ll be no political greatness for
Spain.

The advance which Spain has made, "in spite of her Governments, and not
by their assistance," has been remarkable in past years. Since the
beginning of the last century she has gone through a series of political
upheavals and disasters which might well have destroyed any country;
and, in fact, her division into so many differing nationalities has,
perhaps, been her greatest safeguard. Even after the Revolution of 1868
the series of events through which she passed was enough to have
paralysed her whole material prosperity; the actual loss in materials,
and still more in the lives of her sons, during the fratricidal wars at
home and in her colonies, is incalculable, and that she was not ruined,
but, on the contrary, advanced steadily in industry and commerce during
the whole time, shows her enormous inherent vitality. Since then she has
undergone the lamentable war with America, has lost her chief colonies,
and the Peninsula has been well-nigh swamped by the _repatriados_ from
Cuba, returning to their native country penniless and, in many cases,
worn out. And yet the state of Spain was never so promising, her steady
progress never more assured. Looking back to the Revolution, it will be
enough to name some of the measures secured for the benefit of the
people. They include complete civil and religious liberty, with reforms
in the administration of the laws and the condition of prisoners,
liberty of education, and the spread of normal schools into every corner
of the Peninsula, the establishment of savings banks for the poor,
somewhat on the lines of England's Post Office Savings Bank; railways
have received an enormous impulse; quays and breakwaters have been
erected, so that every portion of the kingdom is now in immediate touch
with Madrid; while the universities are sending forth daily young men
thoroughly trained as engineers, electricians, doctors, and scientists
of every variety to take the places which some years ago were almost
necessarily filled by foreigners for want of trained native talent.

Local government in the smaller towns of the Peninsula is generally said
to be very good, and to work with great smoothness and efficiency
hand-in-hand with centralised authority in Madrid. The fusion of the
varying nationalities is gradually gaining ground, and the hard-and-fast
line between the provinces is disappearing. There is more nationality
now in matters of every-day life