All foreigners are free to settle in Spanish territory, and to exercise therein their respective trades and professions, with the exception of those which require special titles. The expression of opinion, the press, the right of public meeting, of association, and of petition, except from armed bodies, are respectively free. No Spaniard or foreigner can be arrested or detained illegally. He must either be set at liberty or be brought before a judge within twenty-four hours of his arrest. No Spaniard can be arrested without a judge's warrant, and the case must then be heard within seventy-two hours after his arrest; otherwise he must be set at liberty on his own petition or on that of any other Spaniard. Domicile is inviolable. Such are the principal articles of the present Spanish Constitution. In spite of the excess of some republican governments and the reaction of others, real progress has been made, excepting only in the equivocal law on religion, and that on marriages between Catholics and Protestants.
Administrative Spain.
For military purposes, Spain is mapped out into five "capitanias generales," conferring the rank of field-marshal on the possessors of that office. The number of marshals, generals, and superior officers of the special corps in active service is over 500. The number of the army on a peace footing is fixed at 90,000, the infantry numbering 60,000, the cavalry 16,000, artillery 10,000, and engineers 4000. Universal conscription is nominally obligatory, but with the power of purchasing a substitute for a fixed sum of 80l. The time of service is eight years, four of which are spent in the active army and four in the reserve. In the colonies the time is four years only, the whole of which must be spent in active service. Besides the regular army in Spain are the corps and garrisons in the Philippine Islands, in Porto Rico, and in Cuba, where the mortality is so great that the troops need constant renewal. In addition to the above must be reckoned the militia of the Canary Islands, the "guardias civiles," a kind of constabulary like that of Ireland or the gendarmerie of France. These are about 15,000 men, and are some of the best and most trustworthy troops in Spain; the carabineros or custom-house officers, who guard the frontiers, form another corps of about 12,000. Towards the close of the late Carlist and Cuban wars the actual army was far above these numbers, and it is probable that 150,000 men were under arms on the side of the Government in the Basque Provinces alone. The Spanish soldier is one of the best in Europe, if properly commanded. He is sober, and has great powers of endurance; is an excellent marcher, and a trustworthy sentinel; persistent both in attack and defence, he still retains the steadiness of the old Spanish "tercios," which were once the terror and admiration of Europe. The Basques under Zumalacarrégui in the first Carlist war, and the Catalans under Martinez Campos in the last, earned high praise from all foreign officers who saw them. But too often these fine qualities of the private have been rendered of no avail, owing to the utter want of skill and competency in the officers and commanders, and still more by reckless corruption and mismanagement in all things relating to the commissariat and supplies. Another element of deterioration has been the use of the soldiery as mere tools of political intrigue in the frequent revolts and pronunciamientos of ambitious generals. The scientific corps, however, the artillery and engineers, have always stood aloof from sedition. It was an attempt to corrupt the former and to assimilate it in this respect to the rest of the army, which led to the abdication of King Amadeo. The generals who have achieved the greatest reputation in the Spanish army are Quesada and Martinez Campos. Moriones, who distinguished himself in the Basque Provinces during the last Carlist war, has lately died. Blanco and Jovellar acquired distinction in Cuba, and Loma as a good brigadier in the Carlist war. Serrano, Pavia, and others are better known in the field of politics than in that of military action.
For naval purposes the coast of Spain is divided into three departments—Ferrol, Cadiz, and Cartagena, at each of which ports is a naval arsenal. The jurisdiction of the marine extends as far as the tide and seventy feet beyond. The three departments, are divided into tercios navales, partidos maritimos, and districts. The Spanish navy consists of 121 ships, five of which are armoured vessels of the first class, and eleven unarmoured; eighteen belong to the second class, and fifty-six to the third, some of which are monitors and armoured gunboats. There are also thirty-one smaller vessels, and a few ships employed for training and for harbour services. The whole fleet mounts 525 guns, and is over 20,000 horse-power. The sailors number 14,000, with 504 officers of all ranks, and the marine infantry 7000, with 374 officers. The old fame of Spanish ship-building, except for small vessels, has almost entirely passed away. In the great war at the beginning of the century, the finest vessels of our navy were prizes taken from Spain. Spanish navigators, too, have long lost their old renown, though the Basques are still esteemed as mariners. The ironclad frigates and monitors of modern Spain have been almost all constructed in foreign dockyards. The armoured gunboats, however, built in Spain are a good and useful model.
The merchant marine consists of 226 ocean-going steamers and 1578 ocean sailing-vessels measuring altogether 460,000 tons. Smaller vessels make up a total of 3000 merchant-ships, less than one-fifth of the number of those of Great Britain.
For the administration of justice the country is divided into Audiencias Territoriales, Provincias, and Partidos Judiciales. The Audiencias, or courts of appeal, are fifteen, with 373 judges or procureurs. There are also 500 judges of first instance, and there is also a justice of peace or alcalde in each town or municipality. All pleadings are still conducted in writing in Spain; there is no verbal examination or cross-examination in public. Suits both civil and criminal are thus dragged out to an inordinate length. Judges are still suspected of being open to bribery, and confidence in the just administration of the law is as a consequence severely shaken. It is not uncommon for witnesses to be summoned to testify to facts which happened many years before, and it not unfrequently happens that either the principal witnesses or the criminal himself is dead before the case is decided. As a conspicuous instance, we may remind our readers that General Prim was assassinated in open day in Madrid in 1870, and the case has not yet been adjudged. The discipline of the prisons is in general extremely lax, and many crimes, especially forgeries, are there concocted with impunity. There is, however, a great difference in the treatment of the prisoners in different prisons. Up to 1840 the office of Alcaide, or governor of a prison, was sold by the Government to the highest bidder, and the purchasers made the most they could out of the wretched prisoners by starving them or by accepting bribes for illicit indulgences, and for furnishing what they were bound to provide, so that it was commonly said "that the bagnios of Algiers were less terrible than the prisons of Spain." Perhaps the worst of them all, up to the year 1833, was the old prison of the city of Madrid, one dark dungeon of which was termed "El Infierno"—Hell. Almost as bad was the Prison de Corté and the famous Saladero. There was no classification, no cleanliness, and in some of the cells neither light nor ventilation. In some of the country prisons the cells were like the dens of a menagerie, and the starving prisoners thrust their hands through the bars to beg food of passers-by. At last has arisen an ardent band of philanthropists, of whom Senors Lastres and Vilalva are at the head, and the first stone of a new prison in Madrid, arranged on modern principles, was laid by the king in February, 1877.
Hospitals, lunatic asylums, and asylums for the sick and aged poor, and other charitable establishments are of very varied descriptions in Spain. Some of them, like the famous establishments of Cadiz, Seville, Madrid, Cartagena, Valencia, and Cordova, are admirably managed, and yield in practical benefit to none of other lands. The first lunatic asylum ever founded was that at Valencia by Padre Jofre Gilanext, in 1409; three others, at Saragossa, Toledo, and Seville were founded in the fifteenth century. That of Barcelona is said to be now the best public lunatic asylum in Spain. Many others are nearly as good, while one or two of the private asylums near Madrid are excellent; but in some provinces these establishments, both public and private, are still in a very wretched state.
Since 1848 there have been a little over 4000 miles of railway laid down in Spain. The principal lines are the two which run from the extreme ends of the French Pyrenees to the capital, connecting Spain with the great European communications. Next in importance are those from the Mediterranean ports Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, to Madrid; Malaga and Granada are connected with the metropolis by the line from Cadiz. A rather circuitous route by Badajoz, Ciudad Real, and Toledo is the only line at present open to Lisbon, but a more direct one is in course of construction. The communications with the extreme north-west are not yet completed, but the branch of the Great Northern Company from Santander, which brings the products of the Asturian coal-fields to Madrid, is of great importance. Other valuable lines are those of the valley of the Ebro, from Miranda del Ebro by Saragossa to Barcelona. Should any of the schemes projected for a direct route from Paris to Madrid, by any of the central passes of the Pyrenees, through Saragossa, be carried into effect, the line from the latter place to Madrid will be one of considerable traffic. The coast-line from Barcelona to Valencia is of great value to one of the richest wine and fruit districts of Spain. Shorter lines, which may have a considerable influence on the welfare of the country, are those which connect the great mineral fields with the chief lines of transport or with the nearest port. It has been remarked that hitherto, with some exceptions, Spanish railways have had less influence in developing local traffic than those of any other European country. The Great Northern lines, too, have suffered seriously from interruptions caused by civil war, by floods, and other accidents since 1868.
The total length of the telegraph lines is nearly 10,000 miles. The number of public offices is 324, of private, 12; the telegrams despatched amounted in 1877 to 2,023,579, of which about half were private despatches for the interior. The expenses of working were 165,076l., and the receipts 156,950l., leaving a deficit of 8126l.
The number of post-offices in 1877 was 2530, of letters 78,446,000; postal cards, 1,040,000; newspapers, 38,479,000; books and samples, 5,767,000. To Great Britain were despatched, in 1879: Letters and postal cards, 1,083,000; books, &c., 317,900; total, 1,400,900. From Great Britain: Letters and postal cards, 931,100; books, &c., 646,100; total, 1,577,200. The receipts from the post-office in 1877 were 361,704l., while the expenditure was 297,412l., leaving a surplus of 64,292l.