The most important branch, however, of the ecclesiastical revenues, is that accruing from tithes, which are collected with a strictness that far exceeds what is known in any other part of Europe. In describing the rigours with which this system is enforced, or in pointing out the evils which arise from it, I must observe, that it is far from my intention to apply my remarks to the English clergy. Whatever may be said in behalf of this most respectable class of society, whenever their ancient title to tithes is questioned, can never be said, with equal truth, in behalf of a body of men, who, under the pretension of celibacy, have insulated themselves from the rest of their species, to practise with greater impunity the vices of luxury and debauchery. The tithes collected in Andalusia extend to every agricultural production, and are rigidly exacted, not, as with us, on the ground, but after it has gone through all the necessary processes to fit it for the use of man. Thus wheat and barley must not only be cut, but threshed and winnowed, before the tithes are taken. Olives, which form a most important article in this vicinity, when they are sold in the state in which they are grown, pay the tithe only on the quantity carried away; but if there be a mill, and oil-presses on the farm, one-tenth of the oil is taken by the collector. In the same manner the tithe upon grapes, when the grapes are sold, is paid in fruit, but when made into wine within the district, the church receives one-tenth of the liquor.

"

The principle upon which this is founded seems to be, that the church may receive one-tenth of the produce in the first stage in which it becomes fit for use; for if wine be made into brandy, or

vinegar, the church receives its dues from the wine, and not from those articles into which it is afterwards converted. The more valuable productions of the field, such as liquorice and sumach, as well as the minuter articles of the garden, such as melons, pumpkins, onions, garlick, peas, and beans, all contribute an equal proportion to the support of the ecclesiastical establishment. The right to tithes has been lately extended to such wild fruits as can be sold, even for the smallest sums: thus the tunas, or prickly pears, the figs growing on the opuntia, a wild fruit with which the hedges abound, and con sequently of little value, have lately been subjected to the tithing system. One-tenth also of all the domesticated animals is delivered to the tithe-collector, as well as the wool annually shorn from the sheep.

Composition for tithes is a practice wholly unknown in Andalusia. The Cabildo annually sells the tithes by a species of auction, and where no person bids sufficiently high, the articles are taken into its own hands, and collected in storehouses within the district. In either case, the collectors of the tithes have no common interest with the farmers, who, from submission to the church, frequently suffer the grossest impositions without an effort for redress, knowing that in any appeal they might make, priests would be their judges. Before the revenues are collected, the Cabildo issues its billets of repartimiento to the different claimants on their fund, which entitle the bearer to a certain sum of money, or a specific quantity of produce, and being easily transferred, are frequently sold by the necessitous clergy. Those who have billets for

produce, receive it at the storehouses where it has been deposited by the collectors, but those who have billets for money, receive it from the treasurer of the Cabildo, as the purchasers of the tithes make their payments. There is an uniformity in this system which produces effects diametrically opposite to those which are felt in England. In Spain, it is the clergy who oppress, and the farmer who is defrauded; in England, it is the farmer who imposes, and the clergyman who is the sufferer.

The monastic bodies depend for their support on the lands they possess, and many of them have estates of considerable extent and of great value. The Carthusians are the richest as well as the most rigid order in Andalusia: they let large tracts of land to farmers, who pay them partly in produce and partly in money at the same time they occupy very extensive farms themselves, and have for many years been the greatest breeders and proprietors of the best Andalusian horses, but their revenues are ill administered. The voluptuous lives of the priors, and the peculations of the procuradores, have involved the convents in embarrassments which have placed them under the necessity of anticipating their resources, and of lessening them by borrowing money on mortgages. The convent of St. Heronymo de Buena Vista possesses a tract of land highly productive of corn, wine, and oil. I was informed by the monks of St. Heronymo, that they could travel to the city of Carmona, which is about twentyfour miles from Seville, without treading upon any soil which did not belong to their convent; yet with this valuable estate, from bad management, they are deeply in debt, and obliged to retrench

even some of the necessaries of the monks. Having mentioned the lands of the church, which are thus in mortmain, I will just observe that the Cabildos, or municipal corporations of the different cities, are proprietors of large estates, which, like those of the church, are badly managed, and equally unalienable.

LETTER XV.

FAIR AT SANTI-PONCE-NATIONAL CHARACTER- -CORTEJOS-FAMILIARITY OF MANNERS-GENERAL TEMPERANCE-DEFICIENCY OF HOUSEHOLD COMFORTS

-CULINARY IMPLEMENTS-COOKERY,

SEVILLE, OCT. 1809.

A LARGE fair, which is annually held at Santi-ponce, a few miles from this city, afforded me an opportunity of observing national manners in their most unmixed state, and I accordingly went there on Sunday last, with a party of Englishmen. It is held on an open plain between the town and the river Guadalquivir, and was crowded with booths, cattle, and spectators, to a great extent. Even in this scene of revelry, the solemnity of the Spanish character was visible, and its sobriety may be inferred from this circumstance, that there were very few booths in which wine or brandy was sold, but a considerable number for the sale of water cooled in porous jars; an article which forms so great a luxury in this country.

The young farmers galloped about to shew the beauty of their horses, and their skill in managing them. Their dresses were very fantastical, and the trappings of the horses sufficiently cumbrous. These singularities, however, only served to display the national peculiarities more strikingly. The toys perhaps of every nation offer