CADIZ, the most important maritime city of Spain. It is situated in the province of Seville, one of the four divisions of Andalusia. Its situation is peculiarly favourable for foreign commerce, especially with the western world, as being more southerly and westerly than any other considerable port. Its harbour, or rather bay, is a most secure port; and the entrance, though obstructed by some groups of rocks, which, being visible, may be avoided, is both easy and safe. The anchorage-ground is good for holding, and it is well protected by strong fortifications. Vessels cannot indeed approach the wharfs, but must be loaded and unloaded by the assistance of barges; and but for this drawback, it would perhaps be the best port in Europe. It is situated at the extremity of a long ridge of sand, which connects it with the Isla de Leon, and separates the bay from the ocean. If those who defend Cadiz are masters of the sea, it is perhaps the most impregnable fortress in the world; but by means of a superior naval force and a large army, it is thought by the best judges to be liable to capture. The spot on which the city is built being very contracted, and incapable of extension, the streets are in consequence narrow, and the houses lofty, so that those of the public buildings which are not near the walls have their magnificence hid from the eye of common observers.

From its situation, Cadiz is destitute of good water; and though most of the houses have reservoirs for the preservation of rain, a scarcity is felt, and expensively removed by means of numerous boats, which are constantly occupied in the conveyance of water across the bay from the city of Santa Maria. They yearly expend 180,000 guelders in this necessary article. Its principal buildings are the general hospital, which is excellently regulated, and where the aged, the infirm, the sick, and orphans, are relieved. The cathedral, though rich in ornaments, is inferior to most of the episcopal churches in Spain; but a new one, which has been more than ninety years in building, will, if ever it be finished upon the present plan, be extremely magnificent. The other churches are numerous, elegant, and in general richly endowed, and many of them decorated with pictures, the productions of Murillo-Velasquez, Zubaron, and the other great masters of the Spanish school.

When Spain possessed a navy, the principal arsenal was at Caraccas, which is reached by the largest ships through an inlet from the bay of Cadiz. The magazines and stores are beautiful, and well adapted for the design; and the arsenal is well guarded by a deep ravine on one side, which separates it from the continent, and by impassable marshes on the other.

As Cadiz is situated on the extremity of a sand-bank, its commerce depends on the country around it, and on the security which its port affords to all property when once within it. It has hence become the entrepôt for almost the whole extensive commerce of the Spanish empire in the western hemisphere. The articles required for the su pply of these colonies from Russia, Germany, England, Holland, and France, as well as the manufactures of Spain, are first collected here, and from hence distributed over the whole surface of Spanish America. The whole of the gold and silver from Mexicoand Peru, and the other valuable productions of those countries, centre here, and are then diffused over the surface of Europe, in return for the various commodities that have been furnished. The imports from America in 1805 amounted in merchandise to 45,865,396, and in silver to 77,328,403 guelders. Besides this commerce with America, Cadiz is the focus into which are collected the wines and oils which Andalusia produces, and the other valuable commodities of the adjacent country.

The custom-house is a well-regulated establishment, and enjoys in its various store-houses great conveniences for the reception of such goods as are brought to it to be re-exported. The trade of Cadiz, like that of most of the other more eminent maritime cities in the Spanish dominions, is under the regulation of a body called the Consulado, consisting of the principal merchants, who have very considerable power and wealth as a corporation, and are besides a tribunal for determining such legal questions as are purely commercial.

The police of the city is regulated by the cabildo or municipal corporation, to whom, under the orders of the governor, is intrusted the preservation of the public walks and buildings, the cleansing and lighting of the streets, the care of the prisons and hospitals, and other similar objects.

Several establishments in this city bespeak an attention not merely to commerce, but to science. There is a college, in which both the classics and mathematics are taught, as well as the theology of the Peninsula. There is an astronomical observatory, in which observations are continually rriade, and where a nautical ephemeris is composed, which does not suffer by comparison with those of Greenwich or of Paris. Some of the best maps extant have been framed by those who were educated here; and the names of Malaspina, Lopez, Tofini, and Rios de Mendoza, will be of equal authority with any that England or France has produced.

This city was known before the Roman conquest as a place of trade, and not improbably was the port of Tarshish, to which the ships of Solomon resorted. Under the name of Gades it was long occupied by the Romans, and was a place of great importance to Caesar in his wars with the Pompeys. A bridge called Puente de Suarzo, leading from the continent to the city, was, according to tradition, constructed by that commander; but though it is now known to be of more recent erection, it is highly probable, from the importance of the passage, that a bridge on the spot was erected by the Roman conqueror.

The inhabitants of Cadiz, in ordinary times, amount to about 75,000. During the late war, when it was the ultimate refuge of the government, they are said to have been trebled; but of this, and the other occurrences of the war, the article Spain will narrate the particulars. Very accurate observations have fixed the observatory to be in north latitude 36. 32., and west longitude 2. 33. 54. from Madrid, or 5. 45. 54. from Greenwich. (g.)