prolonged
residence in the country.

Spain is looked upon by the greater number of strangers as a land
delivered over to depredation, and highly insecure. In fact, it is
surprising that such should not be the fate of a country in which
instruction is limited, and where, as I myself have witnessed, servants
may be known to be in the daily practice of stealing without their
dismissal being by any means a necessary result. It is surprising, that
in the absence of any strong natural objection to theft, any honesty
should exist in the presence of temptation; yet I know no country where
there is more, if I may form an opinion from the individuals of whom I
have had an opportunity of judging. However, as an instance of the
contradictions one meets with, the following event was represented as
having taken place in one of the provinces in which I had received the
favourable impression above-mentioned.

A ci-devant colonel, just arrived in Madrid, related the fact to me one
evening, on which, as chance would have it, I found him at supper.
Immediately on my entering the room he commenced complaining of the lack
of silver articles of necessity for the table, and accounted for it in
the following manner. He had recently arrived with his family from a
provincial town, in which he had filled a government situation. Shortly
before his departure he had invited all his friends to a leave-taking
repast; and after the departure of his guests nearly two dozen articles
of plate were missing. "In packing up," I observed, "no doubt some
dishonest domestic--" "No, no," he interrupted, "they were all pocketed
by my guests."

That the man in office should have conciliated the attachment of all his
acquaintances to such a degree, as that all should conceive
simultaneously the idea of preserving a _souvenir_ of his person, and
that in so delicate and unostentatious a manner,--was not possible. As,
therefore, I still retained my impression of the honesty of the lower
classes, and as the sufferer appeared to treat the occurrence as one by
no means extraordinary, I came to the conclusion, that--either Spanish
integrity, unlike that of other nations, must rise in an inverse ratio
to men's fortunes and stations; or that the author of the anecdote had
been tempted, by the desire of masking the (perhaps unavoidable)
deficiencies in his supper service, to have recourse to his inventive
talent, at the expense of his absent friends' reputation.

I bel