But of this increased prosperity far more than her share has fallen to France, owing chiefly to its being put in the same category with Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Austria, as _most favoured_ nations, who import their goods under the customs tariff of July 17, 1877, while England and the United States continue-under the old tariff, as _favoured_ nations only. This disproportion will probably be still more marked, owing to the immense importation of Spanish wines into France required to make up for losses by the phylloxera disease; while the exportation of sherry to England has been gradually lessening for some years, and now we take only some 4 per cent, of the quantity, and 12 per cent in value, of the wine exported from Spain. One of our chief imports into Spain, coal, is likely also to diminish, owing to the development of the native coal-fields in the Asturias and in Andalusia. Our other chief exports from Spain in fruits and minerals largely increase. The present wine tariff of England, by which she virtually refuses to purchase the bulk of Spanish wines in their natural state, while importing them largely when mixed with inferior French white wines, and treated as clarets, &c., is felt by Spaniards to be so unfair that, until this system is modified there is little hope of obtaining a better tariff for English manufactures; while the making Gibraltar an immense depot for a contraband trade is a wrong that rankles in the mind of all southern Spaniards. The decline of the English import trade into Spain would be much more marked but for the immense amount of English capital employed in the larger mining and industrial enterprises. The battle between protection and free trade is not yet fought out in Spain. The manufacturing districts of Catalonia and the east coast clamour loudly for protection, while the mining and agricultural and wine-growing interests demand free trade. It is impossible to say on which side the balance may turn. A conservative Government would probably favour the former, while a liberal ministry might venture upon the latter system.