A strange enough answer was made by the Count de Neufchateau, member of the French academy, to the assertion that Le Sage had availed himself of the Spanish manuscript. He said, Le Sage would not have taken to himself the merit of having written Gil Blas, if the work had been composed from the manuscript of another; and the reason he gives for his confidence in Le Sage’s honour is, that he did not hesitate to acknowledge his other plagiarisms. He acknowledged that he took from Spanish authors “the New Adventures of Don Quixotte,” published by him in 1735; “The Devil upon Two Sticks,” published in 1732; “The Adventures of Guzman de Alfarache,” published in 1707; “The Life and Doings of Estavanillo Gonzalez,” published in 1734; and “_The Bachelor of Salamanca_,” published in 1738. What the force of this argument is, I leave the reader to judge. But to return from this digression. Private literary associations are out of the question in Spain: several were set on foot in 1821-22; but after the return of the king, any thing of this kind was known to be so obnoxious, that these societies dissolved themselves, without waiting for any express order to that effect. Two public institutions only, connected with literature, exist at present. Like every other institution in Spain, they are _Real_, and therefore under the surveillance of government;--their names are, “The Royal Spanish Academy,” and “The Royal Academy of History.” The object of the first of these, is to perfect the Castilian language; and with this view they have published two excellent works, a Dictionary and a Grammar, besides a treatise on Orthography, and several smaller writings. The object of the Academy of History is to separate truth from falsehood in the history of Spain, and to collect all that may throw light upon the ancient and modern history, as well as geography, of that country. This society has published an excellent Geographical Dictionary, which has gone through several editions; and is now on the eve of publishing the collection of Inscriptions which I have already mentioned, accompanied by notes.