. Spanish life in town and country . g wage is necessarily lower than in necessities in England are superfluities oreven inconveniences under sunnier skies. Thepeople, too, are very frugal, and even in towns,though rents be high, all other necessaries aremoderate in price. The standard of life is nothigh, and the people are contented with a styleof living which would be indignantly rejected byEnglish labourers. The artisans are not good workmen, but plod onfairly well, and, with the exception of festas, re-quire few holidays. They prefer to work on Sun-days, and grumble at their E
. Spanish life in town and country . g wage is necessarily lower than in necessities in England are superfluities oreven inconveniences under sunnier skies. Thepeople, too, are very frugal, and even in towns,though rents be high, all other necessaries aremoderate in price. The standard of life is nothigh, and the people are contented with a styleof living which would be indignantly rejected byEnglish labourers. The artisans are not good workmen, but plod onfairly well, and, with the exception of festas, re-quire few holidays. They prefer to work on Sun-days, and grumble at their English employers,who generally split the difference, by closing theirshops for half a day. They look upon this as agrievance, however much they may be assuredthat it makes no difference in their wages. A very hard-working class of men are the Gal-legos, the natives of Galicia, who are nearly asnumerous in Lisbon as they were when Napierwrote, and where, then as now, they act as porters,messengers, scavengers, and water-carriers, and. Land and People 293 are found in all sorts of lowly and laborious occu-pations. As porters and messengers, they havean excellent reputation for honesty, and forbeing most civil and obliging. Gallenga, a fairlyshrewd observer, considers that the employmentof these Spaniards has deplorable effects on thecharacter of the Portuguese nation. I cannot goall the way with him in the gloomy view he takesof it, but it must be conceded that the existenceof such a body of aliens (estimated at twelvethousand in Lisbon alone) working hard andwell at occupations which the Portuguese willnot do at all, or, if they attempt them, will do in-differently ; herding together some ten or twelvein a small room, living on maize bread and a cloveof garlic washed down with water; acceptingthankfully a very attenuated hire, and yet con-triving to send substantial savings back to Ga-licia,—must considerably affect the labour marketand tend to keep wages low. They also closec
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