army, they suffered more than two hundred prebends to remain, some of whom received eight thousand pounds a year. All this the nation beheld with indifference, but when any portion of the people, and particularly the army, finds itself destitute of food, a movement of some sort must necessarily take place, and when the government, and the mass of the population are absolutely inactive, the changes produced by any movement however slight, meet with no resistance, and a revolution is effected by itself.

7

Finance, after all, is the hinge on which all human affairs, whether private or public, turn; and we could have wished our author to have dwelt on it more at length. If the similarity of name does not deceive us, it is to Mr. Pecchio, the writer of these letters, that we owe a work on the finances of the kingdom of Italy, in which he developes with a master's hand, the system of administration which a great conqueror applied with a strict uniformity to States so widely differing from each other. The subject indeed would have been misplaced in letters to any lady except an English one, amongst whose accomplishments the study of political ranks above that of domestic economy. Still, even the little that he says, corroborates the authority of Jovellanos and Caburra, the most enlightened amongst the Spanish economists, who recommend not so much the enactment of new laws as the repeal of the old ones. Their lawyers number them at thirty-six thousand, and by the decision of the courts, and the commentaries of jurists, they are multiplied beyond enumeration. Each of the financial laws was, and some of them continue to be, an obstacle to the national industry." Hence," says our author," the transfer of merchandise is expensive and sometimes impossible. The communication between

the Peninsula and America is more easy than between each province of the Peninsula. There was a time when Madrid, where the thermometer is invariably much higher than in Paris, imported its eggs from France. There was also a time when it was less difficult to find in Madrid a bill of exchange on Paris or on London, than on Corunna or Valladolid. To this day Andalusia is fed with the corn of Odessa, and the harvests rot in the fields of Castile. A real regeneration of Spain can be obtained only by the prosperity of agriculture, and consequently by the capital employed in opening communications and facilitating transports. Spain is more in want of roads and canals than of laws. Napoleon would, in twenty years, have rendered her more productive than France" States, as well as individuals, are poor not so much from the deficiency as from the misemployment of their means. This is more forcibly exemplified in the Spanish Government, which, although reckoned throughout Europe on the eve of bankruptcy, is still rich when contrasted with others apparently more flourishing. The public debt is now calculated at twenty millions sterling, and the estates of the clergy amount to twelve millions, of which a part is already at the command of the Cortes, and if the priests and monks had not been distinctly threatened with the loss of a still greater part, they would find less difficulty in reconciling the Catholic tenets with a constitutional monarchy. Nevertheless, the more their estates are applied to the public welfare, the more are the interests of the public creditor blended with those of the administration; and, in proportion as they are sold will increase the number of landholders, concerned in the stability of the present state of things. The payment of the interest of the national debt in England neces

sarily binds all the capitalists to support the Government; and the purchase of the national domains in France, unites all the new small proprietors in maintaining the Constitution against the old noblesse. There are interests however in Spain, which it appears almost impossible to reconcile, and which the Cortes seems fearful, rather than unwilling to disturb. Thus the Constitution includes a chamber of peers, and the legislature still preserves the feudal rights of the grandees. This explains, perhaps, the dignified quiet of the nobility, and their readiness to make any pecuniary sacrifice as long as those privileges are continued to them with which their feelings are the most gratified. If this conduct does not bring them to poverty the day of their permanent ascendency will certainly arrive.

The tendencies of the age, and the events in which the nation has been both spectator and actor for the last fifteen years, have already prepared it for many changes; and if they are to be gradually effected by the course of things rather than prematurely forced on by the contrivances of legislation, the national character will countenance, and the climate will confirm them. Nature, in endowing the Spaniards with powerful feelings, placed them in a country where the physical faculties are often condemned to absolute inactivity. The English complain that their sun is not sufficiently brilliant for them, and of the window-taxes which create an additional gloominess. The Spaniards close up their windows for whole weeks and live in obscurity and listlessness, since the least bodily exertion would make the heat still more insupportable. The shops are all shut up precisely at the time when in the other cities of Europe there is the greatest bustle, and from two o'clock till four, all classes,

the old and young, male and female, king and beggar,. are sleeping at Madrid. This siesta keeps them awake for the serenades and nocturnal songs, which are among the pleasantest of those recollections which travellers bear with them from Spain. From the very precautions which the Spaniards take against the climate they derive enjoyments unknown to us. In Andalusia every house has in the middle a spacious court surrounded with porticoes, beneath which bloom the orange-trees, and all those plants which belong to the most flowery country of the world. The sun is excluded by a linen roof or tent, suspended over the court, and in the centre are jets d'eau which constantly agitate and refresh the air. Here sitting cross-legged about this fountain, and surrounded by flowers and fragrance, they lead the same life as their Moorish ancestors;-a life, perhaps, the most blissful which mortals may enjoy. Here the Andalusian maids pay their visits throughout the day, as the Italian ladies do in their opera boxes, and as soon as the evening cools the air, the linen roof is withdrawn, and they sing and dance under the clear heavens.

Who late so free as Spanish girls were seen,

With braided tresses bounding o'er the green,

While on the gay dance shone night's lover-loving queen.

CHILDE HAROLD, c. I.

And all this-without the hurry and bustle of dismantling apartments of their furniture-of despatching couriers with a thousand invitations of paying the music, and the newspapers for informing the public of the magnificence and crowd of their balls. This free and continual intercourse imparts a spirit to their conversation which is rendered more enchanting by the eloquence of their large eyes. The habit of dancing adds

vivacity to their motions and beauty to their forms, which, among the Andalusians, are taller and more delicate than those of the females of other provinces. But throughout Spain, a girl always enters the room"As when a lady, turning in the dance, Doth foot it featly, and advances scarce One step before the other to the ground,

Veiling her sparkling eyes."-DANTE, Cary's Transl.

Our young ladies, having adopted the Spanish dress, conceived too late the dress ought to be adapted to the shape; then the short petticoats, which were only unbecoming to their feet, were condemned as indecent. In Spain, however, this shortness never appears improper, because it is a fashion enjoined by nature, which directs women to display to advantage their beauty, and the small feet of a Spanish girl deserve to be presented to the sight with the utmost care of the toilette. Their power is principally in the largeness and fire of their eyes. The blue ones are more admired, possibly for their rarity; but more probably because, though less striking than eyes of a darker hue, they are more lasting in their attraction. The girls are generally pale, which, by exciting the idea that the heart is not tranquil, renders them more interesting and more dangerous; yet, whatever be their complexions, the colour changes and succeeds with the quickness of their sensations, so that the same female might afford in the same day to a painter, the model of a young Bacchante and of a penitent Magdalen. As liberty is one of the passions of youth, and as almost all young men rank among the liberals, all the young ladies who have lovers are still more liberal. When, in 1820, Riego made his entry into Madrid, his carriage was covered with the flowers which they lavishly scattered from the windows, while their voices were heard mingling with those of the soldiers, chantVOL. I. PART II.

Y