should one of the others stir from his place, they would shoot him instantly. Seeing themselves thus foiled, Vayaste con Dios, "(go with God,) said the robbers, the usual parting salutation of the Spanish. "Vayaste con Dios yourselves,' said the colonel, for it belongs to us, who are victors, to dictate conditions; and thus the robbers quickly retreated, when the party again mounted and proceeded on their journey.

I have recently learned, through an English gentleman, who was robbed a short time since near the place where I met with a similar misfortune, that the robbers have increased their number to twenty-five. They do not now unlock trunks, but force them open, and all the passengers were compelled to pull off their boots, lest money should be concealed there. There were in that instance, four officers of the Queen's army in the diligence, but, being dressed in citizens' clothes, they were not recognised by the robbers, who were Carlists, except that they found among their spoil one hat, which bore the title of an officer. All the passengers disowned it, however, and the robbers said, that if they could determine to whom it belonged, they would kill him instantly. It were easy to multiply anecdotes of robberies in Spain, to almost any extent, as few who travel there escape such adventures; but I have given the preceding cases, merely to show the wretched state of the country, and the boldness with which such affairs are managed. In view of the present condition of poor unhappy Spain, rent, distracted, and weakened as she is by party spirit, and civil contention and bloodshed, well may we be grateful to God for the peace and safety vouchsafed to our own favored land; while at the same time we have cause for fear and trembling, lest the zeal with which the flame of party spirit is fanned, and the liberal hand with which the spoils of office are dealt out to successful partisans, should fully engender among us the deep and deadly curse of permanent political hostility and discord, which may end in weakening the sanctions of law, loosening the bonds of society, and bringing down upon us all the bitter evils of a civil war.

The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births in Spain, is as one to three and a half. It is said, that not more than one crime in five is brought before courts of justice, while bribery, perjury, and intimidation, prevent the conviction of more than half of these, Thus, not more than one crime in ten is clearly brought to light, yet, the average number of convicted murders and attempts at murder, is more

than 3,000 a year. Now, if we allow that murder escapes detection less often than other crimes, and call its average convictions one in five, we shall still have 15,000 murders in Spain per year.

Three fourths of the land in Spain is inalienably entailed upon the nobles, the church, and certain corporations; and, to render entails more pernicious, the law enacts, that all leases shall cease with the lives of the owners of the estates. About £90,000 sterling is the average expenditure on roads each year, in Spain. This is one twentieth of what is expended in England for the same purpose, which, being equal in extent to one third of Spain, makes the proportional expense of roads in the two countries, as one to sixty. The roads are so few, and many of them so poor, that transporting is very difficult, being done mostly on the backs of mules and donkeys. In the neighbourhood of Salamanca, owing to a succession of abundant harvests, wheat has actually been left to rot upon the ground because it would not pay the cost of carriage. There exist also oppressive taxes, handed down from those times when the provinces of Spain were distinct kingdoms, which now often prevent the transportation of the fruits of the earth from a province where they abound to an adjoining one where there is a scarcity. To these checks upon industry a recent Spanish writer attributes much of the indolence of the people, and with propriety asks, “What should induce the laborer to sow more wheat than he consumes, when unable to export the surplus, and in the country it will command no higher price than from fifteen to eighteen reals a fanega, which is no price at all." This he states was the price of wheat in Castile, in December, 1834. It would be about equal to from thirty-seven to forty-five cents a bushel. He adds in another place, that while at the time referred to above, wheat, in various parts of Castile, was from fifteen to twenty-nine reals a fanega, it was worth in Seville, in an adjoining province, from sixty-five to seventy-five reals, still, there was no profit in transporting it, though the difference of prices in the two places, was equal to two dollars and a half a hundred weight; and this, he says, is owing to the expense of transporting, arising from the want of good roads, secure communication, and the absurd and arbitrary duties exacted at certain places. So much for agriculture in Spain.

As we have recently been speaking of Cadiz, it may not

be amiss barely to allude to the amount of commerce there some sixty years ago, as compared with recent dates. In 1776, the number of vessels which entered the port of Cadiz, was 949, of which 265 were French. In 1777, there were 935, of which 280 were French. In 1835, there were 2,699 arrivals at Cadiz, of which 2,176 were Spanish vessels, most of them of a small class; -286 were English; 79 were from the United States; 22 were French; 34 Russian, and the rest from other nations of Europe. In 1834, there were 240 English vessels in Cadiz, carrying 31,899 tons, and manned by 1,968 seamen. During the same year, there were 71 vessels from the United States, with a tonnage of 20,630, and manned by 941 seamen.

After leaving Cadiz, early in the year Gibraltar, and from thence to Lisbon. went to Mahon, to Toulon, in France, to Greece.

1836, we sailed to From Lisbon, we Italy, Sicily, and

CHAPTER XIV.

CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF SPAIN.

Rev. Mr. Rule; his History, Labors, Journal. Sabbath at Cadiz. - Journey to Seville. Religious Condition of the City. Priest of St. Gil. - Students. Infidelity. Journey to Madrid. - Bishop of Astorga. - Spanish Versions of the Bible. Union of the Spanish and English Churches. Augustine Monk; his Views of Spain. - Prohibited Books. - Opposition to Papacy. - Prisoners. - Señor Potia. - Friars. Public Morals and Religion. Spanish Hymns.-Circulation of the Bible in Spain: Missions there. Feelings of the People. - Facilities for Social Intercourse. - Liberty of the Press. Religious Laws. - Bishop of Cadiz. English Influence. Versions of the Scriptures. Catechisms. Infidel Books. Catholic Works.-Thoughts on Popery. - Education in Spain. - Emigrants. Governors of Cadiz and Barcelona. Archbishop of Toledo. Spanish Schools and Colleges.

DURING one of our earlier visits to Gibraltar, I became acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Rule, who for several years had been laboring among the Spanish population there, under the patronage of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society in England. He had originally been destined as a missionary to Jerusalem, and resided for a time at Malta, to acquire a knowledge of the Italian and Arabic languages. He was there a fellow-student of the Rev. Eli Smith, missionary from the United States, and favorably known to the literary and religious public, as joint author with the Rev. Mr. Dwight of a valuable work on Armenia, the result of their travels in that country. Mr. Rule, besides the knowledge which he acquired of the Arabic, became so familiar with the Italian, that he could preach in it extempore with the greatest facility. He is now able to do the same in Spanish, having two public services in that language on the Sabbath, and, when we were at Gibraltar, he and his lady gave gratuitous instruction to fifty or sixty bright-looking Spanish children during the week. He has read the Hebrew Bible through, is quite at home in Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Rabbinical Hebrew, and, in addition to preparing a hymn-book, tracts, and larger works in Spanish, is engaged in a new translation of the New Testament, with a commentary in the same language. So accurate is his knowledge and pronun

ciation of the language, that Spaniards, who care little for the truths he utters, have been among his hearers merely from the pleasure which it gave them to listen to the fulness and melody with which he speaks their native tongue. In addition to a choice and valuable library of theology, he has the best English and German works in philology and sacred criticism. I have spoken thus freely of this gentleman, not so much from the fact of my having spent many hours of pleasant social intercourse with him, as because he is a highly important witness as to the religious condition and prospects of Spain. Early in 1835, Mr. Rule made a tour through Spain, visiting Madrid and other important cities; and some extracts, which he permitted me to make from his copious journal, having been published in the United States, excited much interest in behalf of Spain, both there and in England. His familiar knowledge of the language, and his free intercourse with men of high standing in the Catholic church in Spain, placed within his reach important sources' of information, which at a later period, when making a similar tour, owing to the distracted state of the country, were not open to me. I shall therefore here avail myself to some extent of extracts from his journal, to show the strong hold which infidelity has gained in Spain, as also the strong opposition there is in the Catholic church there to the claims of

the Pope. These extracts are as follows:

January 11th, 1835. - At Cadiz. It is the Lord's Day, yet all is business. The market is crowded, and the shops, with very few exceptions, open. Along the narrow balconied streets all is life and bustle, and the Alameda, Plaza, and other public places are thronged with people in holyday dress. "January 12th. This morning called on Mr. Hortel, the principal bookseller in Cadiz, who has for some time past been waiting to receive copies of the Scriptures in Spanish for sale in his shop. He is perfectly willing and even desirous to receive them. Yet the circumstance that the Bible, except when printed with notes approved by the church, is a prohibited book, and the fact, that an ecclesiastic is always posted at the Custom-House, to prevent contagion from being introduced into the kingdom by prohibited books, must lead us to employ the utmost caution as to their introduction.

"January 13th. Left Cadiz for Seville. At Xerez five students of the law entered the diligence to proceed to the University of Seville. We had some brisk conversation on 33

VOL. I.