[3] Commercial and Industrial Spain, by George Higgin,
    Mem.  Inst.  C. E., London, 1886.

In Spain to-day everything is dated from “La Gloriosa,” the Revolution of 1868, the “Day of Spanish Liberty,” as it well deserves to be called, and there is every reason to look back with pride upon that time; because, after the battle of Alcolea, when the cry raised in the Puerta del Sol, Viva Prim! was answered by the troops shut up in the Government offices, and the people, swarming up the rejas and the balconies, fraternised with their brothers-in-arms, who had been intended, could they have been trusted by their commanders, to shoot them down, Madrid was for some days wholly in the hands of King Mob, and of King Mob armed.  The victorious troops were still at some distance, the Queen and her camarilla had fled across the frontier, the Government had vanished, and the people were a law unto themselves.  Yet not one single act of violence was committed; absolute peace and quietness, and perfect order prevailed.  The ragged men in the street formed themselves into guards:  just as they were, they took up their positions at the abandoned Palace, at the national buildings and institutions; the troops were drawn up outside Madrid and its people were its guardians.  Committees of emergency were formed; everything went on as if nothing unusual had happened, and not a single thing was touched or destroyed in the Palace, left wholly at the mercy of the sovereign people.  The excesses which took place in some of the towns, after the brutal assassination of Prim and the abdication of Amadeo, were rather the result of political intrigue and the working of interested demagogues on the passions of people misled and used as puppets.

With the advance of commerce and industry, and the massing of workers in the towns, has come, as in other countries, the harvest of the demagogue.  Strikes and labour riots now and then break out, and the Spanish anarchist is not unknown.  But the investment of their money in industrial and commercial enterprises, so largely increasing, is giving the people the best possible interest in avoiding disturbances of this, or of any other, kind:  and as knowledge of more enlightened finance is penetrating to the working people themselves, the number who are likely to range themselves on the side of law and order is daily increasing.  The improved railway and steamer communication with parts of the country heretofore isolated, much of it only completed since this book was begun—­in fact, within the last few months—­is bringing the northern and western ports into prominence.  Galicia now not only has an important industry in supplying fresh fish for Madrid, but has a good increasing trade with Europe and America.  Pontevedra and Vigo, as well as Villagarcia, are improving daily since the railway reached them.  Fresh fruit and vegetables find a ready market, and new uses for materials