SPANISH LOANS. 171 



io sit covered before the king, and contesting with the Duque de 

 Medina Cell himself the relative numbers of cities, towns, and 

 villages which owe him fealty and call him lord.* 



That such will be the only prosperous results of the financial 

 enterprises of Spain under their present management may be safely 

 predicated, if for a key to the future we appeal to the past. In- 

 dependently of the long-suffering of the people of England, hereto- 

 fore through undoubting faith in the Chateaux en Espagnewiih which 

 they were deluded, a beacon has been recently lighted which cannot, 

 or ought not to fail in arousing their vigilance, now that the in- 

 sidious foe is once more amidst the preserves of honest industry. 

 The beacon is fired, we say'; nor the less should the signal be heeded 

 because fired by a confederate in opposing schemes. Let the people 

 read, learn, digest, and afterwards shut their ears and draw close 

 their purse-strings. Let them not give ear to the charmer though 

 he charm ever so cunningly though he charm in most Hebraic 

 melody of cent, per cent. We recommend the disciples of Tomas 

 Tonto, if any such yet remain, to the perusal of a pamphlet now 

 some months old, entitled "An Historical Analysis of the Loans con- 

 tracted by Spain, from 1820 to 1834. ByX. T., formerly employed 

 in the management of the Spanish Royal Sinking Fund, Trans- 

 lated from the French." Effingham Wilson, London. 



Before we enter more directly into the specific matters upon 

 which the pamphlet before us professes to treat, it may be advan- 

 tageous to take a rapid glance at the progress of knowledge in the 

 art of political economy, and at the actual financial aspect of Spain, 

 when the Cortes, first born of the revolution of the Isle de Leon, 

 commenced the sweeping work of regeneration. 



Slow as was the advancement of the Peninsula in the social science 

 compared with that of the great European community of which it is 

 a member, there yet are not wanting in her historical traditions 

 enlightened sovereigns and illustrious statesmen, who had more than 

 glimmerings of the light and zealously laboured to dispel the Cim- 

 merian darkness which reigned around and about them. Occasion- 

 ally, indeed, but in the earlier ages, Spain may be found in the very 

 vanguard of fiscal and economical legislation and civilization. In 

 the statutes given to Valencia by Don Jayme I., the unity of weights, 

 measures, and money, was enacted as a fundamental law of the 

 kingdom a law which might worthily excite the emulation of the 

 modern Castilian legislators, now occupied in the discussion of puerile 

 theories; for at the present day each province of Spain differs in 

 those respects not less from the capital than from its neighbour, 

 causing an interminable confusion, and an action of exchanges as 



* The following anecdote, current in court gossip at Madrid, is amusing. 

 Carlos IV. in friendly conversation one day asked the Duke of Medina Celi 

 of how many cities, towns, and villages he was the owner. Nine hundred 

 ninety and nine, Sire, was the reply of the grandee. And why not, rejoined 

 his majesty, purchase one more to make it up the even thousand? Because, 

 rejoined the lordly vassal, the expression of nine hundred and ninety-nine U 

 so much more vast than that of one thousand. 



