inew of the country, the silent, toiling tillers
of the soil, are not of this way of thinking.... There is a sturdy
independence in the Spanish character, and an impatience of dictation
that harmonises more nearly with the English character than with that of
her Latin neighbours.... There is a gravity and reticence also in the
Spaniard that is absent from his mercurial neighbour, and which is,
indeed, much more akin to our cast of temper.

"True it is that our insular manners form at first a bar to our
intercourse with the Spaniard, who has been brought up in a school of
deliberate and stately courtesy somewhat foreign to our business turn of
mind; but how superficial this difference is may be seen by the strong
attachment Englishmen form to the country and her people, when once the
strangeness of first acquaintance has worn off; and those of us who know
the country best will tell you that they have no truer or more faithful
friends than those they have amongst her people."

Speaking of her labouring classes, and as a very large employer of
labour in every part of the Peninsula he had the best possible means of
judging, this writer says:

"The Spanish working man is really a most sober, hard-working being, not
much given to dancing, and not at all to drinking. They are
exceptionally clever and sharp, and learn any new trade with great
facility. They are, as a rule, exceedingly honest--perfect gentlemen in
their manners, and the lowest labourer has an _aplomb_ and ease of
manner which many a person in a much higher rank in this country might
envy. When in masses they are the quietest and most tractable workmen it
is possible to have to deal with. The peasant and working man, the real
bone and sinew of the country, are as fine a race as one might wish to
meet with--not free from defects--what race is?--but possessed of
excellent sterling qualities, which only require knowing to be
appreciated. I cannot say as much for the Government employees and
politicians. Connection with politics seems to have a corrupt and
debasing effect, which, although perhaps exaggerated in Spain, is,
unfortunately, not by any means confined to that country only."[3]

[3] _Commercial and Industrial Spain_, by George Higgin,
Mem. Inst. C. E., London, 1886.

In Spain to-day everything is dated from "La Gloriosa," the Revolution
of 1868, the "Day of Spanish Liberty," as it well deserves to be called,
and there is every reason to look ba