the bold and the adventurous, the Holy Office by a process of un"natural selection," devilish in its perfect working, attacked the sedentary and the thoughtful, destroying in its Baal-fires those higher qualities and possibilities of intellectual life which might have regenerated the empire.

In tracing the causes of the decadence of Spain historians have perhaps attributed too much weight to mere misgovernment. The political and fiscal mistakes of the Spanish administration were those of their epoch, and were common, in a greater or less degree, to all the European powers; other nations have also passed through calamitous wars, and have successfully endured the average "statesman." The continuous retrogression o1 Spain was due to a deeper enfeeblement than could be produced by those errors of policy and commercial legislation, which always work their own remedy before working irretrievable ruin. Of the more subtle agencies affecting the root fibres of national life, probably sufficient importance has not been attached to the action of emigration, which, with the Inquisition, a recognised factor, for generations consumed those whose mental and physical development was greatest. And if, as is likely, the majority of these men left few or no children, the succeeding generations would be bred from fathers who were, in mind and body, the inferiors of their contemporaries. On the other hand, the progeny they did leave would, from physical causes, probably be less eager, able, or intrepid, and would have less of that individuality which is, outside natural conditions, the first cause of national greatness. If the analogy of history may be trusted, the Russian autocracy, acting through a political Inquisition and forced emigration to Siberia, is now preparing a similar destiny of mental sterility for its country by crushing all that is ablest in the aspirations and efforts of modern Russian life. In this instance, however, the existing conditions are not likely to continue long enough to induce any marked racial degeneration.

In spite of protective restrictions designed to favour it, Spanish commerce reaped little benefit from the new markets opened up. Wine was almost the only Peninsular product largely exported to the colonies, and, although the cargoes included various wares from nearly every other country, the only advantage gained was the profit of the Seville merchant who acted as the nominal consignor, since only Spanish subjects could ship goods. English ordnance, for example, sold in Spain for £80 a ton, and, underselling that cast in the Biscayan cities, was then re-exported. But the homeward cargoes were those upon which attention of both traders and pirates

was equally fixed, since they consisted chiefly of gold and silver, pearls, emeralds, cochineal, indigo, tobacco, and drugs. Of course the greatest care was bestowed on the gold, which the unhappy Indians, with an intuitive appreciation of the practical meaning of European civilisation, at once dubbed "The white man's God." On arrival at Seville it was transferred to the buildings appropriated to the Chamber of Commerce, and placed in a room massively built of stone, having one heavily-grated window, and closed by two doors sheathed with iron, each door being fitted with three locks. A Spanish writer says-and it is probably no exaggeration—that sufficient treasure passed through this room to pave Seville with gold and silver. Each of the six chief commissioners of the Chamber had a key, so that entry could only be obtained in the presence of all; each commissioner also was called upon to give guarantees to the amount of 30,000 ducats (£50,000), but more security was placed in the unlikelihood of their being able to trust each other enough to combine for roguery. Indeed, the basis of the Spanish system was mutual espionage, from which no officials were exempt. The general had his spy in the shape of a superintendent-general, who, in turn, was exposed to a comptroller, and the principle was carried out down to the lowest grades. One main duty of the commissioners was to prevent smuggling, no light task in relation to the precious metals, since to escape paying the fifth due to the king was a ceaseless and overpowering temptation. Their zeal was stimulated by a reward of a sixth of the value discovered and forfeited; what this might amount to may be gathered from such sums as 400,000 ducats" (£660,000), and “176 bars of silver," being mentioned as smuggled items.

Although the subject has not been touched upon here, it must not be forgotten that, besides the Spanish ships, privateers found a rich prey in the gigantic Portuguese carracks from the East Indies, laden with spices, jewels, and silks. A Dutch traveller, Van Linschoten, says that the least valuable of these yearly ships was worth 1,000,000 ducats (1,700,000). Altogether, privateering must have been an attractive speculation in that age, yet, on the whole, the adventurers would seem to have been singularly unsuccessful, seeing the vast treasures which escaped them through the mere accidents of weather; for a Spanish or Portuguese ship was virtually captured when her enemy was once alongside. But when a prize was drawn in the lottery it was so large as to repay many preceding failures; one lucky French pirate in her second cruise takes a ship with bullion on board to the value of 88,000 pesos

(£180,000). Nor, in the economically managed English marine, was an extensive capital required for privateering; in 1581 the estimate for the hire and daily expenses of eight ships and six pinnaces to go galleon hunting for four months was only £10,320. Thus one capture alone would usually yield a handsome fortune to the promoters.

An English prisoner, Phillips, sent from Mexico to Spain in 1580, says that in his fleet of thirty-seven sail, "in every (one) of them there was as good as thirty pipes of silver, besides great store of gold, cochineal . . . . all deeply laden and badly fitted so that they could not have fought." Although Phillips did not know it, his countryman, Fenton, was then at sea cruising for this fleet, but unfortunately missed it. And Drake, too, was afloat, sailing up the west coast of Africa in the Golden Hind, returning from his famous voyage round the world; but he would have been more anxious to get his treasureburdened ship safe into port than to engage in fresh attempts. We shall now never know the real value of all that the Golden Hind brought home, for Spain and England were hardly at open war, and it was necessary, for political reasons, to hide as much as possible of the truth. But we do know that £20,000 (£120,000) was reserved for Drake; that, for every sovereign subscribed by the lucky original adventurers, forty-seven were returned to them, and that "twenty tons of silver bullion, five blocks of gold, each eighteen inches long, and a quantity of pearls and other precious stones," were sent publicly to the Tower. Yet the mass sent to the Tower was only that portion which Drake and the inspecting commissioner Tremayne, acting in collusion under the secret instructions of Elizabeth, openly acknowledged. How much more was there?

In 1592, the lading of a Portuguese carrack gave Elizabeth (who was nearly always a partner in these ventures) £80,000, the Earl of Cumberland £36,000, Raleigh £24,000, and the City of London £12,000, besides numerous minor shares. The Earl of Cumberland here mentioned was one of the most energetic, but also one of the most unlucky, of these speculators. In September 1589, cruising near the Azores on the look-out for the homeward West Indian fleet, he was driven off the station by stress of weather, losing these ships with 40,000,000 ducats (£60,000,000) on board: he returned only two days after they had left. In November, he again missed two more galleons carrying 5,000,000 ducats (£9,000,000). Yet this cruise, regarded as a failure, yielded 100 per cent. profit, from smaller prizes, to those who had subscribed to the enterprise. The sums here given are those of the traveller Van Linschoten, before referred

to, who was staying at Angra (Azores) at the time. Mr. Delmar, however, in his "History of the Precious Metals," estimates the whole of the gold and silver exported from America to Spain, between 1492 and 1600, at well under £100,000,000, present value. Van Linschoten, therefore, must have been mistaken in the amount of treasure these galleons carried; but even in that case it may well have been a dream of wealth calculated to madden with disappointment the eager English. The greater part of it still lies at the bottom of the Atlantic, for in that year more than 100 vessels were lost at sea. In 1594 the Earl of Cumberland experienced further ill-luck. Attacking a carrack, the Cinco Chagos, said to have been one of the largest ships afloat, she caught fire at the moment of capture, and blew up with all her gold and spices.

But more important than individual successes or failures were the moral and material effects produced by these cruisers. An expedition might be an absolute loss pecuniarily, in so far as the shareholders were concerned, yet its presence at sea was often sufficient to prevent the East and West India fleets sailing, and thus cause injuries, hardly possible to measure by a money standard, to the political position and trade of Spain. The progressive decline of that empire is an oft-told tale; but how low were to fall the race to which belonged Cortes, De Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Narvaez, De Soto, and many another famous captain of great heart and steady purpose, can be best shown by two illustrations. Towards the close of the 17th century a local fleet had been prepared in the West Indies in order to crush the buccaneers, but had itself been destroyed by them. It was then seriously proposed, as the only remedy open, to set the Ostend privateers to scour those seas, "they promising to do it on certain conditions." And about the same period Spanish ships were sailing under the French flag and under French commanders, for fear of the Turk-France being then on friendly terms with the Moslem, and Spain being unable to protect her own seamen.

M. OPPENHEIM.

WHA

SCIENCE NOTES.

THE ANCIENT CLIMATE OF OUR GLOBE.

HAT would happen if the plane of the earth's equator were coincident with that of the earth's orbit round the sun?

Day and night would be equal all the world over. There would be no seasons in any latitude. The sun would always appear to travel in a vertical circle directly over the equator, and at either pole he would be seen bowling round the horizon every twenty-four hours. Daylight would there be perpetual; the sun would never set at all; for though his actual relative position would be such as to dip half below and rise half above the horizon, the effect of refraction would be to raise his visible orb well above the horizon altogether.

All over the world one day would be as good as another, or as bad, for sowing or reaping. No granaries, no ricks, no stores of any kind of food would be required, as a daily succession of crops of anything and everything sowable and reapable in any latitude would be attainable. Even similarly successive crops of fruit might be obtained by a selection of trees and bushes.

The requirements of human beings would be curiously changed, and the political economy of Adam Smith and Stuart Mill would be quite as absurd as Mr. Ruskin believes it to be; for the withdrawal of all the necessities for saving and storing would remove the chief necessity for capital and thrift.

Some time ago I sketched the outline of an essay on this subject; an ideal description of a social and physical millennium, resulting from a perpendicularity of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit.

The subject is far too large for a note, but I cannot refrain from contributing a small stir to the much agitated speculation concerning the possible approximation to such perpendicularity at a former period. If I were one of those who accept with matter-of-course docility the nebular hypothesis, I should be constrained, as a matter of logical consistency, to believe that the planes of revolution and rotation of each mass must have been originally coincident, unless an outer disturbance interfered with the settlings down and throwings off