h none but those who are below the
influence of public opinion, and even those but in rare instances, are
ever known to practise. To call a man a drunkard in Spain, is considered
a worse insult than to call him a thief; and the effect of the story is
the same as if a person, pretending to describe English manners, were to
represent the Lord Chancellor as often in custody on a charge of
shoplifting, and permitted, in consideration of his abilities, still to
remain in office and exercise the duties of his station.

The principal topographical errors are the following:--Dona Mencia names
to Gil Blas two places on the road near Burgos--these she calls Gofal
and Rodillas; the real names are Tardagal and Revilla, (1, 11;) Ponte de
Mula is put for Puenta Duro, (1, 13;) Luceno for Luyego; Villardera for
Villar del Sa, (5, 1;) Almerim for Almoharia, (5, 1;) Sliva for Chiva,
(7, 1;) Obisa for Cobisa, (10, 10;) Sinas for Linas; Mililla for
Melilla; Arragon for Aragon. Describing his journey from Madrid to
Oviedo, Gil Blas says they slept the first night at Alcala of Henares,
and the second at Segovia. Now Alcala is not on the road from Madrid to
Segovia, nor is it possible to travel in one day from one of these
cities to the other--probably Galapagar was the word mistaken. Penafiel
is mentioned as lying on the road from Segovia to Valladolid, (10, 1;)
this is for Portillo. Now, if Le Sage had invented the story, and
clothed it with names of Spanish cities and villages, taken from
_printed_ books, can any one suppose that he could have fallen into all
these errors?

A thread of Spanish history winds through the whole story of _Gil Blas_,
and keeps every circumstance in its place; therefore the date of the
hero's birth may be fixed with the greatest precision. He tells us he
was fifty-eight at the death of the Count Duke of Olivarez, that is,
1646; Gil Blas was therefore born 1588, and this corresponds altogether
with different allusions, which show that when the romance was written
the war between Spain and Portugal was present to the author's mind, and
the subject of his constant animadversion. Portugal, as our readers may
recollect, became subject to the Spanish yoke in 1580, the Duke of
Braganza was raised to the throne of that kingdom in 1640; and the war
to which that event gave rise was not terminated till 1668; when Charles
II. acknowledged Alphonso VI. as the legitimate ruler of Portugal. That
when the work was written the