12 



wealth — once rich in an enterprizing comnnerce with her 

 own colonies and the whole world. With the spices of 

 the East and the gold of the West, she commanded the 

 trade of Europe. 



*■'' Proud swelPd her tides "with loads of freighted ore, 

 *' And shoutiug folly hail'd them from her shore." 



But every galleon that entered her port brought with it 

 the seeds of weakness and decay. Her kings were fur- 

 nished with the means of engaging in the most destructive 

 wars. Her nobles were dazzled with the glare of boundless 

 wealth. The national industry lost its elasticity. With 

 the expulsion of the Jews and the Moors at least a mil- 

 lion of her most thriving mechanics and husbandmen were 

 lost forever. The most oppressive and unequal tax upon 

 every sale of certain commodities has destro'yed her inter- 

 nal trade and her manufactures. And what must be the 

 state of Agriculture under a system that allows the privi- 

 leged orders to drive their flocks of thousands through dif- 

 ferent provinces for the benefit of pasturage, prostrating 

 in their course alike the crops as well as the fences of the 

 unfortunate tenantry. Her local situation and her physic- 

 al advantages are probably superior to those of any other 

 nation ; but, deluded by the glare of commercial wealth, 

 she has pursued, for centuries, a policy that has palsied 

 her Manufactures and blasted her Husbandry. Her man- 

 ufactures of iron, of steel and of tin now furnish employ- 

 ment to thousands of English labourers. And our own 

 native hills at this moment exult in the choicest of her 

 flocks. Bending beneath the most abject superstition, this 

 once gallant nation now lies, cowled and hooded, extend- 

 ed upon her own Escurial, a humble tributary to France, 

 realizing the gigantic idea of Louis XIV, when his grand- 

 son ascended her abject throne, *' There are no longer Pi/- 

 renees,^'^ The lofty barriers erected by nature, to defend 

 her imbecility from the inroads of Gallick armies, have 

 faded and passed away before the touch of Gallick cor- 

 ruption. 



