ceful trader: from hence the constant robberies in the less
frequented places; from hence the general abuse of carrying prohibited
arms of all sorts, and using them criminally against any one on the
least provocation, already accustomed to use them against the
Government. Who shall venture to enumerate the assassinations, the
robberies, the ruined families, the misfortunes of all kinds, which,
directly and indirectly, spring from contraband trade?"

Such is the _Exposicion_, such the experience, and such the views of a
patriotic and enlightened corporation, representing and ruling over one
of the most populous, wealthy, and industrially disposed districts of
Spain. Our object in prefacing at this length, and with seeming
irrelevance, perhaps, our review of the commercial policy of Russia,
with its bearings on the interests of Great Britain, is to show the
differing action of the same commercial system, in the present case of
the prohibitive and restrictive system in different countries, both in
respect of the mode in which the internal progress and industry of
countries acting upon the same principle are variously affected
themselves and in respect of the nature and extent of the influences of
such action upon those relations of interchange which they entertain, or
might otherwise entertain, with other countries where an opposite or
modified system prevails. In its broad features the system of Russia
varies from that of Spain only in being more rigorous and intractable
still. Both, however, are founded on the same exclusive principle, that
of isolation--that of forcing manufactures at whatever cost--that of
producing all that may be required for domestic consumption--of
exporting the greatest possible maximum--of importing the lowest
conceivable minimum. Starting from the same point, and for the same
goal, it will not be without interest or instruction to accompany and
observe the progress of the one, as we have already endeavoured to
illustrate the fortunes of the other--to present Russia, industrial and
commercial, side by side, or in contrast with Spain, as we have
described her. Your absolute theory men, your free-traders with one
idea, like Lord Howick, your performers in the economic extravaganza now
rehearsing in the Parliament-house under the style of "leave imports
free, and the exports will take care of themselves," may chance to meet
with many strange facts to confound their arbitrary theorems on the
banks of