40 A SPRING TOUR IN PORTUGAL. 



but with regard to the Spaniard, I may add the verdict of 

 Mr. Ford,* than whom no one is more competent to speak 

 on this subject; of Miss Eyre, who can scarcely find words 

 throughout lier volume to express her detestation of their 

 insolent rudeness;! of Mrs. Byrne, who is more gently, 

 but yet unmistakably indignant with their selfishness, 

 idleness, and arrogance.l While in favour of the Portu- 

 guese I can^oint to the opinion of the late Earl of Car- 

 narvon, in his most interesting volume ;§ and would call 

 attention to the following passage in an admirable essay 

 by one who knew them well :|| *The rural population of 

 Portugal are as simple in their character as in their re- 

 quirements; they are by no means the vindictive revo- 

 lutionary people that they are so often, but so unjustly, 

 represented to be. They look wretched, because they are 

 poor, ill-clad, and miserably fed ; but they are cheerful, 

 contented, shrewd, generous, hospitable, honest, hard- 

 working, unaspiring, sober, suffering, and persevering.* 



Now the result of this diversity of temperament in the 

 two nations wliich inhabit the Peninsula is, that they 

 hate one another with a mortal hatred. The Spanish em- 

 pire has always coveted the dominions of its western neigh- 

 bour, and looked with an envious eye on its long line of 

 coast, and its valuable rivers, and over and over again has 

 attempted to seize the rival country, and consolidate under 

 one head the two kingdoms ; and sometimes has, for a 

 longer or shorter period, succeeded in these enterprises. But 

 against such attempts at annexation the Portuguese have 

 always offered the most strenuous resistance ; their national 



* Hmulhook for Spain, pp. 392, 54C, 558, et passim. 

 f Ov(T the Pyrenees rnlo Spain, pp. 213, 244, 2G4, 

 I Cosns (Ic Kapana, vol. i. pp. 20, 21, 7C. 

 § Portugal and Gallicia, passim. 



!1 Prize Essay on Portugal. By John James Forrester. London, 1854. 

 Page 5. 



