Spain must be increasing in wealth. The Government has just
askedfor a 'hien of thikteen and a half inillions at ,4 per cent., the minimum tender to be £90. Ten times the amount has been.subscribed, and the 10 per cent. deposit in realig7.-fills the loan. Even supposing that much of the subscription was speculative, that speculation shows confidence in the State, ands an extent of capital demanding investment which was hardly suspected, and is. the more remarkable because recent inquiries show that more than fifty thousand monks and nuns are living as unproductive workers, and because the condition of .agriculture is so bad that a universal strike of agricultural labourers is seriously feared. In the distressed districts, particularly- Estremadura, Andalusia, and the neighbourhood of Cadiz, they are making common cause with the Anarchists, who preach violence as the only remedy for their grievances, one, of which is that they, receive no regular wages, but are paid by the job,—an enormous increase to the power of the bailiffs, whom many observers believe to be the real oppressors in Spain.
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