eople that require rousing; they are indolent, lazy, and generally
helpless. We may value these our faithful allies, and render them
useful; but it is impossible highly to respect them. In the Spanish
character, on the contrary, there is mixed up a great deal of
haughtiness, a sort of manly independence of spirit, which you cannot
but admire, even though aware that it will render them by many degrees
less amenable to your wishes than their neighbours."

With due allowance for time and circumstances, much in this passage
might have been written to-day instead of nearly ninety years ago, and
one cause of the difference in feeling is no doubt explained truly
enough. Perhaps some shallow persons are affected by the fact that in
good looks the Portuguese are as a race inferior to the Spaniards. But
there is no such real difference in character as to justify an impartial
observer in using a phrase so essentially galling to England's allies,
of whom Napier said: "The bulk of the people were, however, staunch in
their country's cause ... ready at the call of honour, and susceptible
of discipline, without any loss of energy."

Throughout the whole Iberian Peninsula the main axiom of life appears to
be the same: "Never do to-day what you can put off to to-morrow." On the
left bank of the Guadiana it is summarised by the word _manana_; on the
right bank the word used is _amanha_. There is only a phonetic
distinction between the Spanish and the Portuguese idea. It is necessary
for the traveller in these countries to keep this axiom well in mind,
for it affords a clue to character and conduct the value of which cannot
be over-estimated, and not only to the character and conduct of
individuals, but to the whole national life of the inhabitants. In
Portugal it permeates all public and municipal life, and appears to
affect most especially that portion of the population who do not earn
their living by manual labour. The higher one goes up the scale, the
greater becomes the evidence of the ingrained habits of dilatoriness and
procrastination, and so any hard work on the part of the lower class of
toilers cannot be properly directed, and the commerce and industry of
the country either dwindle away together, or fall into the hands of more
energetic and active foreigners, who naturally carry off the profits
which should be properly applied to the welfare and prosperity of the
Lusitanians.

The mineral wealth and natural resources of the c