I, 



INTRODUCTION. xix 



ia general, than factors, and they do but negotiate for foreigners 

 the larger part of the returns they receive from the /F" eft-hidtes : 

 What avail then all thofe founding titles their monarch af- 

 fumes, while ftrangers enjoy the real fruits of what he only is 

 nominal fovereign ? furely this is truly to be vox et prcsterea nihil. 



As to the fecond article, number of inhabitants, we fhall 

 find the Spaniards miferably deficient herein. Many capital er- 

 rors in policy, and indeed fome partly unavoidable, or very diffi- 

 cult to be cured, as arifmg from thecuftoms and inftitutions of the 

 country, concur to be the caufcs of this paucity. The Spaniards are 

 a people bigotted in the laft degree to the prejudices and ab- 

 furditics of the church of F.ojne : the confequence of which 

 fuperftition mufl: end of courfe in being over-run with a vaft 

 multitude of priells, who are, according to the laws of their 

 church, forbidden to marry, by which means a great part of 

 the community die without defcendancy. A ftrange tenet in 

 religion, to imagine that a hateful force impofed upon the will 

 by another, and what we are compelled to only by violence from 

 without, can plead any merit as a virtue, or leave us more at 

 liberty for pious avocations. Their early marriages may be 

 another prevention of fs^rtility, as well as perhaps frequently the 

 caufe of a weakly and infirm complexion of body to their children: 

 but nothing can contribute more to this thinnefs of people, than 

 their indolence and floth, by which they are not only difabled 

 from providing for greater numbers, but are far from fupporting 

 thofe they have, by the culture and produce of their own lands : in 



a 



