CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



of communication with the interior. In this 

 respect the Guadalquivir is the most important, 

 being navigable for vessels of 100 tons to Seville, 

 about 80 miles from its mouth. The principal 

 economic minerals are granite, marble, serpen- 

 tine, common limestone, coal, rock-salt, gypsum, 

 alabaster, meerschaum, and several of the precious 

 stones ; the metals iron, lead, silver, mercury, 

 tin, copper, antimony, and cobalt 



The climate, as might be expected from the 

 position and physical conformation of the region, 

 is extremely diversified. All along the Mediter- 

 ranean sea-board, the temperature is mild and 

 equable, seldom sinking below 32, and generally 

 ranging between 55 and 60 Fahrenheit. Here 

 snow is almost unknown, and verdure is rarely 

 checked, unless during the occasional droughts 

 of summer. On the central plateau, matters are 



moderate liberals are probably sceptical in regard 

 to the utility of the church. In 1862 Spain pos- 

 sessed about 40,000 clergy of all ranks, including 

 9 archbishops and 43 bishops. The Primate of the 

 church is the archbishop of Toledo. Education 

 at the close of last century was in a deplorable 

 state. In 1797, less than 400,000 children were at 

 school ; but since the government undertook the 

 superintendence of the matter, great progress has 

 been made, and in 1880 more than 1,769,000 were 

 attending school Secondary education is given in 

 Institutions, or middle-class schools, which prepare 

 for the universities, of which there are ten. 



Portugal has not more than 500 professed Prot- 

 estants, mostly foreigners. The clergy number 

 over 3800, and the head of the church is the 

 ' Patriarch' of Lisbon, who is always a cardinal. 

 There are also two archbishops and fourteen. 



quite reversed ; the summer's heat is excessive, | bishops. The superintendence of public instruc- 

 and the winter's cold, rendered keener by stormy | tion is under the management of a superior 

 blasts from the mountains, is equally so. In this council of education, and is entirely free from the 

 region the winter is long, and snow covers the control of the church. The kingdom possesses 

 sierras ; while the summer is short, and so hot, I one university, that of Coimbra, which has 46 



On the northern professors and lecturers, and about 900 students. 

 becomes | The industrial pursuits of the two kingdoms 



that verdure is often destroyed. 



and western sea-board the summer 



cooler ; and the winds, charged with moisture composing the Peninsula are much of the same 



from the Atlantic, bring rains and other atmos- kind and character. Both are more agricultural 



pheric diversities. 



The vegetation of a country so diversified in 

 surface and climate must necessarily present great 

 variety, and thus we find within its limits the 

 banana and palm of the tropics, and the pine of 

 the northern regions. Besides the usual grains 

 and fruits, the vine, olive, sugar-cane, and mul- 

 berry are largely cultivated. The animal king- 

 dom presents only one or two features worthy of 

 notice. The principal wild animals are thebear^ 

 wolf, fox, herds of wild-boar, lynx, wild-cat, and 

 monkey ; the vulture, quail, bustard, flamingo, 

 and some African birds ; and of insects eco- 

 nomically important, may be mentioned the bee, 

 silkworm, gall-nut fly, and cantharides. The dis- 

 tinguishing features in the domesticated animals 

 are the horse, of Arab extraction ; mules, the 

 finest in the world ; and the merino sheep. 



The inhabitants of the Peninsula Spaniards 

 and Portuguese being originally one may be 



than manufacturing or commercial countries ;. 

 comprehending under the former term all that 

 appertains to grain, fruits, herds, and other pro- 

 duce depending upon the soil. But Spain, during 

 the last twenty years, has made more progress 

 than Portugal, whose agriculture is particularly 

 wretched. In mining, of late, considerable activity 

 has been exhibited, principally, however, through 

 the agency of foreign companies, in the quick- 

 silver, lead, and iron departments. In the arts 

 and manufactures, neither country exhibits much 

 skill or activity. Their commerce, once the 

 greatest in the world, fell off miserably during the 

 1 7th and i8th centuries, but is reviving again. 

 During the ten years from 1862 to 1872, their 

 exports to Great Britain doubled themselves. The 

 chief exports of Spain are wine, quicksilver, lead, 

 wool, raisins, figs, oranges, lemons, and other 

 fruits ; olive-oil, barilla, cork-bark, honey, and 

 occasionally wheat the total value during the 



arranged into three races : i. The Spaniards and years 1877-81 averaging ^20,000,000 annually: 

 Portuguese, an admixture of Romanised Iberians those of Portugal are wine, oranges, lemons, figs, 

 with Visigoths, who constitute the great bulk of I and other fruits; cork -bark, olive-oil, sumach, 

 the people, and whose languages, like those of j wool, goats' skins, and small quantities of tallow, 

 Italy and France, are merely modern forms of i brandy, and other articles, valued in 1880 at nearly- 



Latin, and are hence called Neo-Romanic ; 2. 

 The Basques, of Navarre and the Basque pro- 

 vinces ; and 3. The Gitanos, or Gipsies, spread 



^5,500,000. 



Railways and telegraphs have now been intro- 

 duced into both countries. In 1880, Spain had 



indiscriminately over the country, but preserving j 4co miles of railway, and 25,000 miles of tele- 



intact the individuality and peculiarities of their 

 race. The Spaniards of the south have a con- 

 siderable admixture of Moorish blood, but the 

 Moriscoes proper were finally banished from the 



land in 1610. 

 The religion 



of both countries is Roman 



Catholic. In Spain, the whole population, with 

 the exception of about 34,000 persons, nominally 

 adhere to that faith ; but recent political events 

 seem to have proved that large sections of the 

 populace are imbued with notions hostile to all 

 forms of the Christian religion. The Intransi- 

 gentes of Carthagena, Barcelona, and other large 

 cities are in favour of subverting all ecclesiastical, 

 as well as all civil organisations, and even the 

 212 



graph; Portugal, in 1882, had about 1000 miles of 

 the former, and over 7000 miles of the latter. 

 Neither the army nor the navy of Spain is in a 

 creditable state, in spite of repeated 'reorganisa- 

 tions.' 



The government of Portugal is a limited hered- 

 itary monarchy, with the succession unrestricted 

 to sex. The parliament consists of a Chamber of 

 Peers and a Chamber of Deputies; the executive,, 

 of a responsible cabinet, with seven portfolios. 

 Total population, 4,160,000; annual revenue, 

 ^5,000,000; debt (1881) ^97,500,000. The capital 

 city is Lisbon, on the Tagus, with a population 

 247,000. 



The government of Spain, since the expulsic 



