but these have been almost universally mismanaged, and have had the effect of monopolies in discouraging competition. The exports of Spain in native products are chiefly wine, of which a variety of kinds is made, oil, fruit, raw silk, wool, dressed leather, and the alkaline salt called barilla. Corn is almost every year an object of importation.

In population Spain is much below the proportion of its extent and means; the number of people is stated at about eleven millions. Its revenues are large, yet the crown is poor; and plans for the public advantage usually fail for want of due supplies. The army is neither numerous nor formidable. The navy is more respectable; but its sailors are not distinguished either for courage or discipline.

Madrid, the capital, is unfavourably situated in the midst of a naked and steril country, on the banks of a rivulet which the summer heats dry up. It possesses some fine buildings, public and private, but is a very expensive and undesirable residence. Its institutions for art and science are of little repute; and it has no commerce, except that which is created by the presence of a court, and the conflux of the nobility.

Many of the inland cities, which were once the capitals of separate kingdoms, and are still the chief towns of provinces, exhibit tokens of former grandeur, but have much declined in wealth and population. Granada, one of the principal of these, is famous for its fine remains of Moorish architecture. The sea-ports alone wear the appearance of prosperity. Seville, reckoned the first city in Spain, was the centre of the American commerce, till it was removed to the more maritime situation of Cadiz. It is, however, a splendid and populous place thriving by its manufactures of silk and stuff. Cadiz, built on an island in a bay to the south of the estuary of the Guadalquiver, is the first commercial port, and the deposit of the wealth of the American mines. It also possesses arsenals and docks for the royal navy. Malaga is distinguished for the wines and fruit which are the produce of its neighbourhood, and are exported from its harbour.

Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, enjoys the credit and advantage of more industry than any other Spanish town, con

nected with a spirit of freedom and independence for which it has always been noted. Its manufactures of silk, cotton, wool, and hardware are carried on with vigour, and employ a numerous population, and its port is the resort of trading vessels from most commercial states. Corunna, in Gallicia, has the advantage of a fine harbour, but the surrounding country affords few objects of traffic. Near it is the naval station of Ferrol. Bilboa, enlivened by the active and enterprising disposition of the Biscayners, is a flourishing seat of commerce.

The strongest fortress in Spain, perhaps in the world, Gibraltar, seated on a rock at the narrow entrance of the Mediterranean, has long been in the possession of England, and has defied the most vigorous attempts of Spain, assisted by France, to restore it to its natural master.

Spain is possessed of three islands in the Mediterranean, Majorca or Mallorca, Minorca, and Ivica or Eviza, anciently known by the name of the Balearic isles, and celebrated for their slingers. In products they resemble the adjacent continent their fruits and honey are particularly esteemed.

The vast colonial possessions of Spain, in the value of which she surpasses every other country, will be treated of under the quarters of the world to which they geographically belong.

PORTUGAL.

THIS country, which nearly corresponds with the ancient Lusitania, occupies the western side of the Spanish peninsula, with the exception of the Spanish province of Gallicia, which bounds it to the north. It is of an oblong form, extending 360 miles from north to south, with a breadth of about 120. The rivers Minho, Douro, and Guadiana give it a natural boundary only for a short space; the general limit between it and Spain is entirely artificial.

Thus blended by nature with Spain, its external appearance cannot be expected to be very different. One of the principal mountainous ridges of Spain has already been traced across the middle of Portugal. The north-eastern corner has a cluster of mountains of its own; and the little province of Algarve in the south is separated from Alenteio by a short ridge. In general, the country is much diversified in its surface, and affords many romantic and picturesque situations.

The tracks of the great Spanish rivers which cross it have been described. To the Tagus it may lay a plausible claim, as possessing so much of the latter part of its course, and crowning its bank with its capital. The breadth of Portugal does not admit any considerable native river: the only one deserving mention is the Mondego, which, passing the city of Coimbra, enters the sea between the Douro and the Tagus.

The soil of Portugal is for the most part light and shallow; it is, however, highly favourable to the vine and other fruittrees; and, when sufficiently watered, is capable of producing abundantly every thing for the sustenance of man. The climate ranks with the most delicious and salubrious of those in the southern temperate latitudes, the heats being moderated by refreshing breezes and showers from the Atlantic. Invalids

from the northern countries pass the winter and spring at Lisbon with more advantage than in most of their usual resorts. From regions buried in frost and snow a short voyage conveys them to bright skies and balmy air, perfumed by the orange and myrtle, and to a face of nature decorated with the charms of the vernal season.

The native vegetables of this country are in general those of Spain. Of the trees none is so frequent as the cork-tree, which forms woods of considerable extent. Wild heaths occupy large tracts in the interior parts, overrun with a variety of shrubby plants, especially the Gum Cistus, which, when in flower, whitens the landscape for miles around.

Of mineral productions Portugal is said to possess as great a variety as Spain. The Lusitanian mines were anciently of great fame; but want of industry, scarcity of fuel, and still more the. possession of colonial treasures, have caused them to be almost entirely neglected.

The inhabitants of Portugal sensibly exhibit the effects of a warm climate in their dark hue, and in those points of national character which are usually found to accompany the solar influence. These are, warm passions, a strong propensity to revenge, superstition, indolence, abstemiousness, and the habit of submitting contentedly to a very scanty share of the comforts and conveniences of life. There was a period, however, when this small kingdom was the seat of more enterprise than existed in any other portion of Europe. In the earlier part of the 15th century, when the warlike spirit of Portugal was in full exercise from the frequent necessity of defending its independence, some successful expeditions into Africa gave an impulse to maritime adventure, which, favoured by a series of enlightened sovereigns, produced the grand discovery of the passage to India round the cape of Good Hope, and laid open the rich countries of that part of the globe to the arms and commerce of the Portuguese. For a long time nothing seemed capable of resisting their efforts; and by a course of the most splendid actions they rendered their name dreaded throughout the east, and spread their settlements over all its coasts. At the same

time they partook of the spoils of the new world by the dis

At

covery of Brazil, which they subdued and colonized. length success produced its usual effect in rendering them tyrannical and effeminate; and the steadier energy of the new Dutch republic stripped them of the greater part of their acquisitions. An arbitrary government and superstitious religion contributed to debase the national character, and Portugal gradually sunk to that place in the scale of nations which alone her extent and population entitle her to preserve. Always in danger of being swallowed up by the nation of which nature seems to have designed her an integral part, she has hitherto been rescued only by the power and influence of her great commercial ally; England; and her precarious independence hangs upon the fate of the moment.

The government of Portugal is an absolute monarchy. Its religion is the Roman catholic, to the minute observances of which the people are strongly addicted, with the usual effect of disregard of the moral duties. The rigour of the inquisition has almost totally extinguished sound learning and useful science, and no where is education more neglected. The Portuguese language is one of the dialects from the Latin stem, and differs from the Spanish in about the same degree as the Low Dutch from the German. Very few literary productions in it have obtained currency out of the country; and at present the greatest supineness seems to prevail with respect to every branch of mental cultivation.

The population of Portugal is differently stated at from 1800000 to upwards of two millions and a half. Its revenue would be considerable, were not its resources, like those of Spain, chiefly expended in purchasing the products of foreign industry. The principal commodity of its own growth for exportation is wine, of which Great Britain takes the greater part. Its wine is for the most part of a strong body, and little prized for delicacy of flavour. Oil, fruit, cork, and a few other native articles, are also among its exports. Its rich colony of Brazil supplies it with the precious metals, sugar, tobacco, and other products of the tropics, both for home consumption, and for foreign trade. Its remaining settlements in the east, and on the coast of Africa, provide other materials of commerc e