Until the final overthrow of the Carlists by Alfonso XII., the Basque Provinces, amongst their most cherished _fueros_, were exempted from the hated conscription; but the victorious King made short work of that and of all other special rights and privileges--which, in truth, had been abused--and now all the country is subject to conscription. Every man from nineteen to twenty years of age is liable to serve in the ranks, except those who are studying as officers. A payment of £60 frees them from service during peace; but if the country is at war there is no exemption. The conscripts are bound for twelve years--three with the colours, three in the first reserve, three in the second, and three in the third. Navy? Alas! Spain has none. Two battle-ships alone remain--_El Pelayo_ and _Carlos V._ (the former about nine thousand five hundred tons, the latter not more than seven thousand)--and some destroyers and torpedoes. How a nation that once ruled the sea, and whose sailors traversed and conquered the New World, has allowed her navy to become practically extinct at the moment when nations which have almost no seaboard are trying to bring theirs up within measurable distance of England's, it is impossible to say. Even before the outbreak of the war with America there were but a few battle-ships, and these were wanting in guns and in almost all that could make them effective--save and except the men, who behaved like heroes. It seems to be a consolation to Spaniards to remember that it was in the pages of an English journal that an Englishman, who had seen the whole of the disastrous war, wrote: "If Spain were served by her statesmen as she has been served by her navy, she would be one of the greatest nations of the world to-day."