99 State of Literature in Spain.[Aug.

ſpondent tells you,“ That the Spaniſh abridgment of Adam Smith has been ſuppreſſed.” Now, in the firſt inſtance, I am at a lofs to conceive, how your correſpondent, or rather his fel- low-traveller in the packet, if he ever ſaw the Spaniſh tranſla- tion of Smith’s work on the Wealth of Nations,(for it is this celebrated compoſition he alludes to) could call it an 4bridgment. ‘This tranſlation, which, upon the whole, is executed in a2 very fuperior manner, by D. Joſeph Alonzo Ortiz, one of the moſt enlightened writers in Europe, is ſo far from being an abridg- ment, that the original bulk of the work has, on the contrary, been encreaſed to four volumes in quarto, by very valuable notes and illuſtrations, added by the tranſlator. The affertion, that this tranſlation has been ſuppreſſed in Spain, is evidently erro- neous and falſe. It is publicly ſold in Madrid at the publiſher's, in the ſtreet de las Carretas, and has been but very lately ad- vertiſed in the Madrid Gazette, as“ a work of ſuperior merit, in which the leading principles of political œæconomy are illuſtrated in a luminous, ſcientific, and highly inftruttive manner? With regard to Dr. Buchan’s work, your correſpondent is equally in- corre. It is publicly expoſed for ſale in Yidal’'s ſhop, in the Îtreet de las Peligros, along with the Tranſlations of Dr. Skect’s, Macbride’s, Cullen’s, Bells,&c.&c." works. Indeed it would be abſurd to ſuppoſe, that a government, which allows a corre and unmutilated tranſlation of D. Hume’s Political Eſſays,&c. to be publicly ſold, which is actually the caſe in Spain, ſhould ſuppreſs medical works, like that of Dr. Buchan, becauſe the author“ manifeſts no reverence to the paſſing bell.”“Fhat from partial miſconceptions and misftatements, your correſpondent ſhould proceed to the general aſſertion,“ That Spain 1s not ripe for enlightened ideas of any kind,” cannot be wondered at 5; nor can this aſſertion do any harm; as the premiſes, from whence the unjuſt concluſion is inferred, are obviouſly falſe. He muſt know very little indeed of the preſent ſtate of Spaniſh literature who can allow himſelf to paſs fuch a judgment. But, as a diſ- cuſlion of this ſubje& would here be out of place, I ſhall add but one remark. I know a Spaniſh periodical work, devoted nearly to the ſame objets as your magazine, publiſhed under the title of“ E! Semanario de Agricultura y Artes.” I ſhould think, you could have no reaſon to be diſpleaſed, if your publication met, in this country, with the ſame encouragement, 07 the part ef government, as the former experiences in unenlighténed Spain, 1 am,&c. Devonſhire Square,| Ws 24. July 1800..