nd it has not been uncommon for money to be put into the hands of an
escrivano[47] previous to the commission of a murder, in order to insure
the services and protection of a person so necessary to one who
meditates crime."

[47] The _escrivanos_, who figure so largely in Spain, are the
representatives of the lowest class of attorneys. Nothing can be done
without them, and they are not unfrequently almost the sole authority in
a place capable of reading and writing. Notwithstanding the miserable
state of the rural districts, they contrive to make money, and many of
them rise from this humble office to much higher places in the state.
Their wretched appointments are, consequently, objects of competition. I
witnessed the execution of one at Seville by accidentally entering the
Plaza, where the Capuchins were bawling out the last words for his
repetition, announcing to the crowd that they had done their duty, and
he died in the true faith. He had been superseded in some village in the
vicinity, and assassinated his rival.--_Cook's Sketches in Spain_, vol.
i., p. 197.

_Spain abounds in poverty._ Ignorance conduces to crime, which, as we
have seen, is at once a cause and an effect of poverty. In view of what
has already been said of the ignorance and immorality of the Spaniards,
one would readily enough infer that poverty exists among them to a
deplorable extent, and it is even so. In this country "every thing,
indeed, appears to have conspired to paralyze industry, and to render of
no avail the natural fertility of the soil. The havoc of war; the
plunder committed by organized and powerful bodies of robbers; the
rapacity of government and of its army of officers; the exclusion of
foreign goods, and the consequent shutting up of the foreign market; the
ignorance of the people as to the best modes of agriculture; and, last
of all, the want of capital--all these combine to produce squalid
poverty in a land which ought to," and, with a good system of popular
education, most assuredly would, "ABOUND IN WEALTH."

Scotland and Spain have been referred to, not to bring out a few facts
in history merely, but to illustrate an important truth. Where a good
system of popular education is well administered in a country, and, as a
consequence, intelligence, industry, and morality become universal among
its citizens, they will eventually become a wealthy, and a
highly-prosperous and happy community, even t