———— T HERE is a difficulty in writing a book of this character on Spain, which does not exist, we think, to the same extent with any other European country. In most European nations the official returns and government reports may be accepted as trustworthy, and the compiler has little more to do than to copy them; but in Spain this is far from being always the case. In some instances, from nonchalance and habitual inexactitude, in others, and especially in all matters of finance and taxation, f

S PAIN , with the neighbouring kingdom of Portugal, constitutes the most westerly of the three southern peninsulas of Europe, and in Cape Tarifa, latitude 36° 1', it attains the most southerly point of the whole continent. Separated from France and from the rest of Europe by the chain of the Pyrenees, and surrounded on all other sides by either the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, it presents at first sight the appearance of an exceedingly compact and homogeneous surface. It seems strange that thi

S PAIN may be roughly divided into five climates: (1) that of the north and of the Pyrenees, where rain is abundant; (2) the west or Atlantic climate, including Portugal; (3) the north-east or Mediterranean; (4) the east and south, or African climate; and (5) lastly, the climate of the great Central Plateau, or the Continental. All these are well marked, and differ greatly in their temperature, in elevation, in exposure, in rainfall, and in prevailing winds. To speak of an average temperature, o

E VEN in geological features Spain is a land apart. Divided from the rest of Europe by the regular Palæozoic band of the Pyrenees, the rocks of the Peninsula are only susceptible of separate study. Hence no consistent geological history can be deduced from the fragmentary and superficial observations that as yet form the basis of the geological map of Spain. A few striking features and geological statistics may however be presented; and the recently-published map of Botella, as well as the mass

O N the first glance at a map of Spain and Portugal we are apt to think that few countries could have so well-defined a frontier as that formed by the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. In so compact a country, and one so distinct and so shut off from the rest of Europe, we should expect to find a more unmixed and a more homogeneous population than in any of those states whose frontiers are more open and conventional. But such is very far from being the case. Even at the present time

S PAIN was formerly divided into some fourteen separate provinces or kingdoms, once ruled by distinct and independent sovereigns, and under very different political conditions. It was not until the taking of Granada, in 1492, that the whole nation became, even nominally, subject to the joint sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella; and for long afterwards Aragon and Catalonia preserved a semi-independence, while, even to our own day, the Basque Provinces and Navarre were really an independent republic

I N order to understand the present constitution, the political condition, and the aspirations of the Spanish nation, it is absolutely necessary to have some slight acquaintance with its previous history. This we propose to give as briefly as possible. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there is no doubt that the inhabitants of Northern Spain, under some of the petty kings, enjoyed more constitutional liberty than any other people in Europe; that their institutions generally, and especially t

T HE fame of the Spanish universities has greatly fallen from what it was in the early Middle Ages, when Salamanca ranked with Bologna, Paris, and Oxford, as one of the four great universities in Europe; when its halls were thronged with thousands of eager though needy scholars, and it was the centre whence Semitic learning and civilization spread to the rest of Europe. Even in a later day, in the sixteenth century, under the patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, the university of Alcala de Henares (Co

T HOUGH one of the most interesting countries of Europe with regard to architecture, Spain can lay claim to no style peculiar to itself, or that originated wholly within the Peninsula. It contains, however, noble specimens of art and architecture of very varied epochs and character, from the work of the unknown sculptors who carved the so-called "toros" of Guisando and erected the huge dolmens and other megalithic monuments so thickly strewed over its soil, to the architects and artists of the p

A FEW words in conclusion. Spain is far from being a worn-out country. On the contrary, both in the character and capacities of its varied populations, in the mineral riches of its soil, in its agricultural wealth, in industrial resources, and in the artistic taste of its workmen, it is capable of vast development. Two things hinder this, and will probably hinder it for some time. These are the political separation of Spain and Portugal, so ill-adapted to the geographical conformation of the Pen

LIST OF BOOKS CHIEFLY MADE USE OF IN THE FOREGOING PAGES. Geography :— La Nouvelle Géographie Universelle, par Elisée Reclus, series 5 and 6. Hachette, Paris, 1876. Spanien und die Balearen. Willkomm, Berlin, 1879. The Balearic Isles, by T. Bidwell. London. Boletin de la Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, various years. Introduccion à la Historia Natural y à la Geográfica Fisica de España, por Don Guillermo Bowles. Madrid, 1775. Espagne, Algerie, et Tunisie, par P. de Tchikatchef. Paris, 1880. Libro