and the history of the people inhabiting a country.

If history may be believed, the way in which the Spaniards and their
kindred nation, the Portuguese, sought wealth, not only brought a blot
upon the national character, but was also fatal to the growth of a
healthy commerce; and so to the industries upon which commerce lives,
and ultimately to that national wealth which was sought by mistaken
paths. The desire for gain rose in them to fierce avarice; so they
sought in the new-found worlds which gave such an impetus to the
commercial and maritime development of the countries of Europe, not
new fields of industry, not event the healthy excitement of
exploration and adventure, but gold and silver. They had many great
qualities; they were bold, enterprising, temperate, patient of
suffering, enthusiastic, and gifted with intense national feeling.
When to these qualities are added the advantages of Spain's position
and well-situated ports, the fact that she was first to occupy large
and rich portions of the new worlds and long remained without a
competitor, and that for a hundred years after the discovery of
America she was the leading State in Europe, she might have been
expected to take the foremost place among the sea powers. Exactly the
contrary was the result, as all know. Since the battle of Lepanto in
1571, though engaged in many wars, no sea victory of any consequence
shines on the pages of Spanish history and the decay of her commerce
sufficiently accounts for the painful and sometimes ludicrous
inaptness shown on the decks of her ships of war. Doubtless such a
result is not to be attributed to one cause only. Doubtless the
government of Spain was in many ways such as to cramp and blight a
free and healthy development of private enterprise; but the character
of a great people breaks through or shapes the character of its
government, and it can hardly be doubted that had the bent of the