From what has been said in the preceding pages as to their ethnology, the reader will not be surprised to learn that the different populations of Spain have very different characteristics. The Galicians and Asturians are the hewers of wood and drawers of water in Spain. They are often fine, stalwart men, brave, and make excellent sailors. It is they who reap the harvests for the more lazy Castilians and gather the vintage of Oporto; it is they who do nearly all the hard work in all the chief towns, not of Spain only, but also of Portugal. They are proverbially honest and trustworthy as servants, though slow and somewhat lacking in intelligence. Abroad, and as emigrants, they are trusted as men of no other race are: in the countries of La Plata in South America, the town-house, during the summer absence of the proprietor and his family, is given over to a Gallego, as it stands, to be taken care of, and rarely indeed is an article missing. The Asturian partakes of the same general characteristics as the Galician, though in a less marked degree. In the Montaneses, the inhabitants of the province of Santander, we have the favourite nurses and female servants of Madrid. The Asturias and Santander are remarkable for the number of statesmen and economists they have produced in proportion to the population. In the Basque Provinces we find an entirely different race, not perhaps of so muscular a build, but active, and capable of great endurance. Intelligent and proud of their ancient race and liberties, they almost always retain their self-respect, and are for the most part free from that cruelty towards animals which is so disfiguring a trait in the character of other Spaniards. The Basques are generally found among the upper and more trusted servants in civil life, in the army and navy they make excellent petty officers; as seamen they are among the best of Spain; as soldiers they are brave, enduring, capital marchers, and as light infantry second to none of any nation. The Aragonese, like the Galicians, count among the hard workers of Spain; generally of shorter build, and very thick-set, but somewhat dull and very obstinate, they are employed in the heaviest work. In literature they are known as jurisconsults and historians. In Catalonia and Valencia we have the bright Provencal race. A race apt for commerce and for manufacturing industries; pushing, energetic, they gather to themselves the greater part of the commerce, manufactures, and shopkeeping of all kinds, as far as these are done by Spaniards, throughout the kingdom. Fiery in temper, and not to be implicitly trusted, especially in Valencia, their weapon is the knife, which they use sometimes on slight provocation; the hired assassins and bandits of Spain have always been recruited thence. Socialists and Federalists in politics, they have ever been disaffected towards the central government. In Catalonia this may be the result of