becoming too important to be allowed to be upset easily, and
it is everybody's interest to support and increase it, the main body of
the people are ranged on the side of peace and progress. They have had
enough of civil war, enough of tyranny; they have achieved freedom, and
want nothing so much as to taste of it in quietness.

To revert for a moment to the special manufactures of the country, it
appears to be the wise policy of the powers that be in Spain to-day to
encourage, by every possible means, native industries and the
development of the rich resources of the country. If it be only in the
superior education required of the workmen, and the drawing out of their
natural talents, the movement is an immense gain to the people, so long
purposely kept in a condition of slothful ignorance.

Besides the woollen manufactures of Palencia, Lorca, Jerez, Barcelona,
Valencia, and other places, are many cloth factories in Cataluna, as
well as others for the production of silk fabrics, lace, and very
high-class embroideries, for which last Spain has long been famous, but
which have hitherto been little known beyond her own frontiers. In
artistic crafts may be named the pottery works of Pickman, Mesaque,
Gomez, and others in Seville, where magnificent reproductions of Moorish
and Hespano-Moresque tiles and pottery are being turned out; there are
also factories for this class of goods in Valencia, Barcelona, Segovia,
Talevera, and many other places. Ornamental iron and damascene work
holds the high reputation which Spain has never lost, but the output is
very largely increased. Gold and silver inlaid on iron, iron inlaid on
copper and silver, are some of the forms of this beautiful work. That
executed in Madrid differs from that of Toledo, Eibar, and other centres
of the craft. The iron gate-work executed in Madrid and Barcelona is
very hard to beat, and the casting of bronzes is carried out with every
modern improvement. The wood-carvers of Spain have always been famous,
and the craft appears to be in no danger of falling behind its old
reputation, much beautiful decorative work of this description being
produced for modern needs. The _Circulo de Artes_ holds an exhibition in
Madrid every other year, and in the intervening years the Government has
one, in the large permanent buildings erected for the purpose at the end
of the Fuente Castellana. The manufacture of artistic furniture and
other connected industries are encouraged