?G A SPRING TOUR IN rORTUOAL. 



of expressing his approbation is with a noise and a din 

 which would seem to our more phlegmatic countrymen 

 extravagant, and out of proportion with the occasion ; so 

 difTcrent is the temperament of those who inhabit different 

 clinics. 



Hitherto I have said little of the Portuguese, beyond 

 an occjisional casual remark on their behaviour ; but now 

 this seems a fitting place to express my unqualified ad- 

 miration of their general character. I had expected to 

 find tliem partaking of the disposition of their Spanish 

 neighbours, and I confess that I am not an admirer of the 

 Spauiai'ds. I am well aware that it is the fashion to ex- 

 tol the lofty bearing, the noble air, the proud self-respect 

 of that haughty race ; but I fail to see on what solid 

 foundation such superior, and somewhat defiant preten- 

 sions rest. In my humble judgment, such excessive self- 

 laudation, and self-appreciation, to the exclusion of the 

 whole world beyond, savours rather of empty conceit and 

 ridiculous arrogance ; and this becomes the more apparent, 

 when one examines the ground of such boasting, as inor- 

 dinate assumption of superiority seems to challenge us to 

 doo Now, after travelling through the length and breadth 

 of Spain, and after frequent contact with her people of 

 every class, I should be disposed to pronounce that they 

 are below the average in most of those attributes which 

 chiefly redound to the credit of national character. Mr, 

 Ford, in his admirable Handbook of Spain, tells us that the 

 'so-called lower orders are superior to those who arrogate 

 to themselves the title of being their betters.' If this be sc, 

 then I can only say that bad indeed are the best, for it is to 

 the lower orders, the people generally, that I allude, when 

 I denounce as most objectionable that vast assumption of 

 self-importance, the effect of which is first to despise all other 

 nations, and then to treat them not only without courtesy^ 

 but Tvitiiout common civility ; and I am obliged to own 



