220 BARCELONA GATE. 



recovered by Louis le Debonnaire, son of the great Charlemagne. He 

 created it into a county palatinate, and vested it in the family of Bernard, 

 a French noble. The Counts of Barcelona continued to yield allegiance to 

 the French crown, until it voluntarily relinquished its sovereignty in the 

 thirteenth century. The county became annexed to Aragon by marriage, 

 as the latter afterwards blended itself with Castile, to form the present 

 Spanish monarchy, whose kings still use the title of Counts of Barcelona. 

 After the discovery of America, Barcelona became a vast magazine 

 where goods of wool, silk, fire arms, cutlery, with almost every other 

 species of manufacture, were prepared for the distant colonies of Spain. 

 Such was Barcelona's former state; her present is a very different one. 

 Her manufactures of cutlery and fire arms are ruined and forgotten, the 

 wines and brandies of Catalonia, the cotton and woollen goods which 

 used formerly to be carried to every corner of America, are now either 

 shipped away by stealth, or consumed only in Spain; and in place of the 

 ships and brigs whose tall masts once looked like a forest within the 

 mole of Barcelona, there are now to be seen only a paltry assemblage of 

 fishing boats and felleucas, and one of its chief exports is the celebrated 

 Barcelona nut, of which to England it was, in 1836, thirty thousand 

 bags; the value of which was forty-five thousand pounds. 



Barcelona yields only to Madrid and Valencia in extent and popula- 

 tion. Antillon estimates the latter at one hundred and forty thousand. 

 The greater part of the city is ill-built, with streets so narrow that many 

 of them are impassable for carriages. This is especially the case in the 

 centre, where the old Roman town is supposed to have stood, from the 

 ruins found there ; arches and columns of temples, incorporated with 

 the squalid constructions of modern times. Here the public square, or 

 Plaza, is formed with arcades and balconies ; the scene of many an 

 auto-de-ft, and many a bull fight. It has, however, witnessed one 

 redeeming spectacle; for it was here that Ferdinand and Isabella, 

 attended by a wondering and proud array of cavaliers and courtiers, 

 received from Columbus the tribute of the new found world. The 

 churches of Barcelona are not remarkable for beauty, but the custom- 

 house is a noble edifice, and so is the exchange. In the latter, public 

 schools are established, for teaching the sciences connected with naviga- 

 tion and the arts of architecture, painting, and statuary. These noble 

 institutions are maintained at the expense of the city, and all, whether 

 natives or strangers, children or adults, may attend the classes 

 gratuitously, and receive instruction from able masters. The other 

 public edifices are, the palace where the Counts of Barcelona resided, and 



