would be constantly filled with vessels transporting the produce of one part to another.  It is not, however, so; and this points to a feature in the French character which, in all probability, will always render them indisposed, as well as unable, to rival Britain, either in manufactures or commerce.  Besides the want of capital, which might be supplied, and would indeed be actually supplied by industry and invention, the French are destitute of the stimulus to industry and invention.  As a nation, they are much more disposed to be content with a little, and to enjoy what they possess without risk, anxiety, or further labour, than to increase their wealth at such a price.

The principal commercial ports of France on the Atlantic are Havre, St. Maloes, Nantes, Bourdeaux, and Bayonne:  Marseilles is the only commercial port of consequence in the Mediterranean.  The principal exports of France are wines, brandy, vinegar, fruit, oil, woollen cloth of a very fine quality, silk, perfumery, &c.:  the imports are Baltic produce, the manufactures of England; fruits, drugs, raw wool, leather, &c. from Spain, Italy, and the Mediterranean states.

3.  The next division of Europe comprehends Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece.

Spain, a country highly favoured by nature, and at one period surpassed by no other kingdom in Europe in civilization, knowledge, industry, and power, exhibits an instructive and striking instance of the melancholy effects of political degradation.  Under the power of the Arabians, she flourished exceedingly; and even for a short period after their expulsion, she retained a high rank in the scale of European kingdoms.  The acquisition of her East Indian and American territories, and the high eminence to which she was raised during the dominion of Charles V. and his immediate successors,—­events that to a superficial view of things would have appeared of the greatest advantage to her,—­proved, in fact, in their real and permanent operation, prejudicial to her industry, knowledge, and power.  It would seem that the acquisition of the more precious metals, which may be likened to the power of converting every thing that is touched into gold, is to nations what it was to Midas,—­a source of evil instead of good.  Spain, having substituted the artificial stimulus of her American mines in the place of the natural and nutritive food of real industry, on which she fed during the dominion of the Moors, gradually fell off in commercial importance, as well as in political consequence and power.  The decline in her commerce, and in her home industry, was further accelerated and increased by the absurd restrictions which she imposed on the intercourse with her colonies.  All these circumstances concurring, about the period when she fell into the power of the house of Bourbon,—­that is, about the beginning of the eighteenth century,—­she sunk very low in industry and commerce, and she has, since that period, continued to fall.