pride,

Some Romish priest, the Gallic name to mock, Exclaim'd'Tis but the crowing of a Cock!' 'So call it,' 'twas replied; 'We're well content,If, when the cock crows, Peter would repent. Whether, at the present time, Peter, ad Galli cantum, will repent of his late Encyclical Letter, or of any of his other errors, is a question which we shall not endeavour to determine.

We now bring to a close these rather desultory observations on a subject which, we think, is deserving of much more attention than it has lately received. Scholarship has not latterly been much in the ascendant among us. The literary past has been nearly swallowed up in the exciting interest of the present; and as far as style is concerned, condensation and simplicity have given way to a multiplication of words and an unnatural vehemence of manner. We think it not unreasonable to attempt reviving, in some degree, the interest which a former generation felt in a form of composition, where, in its different aspects, wit or elegance combines with cleverness and brevity, to produce its effect whether in touching the feelings or amusing the fancy.

We do not seek to raise the Lower Epigram to the level of the Higher; but the Lower has its own beauties and uses. In a serious view, it admits of some force and dignity, and it may sometimes serve as a vehicle of satire to unmask hypocrisy or punish vice. But its proper domain is that region of playful ridicule which, in a kindly and social spirit, points out and tends to rectify the harmless oddities and follies of human nature, and supplies one of the best relishes and relaxations of life, a source of joyous and innocent merriment, which many of our educationists of the present day, both of the romantic and of the utilitarian schools, seem very erroneously to leave out of view.

The subject that we have been considering has many and various bearings to which we have scarcely adverted in our remarks In particular, we might suggest the literary interest which would attend a review of those

of a special kind have been called forth, whether in connexion with personal, political, or social incidents. Such a history would introduce us to a great store of entertaining and even instructive anecdote; but it would require an extent of knowledge and industry which are now but seldom met with, and which are certainly not possessed, or not displayed, by the editor of the volume which has led to the present notice.

ART. III.-1. Spanien und Seine Fortschreitende Entwickelung. Von Dr. JULIUS FREYHERRN VON MINUTOLI. Berlin, 1852. 2. Spain: her Institutions, Politics, and Public Men. By S. T. WALLIS. London: Sampson Low. 1853.

3. Historia Politica У Parlamentaria. Por DON JUAN RICO Y AMAT. Madrid, 1860.

4. Trienta Años de Gobierno Representativo en España. Por DoN JOSE MARIA ORENSE. Madrid, 1863.

5. The Attaché in Madrid. New York, 1856.

6. Das Heutige Spanien. Von FERNANDO

GARRIDO. Deutsch, von ARNOLD RUGE.
Leipzig, 1863.

7. Olózaga. Por DON ANGEL FERNANDEZ DE LOS RIOS. Madrid, 1863.

8. Spain, and the War with Morocco. By O. C. DALHOUSIE Ross. London: Ridg

THE opening, in August last, of the line from Beasain to Olazagutia, through a country as rugged, although fortunately more beautiful than those strange Basque names, completed the railway communication between Madrid and Paris. Amongst many good results which will flow from this, not the least will be the invasion of the Peninsula by many travellers, who have hitherto taken, all too literally, the witty saying, that "Africa begins with the Pyrenees." Such travellers will belong, for the most part, to one of two categories: those who go abroad in search of novelty, and those who are attracted to the Peninsula by the love of art. To these two classes we do not address ourselves, for they have, in numerous well-known books, every literary help that they can possibly need.

May we not hope, however, that in addi

tion to those who go to Spain as the nearest preserve of picturesque barbarians, or as one of the great Museums of the world, there will be some who will go with other views some who will cross the Bidassoa in the hope of seeing for themselves whether the vague rumours of revival which reach our shores are true or false; whether there is any hope that the nation, once so famous, is going to take part in the forward movement of Europe; or whether it is indeed true, as Mr. Buckle tells us, that "she lies at the further extremity of the Continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of the Middle Ages."

Travellers who have this purpose in view, will find that they have embarked upon an enterprise, which is made unnecessarily difficult by the erroneous notions about Spain, which prevail even amongst well-informed persous in England, as well as by the scantiness of the information with regard to her condition, which is readily accessible. It is mainly for the purpose of clearing away from the path of such investigators some preliminary difficulties that we have drawn up this paper-not without hope that some one who may be benefited by its hints may repay the obligation with interest; may give us, in a not too bulky volume, a full and accurate estimate of the state and prospects of Spain.

This is perhaps the place to say a word or two as to some books which such an investigator may take with him, or may buy in Madrid. They are not very numerous, and none of them is by itself of surpassing importance; but they are the best that exist, written by persons of very different views and characters, and one who is anxious to ascertain the truth may, by a sensible use of them, arrive at pretty correct conclusions.

First, we have Minutoli, whose work may be taken as a very exact inventory of Spanish affairs in 1851. Minutoli writes from the Standpunkt of a Prussian bureaucrat who thinks that Berlin is illuminated by Intelligenz in a quite supernatural manner, and who believes that the via prima salutis is to have an efficient and upright Beamtenthum. He is anxious for the development of all manner of wealth, and for the furtherance of the happiness of the greatest possible number, but he distrusts the power of the people to work out its own well-being, and is consequently a good friend to the Moderado régime which extended from 1843 to 1854. His book is, it will be observed, somewhat out of date, but it still is serviceable, though we must warn those who read it that it stands in the same relation to the typical blue-book in which that stands to a sensation novel.

Then we have Mr. Wallis, who wrote in 1853, and who looks at Spain through the spectacles-and very colourless ones they are of an accomplished, highly cultivated American gentleman, a warm friend to free institutions, but possessed of a more than aristocratic hatred of popular clap-trap. His book is only too easy to read; but his means of information were ample, his head is clear, and his conclusions, after making allowance for a little unsoundness on questions of trade, will commend themselves to most Englishmen.

Next comes Rico y Amat, a prejudiced Tory writer, but very useful for giving the sequence of events down to 1854, discussing all Parliamentary matters in great detail, and quoting many important documents at full length. In strong contrast to him is the go-ahead Orense, Marquis of Albaida, who, dissatisfied with the conduct of his brother Progressistas, has cast in his lot with the Democrats. The views of the politicians who were hurled from power in 1854 may be gathered, by one who has eyes to look for them, from a very slight but clever little book called the Attaché at Madrid, which, professing to be translated from the diary of a young German diplomatist, who spent part of 1853 and 1854 in the Spanish capital, and published in America, really owes its origin to one who had the best information, and excellent reasons for wishing well to the cause of Sartorius. When the reader has laid it down, he may take up Garrido's work, which we have used in its German form. Garrido belongs to the extreme left, as may be guessed when we mention that his book was translated by Arnold Ruge, and that he was introduced to the ex-editor of the Hallischen Jahrbücher by Dr. Bernard. It would be as imprudent, unconditionally to accept his view of matters, as to find nothing to object to in those of Rico y Amat, or of the author of the Attaché at Madrid, but his pages are full of statistics and information of all kinds, deserving to be read and weighed most carefully.

The articles in the Annuaire des Deux Mondes, which extend in unbroken succession from 1850 to 1864, are somewhat Moderado in tone, but extremely valuable and interesting. The Spanish papers in the Revue itself are not, perhaps, so happy as those on several other countries; but some of them, such as C. de Mazade's on Larra, and on Donos Cortes, will repay perusal even now. life of Olozaga, lately published-surely the hugest political pamphlet which ever appeared-should also be consulted.

The

No one, of course, will omit to read the Handbook and the Gatherings, both full of

that wisdom of Spain which is treasured up in her proverbs, and quite indispensable, in spite of their constant offences against good taste. Captain Widdrington's works are still valuable, while most of the modern English books of travel in the Peninsula are absolutely worthless.

Spain has slipped of late years so thoroughly out of the notice of Englishmen, that it would be mere affectation to pretend to imagine that one in a thousand knows even the A B C of her recent history and politics. We must, therefore, briefly relate the events of the present reign, for some knowledge of these is quite necessary to those who would comprehend her actual position.

The Cortes of Cadiz, in 1812, devised a Constitution, which, in spite of many hlemishes and shortcomings, was on the whole most creditable to its framers. It sinned, indeed, against several of the first principles of Liberalism; but it cordially accepted many others, and, considering the circumstances of the country, it unquestionably went too far in a democratic direction. In 1814, Ferdinand VII. overthrew this Constitution, restored the Inquisition, and ruled for six years despotically. In 1820, the revolt of Riego, and the movements which followed it, again inaugurated a brief period of liberty, which continued until the Spanish patriots were put down by the French, under the Duc d'Angoulême, and the rè dissoluto was once more able to ride rough-shod over all that was honest and virtuous from the Bidassoa to the lines of Gibraltar. This terrible time lasted until the day when Ferdinand VII. was trundled off to his last home in the Escurial, in the way which Ford has described with so much grim humour. The last act of importance in the wretched man's life had been the confirmation of the right of succession of his daughter Isabella II., as against his brother Don Carlos. The pretensions of that personage had been already loudly proclaimed, and he hardly waited for the challenge of the Royalists to erect his standard. That challenge soon came, for on the 24th October, 1833, the voice of the herald, according to ancient custom, was heard in Madrid, proclaiming, "Silencio, silencio, silencio, oyid, oyid, oyid, Castilla, Castilla, Castilla, por la Seuhora reina Doña Isabel II. que Dios guarde." Bilbao was the first place to pronounce for the Pretender, and ere long the whole of the North was in arms, and the civil war had begun. How that war raged, and how many souls, heroic and other, it sent to Hades, it is unnecessary to say. How it ended we shall presently have occasion to relate, but we must confine our narrative, for the present, to that portion of Spain which acknowledged the rightful sove

reign, merely reminding the reader that Don Carlos represented two totally distinct interests,-first, that of bigotry and corruption generally, in all parts of the Peninsula; and, secondly, the infinitely more respectable aspirations of the Basques, who, attached to liberty, but possessed of little enlightenment, desired to remain a semi-republican island in the midst of an absolute Spain, rather than to lose the local franchises which they knew, in the general freedom of a constitutional Spain, which had not yet come into existence, although its advent was near at hand.

The queen-mother, obliged by the force of circumstances to rely on the support of the Liberal party, but anxious to be as little liberal as possible, accepted the resignation of Zea Bermudez, who represented the party of enlightened despotism, and called to her councils Martinez de la Rosa, who had suffered much for his attachment to constitutional principles during the late reign, but who from 1833 till his death in 1862, was one of the most eminent of the Moderado or Conservative statesmen of Spain. By his advice she promulgated the Estatuto real, a Coustitution incomparably less liberal than that of Cadiz, but still a Constitution, and one professing to be founded upon the ancient and long-disused liberties of the land. This document, we may observe in passing, may, like that of 1812 and all its successors, be read at length in Rico y Amat's History. By the Estatuto were created an upper house of "Proceres," and a lower house of "Procuradores." These soon met, and the discussions which took place in them, combined with the agitation out of doors, and some diplomatic misadventures, soon obliged Martinez de la Rosa to retire. He was followed by Toreno; but he, too, was unable to hold his own. A far more energetic and enlightened minister was required, and that minister soon appeared in the great reformer Mendizabal.

He it was who concentrated the forces of the revolutionary agitation, which had already broken out in the provinces, and gave them a definite direction. This he did chiefly by three great measures, which will cause his name ever to be held in honour by all Spanish patriots. These three measures were the closing of the monasteries, the sale of all the lands belonging to the regular clergy, and the organization, on a thoroughly popular basis, of the National Guard. All this he effected in a very short space of time, for his Cabinet, attacked at once by the most impatient Liberals, by the retrograde party, and by French intrigue, had a hard battle to fight, and soon gave way to an administration, of which the leading spirits were Isturiz, and the once impetuous, but now tamed Galiano.

These politicians, however, utterly failed to carry the country with them, and their days of power were few and evil. Readers of the Bible in Spain will recollect the strongly contrasted descriptions of Mr. Borrow's visit to Mendizabal at the zenith of his power, and to Isturiz, when that Minister had already begun to hear the mutterings of the storm which was soon to burst upon his head. That storm was the mutiny which broke out amongst the troops stationed at the royal residence of La Granja, which is situated in the mountainous country to the north of Madrid. The leader of this mutiny was a certain Sergeant Garcia, and the chief objects of the discontented soldiery were to force the Queen Regent to dismiss her ministers and to proclaim the Constitution of 1812. In these objects they were completely successful. Christina yielded to the threats of the mutineers, and power passed once more into the hands of the movement party.

After the assassinations, disorders, and escapes across the frontier, which are usual in Spanish political crises, the new Government, which was of course composed of men of Liberal politics, convoked the famous Constituent Cortes of 1837. Out of its labours arose the new Constitution, which was based on that of Cadiz, but differed from it in many particulars. Argüelles, who had been one of the principal authors of the former, was also concerned in the latter, and was indeed a member of the committee which drew up the resolutions on which it was based. Its tone is much less democratic than that of its predecessor; and the fact that Olozaga and other distinguished Liberals supported it, created much dissatisfaction in the ranks of their followers. We are far, however, from thinking, that in the circumstances of Spain, the changes which they introduced were otherwise than necessary. With regard to the one point in which the Constitution of 1837 made more concession to Liberal opinions than that of 1812, there can be no great question among honest and intelligent men. The Cortes of Cadiz proclaimed the Roman Catholic religion to be the only true one. The legislators of 1837 contented themselves with asserting as a fact that the Spanish nation professed the Roman Catholic religion, and bound itself to maintain that form of faith.

This great work had not been long completed, when the Ministry which had been called into existence by the mutiny of Granja succumbed in its turn to another military revolt, excited by the partisans of those whom it had so summarily displaced, and Espartero, whose military reputation was already great, became for a brief period the President of the Council; for a brief period, we say, for, de

feated in the elections, he was succeeded by the reactionary Ofalia; he again by others of little note, till the Convention of Vergara came to alter the whole position of affairs.

The reader will recollect that during all these ministerial changes, revolutions, and making of Constitutions, the Philistine was still in the land. The advanced posts of Don Carlos had been seen from the walls of Madrid, Gomez had made a sort of military progress from one end of the country to the other, La Mancha was in the hands of one rebel, Valencia was overrun by another, and the whole of the mountainous north was a camp of the factious. Fortunately for the cause of Queen Isabella, there were dissensions in the enemy's ranks not less bitter than those which distracted the capital. The military party and the clerical party hated each other with a deadly hatred; and at last their animosity became so embittered that Maroto, the most important of the lieutenants of Don Carlos, took the law into his own hands, and put some of the most conspicuous of his opponents to death. This was the beginning of the end; and after infinite intrigues, the little Basque town of Vergara saw the signature of the document which assured the throne of the young Queen, put a period to the war of Navarre, and made the pacification of Aragon merely a question of time. Espartero's attitude had now been for some time of the greatest possible interest to all who watched the politics of Spain. He was evidently inclining more and more towards the Progressista party, while his relations with the Moderado Government became ever colder. A letter addressed by his secretary to one of the Madrid papers had openly condemned the conduct of the Ministry in dissolving the Cortes, with a view to get rid of the Progressista majority; and the party which was now about to resort to revolutionary measures in Madrid, reckoned on his assistance.

The struggle in the Cortes of 1840 was fierce but short. The galleries, as was usual in those stormy times, took an active part in the political combat; and on one occasion the scenes of 1793 seemed about to be repeated. In spite of the gallant resistance of the Progressista party, the Goverment carried several reactionary laws,-the most important of which was one for the modification of the municipal system, which would have had the effect of very much diminishing the influence of the Liberals throughout the country, and of strengthening unduly the powers of the Crown. Just at this crisis, when Madrid was in a most uneasy state, and nearly all the large towns hardly more tranquil, the young Queen was advised to take warm sea-baths

self from the very first with Ministers and private advisers who had not the confidence of his party, and who soon became known to the public by several injurious epithets. Some called them Ayacuchos, from the name of one of the battles in South America which had been most disastrous to the Spanish arms,the insinuation being that they were a mere clique of military old fogies; while others spoke of them as Santones, intending thereby to ridicule their want of revolutionary energy. The Moderado party soon took advantage of the weakness of the Government; and in October, 1841, a military revolt broke out at Pamplona, at Madrid, and elsewhere, in the interest of Christina. The Regent showed a good deal of decision. A file of soldiers at Vittoria sent to his account Montes de Oca, who had been Minister of Marine in the former Government. General Leon met a similar fate at Madrid; while O'Donnell got safe to France, living "to fight another day."

Barcelona, and to that place she repaired, accompanied by her mother. Christina had not been long in the Catalan capital when she announced to Espartero that she had given her assent to the law relating to the municipalities. To this ungracious declaration he replied by resigning his position as commander-in-chief. His resignation was not accepted; and he then informed the Regent that he was about to retire from the city, as he could be of no further use to her. Hardly had he done so than Barcelona broke into full revolt, and the Ministers who had accompanied the Queen fled hither and thither. The movement begun amongst the turbulent Catalans, rapidly spread all over Spain. Madrid pronounced on the 1st of September, whereupon the Regent gave way, and Espartero was ordered to form a new Government. Her new advisers insisted that she should issue a manifesto, in which she should throw upon the late Cabinet the whole responsibility of the recent attempts at reaction, that she should solemnly promise that the law relating to the municipalities should not be carried into execution, and that the Cortes should instantly be dissolved. These terms she refused, resigned the regency, and took refuge in France, addressing from Marseilles to the Spanish people a proclamation, in which the sentiments of her heart were expressed, or disguised, in the ornate language of Donoso Cortes. The abdication of Christina left the first place in the State without an occupant, and it was necessary to fill it as speedily as possible. The question which now became urgent was, How should this be done? Two opinions divided the suffrages of the victors in the recent struggle. The advanced Progressistas were in favour of a regency of three. The immediate entourage of Espartero desired the elevation of their chief to undivided authority. It was this last view which prevailed; for the Moderados, seeing that the question was an apple of dis- | cord to their enemies, threw all their influence into the scale of Espartero, feeling sure that they should succeed in embroiling him, with the majority of those whose alliance had placed the successful soldier in a position to play the great game of politics. So it came about that on the 8th of May, 1841, Espartero was chosen by the Cortes to be sole Regent; and no sooner was he fairly installed in his office, than the edifice of his power began to crumble under his feet. His descent was more rapid than even his rise, for the circumstances in which he found himself required infinite skill in intrigue,-a quality of which the honest and well-meaning Duke of Victory had a very small share. His great mistake was his surrounding him

Espartero, however, had other adversaries more formidable than even the Moderados. More than once he was obliged to put down with a strong hand the Democratic agitations of Barcelona; and each successive act of vigour directed against those who, after all, formed the extreme left of his own party, cost him a large portion of his popularity. Then the French Government did all it could by underhand methods to assist Christina, and to discredit Espartero, and at last a hostile vote in the Lower House destroyed his Ministry. By this time the Progressista party was so disorganized that his second Cabinet was not more generally satisfactory than his first. His third, at the head of which was Lopez, who had distinguished himself very much as a popular orator, came too late, and was too short-lived. Its fall, which was the result of Espartero's firm support of his friend Linaje against it, was another blow to his influence; nor did the friendship of England at all tend to his greater popularity amongst a proud and ignorant people. Of the many accusations brought against him, not the least potent in exciting hatred was his alleged subservience to our commercial policy. And now the end came fast. A coalition, which comprised large numbers both of the Progressista and the Moderado party, was formed throughout the country. Pronunciamientos followed. Narvaez, O'Donnell, and many of the exiled or fugitive generals, entered Spain. Treachery helped the work that disunion had begun; and in the beginning of August, 1843, the idol of September, 1840, was on his way to England, whither he was presently pursued by a decree which stripped him of all his titles, honours, and decorations.