English were not at all liked by his countrymen, although they paid for every thing; and the French, who, through the war, had been dreadfully destructive to the countries which they occupied, both officers and soldiers having been the greatest tormentors to the wretched inhabitants, these French, who paid for very little, were held in preference to us. On a general view of the subject, I went on to say that I could not see where the ground of dislike could be, as we were fighting for the freedom of their country. He acknowledged that our energies had been of incalculable advantage to their cause, and that no fault was found with our actions, but our religion was different; we were heretics, and the French were Christians. This cleared up the point, as the whole engine of their aversion turned on this principle.

Those magnificent and durable monuments of superstition, the convents, swarm with friars and nuns almost beyond belief. In any opulent family, where there are many sons and daughters, the heir and eldest daughter possess every valuable advantage. that can arise from polished culture or an elegant education; while the younger members are placed in convents. There, however, they are sure to live well, as money is usually given with them. The priors or abbesses of these places live like petty kings, and have an attendance superior to that of many lords. No one can call them to account for their actions, except the bishop, or a cardinal, and the Pope. The best law among them is, that the convents are obliged to admit a number of thosewho have nothing, equal to those who bring a revenue.

The Spaniards may with justice be censured for that fond madness with which they apply to the gaming-table. Even the peculiarities of the sacerdotal character will not hinder their priests from engaging in such scenes. The police, knowing the pernicious effects of gaming, destroy its implements wherever they find them. The principal game is Banco. This I have. never played myself, and therefore cannot describe; but I have frequently observed, in private parties, that the little mountain of gold which stood before each person at the beginning of the game, has been transferred to some other person at the close. Sometimes only a few gold pieces were to be seen. None had won; all vowed they had lost; the money had disappeared, but where it went none could tell. This I could very well account for, as I could see the winners now and then slipping a handful into their pockets unnoticed.

The air throughout both Spain and Portugal is very pleasant, except on the mountainous regions, where, in the night, it is as cold as in the month of December in England. When our army reached the Pyrenees, the wounds of many who had recovered broke out afresh, and numbers were sent back to the hospitals

established in our rear. At the time our army lay on these mountains, the frost and snow were dreadfully keen and severe.

In Spain there are few gardens to be found any where; vegetables are, in general, very scarce, and in many places, not to be had. Carrots, parsnips, and turnips, with a species of small potatoes, are the principal garden esculents. The last are about the size of a large marble, and are brought to the table well sugared. The domestic comforts of dinner parties, prior to the entrance of the English, were almost unknown; but I am informed that this kind of social intercourse has since become very common. While our army lay before Pampeluna, they so gleaned the country of provisions, that, in the winter ensuing, many hundreds of families were literally starved to death.

In the Pyrenees, where lay the scene of hottest action in the guerrilla war, many thousands of the French were annually cut off. If I should estimate their loss, at this one point only, at between two and three hundred thousand men, I should not I fall short of the mark. As to what might be our estimate loss, during the whole peninsular war, I am not competent to ascertain ; but I think we may allow an hundred thousand for deaths by illness, and for the casualties of war, a number certainly not less.

On our arrival in France, whole fleets of merchantmen had brought from England immense quantities of provisions and necessaries. The little town of Passages, and the banks of the river Adour, were like a fair; and in the little village of Bocault, numberless wooden booths were erected, and shops opened. Some brokers arriving also from England, a great trade was carried on in shoes, boots, pantaloons, braces, knives, forks, spoons, tea-pots, shirts, and other articles. Many, I have been told, made their fortunes here, as our pay had been advanced to us, and all arrears due, which were considerable, were paid up at Bourdeaux.

It is impossible to describe the majestic scenery of the Pyrenees; mountain piled on mountain, and rising in tiers, till lost in the distance. Many capped to the very top with trees, others bare rocks. The vallies that lie between are tolerably fertile, but on the Spaniards' side there is little cultivation. The French have every acre in good order, the forests thinned, the underwood removed, and the country in general has a cleanly appearance. One crest, or elevated point, rising over Lozaca, forms a landmark to ships at sea; the top is inaccessible, from the abruptness of its rise, which is many thousand feet above the level of the sea. Through, and among some of these mountains, runs the small river of Bidoessa, near which the French attacked us on the day we stormed St. Sebastian.

THE IND

ON

THE STATE

OF

RELIGION AND LITERATURE

IN

SPAIN,

MADE DURING

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE PENINSULA

IN 1819.

A

By J. BOWRING, Esq.

B.

OBSERVATIONS,

&c. &c. &c.

THERE are in Spain, according to Antillon's calculations, two hundred thousand ecclesiastics. They possess immense revenues, and an incalculable influence over the mass of the people; though it is certain that influence is diminishing, notwithstanding the countenance and co-operation of a government deeply interested in preserving their authority.

It would be great injustice to the regular clergy of Spain to class them with the immense hordes of monks and friars, scattered over the face of the Peninsula, some possessing rich and well-stored convents, large estates, and accumulating wealth, and others (the mendicant orders) who prey more directly on the labours of the poor, and compel the industrious to administer to their holy, uninterrupted laziness. The former, though, doubtless, by far too numerous, are, for the most part, intelligent and humane; dispensing benevolence and consolation in their respective parishes; friendly, in many instances, to liberty, and devoted to literature. The latter, with few, but striking exceptions, are unmanageable masses of ignorance and indolence. They live, as one of the Spanish poets says, in a state of sensual enjoyment between the organ-loft and the refectory, to which all other enjoyment is but purgatory; the link which should connect them with the common weal for ever broken; the ties of family and friend dissolved; their authority founded on the barbarism and degradation of the people, they are interested in stemming the torrent of improvement in knowledge and liberty, which must, in the end, inevitably sweep away these "cumberers of the soil." No society in which the sound principles of policy are at all understood, would consent to maintain a numerous body of idle, unproductive, useless members in opulence and luxury, at the expense of the active and the laborious, merely because they had chosen to decorate themselves with peculiar insignia,-to let their beards grow, or to shave their heads; and