The active measures decreed by the Spanish Government in July and
October 1841, supported by cordons of troops at the foot of the
Pyrenees, have, indeed, very materially interfered with and checked the
progress of this contraband trade. In consequence of ancient compact,
the Basque, that is frontier provinces of Spain, enjoyed, among other
exclusive privileges, that of being exempt from Government customhouses,
or customs' regulations. For this privilege, a certain inconsiderable
subsidy was periodically voted for the service of the State. Regent
Espartero resolutely suspended first, and then abrogated, this branch of
the _fueros_. He carried the line of the customhouses from the Ebro,
where they were comparatively useless and scarcely possible to guard, to
the very foot and passes of the Pyrenees. The advantageous effect of
these vigorous proceedings was not long to wait for, and it may be found
developed in the Report to the Chamber of Deputies in Paris, before
referred to; in which M. Chegaray, the _rapporteur_ on the part of the
complaining petitioners of Bayonne, Bordeaux, &c., after stating that
the general exports of France to Spain in

1839 represented the aggregate sum of 83,000,000 francs,
1840 " " 104,000,000 francs,
1841 " " 101,000,000 francs,

proceeds to say, that the general returns for 1842 were not yet (April
11) made up, but that "_M. le directeur-general des douanes nous a
declare que la diminution avait ete enorme_." But although the general
returns could not be given, those specially referring to the single
customhouse of Bayonne had been obtained, and they amply confirmed the
assertion of the enormous diminution. The export of cottons, woollens,
silks, and linens, from that port to Spain, which in

1840 amounted in value to 15,800,000 francs,
1841 also 15,800,000 francs,
1842 had fallen to 5,700,000 francs.

A fall, really tremendous, of nearly two-thirds.

M. Chegaray, unfortunately, can find no other grievance to complain of
but the too strict enforcement of the Spanish custom laws, by which
French and Spanish contrabandists are harassed and damaged--can suggest
no other remedy than the renewal of the "family compact" of the
Bourbons--no hopes for the revival of smuggling prosperity from the
perpetuation of the French reciprocity system of trade all on one side,
but in the restoration of the commercial pri