well as her want of credit, together with all the other evils in her present exigencies, are to be attributed.

To the entire circle of mercantile interests of this country, and to the majority of those in Spain, the statement now made, as gathered from our author, will receive a prompt and unhesitating acquiescence. Well then, do not its very terms suggest certain fundamental and leading principles, in reference to any new and amended law of traffic that may be contemplated? This law, as is clearly and ably pointed out by our author, ought to comprehend a treaty which, while it admitted the productions of England at a moderate duty into Spain, would thus authorise and enable this country to guarantee a loan; for the dividends might conveniently and certainly be paid out of the duties laid upon those English goods that Spain admitted before they even left our shores. The consumption of our iron, cotton, &c., might in this way become enormous, inasmuch as, while Russia and Germany, together with Portugal, by her new tariff, exclude our manufactures, and we have to contend with the vanity of France, Spain, starting like an immense market, would reciprocate with us unlimited transactions of a commercial character, being a natural and most ready outlet for absorbing our artificial productions.

But if the benefit resulting from a treaty such as we have referred to, was of signal importance to England, what would it be to Spain, distracted by civil broils as she is, her treasury exhausted, the nation drowned in debt, and her commercial houses unable to obtain credit upon equal terms with the responsible world? Why, it is not too much to predict that she would speedily recover her proper position among European nations, for her government would obtain the command of the sinews of war, so as to put an end to civil discord; the hundreds of thousands whose natural duty it is to cultivate the soil, and become productive, instead of burdensome, subjects, would give a perfectly new aspect to the face of the country, and infuse into her entire constitution that volume of life-blood that would necessarily not only throughout all her departments create activity and wealth, but that would shed blessings around her upon neighbouring nations.

The natural resources of Spain are inexhaustible, while her position among the territories of Europe is wonderfully favourable for traffic, especially it may be said with England. Her surface, whether consisting of valleys and plains, or mountain chains, whether traversed by stately rivers or indented by bays and arms of the sea, offers every variety in respect of climate and produce which the northern and the southern parts of the globe contain and nourish. There is at the present time a prodigious extent of national property that would find its way to new and profitable cultivation, and the machinery of England would convert the raw

imported Spanish materials, whether derived from the surface of the soil or of its marvellously rich mines, into new shapes, when not only the produce of the one country, but the mechanic and artificer of the other, would be greatly enriched. Were a liberal and soundlyframed commercial treaty existing between England and Spain, the suppression of smuggling in the latter country would alone introduce into it incalculable benefits. It is well known that the bulk of the British goods deposited at Gibraltar and Portugal, as well as at several parts of Italy, finds its way to Spain chiefly through the hands of smugglers. Now, it is quite clear that if a lawful trade existed the consumption would be greatly increased, the bands of illicit traffickers in Spain would be driven to honest and virtuous callings, and the treasury would obtain the supplies which a wellregulated trade would create and constantly feed. To return to our English interests, what would be the consequences to us if a debt of 35,000,000l. owing this country was extinguished? Capital would obtain profitable spheres and channels, and many thousands of our fellow subjects would be relieved from the heavy pressure which such a debt has produced.

The ruinous consequences of the present condition of our commercial relations with Spain, to the people of that country is very forcibly illustrated by our author, in reference to two articles of essential importance to every civilized community, we mean cotton and iron; for these staple commodities of Britain are subject to such restrictions and burdens ere they can be lawfully received in Spain as amount to complete prohibitions.

Don Pablo, after stating that the fertility of Spain is such as not only is capable of insuring her own prosperity, but promoting that of her neighbours and other parts of the globe less favoured by Providence, and that she would exchange, if allowed, her raw material for the produce of foreign industry, asks if the Aranceles laws are in accordance with these undoubted and necessary truths? Or are they not rather framed in such a manner as to look as if they had been expressly devised for the obstruction of anything like a natural and profitable object? Without troubling himself with all the prohibitions and shackles which indirectly burden the agriculture of Spain, and which, he says, occur at every step to impede the circulation of her fruits, their internal sale, as well as their exportation, he begins with iron, a metal which he justly declares is more valuable than gold itself, because more useful, and entitling the first discoverer of it to be denominated the father of agriculture, of the arts, and of plenty. He proceeds,

"The abundance and cheapness, or the scarcity and costliness of this article, directly influence the price of agricultural produce, advance or retard agriculture, promote or destroy it. These being positive, palpable, and incontrovertible truths, how should a country essentially egri

cultural exist, if its prohibitive tariff exclude ploughshares, hoes, ploughs, spades, pickaxes, sickles, harrows, and the like; while it admits free of duty relics, bodies of saints, rosaries, crucifixes, and medals? Does it not seem as if these legislators on political economy wished to insult the Spanish people, turning conjointly into ridicule political economy, and the human family?

"But this is not all; for while affecting to foster agriculture-while with criminal hypocrisy, ever invoking the word protection, all manufactured iron is prohibited, every sort of implement being precisely specified."

This is a plain and fearless method of speaking, which, we believe, is somewhat rare in Spain, at least when put forward in such a public manner; but it is not more undisguised than correct. The truth is, that the duty upon imported iron is in Spain equal to a positive prohibition. It would appear that the impost amounts to 200 per cent. upon the price of bar iron in England, and 300 per cent. upon that of cast iron; and when it is stated that iron pots and similar utensils are among the number of implements scrupulously specified that are prohibited as being manufactured iron, some idea may be formed of the inconvenience and burdens to which the Spanish people are subjected, especially the agriculturists and those immediately dependant on this class.

But it may be said that Spain abounds in iron mines and possesses iron works. This is true, but even upon the native manufactures there has been imposed ten per cent. of duty, a most unreasonable and unwise burden, especially when it is remembered that for want of machinery, and of coal in the same spot where the iron ore exists, it is impossible to compete with the English market. The result is, that the native manufactured iron implements are excessively dear, the agriculturist being obliged to pay about triple the sum for indispensable articles that under a rational system would be required, so that inferior utensils or a paucity of them is proved by the very sight of the fields which the stranger beholds in the course of his travels in Spain.

If we turn our attention as guided by Don Pablo to cotton goods, and reflect that the Spanish nation by habit, the result of obvious scope and capabilities, is essentially agricultural, the consumption of such goods must chiefly and indeed with a fractional exception fall upon the cultivators of the soil, or those classes dependent upon the farmer. In fact the price paid for whatever portion of dress consists of cotton, an article much sought after in a climate where warmth so much prevails as it does in Spain, is exceedingly greater, whether it be home or foreign manufacture, than ought under enlightened principles of legislation to exist. It is said that not less than 300,000. annually is thus imposed upon the Spanish people.

The extent of smuggling and the temptations to it in consequence of the Spanish existing laws, are distinctly set forth by our author, and shown to be ruinous to the treasury, to native industry, and even to be the hot-bed of civil broils. In short the numbers induced to follow such illicit practices may be said to render intestine war a natural production of the soil.

Don Pablo asserts that daily experience and manifold facts prove the impossibility of preventing the introduction of foreign merchandise and manufactures into Spain. He continues

"Notwithstanding all this, our infatuated protectors of Catalonian manufactures, our financiers and directors of custom-houses, persist in guarding no less than 710 leagues of Spanish coast and frontiers, and upon endeavouring to prevent the introduction of prohibited wares by increasing the number of officers. The attempt by such means as these to check or alarm the Spaniard, whose adventurous, sober, and independent temperament capacitates him beyond the subject of any other government in the world for the daring and fatiguing life of the contrabandist, is in reality to entice him to proceed."

Don Pablo then examines into the condition and distribution of the different parties engaged in smuggling, presenting to the reader a minute and curious picture of national character and life. He says

"Numerous parties of Andalusian and Castilian contrabandists, as well as those from Estramadura, mounted on the finest horses and completely armed, fearlessly encamp with great parade and insolence upon the extended borders of Portugal, a frontier of not less than 190 leagues. There they are continually traversing, visiting every depôt for English manufactures established in that kingdom and at Gibraltar; in every direction and at every place threading the principal provinces of the south, and supplying them, little or no obstacle interfering with all those prohibited articles which the inhabitants require or desire, or which is likely to yield a considerable profit.

Unfortunately for the country, the Spanish douanes are situated along the Ebro, while the Basque provinces and Navarre being hemmed in by two rows of custom-houses, their population is dense, and thereby is under the influence of temptations to carry on a traffic that is lucrative; but which, partaking of the character of robbery, places the people in direct and open hostility to the laws, not only of one nation, but of two. It hence requires most extraordinary exertions to deceive and escape the servants of government, But these are counted as nothing to their dauntless and adventurous mountaineers, who climb the Pyrenees and laugh at the French officers as freely as they cross the Ebro and ridicule the Spanish guards.

"These circumstances ought to suggest some most important lessons, for they furnish a key to one of the chief causes that has not only originated the civil war that now distracts and desolates Spain, but that continues to nourish it. Need the reader be told how slight is the distinction between the contrabandist and the Guerilla? With whom, if not with those

accustomed to the career of a contrabandist, did the war which oppresses us commence ? Who are its supporters but Guerillas? Are not the ranks of the enemy filled by those brave and daring smugglers who infested the two frontiers, laughing to scorn the two lines of customhouses? Who but the contrabandists supply the rebel army with provisions, ammunition, accoutrements, horses, and artillery? If the destructive, the fatal prohibitive system of France and Spain, so hostile to the true interests, both political and financial, of both nations, by their hateful and absurd laws, had not bred and maintained a contrabandist population; and if the same systems did not sustain a traffic, which is first suggested by the temptations of self-interest, and then termed infamous, it is probable that the Spanish blood which now is disastrously shed, might not have been spilt.

But if the government of France, in pursuance of calculations which are not more base than they are inhuman, chooses to fan the flame of civil war in Spain, instead of promoting her own great commercial interests; if she prefers encouraging this barbarous and fratricidal war at a sacrifice of twenty or thirty millions a year, or say 120,000,000 francs in the time it has already lasted, which sacrifice is made by the southern departments of France in consequence of this war, as the learned author of La Union Mercantil del Mediodia has fully shown; in short, if France delights in the annihilation of the sources of a great nation's wealth, which ought, under a rational system of political economy, to increase French capital, to reward French industry with usury, to extend its operations, and nurture the marine and commerce of France, it becomes the obvious duty of the representatives of the Spanish and of the English people to cut off at one blow the source of all the evils enumerated, for upon them is this immense responsibility now thrown. Let them remove the restrictions, let them wipe away or modify the existing duties, and with them will the profits and individual temptations of contrabandism disappear at once. If the French government, obstructing the interests of its own subjects, is too short-sighted to understand that, in political economy, it is impossible to inflict an injury upon others without the evil recoiling in part upon our ownselves', let the representatives of the Spanish and the English people adopt a more enlarged view of the subject; let them put into practice the admirable maxim, that the interests of all nations are reciprocal; that our own prosperity is shared by our neighbours, not only without a decrease, but with a decided augmentation of our own advantages.'"

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Our author next addresses himself to the contraband trade of Catalonia, which is carried on both by land and sea, and which, in fact, is the principal and most artfully conducted branch of it that oppresses Spain. He says that the Catalans possess a vast number of small vessels, which are constantly visiting the shores of the Mediterranean, and principally the free ports of Genoa, Leghorn, &c. These ships are owned in shares, in which not only the crews are interested, but all the commercial agents residing in the Ports visited. He declares that it is not easy to conceive the activity, rapidity, or multiplicity of the operations under this well-organized system, and exclaims, "What a pity it is thata fair and lawful