Portland Gazette, And Maine Advertiser

SPAIN.

There is, in the national character of Spain, one trait, which is equally to be found in all classes of society, originating, I suspect, in the indolence which a fine climate and luxurious soil produce. This trait is the want of combination, and the absence of arrangement. The Spaniards are brave, active, patient and faithful; but all their characteristics are insulated; all their exertions are individual. They have no idea of combining together in private, or in public, in such a way as that the separate talents of different persons may be all usefully employed, all differently employed, all employed conformably to their different capacities, and yet be all so occupied, as that the concentration of their several exertions may tend to the same end. The Germans may be said to combine too much, and the Spaniards not at all. In my judgment, the English have attained the proper medium; but certainly, from the government to the peasantry, all the Spaniards are alike deficient on this point, and to this deficiency their reverses may all be ascribed. If a commander embarks on an expedition, as that to Algiers a few years ago, it is not improbable that the powder would be embarked in one ship and the ball in another, and one being lost the other would be useless. Nor would it be unlikely in their army, that they should deliver to their soldiers ball cartridges for a review, and blank cartridges for a battle, for I have seen errors as egregious committed, tho' not that precise one.—Foreign paper.