The Express.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

CONDITION OF SPAIN : THE NORTH•

DT AN =SLIM TIATELLTIA.
The provinces which fall within this definition ary
Leon, Asturias, Galicia, and the Basque States. The
three former, it will be found, are closely assimi-
lated in their vessel characteristics; while the idio-
syncracy of the Basques is complete enough to sue-
min the avenge et provincial difference in this quar-
ter of Brio.
Galicia is in one ems the enaberpart of Catalonia
in the Spanish system. It is badly to be classed as
ea integral part of Spain, either in respect of govern-
ment, of physical•coafigorstioo, or denial character.
Sheeshbg info the:extreme north-west. as Catalonia
iliblehre tato the extreme meth-east of the peninsula,
Z=onsttta doe lingual and ethnological
TIM lino median' languages of Europe
moth of the Pressen mese, the Castilian, the Catalan,
sod the Galician, et Pmengesse. The dist:actinium of
twos extreme provisoes—Catania and Galicia—is
Breslin quite se mach historical as actual. It is a
rosy textural resalt of territorial proximity that the
Galician@ and the Portuguese should be like each
ether, both in language and is main,.. The former
institute an intervening and connecting medium
between Portugal oa the one side, and Leon and
Astoria' on the other.
In these provinces, although is the latitude of the
Papal States, we Ices every trace of what I may term
the moral conformation of the South. The people
and the country are more Swiss than Spanish.
Lofty mountains, alternating with verdant vales,
form the ohmmeter of the greater part of this
district The genial itfluence of the Atlantic, how-
ever, renders the high ground available for cultiva-
tion in a much greater degree than in Switzerland.
The people live chilly upon maim and rye; and it is
chaemoteristio of the general relation of the peasants
of Galicia to those et England, that wheat and
potatoes, which form the staple of subsistence hen,
take rank in that land emcee the luxuries of life.
Galicia, too, like Istrestadurs, is celebrated for its
porcine Sacks; end I cannot but thick that it a few
enterprisieg pig dealers would turn their attention to
the exportation of Galician pigs, and to their impor-
tation into this country, they would undersell the
Irish animals in thee@ markets, in spite of the charges
incurred for duties and for transport. It would be
amusing to see some trading adventurer palm off a
few Clelieian and Enteruaduran pigs as esedidatee
for prises among their English-bon sad English-bred
fraternity in the agricultural shows of this country.
The moral condition of the three bordering pro-
vinces sow under discussion is just es dissimilar from
that of the rest of Spain as the aspect of the soil. It
is truly a marvellous idiosyncrscy to find a district of
the Peninsula where there are neither bandits nor
smugglers. The peculiarity, however, admits of
easy explanation, without calling in the aid of any
exalted social morality. Travellers are m scores as
peasants are poor, and without travellers brigandage
would soon be found a starving trade; sad the north-
west of Spain, tree to the eternal lows of political
economy, regulates its suppl of highwaymen to its
demand : the demand has become veil, and sower
wetly the supply has brown nil also.
The people in these province. are preeminently
ductile, they would therefore be developed and im-
-1 proved to social condition with greater facility than
the inhabitants et other districts. A vast deal of
simplicity, generosity, and goodness of heart is
transparently disguised under a somewhat rough ex-
; Wier. A great deg of this difference of character
appears to me attributable to the want of that
;Wise to which (as I before observed) the Castilian
peasants are driven by the her of robber and mit
wanders. Their farms are mattered everywhere over
the sentry, they live to almost undisturbed security,
and where the? labour there they also dwell. Nothing
can be more disgraceful to the government then this
entreat between the extreme and central provinces.
In the one, security Is the fortuitous moult of

circumstances; In the other, where that security is
most nearly within the control of ;he state, law and
ceder are rationally defied by pillage and rapine
Yet with all these morel elements of superiority
neither Galicia, Leon, nor Asturias is much in
advance of other parts of Spain in point of material
civilisation. The people, indeed, do not live in bate
of mud, as they live in Castile. But there are no
better roads here than in Central Spain. An
Eogliahman travelling through these territo-
ries, in the first instance, would imme-
diately ascribe the want of improvements to
the extreme subdivision of the soil, and to
the predominance of small and poor landholders.
But as he sees more be learns more ; and he soon
begins to find that whether the landlords are small
or great, poor or rich, the state of the country is sub-
stantially the same. In a word, if we were toyudge of
the better chases by their works, we should set them
down for Know-Nothings and Do-Nothings. As I
have already indicated, the evil springs from the fact,
that practically au extensive landowner is always an
absentee. He prefers, indeed, to be a great Ma
rather than a little man; and subordinates his locality
to his social consideration. But, at the same time,
he prefers to bee great man at Madrid, or at a foreign
capital, to being a great man in the country. Tice
great landholder is thus generally absent ; while the
small landholder, disgusted by the insignificant
figure which he makes at Madrid, becomes happy to
relapse into the greatness still accorded to him upon
his own soil.
I may add that in Asturias, as on the coast of
Murcia, English adventurers are largely engaged in
mining. The works, however, are chiefly of iron ;
and perhaps are less profitable, though more contigu-
ous, than those of Murcia. The Englishmen whom I
myself met, and who were engaged in this traffic,
were very intelligent. The people of the district
appeared to look upon their knowledge and activity
as impersonating something between harpyiem and
demonology.
The llamas Provinces stand last in this territorial
sketch. They speak well for the effect of republican,
or at least of quasirepubtican, institutions. Their
e3nstitution is more prescriptive than written. It
may be bold to illustrate the extreme limi-
tation of monarchy. They have their own
constitutional laws; and whenever those laws are
trenched on by the Spanish government, the central
hawer is altogether defied. In consequence, they
ve their local governments, formed of assemblies
which meet in the capital of each of the three pro-
vinces into which the Spanish Basques are divided.
There can be no doubt that their condition is far
superior to that of any other purely agricultural
province of Spain. The cause of this, so far us govern-
ment is concerned, is obviously of two kinds.
have free government, which protects the inters=
the people governed; and they have local guars-
meat which, in a certain degree at least, knows and
appreciates their wants. If, in addition to this, they
had intelligent Rovernment, they would be a rising
people. There is no reason to prevent Spain from
poeseesiog the administrative advantages so long
maintained by the Spanish Basques, and from pole
seesiog them, moreover, in a far greater degree, limo
much as the higher classes of the other provinces
could bring far more intelligence than the corre-
sponding classes among the Basque to bear upon a
system of local goverment. It may be well, per-
haps, in another communication to show how strongly
such an administrative subdivision would consolidate,
and not impair, the cohesion of the Spanish pro-
vinces as integral parts of a single monarchy.