f Lent, Sundays excepted.

Spain is a country privileged in this respect. By virtue of a
contribution paid to the government, and which the latter divides with
the Pope, Spaniards are absolved from the greater part of all those
duties. The origin of this privilege dates from the time of the
crusades, when the popes, in order to meet the expenses of those
expeditions, imposed this tribute on Spaniards, in exchange for the
dispensation. In course of time, however, this usage was abolished; but
Charles III. solicited of the Pope its renovation, with a view of
depriving the English of the vast sums of money which they received in
Spain from the produce of the stockfish (_bacalao_) of Terranova. This
singular institution, called the Holy Crusade, occupies a great number of
public officials, and had produced immense sums previous to the general
change of ideas brought about in Spain by the war of invasion by the
French. In every year, at the beginning of January, the Commissary of
the Holy Crusade, who is generally a high personage among the clergy, and
his attendants, set out in carriages, with a procession consisting of his
subalterns and the municipal body-guard of the city. In one of the
carriages is unfurled and exposed to view the standard of the Holy
Crusade. From that day the sale of the bull is opened, and several
thousands of copies of this bull are printed. The price of each copy is
about sevenpence. The printing is executed in a very inferior manner,
and the paper used for the occasion is of the most inferior quality. The
bull in substance states that the contributor, having paid the money
required for it, is authorised for a year to enjoy all the prerogatives
which it concedes to him. By its influence, the days of abstinence from
meat are reduced to Ash-Wednesday and the Fridays in Lent, the last three
days of the holy week, and the eve of the great festivals.

The Commissary-General of Crusades, the absolute master of this enormous
public revenue, is bound to deliver a part of the profits to the
treasury, and to lay out the rest in works of benevolence in such manner
as he, in the exercise of his charity, may think fit. This important
office is usually conferred on some one of the clergy who may happen to
be a favourite of the court; and almost every person who has attained
this distinction has been notorious for his luxuriousness and
prodigality. It is related of some of them in the time of Ferdina