from England.

The trade of Spain with England, France, and the Netherlands, comprises a variety of articles both of export and import: with other countries it is less varied. From the Baltic the imports are corn and naval stores; from Greece, the coast of Africa, and the Euxine, they are in general confined to corn. The exports consist chiefly of wool, wine, brandy, fruit, olive oil,

silk, salt, and barilla. All these, but in particular wool, salt, fruit, and wine, form exports to England. In return, the chief imports are woollen cloth, hardware, and cottons from England; linen from Germany and Ireland; woollens, jewellery, and paper, from France; and salt fish from England and Newfoundland. The intercourse between Spain and Britain would have been much greater, had not the transfer of the crown of Spain to a branch of the Bourbons produced a political jealousy and consequent connexion between Britain and Portugal. The total value of exports from Spain in 1792 was computed at £7,000,000 sterling; and it probably has in no year exceeded £8,000,000 or £9,000,000, equal to about a third of those of France, or a sixth of those of Great Britain, The principal sea-ports are Cadiz, Barcelona, Carthagena, Malaga, Alicant, Corunna, Bilboa, and St. Sebastian. The proportion of foreign trade carried on in Spanish bottoms was altogether insignificant, until 1778, and since then it has not been large, the Catalans and Biscayans being almost their only navigators. Mercantile questions are in general decided by special courts, like the tribunals of commerce in France.

In 1802,' says a Spanish history of the late war, published in 1808, the produce of our industry was calculated at 350,000,000 francs; but it was soon reduced to much less in consequence of the maritime war (with England) and the malversations of the prince of the peace. The effects of these checks were the more felt, as the remittances from the American colonies were inadequate to cover the deficit. Our industry in 1808, represented by the amount of its produce, was to that of France nearly as seven to forty. Our commerce in 1802, soon after the peace of Amiens, was to that of France as two to three-such, at least, is the result of the statistical documents published by the continental powers at that period. But according to the more accurate estimate presented to government by Mr. Canga Arguelles, in 1803, the proportion was that of twenty-eight to 182, which, in fact, differs but little from the preceding.

When Great Britain declared against us, in the following year, our commerce, which was just beginning to recover from the losses of the past war, may be said to have received its death wound. Our mercantile companies, then the most powerful in Europe, were ruined by the general stagnation of trade, by the large and frequent loans made to a government who never paid either interest or principal. The Philippine Islands Company, whose funds were immense, failed to the amount of 6,000,000 (of francs). The deputation of the five Gremios of Madrid, well known to all Europe for its credit and wealth, was ruined, partly by the inactive state of our industry, partly by the financial operations of our ministers. Neither the national bank of San Carlos, which opened with a capital of 75,000,000 (of reals, about £7,500,000 sterling), nor the Royal Maritime Company, created in 1789, could realise their objects, or even preserve their funds, which were soon drained, to fill the strong chests of the favorite, or spent in

France for the support of armies which were, at no distant period, to be employed against us.

The failure of remittances from Spanish America, the enormous subsidies which we paid to France, and the ruinous measures by which the annual deficits were met, exhausted the treasury, and put an end to public credit. No funds were safe from the hands of the favorite. The capital of the bank, that of the Monte de Piedad, the judiciary deposits, the pauper's fund,—all was seized by servile ambition, that it might support injustice and prodigality. The plans of internal navigation were forgotten, the public works then in progress were suspended, and those that had been concluded were left to decay for want of means to repair them. The government, wholly intent on guilty schemes of momentary advantage, not only neglected the country whose interests it was their duty to promote, but actually increased the obstacles which were opposed to her industry. Custom-houses were found in every direction, the roads were crowded with revenue officers, and tolls were levied, at every step, upon travellers. The merchants were compelled to make declarations injurious to their interests; and, when they had gone through ten thousand vexatious forms, they could not yet feel secure, or beyond the reach of the fiscal vultures.'

The Roman Catholic, we need hardly add, is the only religion tolerated in Spain. The inquisition was introduced soon after 1492, to watch over and eventually to clear the kingdom of the Jews and Moors. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it found means to extend its power over the Christian sectaries; but in the eighteenth it became little else than an engine of police. It was abolished by Buonaparte, but restored by Ferdinand in 1814: in 1820 it was abolished, until, on the return of the blessed Ferdinand, it was re-established by acclamation! Its judges in former ages were chiefly Dominican monks; they in modern times have consisted of regular clergy, with a certain proportion of laymen. The property of the church was one of the earliest objects of attack on the part of the Cortes in 1820, and with reason; for, though the conduct of many of the clergy was exemplary, the division of income was so unequal, that while several prelates, such as the archbishop of Valencia, had an income of £20,000 sterling, and the archbishop of Toledo three times as much, the lower clergy lived in a state of poverty. They were besides far too numerous; for, while the prelates of Spain consisted of eight archbishops and sixty-one bishops, the minor clergy were not short of 40,000, distributed throughout 18,871 parishes. In addition to these, 2000 monasteries contained nearly 50,000 monks; and 1075 convents, about 20,000 nuns. Part of these monasteries and convents are now (1821) abolished, and the inmates allowed a small pension for life, government having appropriated their lands to the public treasury. The direct taxes paid by the clergy were insignificant; but the dues raised on church property, in the shape of first fruits (annates) and temporary vacancies, were inconsiderable. The clergy were amenable, not to civil courts, but to those of the bishops:

and the appeals from the latter lay to a court at Madrid, in which the papal nuncio was president.

The universities of Spain, formerly twenty-four in number, have been progressively reduced to eleven, and of these, few are well conducted. The antiquated system of logic, and other parts of scholastic philosophy, continued to be taught until the middle of the eighteenth century, when the government, roused by ridicule at home, and the example of improvement abroad, at last prescribed alterations, which, however, still leave the Spanish universities greatly behind those of France, Germany, or Great Britain. In most of the monasteries are schools instituted for the education of the monks, but open to youth generally. The instruction given there is replete with superstitious notions. Of the various schools of the kingdom unconnected with monasteries, many are conducted on a plan less exceptionable, but still far from corresponding to the general advancement of the age. Madrid has a public library of fully 100,000 volumes; and there are collections on a smaller scale in other cities; but as yet, at least, they are greatly deficient in good modern publications. Spain appears to have had very little national literature until the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II., a period still cited as its golden age, but evidently overrated, its eminent writers having been few, and the succeeding centuries (the sixteenth and seventeenth) having been avowedly feeble, without any cause of decline. At last, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the government and a small but distinguished body of individuals, became conscious of the national inferiority, and began to labor for the diffusion of improvement. Still good books in the Spanish language are not many, but they date in general from that period. The basis of the Spanish language is the Latin, with a mixture of Celtic, and, in the southern provinces, of Arabic. It is sonorous and harmonious, pronounced almost literally as it is written, and is a fine language, when exhibited without that tendency to amplification, so common among Spanish writers. Of the fine arts, the Spaniards have been most successful in painting and architecture.

The judges of petty offences in Spain are the alcades, officers corresponding to the justices of peace in Britain, or more properly combining the functions of the French mayor and judge of the peace. Next come the corregidores and alcades mayores, a class whose jurisdiction is somewhat more comprehensive, but still limited to a district, and subject to revisal by the audiencias, or .great courts, whose jurisdiction is extensive, and whose decisions can be reversed only in Madrid. These audiencias are established in a number of the principal towns, such as Seville, Granada, Valencia, Barcelona, Saragossa, Valladolid, Oviedo, Corunna, Caceres in Estremadura, and Palma in the island of Majorca; to which are to be added, the council of Navarre, and the council of Castile at Madrid, the latter forming, like the court of cassation in France, the final judicature, or court of appeal for the kingdom. The alguazils, like the constables or bailiffs in Britain, are officers charged with arrests and the

pursuit of thieves. In general the administration of justice in Spain is defective, less from want of integrity or ability in the individuals, than from the retention of pernicious forms. A class of agents called escrivanos, or writers, were, until the late revolution, alone entitled to receive depositions, rejoinders, or other papers relating to a process; and, by a singular usage, the defendant was obliged to employ the same agent as the plaintiff. This absurd practice, and the power of the agents to choose their court, when there happens to be two courts in the district, was long the subject of complaint. Another peculiarity in the administration of justice in Spain was the number of special courts, such as those for church affairs, for military, naval, mercantile, or even medical questions, all founded on a proper principle, but suspected, from their imperfect constitution, of partiality to the particular class, at the expense of the public. A more substantial ground of complaint lies in the great distance to which, in this thinly peopled country, a person was often obliged to travel, before reaching a court.

Spain is divided into eleven military governments, viz. Madrid, Old Castile, Arragon, Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia, Navarre, Guipuzcoa, Andalusia, Galicia, and Estremadura. Each of these had, before the late revolution, a governor or captain-general, and each is divided into several smaller governments. The army consists of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, and is at present (1821) about 50,000 in number. The guards or household troops have been, since the late revolution, assimilated to the rest of the army, while the Swiss regiments have been disbanded, and a number of the soldiers re-enlisted in Spanish regiments. There is also a national militia, liable to serve when called out by the executive power. The strength of the Spanish army has varied greatly of late years: its general character is courage in the lower ranks, and a want of professional knowledge in the higher. There are artillery schools in several towns, such as Segovia and Alcala de Henares; but the instruction is antiquated, and in general the education of Spanish officers is so imperfect, that a great proportion of their superior officers for ages have been foreigners, Germans, Italians, and Irish. The war ended in 1814 left with them a number of British officers. The young men of family in Spain, though by no means deficient in courage, seldom choose the army as a profession. They do so far less generally than those of Germany, France, or even England. The result is, that the far greater number of officers serving in the Spanish army have been raised from the ranks, thus forming a new obstacle to the admission of men of family, in a country where it is disreputable for the latter to associate with the untitled class.

The revenue of Spain arises chiefly from taxes, but in some measure also from the royal domains, and from the crown and chancery dues. The latter include the fees payable by persons on their instalment into certain offices, or on the receipt of certain titles. The taxes consist, as in the other countries of Europe, of the customs, the excise, the post-offices, and the government mo

of entertaining is not by dinners, but by evening parties, where the refreshments presented are very slight. The higher ranks keep a number of domestics, who, having little to do, are almost entirely lost to productive labor. In their dwellings the great object of the Spaniards is to exclude the heat; and, as few precautions are taken against cold, winter, though comparatively short, by no means passes with impunity. Religious processions in the true Catholic style are still common in Spain, and are the object of devout attention. The well known national amusement of bull-fighting was discouraged by government in the end of the eighteenth century, but has since been revived: the national dances, the Bolero and Fandango, are still performed as in former ages.

The exaggerations in regard to the wealth and population of Spain in former ages, are to be at tributed partly to the Arabic, and partly to the

The Spanish population, in the year 1788, was thus exhibited: it may serve us to contrast

to the more recent tables.

Alava.

early Spanish writers. They remained uncontradicted until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when Capmany and a few othe writers began to open the eyes of the public. Successive wars in the interior, from the eighth to the fifteenth century, necessarily retarded the increase of both wealth and population, leaving the boasted Spain of the age of Charles V. and Philip II. far inferior to that of the present day. Her influence on the foreign politics of that age was owing entirely to the weakness of other states, as was sufficiently proved by the limited force which she employed in her war against the Netherlands, and even in that effort of three years of preparation, the armada against England. As to the Spanish manufactures of that age, it appears that the higher classes wore the cloth of Ghent, Bruges, and Milan, and that the use of Spanish woollens was confined to the lower orders.

The population and principal divisions of Spain, in 1803, will appear by the following official table.

Surface in square

leagues 20 to a

degree.

Inhabitants to a

square league.

BISCAY.

71,399

416,922

Cuénça

294,290

945 311

ANDALUSIA.

236,016

A'vila

661,661

Segovia

177,136

Sória

631 326

7,918

470,588 642 734

Extremadura

428,493 1,199 357

337,686

Kingdom of Valencia

783,084

Jaén

206,807 268 772

Kingdom of Navarre

Mancha

206,160

Granada

692,924 805 861

NEW CASTILE.

Colonies of Sierra