66 66 a great name in Europe by his talents, demands his dismission: he demands "and obtains it in the midst of a war, and when the public debt and the "national burthens are carried to an unexampled height. Still the public "funds are not affected by it.-It is not known, at the moment when "he quitted the administration, who would succeed him, and yet the "funds experience no depression.-A peace is concluded upon terms "which evince to all Europe the ascendency of the first consul. He obliges Great Britain to surrender those conquests which he could not "wrest from her, and only gives her time for surrendering others. And yet, after such a peace, it is in France that the funds are stationary, while " in England they experience a rise of ten per cent: and government, "at the same instant, borrows 600,000,000 livres at four per cent, and grants to the bank a new adjournment for making its disbursement in specie.-Can any thing relating to finance and public credit be more "remarkable?—It is the highest degree of perfection, in its kind. It is "that perfection which can be attained only by means of a government of "whose stability there is no doubt, and which, in all the engagements that "are capable of being ascertained by law, has the security of the hereditary and elective representatives of the nation, and which leaves no "essential interest to the will or disposal of a single person."Monsieur Necker then goes on to prove, upon the same principles, why the French funds have not risen in proportion to the advantages which the state possesses, viz. the want of a government which enjoys the national confidence, unaccompanied with arbitrary power:-The writer was induced to give so long an extract by the pleasure in which he supposes his reader will partake with him from such a testimony borne by a foreigner to the excellence of our constitution, 66 • Dernieres Vues de Politique. 272. 1 SPAIN SPAIN. CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. HAD it been possible to rouse the Spaniards from that state of torpor, from those habits of indolence, which a relaxing climate and the chill hand of temporal and spiritual tyranny had induced, the events of this period must have had that effect.-The Spaniards do not appear at any period to have been morally depraved. The pride, by which they have ever been distinguished, makes them, on the one hand, disdain what is dishonest, whilst, on the other, it concurs with many other causes to make them inactive and indolent." The Spaniards," says Montesquieu, "have been in all ages famous for their honesty. Justin mentions their fidelity in keeping what was intrusted to their care: they have frequently suffered death rather than reveal a secret. They have still,” says he," the same fidelity for which they were formerly distinguished. "All the nations who trade to Cadiz trust their fortunes to the Spaniards, " and have never yet repented of it. But this admirable quality, joined "to their indolence, forms a mixture, from which effects result which are "most pernicious to them."*, With these excellent qualities, the body of the people were become inattentive to public affairs from the danger attending a free discussion of them, and from habits of submission to a despotic government. And the government itself was too poor and spiritless for any lasting exertion, and too depraved to resist the means which a successful enemy had it in his power to employ to fix them in his interests.-From these circumstances in the condition of the Spanish state and nation we may account for the conduct of this crown in the late contest. VOYAGES. The Spanish court was not totally unmoved by that spirit of investigation, and emulation of eminence in whatever constitutes national greatness, which actuated the chief powers of Europe in this age. Within a few years preceding 1780 three expeditions were undertaken by order of the Spanish government, for examining the western coasts of North America. And in 1780 a voyage of discovery was made in the seas between Manilla and the Mexican coast." But the discoveries made in these are not of sufficient importance to merit a particular account in this sketch. POPULATION. The population of Spain, according to Zimmermann, is 10,500,000 persons, upon 148,448 square miles, or seventy to a mile. Of this population that of Madrid is 140,000, and Seville and Cadiz each 80,000. REVENUE. The system of finance in this state is so complicated, and the revenue has fluctuated so much, from various causes, but especially from the merit or demerit of the ministers of finance, that it is almost impossible to speak with precision concerning it. It is satisfactory, in such a matter, to find two authors whose representations correspond.-Zimmermann, who wrote in 1786, says "that the king's revenue from Old Spain amounts to 5,000,000 sterling."-Mr. Townsend, after giving a history of the finances of this kingdom, and doing honour to the president Orry, minister of finance to Philip the Fifth, who, according to Busching, raised the revenue, from 8,000,000 livres, to 42,000,000 of escudos de vellon, Perouse's Voyage. 1. 340. 418. с Zimmermann. 299. vellon, about £5,000,000, proceeds to say "that the last statement of "Mr. Eden (which was after he quitted Spain in 1787) was five millions sterling." The abbé Raynal particularized the sources of revenue in the Spanish colonies, and closes his account by saying, "that the court of Madrid "draws annually 55,084,450 livres from its provinces in the new world;" but he adds, "that a part of this revenue is employed in the Spanish " islands in America, for the expence of sovereignty, and for the building "of ships, or for the purchasing of tobacco." ARMY. Zimmermann says that in 1788 the Spanish army was from sixty to seventy thousand men, besides twenty thousand militia, according to the Bibliotheque militaire. But he subjoins, that, according to others, "the 66 regular troops do not actually exceed fifty thousand men; and that "more recent accounts reduce the army to only twenty thousand effective "men.-The army establishment, as published in 1776, amounted to one "hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hundred and thirty men, on the "lists." Of these twenty-nine thousand were militia and fifteen thousand invalids and militia of the towns. The cavalry were thirteen thousand two hundred, and the artillery three thousand three hundred and fifty-five." -According to Busching, the whole army amounted at the time when he wrote, to ninety-six thousand five hundred and ninety-seven men.This difference arises, probably, from the difference between nominal and effective men. NAVY. Busching states the Spanish navy at twenty-six men of war, thirteen frigates, two packet-boats, eight chebecks, and four bomb-ketches: and the compliment of men at 19,104.-Zimmermann states it, in 1778, at + In 1762. one An escudos de vellon, according to Beawes, is about two shillings and two-pence halfpenny. Zimmermann. 318. 66 one hundred and forty-four ships of all sorts. And adds, that in 1784, which was soon after the close of the war with England, "6 there were "said to be sixty-two ships of the line, from 120 to 64 guns."-He states the naval forces, in 1783, at "three companies of guardias marinas " and twelve battalions of marinas, both together 5,712 men; a naval artillery corps of 2,000 men, a corps of naval engineers, and a corps of pilots." "The abbé Raynal states the navy, when he wrote, at sixtyeight ships of the line, of 114 to 60 guns, and eighty-eight from 56 to 12 guns; and says that there are 50,000 seamen upon its lists. These different accounts may be reconciled by supposing that they refer to periods of peace and war. SCIENCES AND LIBERAL ARTS. That the Spaniards are not deficient in genius for the sciences and the fine arts is evident from their celebrity in certain ages, when the system of government was more propitious to them, and when they were less encouraged and less cultivated in other countries.-The sciences, it is well known, flourished during several ages in Spain.-And Mr. Cumberland, in his elegant little work on the state of the liberal arts in this kingdom, has proved that, under great disadvantages, Spain has produced many excellent painters.—And in the path of wit, and humour, and invention, and knowledge of human nature, Cervantes is himself an host. But despotism and superstition, besides the palpable bars which they present to every kind of intellectual improvement, operate insensibly in repressing genius by cramping every faculty and restraining every energy of the mind. Hence we may account for it, that the arts and sciences are not at present in a flourishing state in Spain. AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE. A few facts may serve to evince the fatal influence which agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, have experienced from a despotic government, from spiritual tyranny, from the vast possessions of the grandees and Zimmermann. 319. i Raynal. 4. 356. |