monopoly of tobacco; and, although several squabbles arose between the Courts of Madrid and Rome, in the course of a traffic, which was as lucrative, as it was discreditable, to both, the Pope, after several ineffectual attempts to obtain a larger share of so advantageous a concern, was forced to leave his Royal partner in possession of nearly the whole of the profits. It was a question, in which not merely the avarice, but the whole policy of Spain was interested. The main-spring of her Colonial System was, to teach all classes to look to the King, and the King alone, for advancement. Spaniards have always been a nation of employés, and the surest hold upon them, was to concentrate all their hopes of preferment in one focus: the slightest interference, on the part of any other power, would have disturbed this unity of plan; and, consequently, the designs of the Court of Rome were watched with as much jealousy, and suspicion, as the attempt of the English, or French, to smuggle in their manufactures;—a crime, any participation in which, on the part of a native, was regarded as almost worse than treason itself.
Besides the great establishments which we have passed in review, there was another most important branch, the collection of the customs, and revenue, in which a host of officers were employed, under the direction of the Intendentes, each of whom presided over a district, in the extent, and number, of which the territorial divisions of each colony consisted.
