which I may occasionally draw, many may think erroneous. I will only say, that I am unconscious of being biassed by prejudice; and whatever I set down shall be based as much as possible upon fact and observation. I left England in the belief that there existed in Spain two great parties,--the Constitutionalists, and the adherents of the government; the latter party indeed somewhat divided,--and comprising many shades of opinion, ranging from absolutism, to a point somewhere between that and moderation. But this estimate I discovered to be very erroneous. I found three parties in Spain: the Absolutists, there denominated Carlists; the Government party, there called the moderate party; and the Liberals. The most influential of these parties is, beyond all question, the first. Reckoning the total population of Spain, this party is by far the most numerous; it comprises the great mass of the lower orders throughout Spain; and in many parts, almost the whole population,--as in Toledo, the towns and villages of the Castiles, and the provinces of Murcia and Catalunia. It comprises, with few exceptions, the 130,000 friars, and a great majority of the clergy, and it comprises a considerable proportion of the military, both officers and privates; but chiefly the former. With such components, it is evident that this party does not depend for its power, solely upon its numerical superiority. Every one knows, that there is uncounted wealth in the convents and churches of Spain. I do not speak merely of the wealth in jewels, and golden urns, and images, locked up in Toledo, and Seville, and Murcia, and the Escurial, and elsewhere,--though much of this would, without doubt, be made a ready sacrifice to the necessities of the party; but also of the more available riches, well known to be possessed by many orders of friars; among others, by the Carthusians, the Dominicans, and Hieronomites. Hundreds of the convents in Spain have no possible way of consuming their revenues--for it is a fact, that the poor orders are invariably the most numerous; and we generally find a very limited fraternity in those convents whose revenues are the largest. In the Carthusian convent, at Granada, there are only nine monks; and the land for more than half a league round, and comprising numerous country houses, and hamlets, is the property of this convent. In the Convento de los Reyes, in the neighbourhood of Valencia, there are indeed twenty-seven monks; but one of their number admitted to me, that the revenues of the convent exceeded 500,000 reals, (5000_l._ sterling): and in the neighbourhood of Murviedro, (the ancient Saguntum), there is another convent of Carthusians, which owns seven villages, and a tract of land as rich as any in Spain, nearly a league square, and which contains only seven monks.