VOUNg’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE. 66 3

hundred and forty miles through the province, and may conclude, from what we faw,without any danger of being deceived, that not one acre in an hundred is under anyfort of cultivation ; in fuch grofs calculation one would take care to be within the truth,and if 1 faid not one in one hundred and fifty, 1 believe I Ihould llill be on the fafe fide ofthe affertion. When the fadt is connected with the reputation which the province has ofbeing, next to Valentia, thebeft cultivated, and, without exception, the inoft induftriousin Spain , conclufions very unfavourable to the ftate and policy of that monarchy, multnecelfarily be drawn by every reader. The advantage of pofieffing the fecond city of thekingdom, a place of great trade, and containing one hundred and twenty thoufandfouls, is very confiderable, and mult have done much to bring the province even to itsprefent fituation. At the fame time that thefe boundlefs waftes were offending the eyein every quarter, we could, in no part of Catalonia , condemn the people for want ofinduftry ; on the contrary, they feem very well to merit the character they have gained :the activity which is feen through all the towns upon the coaft, and they are very nu-merous, and very populous, can hardly be greater in a country fubmitted to numerousfeftival days by its religion : the filhery in all thofe places is confiderable, and attendedto with an unabating fpirit. The women and children make lace; and wherever thefoil is good, or water conducted, cultivation is in a high ftate of perfection. Even in theinterior country, we faw every where figns of much induftry; and, amid ft a povertywhich hurt our feelings, we generally faw fomething to convince us, that it was not thefault of the poor people that greater exertions w'ere not made. Thofe interior partsdepend entirely on their agiiculture; and the height to which they climb the moun-tains in order to find a fpot tolerab y level for cultivation, fhews that their minds andbodies are ready for laborious exertions, whenever there is a profpect of enjoying thereward. With fo much induftry among the people to what are we to attribute the waftcftate of their country ? The inquiries necefiary for a complete inveftigation of fuch aqueftion were not to be made by travellers: a longer refidence would have been ne-ceflary, but a few circumftances fhould be mentioned, which are probably connectedintimately with it.

Firft, the poverty of the people in the interior country is ftriking ; their towns old,ill built, dirty, and wretched ; the people ill drefled, and generally deficient in thewealth belt adapted to fuch a country, cattle : in the higher Pyrenees this is not fomuch the cafe ; they have cattle, and are in every refpect in a better condition, owingto the plenty which great commons give in a country of good pafturage, and wherewood is in profufion. The number of flieep we faw in general was not the twentiethpart of what the waftes, bad as they are for that animal, would maintain; and that ofgoats fo fmall as to indicate the fame thing ftrongly. This poverty not being the effeClof a want of induftry, niuft refult from a government inattentive to their interefts, and,probably oppreffive; and from a total want of the higher clafies refiding amongft them.Till we came to the rich country near Barcelona, that is to fay, in about two hundredmiles, -we faw nothing that had the leaft refemblance to a gentleman’s country feat;thofe who have eftates let in it are abfent ; thofe we heard of live at Barcelona ; andthe whole country is thus abandoned to the very loweft clafies, and the wealth and in-telligence which might contribute to its improvement, diverted into diffant and verydifferent channels ; this is a great misfortune to the people, and which will long con-tribute to keep things in their prefent ftate. To the fame caufe it is owing, that thetoads, fo eflential in the improvement of a country, are left in a ftate which precludesthe ufe of wheel-carriages ; which, with the unnavigable ftate of all the rivers, except forrafters of timber grofsiy put together, cuts off that fyftem of reciprocal purchafe and