616 
met in this house had recently escaped 
from Madrid; he held an employment in 
‘the’ ‘office of the secretary of state, and, 
‘when the French entered Madrid, was 
‘compelled to execute its duties for the 
‘usurper. He says, that the deepest re- 
‘venge is the marked expression of every 
-countenance in Madrid; that the inha- 
bitants have secreted arms ; that private 
“signals of conspiracy exist; and that, at 
some future period, a.sccond Sicilian 
vespers will be perpetrate. At the 
house of Angulo, cards are never intro- 
duced; the young ladies are musical; 
one of them plays admirably on the vio- 
lin, an instrument not common for ladies, 
and the others on the piano-forte: pa- 
ftiotic songs are sung in chorus, and 
sometimes the fandango is danced ; which 
amusements, mingled with agreeable con- 
versation, and moonlight walks in a de- 
lightful garden, render the evenings in 
this society the pleasantest in Seville. — 
We have some other agreeable socie- 
ties in this city, which are rendered par- 
‘ticularly so by the ease that prevails after 
the first introduction: but the only so- 
ciety of a literary kind is at the house’of 
‘2 priest in the cathedral, Padre Cepero 
is a clergyman of the Sagrario, a very 
spirited, liberal, and intelligent, man; 
though a zealous Catholic, he 1s not into- 
lerant, and despises much of the mum- 
‘mery which is practised by his profession ; 
‘his attention has not been turned to di- 
vinity beyond his own church, of the 
infallibility of which he never doubts, 
but be has studied history and political 
€conomy, and has cultivated a taste for 
‘the fine arts: he is a most determined 
‘patriot, and his house is the evening re- 
‘sort of some of the most intelligent men 
in Seville. 
I have met Capmany here frequently, 
who is a writer on political subjects, and 
has published some learned and sensible 
works on several subjects of commercial 
history, and on military and political 
‘economy. Like all theoretic statesmen, 
many of his proposals for the amelioration 
of bis country are better on paper than 
they would prove in practice ; but he is 
a sensible and amiable man. 
Pape Branco, s0 wellknown through- 
out Spain as the author of the Patriotuco 
Seminario, frequently joins this circle, 
3fthere be a priest without bigotry, a 
philosopher without vanity, or _# politi- 
cian without prejudice, Padre Blanco. is 
‘that-man: whenever he is of the party, 
he enlightens it. by his knowledge and 
asimates it by his patriotism, : 
Mr. Jacob's Letters from Spain. 
: OLIVES. re YP 
From the frequent mention T have 
made of olive trees, you will naturally 
conclude that the quantity of the fruit 
produced is very considerable: a great 
part is eaten in the crude state, or is 
preserved in salted water, but the‘larger 
portion is made into oil, which in Spain 
answers the purpose of butter. The oil 
of Spain, however, is much Jess pure 
than that of France and IJtaly, though 
the fruit, from which it is made, is greatly 
superior, This inferiority arises princia 
pally from the length of time the olives 
are kept, piled in heaps, before they 
are ground; whence, in this warm coun. 
try, they ferment and become in some 
degree putrid. 
The right of possessing an olive mill 
is a feudal privilege belonging to the 
lords of particular manors, and to such 
mills all the olives grown in the district, 
often a very extensive one, are obliged to 
be carried. Here they remain in heaps, 
waiting their turn to be ground, from Oc 
tober and November, when they are ga- 
thered, till the month of January, and 
sometimes February, and consequently 
become rancid, to the great detriment 
both of the colour and the flavour of the 
oil. The stones of the olive produce 
some ofl, which is equally transparent 
with that of the pulp, but of a more 
acrid. flavour; and as the farmers are 
anxious to produce as large a quantity as 
they can, the two kinds are mixed, by 
which means the whole becomes tainted. 
The oil is kept in large jars, sunk in 
the ground, so as to preserve it in an © 
equable temperature, and prevent. its 
suffering from the extremes of heat and 
cold. The proprietors take, from the 
top of each jar, the clearest of the oil 
for the use of the table: the residue is 
appropriated to different persons, and is 
used by the poor to light their habita- 
tions. Though the quantity of oil made 
here is very great, a small portion only 
is exported, The principal part of that 
which exceeds the immediate consump. 
tion was formerly sent to the Castiles, 
and other parts of the north of Spain: 
but though the war has. closed that vent 
for this commodity, and the harvest has 
been mostabundant, yet the price is still 
too high to admit of its being exported 
to England. 
AN ENGLISH MANUFACTORY, | 
. There are few manufactories of con 
sequence at Seville, excepting one, ona 
very extensive scale, for preparing Jeather. 
It is conducted by Mr, Wetherell, an 
Englishman 
