“333 
running out to St. Sebastian’s Castle, 
bad not broken the force of the waves, 
the whole place would have been de- 
stroyed. H 
Thad intended sending to you a draw- 
ing of this column, as well as of some 
others; but 1 am told,.that I might cause 
an unpleasant suspicion at this moment, 
if I were to be scen using a pencily.at 
least without having permission from 
some person in authority. 
A little farther on is a fine. gravel 
beach, of some extent, which is fie- 
guented as a bathing-place in the sum- 
mer season; but here are no machines, 
as in England, for the accommodation of 
the bathers. Jt is the custom for the 
men to bathe in the day-time, and for 
the ladies at night. They go attended 
by their servants, and carry their dresses 
and their carpets to spread on the sand; 
a guard of soldiers being placed at a 
sufficient distance to prevent insuiting 
curiosity from disturbing them, while 
“ they taste the lucid coolness of the 
flood.” 
I have to-day been at the Exchange. 
You will say that [ ought perhaps to at- 
tend it every day; but the truth is, this 
place is not resorted to as is our loyal 
Exchange; it serves chiefly for the re- 
sidence of notaries, and for a depository 
ef certain public documents. There 
are a number of rooms assigned to the 
different departments of commerce, and 
one in which every broker belonging to 
Cadiz has a box with his name on it, to 
receive any notice it may be wished to 
communicate to him. ; 
The area is about sixty feet. surrounded 
by a narrow portico, where are maps, 
advertisements, &c. and the price current 
of the week; this document is furnished 
at any time by a clerk, who fills up a 
_printed list of the articles, for which he 
is paid about three-pence. The arrival 
and sailing of vessels is alsu to be as- 
certained here at almost every hour of 
the day; asa signal tower is erected on 
an emmence in the middle of the city, 
commanding upwards of forty miles at 
sea, and is attended by persons who are 
always on the look out, and communi- 
cating with the coast. The persons at 
this tower print a list three times a-day, 
of the arrival and departure of every 
ship, specifying their cargoes, and the 
“merchant who receives the consignment; 
they likewise note the weather, the wind, 
the age of the moon, the height of the 
tides, and other remarks that may be 
eccasionally necessary to commerce, 
Journal of a recent Voyage to Cadiz. 
[May 1, 
There are a few portraits in some of 
the rooms of the Exchange; among them 
wre Cortes, the discoverer of Mexico; and 
Philip of Spain, who was inarvied to our - 
Queen Mary. iy 
The merchants, dispensing now with 
the Exchange, assemble to talk of bu- 
siness, or of polities, in the Plaza de 
San Antonio, which is an elegant large 
square, paved with marble, and having 
two rows of handsome white marble 
seats around it, interspersed with orange- 
trees, which are now in blossom, and 
bearing also their ripened fruit. 
This square is the usual promenade for 
all ranks, previous to the dinner hour, 
and exhibits a scene of much gaiety and 
confusion aud misery;—for here also come 
the beggars, in crowds, who are at every 
moment surrounding us with the utmost 
impertinence ; for if one endeavours not 
to listen to them, they are sure to remind 
him of their presence by a tap on the 
arin, or a twitch of the elbow. They 
are now very numerous, since the plague, 
the war and the famine, that bave. for 
these.six years past visited this devoted 
country, and added to the natural dis- 
tresses of the poor, This 1s a part of 
society that will unavoidably be found in 
every part of the world; and when it is 
considered, the state makes no provision 
for them here, and that the tendency of 
their religious governors-rather depresses 
than encouraves their physical exeruions, 
it is not much to be wondered at that 
mendicity is so prevalent. Uneducated 
and disregarded {rom their birth, they 
seem only to be known as human beings, 
who have an existence which their 
country does not value; and who, on their 
sick bed, are deprived of what solace 
they might derive from their religious 
persuasion, if they should not have pur- 
chased in the course of the year the 
Pope’s bull, which grants an indulgence 
for them to be attended by the clergy, 
and without such purchase they could 
not command their attendance, as they 
otherwise would, 7 
‘Yo a city like this, which depends for 
its prosperity on the flourishing state of 
commerce in time of peace, a war must 
bring incalculable evils; and as it ap- 
pears that there are only two. classes of 
citizens, the very rich and the very poor, 
you may easily imagine the sufferings of 
the people when trade is at a stand. 
There is of course a sort of iniddle rank, 
such as the shopkeepers, but they are 
not numerous ; one half of these in Cadiz, 
is composed of foreigners, from all nee 
tions 
