reign, like the lion in the desert, repulsing by his roaring all who would approach him. But, instead of human colonies, we encounter troops of horned cattle and of mares, wandering, self directed, over plains, to which the eye can discover no boundary or barrier, and which brings to one's recollection the days when the beasts shared with man the empire of the earth."[11]

"Even when the plough is used, it is little more than a great knife fastened to a stick, that just scratches the surface. The grain is threshed by horses, or mules driven over it, of by means of a plank studded with nails or flint stones and drawn across it. With even this miserable culture, the land in Andalusia yields considerable crops; yet are the inhabitants too lazy or too few to gather them together. This is done by Galiegos, who are the labourers of Spain." We need scarcely remark, that in a state of agriculture like this, the peasantry cannot be either well fed or well clothed. "The mountaineers live principally upon roasted acorns and goats' milk, and those of the plain (from Barcelona to Malaga) on bread steeped with oil, and occasionally seasoned with vinegar."[12]

It is wide of our object to examine the causes of the degradation of character, which marks the agriculture of Spain. Well informed writers have ascribed it to the expulsion of the Moors and Jews, to the weight of taxes and imposts, to the mesta or common right of pasturage, to the discovery of America and its consequences, to the effect of climate and the ill judged charity of bishops and convents, but principally to the great manorial grants and unequal division of the soil, which followed the conquest. "We often find six, eight, ten, and even fifteen leagues of extent belonging to one master. The nobility and clergy possess nearly the whole country. One third of Spain belongs to the families of Medina, Celi, D'Alva, De l'Infatado, D'Aceda, and to the archbishops, bishops and chapters of Toledo, Compostella, Valentia, Seville and Murcia. A great proportion of these lands remain untilled and untenanted, and those which are let in Cortijo or farms are double or treble the quantity that can be occupied in tillage."[13]

6. The agriculture of Portugal, has been subjected to the same evils as that of Spain, to which may be superadded, her connexion with Great Britain; under whose policy she has become a raiser of fruit instead of grain.

7. France is probably the country of Europe, which most unites the great desiderata of an extended and profitable agriculture; fertility of soil, mildness of climate, a dense population, an enlightened government, and facility of exportation. Within her ancient limits, she boasts of a surface of more than one hundred and fifteen millions of arpents, and a population of twenty-two millions of inhabitants. The following tables will shew, in a compressed form, the nature of her soil, and the use to which it is put.[14]

GEOLOGICAL TABLE.