Washington telegraph., 1853-10-05
A Few Spanish Facts.

Like a camp follower, Spain lags behind the
march OF progress, yet Is on the march. From a
German work on the present condition of the
Peninsula, We gather few interesting facts.
No census has been taken of the Spanish popu-
lation since 17SS. Then the population was ten
and half millions; now it is computed by our
author to be about thirteen millions-seventy to
the square mile. OF this number, one million
two hundred and twenty y-one thousand can read
and write; six hundred thousand more can read
but not write-"a low proportion, which the gov
eminent is now trying to raise There are ten
universities in Spain. ten normal schools, twenty
eight normal elementary schools, seventeen thou
sand boys schools, five thousand girls schools,
two hundred and ninety-seven infant schools; and
the whole number of pupils in all Of these is eight
hundred and sixty-nine thousand. The system of
education is founded on that of the French. A
property qualification alone entities man to a
vote; but, only half as much property confers the
privilege of voting artist, doctor, a LAWYER
teacher, a servant of the State as is required
TO qualify any other personi The proportion of
lllesitiInate to Legitimate births is, in Madrid one
to four: IN the country generally, one to thirty
five. In 1850, there were thirty-two thousand
six hundred persons in the Spanish prisons and
galleys, of whom nearly three thousand were
women ine prisons are generally not well con-
quoted; but there are few wulc,i &c ,,-cr'ev 10
be model establishments, owing to the humane
exert:ons of Spanish Howard, by the name of
Montesinos. One great obstacle to improvement
in Spain is the diversity of the local customs and
the jealous tenacity with which the people cling
to them. For example, the government has for
some time been endeavouring to make the weights
and measures uniform throughout the country:
but, SO far, with little success. The Museum of
Art and Manufactures at Madrid contains speci-
mems of all the measures used in the various dis
tricts jars, cans, bottles. canisters pipkns with
long necks and with short slender and pot-bellied
great and small. In some places, there is no fixed
measure at ALL and in oLaUlnu ouantitIeS ttey on
by the advice OF expert farmers or by rough esti-
mates The measures for wheat are of every
kind of shape not only do those in the town diff
fer from those in the coun.r;y-, but also in some
communes as many two or three dissimllar
wheat measures are used indiscriminately-
Many families possess peculiar measures OF their
own, which pass current with the rest in sales
and purchases in open market And to all these
measures, the people persist in adhering The
army of Spain consists of one hundred and one
thousand men, and the annual expense of main
tanning 1t is little than five millions of dol
lars-tifty dollars man. The navy consists of
about sixty vessels, of which TWENTY-FIVE are
steamers. The industry of the nation is ''prosec-
ted" by high tariff and consequently it is ''vis-
IDLY improving" yet Spain does not yet produee
more than one-third of the manufactured articl
required for her annual consumption The press
ing wants of Spain good roads canals for traffic
ard irrigation, and the removal of distinctions
from the beds of the rivers. The mountainous
surface of the country, places and obstacle in the
way of an extensive railway system, which will
probably remain long insuperable vast emil
grafton of Spanards to Algeria has been going on
Tor some time.
Upon the whole, as we have hinted above,
SIaln Is slowly waking up from the lethargy of
centuries, and may be expected to arrive at the
Good lime Coming, some time after the rest of
the world has become used to it.
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