Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/173

149 ( EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. 149 and Isabella, at the publication of the edict, at thirty- chapter . . . xvn. six thousand families. x4.nother Jewish author- ^ itj, quoted by the Curate, reckoned them at thirty- five thousand. This, assuming an average of four and a half to a family, gives the sum total of about one hundred and sixty thousand individuals, agreeably to the computation of Bernaldez. There is little reason for supposing, that the actual amount would suffer diminution in the hands of either the Jewish or Castilian authority ; since the one might naturally be led to exaggerate, in order to heighten sympathy with the calamities of his nation, and the other, to magnify as far as possible the glorious triumphs of the Cross. ^^ The detriment incurred by the state, however, is Disastrous •^ ' results. not founded so much on any numerical estimate, as on the subtraction of the mechanical skill, intelli- gence, and general resources of an orderly, indus- , trious population. In this view, the mischief was incalculably greater than that inferred by the mere number of the exiled ; and, although even this might have been gradually repaired in a country allowed the free and healthful developement of its energies, yet in Spain this was so effectually coun- teracted by the Inquisition, and other causes in the following century, that the loss may be deemed irretrievable. The expulsion of so numerous a class of subjects by an independent act of the sovereign, might well 15 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, sect. 7. — Mariana, Hist, de Es- MS., cap. 110. — Llorente, Hist, paiia, torn. ii. lib. 26. — Zurita, de rinqulsition, lom. i. chap. 7, Anales, torn. v. fol. 9.