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persons, while those for the accommodation of monks and friars, of all descriptions, were inhabited by nearly double that number; of this last description of persons, by far the greater number might certainly be considered as lost to the prosperity of the kingdom. But the Benedictine, Bernardine, and some others of monks, might, in many respects, be considered by the population around, as emiwent benefactors to the country Continually fixed to one spot, in the midst of their possessions, they were naturally led to cultivate and improve their common heritage: and being destitute of the power of accumulation, they regularly expended their income in the quarter from whence it was drawn.

On the other hand, the great nobles and proprietors of land, with a very few exceptions, abandoning the care of their vast domains to agents and intendants, drained the country and its cultivators, to supply the exigencies of an ide and often dissipated life in the capital and other great towns. This injurious dereliction of the country, is, no doubt, to be attri buted in a great measure to the introduction of Frencli manners, and a frivolous taste, and above all, to the jealousy entertained by the first Spanish kings of the House of Bourbon, of the old nobles of Spain, who in the war of the succession had very generally, and very naturally, manifested a predeliction for all the House of Austria.

A great and opulent lord residing constantly on his own domain, was an object of displeasure to the ourt; of discountenance, and even Rolestation, VOL. L.

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The noble spirit of the Spanish grandees in general, sunk luxury, indolence, and vice, suffered a gradual depression. They were neither invited nor ambitious to share in the employments of the state, so that with the exception of a few ancient names in the church or the army, and still fewer in the navy, the great body of the Spanish nobility ceased to be of any political importance in the kingdom,

It is extremely remarkable, that it was not among the great landed proprietors, who had in the common phraseology the greatest stakes, that the patriotism of the Spaniards shone forth with the greatest splendour: but among the commercial class, whose property was in some measure moveable, and the clergy, who at best were only life-renters. The nobility in general, did not seem to feel the amor patriæ, the attachment to natal soil, so strongly as the clergy of all ranks, who resided in their own dioceses, parishes, and monasteries, nor even as that of the poor peasants.

The deep-rooted aversion already noticed to the French, was not confined to the province of Catalonia, but pervaded all the northern and middle provinces of the kingdom.

From the earliest periods, down to the beginning of the last century, the Spaniards and French were engaged almost without intermission in hostilities. Another reason for the peculiar dislike of the Spaniards to their northern neighbours, is found in the national character and deportment of the French, who not only affected or really felt sene degree of contempt for the Spaniards, [N]

but

but commonly took very little pains to conceal or disguise their sentiments towards them. In this national dislike, persons of all nations who entered Spain from France, were involved, until their real country was known.

As the Spaniards had their national aversions; so they had likewise their national attachments. It would, at first sight, be difficult to account for any partiality they should entertain for the British nation. But such a partiality they certainly did possess, and were eager to demonstrate. The two countries, it is true, were formerly closely connected by various ties, political and commercial; and those ties, notwithstanding the dissolution of the ancient intimacy, by the accession of the House of Bourbon to the throne of Spain, still retained a firm hold of the steady and honourable character of the Spaniards. As men are never more intimately united than by a community of sentiments or feelings, and as the Spaniards believed the English to have no greater respect for the French nation than they had themselves, this warm-hearted people looked on a Briton as in some measure a sharer in his own existence. The Spanish traders in general, had an opinion that in all commercial transactions, no nation came so near as the British to their own, in probity, punctuality, and fairness of dealing.

On the subject of religion, the Spaniards sincerely lamented the defection of the English from their ancient professions of faith. But this sorrow was attended rather by a hope that at some future period, Britain might return to what they

considered as the right way, than by any aversion to their company, or their opinions on other subjects: whereas the natives of Ireland, formerly more numerous in their service than of late years, who professed to be in communion with the church of Rome, were, in many instances, subject to the suspicion of a temporizing policy.

The frequent wars between Britain and Spain, unquestionably kept alive a spirit of estrangement in the Spanish nation. But that great portion of the people who pretended not to inquire into the secret canses of political events, were in the habit of attributing those public enmities rather to the predominating influence of the French counsels in the administration of national affairs, than to the existence of any just cause of complaint immediately between Great Britain and Spain. The epoch and the manner, however, of the commencement of the late hostilities on the part of Britain, had materially affected the general feelings of the Spanish nation with regard to their ancient ally.

Although in estimating the sum of happiness possessed by any nation, our calculations ought not to be founded merely on the theoretic system of their public constitution, yet where such a constitution is as perfect as human wisdom can devise, and virtue carry into effect, the people have cæteris paribus, the greatest chance of happiness in every sense of the word. It may therefore appear surprizing to a British subject, that a nation once so distinguished as the Spaniards

in science, and in arms, for so considerable a lapse of time as that between the abdication of Charles V. of Austria and Charles IV. of Bourbon, should have been contented with a system of government presenting so few positive advantages, and producing so many real evils to the various classes in the state. The Spanish nation, however, had been for more than two centuries in a state of gradual decay, so that the deterioration was scarcely perceptible in its progress; and it was only by comparing the situation of the country at different periods, that its decay could be ascertained. It is not by any single act, but by an accumulation of facts, examples, customs, precedents, and laws, that a nation loses its liberty. What is considered by the present generation, at the worst, only as a mist, is seen by succeed ing ages as a dark and portentous cloud.

The personal character, too, of a sovereign, or of a minister, has a very powerful influence in even the best organized constitutions on the happiness of a state. The general dispositions and conduct of some late sovereigns of Spain had consequently a strong tendency to attach a people, naturally honourable and loyal, and of great sensibility, to their government in general, and to incline them to attribute what hardships they endured, to the maligu influence of corrupt counsellors, rather than to the dispositions or intentions of the prince. These obser

vations, however, are applicable only to the mass of the Spanish people; for an improved system of things, both civil and religious, had been long and earnestly wished for by many of the ablest and most enlightened individuals in the state. Others there were also who, infected with the philosophism of modern times, secretly longed and waited for a general dissolution of the administration in church and state, in order to raise in its stead an edifice more conformable to

their conceptions of a perfect government.

When we reflect that all public discussion of matters relating to either religion or government, was almost entirely prohibited throughout the Spanish dominions; and that men desirous of information on these points, had no other resource than secretly to avail thenselves of the writings of authors living under more liberal systems of government, we can easily conceive, that an aversion, and a degree of hostility too, must naturally have been produced in the minds of even good men to an administration by which such restraints were imposed on the exercise of the human faculties on subjects the. most congenial and important to his nature. Such men may, for various reasons, carefully observe the rules of exterior submission ; but their wishes for a change must in the end produce an alteration in their language, and also in their conduct. In such a case, how [N2] happy

The greater part, by far, of those who now call themselves philosophers, consider philosophy only as a perfect freedom from prejudice, and an ardent thirst for innovation.

happy it is for the country of which the established constitution acknowledges the duty, and allows the means of improvement, and when reformation may supersede the necessity of revolution!

The dread tribunal of the inquisition in Spain, had for many years back, been gradually withdrawing from public notice. Its powers, however, though seldom exerted, were not diminished. The unfortunate Olavide, the founder of the establishments for peopling the SIERRA MORENA, sunk under the power of the holy inquisition, though as much probably for his political as his religious offences. In the beginning of the French revolution, when neither pains nor cost was spared, clandestinely to introduce and disseminate throughout Spain publications adapted to excite disorders in the state, the formidable weapons of the inquisition were actively and successfully wielded, in defence of the established system of government; for any assault on the rights of the temporal sovereign of the kingdom was regarded as a direct attack on the paramount authority of the spiritual head. The alliance between church and state in Spain, was extremely close; or rather the political and ecclesiastical authorities were in a great measure identified. The kings of Spain were the great champions of the church, and the most brilliant æra in the history of the Spaniards is that, when they proceeded by degrees to take possession of the munificent donations of the pope, with the sword in one hand, and the cross in the other.And, in fact, it was not less by the religious zeal of the missionaries, than the heroic valour of the mili

tary order, that the vast transmarine empire of Spain was established.

The steady devotion of the Spaniards to the church is not therefore founded in a greater propensity to piety, than is felt by other nations only, but in part, by recollection of former times when they were exalted to so high a pitch of glory by the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. The high-minded pride of the Spanish nation, finding no support in recent, turns to the contemplation of events long past: to the victories of Pavia, Lepanto, and St. Quintoin, to their contests with the Moors, and with the Romans. They had suffered many indignities and insults at the hands of Buonaparte and his agents, when the massacre of Madrid and the captivity of the royal family kindled the accumulated combustibles. of indignation and revenge into a flame, which spread into every part of the empire, with the rapidity of lightning. There is no instance of any nation, so widely scattered, rallying so unanimously, and with so much alacrity, around the standard of their country. Their motto was, "The Spanish blood shed at Madrid, on the 2d of May, cries for vengeance."

The flower of the Spanish army was serving under the banners of the enemy in the north of Europe. The iron frontier of Spain on the north east was in the hands of French garrisons. The metropolis and the greater part of the interior, and the adjoining kingdom of Portugal, were occupied by 100,000 veteran troops, commanded by able and experienced officers. The Spaniards without arms, without ammunition, and without a pub

fic treasury, were abandoned by their government, and left wholly to themselves; and not a few of the grandees and other persons of high distinction, to whom they might look up for bringing the resources of the monarchy into one uniform direction, they had reason, though not quite so much probably as they imagined, to consider as traitors to their country. The bands of society were broken asunder. There was no visible mode of combining their separate force into any regular plan of co-operation. Yet, unYet, under all these circumstances, they did not hesitate to enter on a confict with the most numerous and most warlike nation of Europe, their neighbours, under the direction of the subtlest politician, and first general of the age. Nor was this an arrogant and blind presumption; a mere fit of passion, or frantic enthusiasm. An act of passion or phrenzy may be committed by a single person; not by a great nation, widely spread over different and distant regions and countries, and least of all by the Spamards, renowned for circumspection, foresight, patience, and perseverance in designs formed on due deliberation. Though deserted by government, they had confidence in the justice of their cause, and in one another. It seemed to be deeply impressed, or rather inborn in their minds, that however severe the conflict might be, and how much soever protracted, the star of Spain would gain the ascendant at last, and ultimately conduct her to national independence and glory.

derful, if not the most wonderful feature in the whole of the origin and progress of the general rising of the Spaniards. It was not confined to one class, sex, or age. It was universal. It predominated in the breasts of old and young, of tillers of the ground, shepherds, shopkeepers, monks, and women. The enthusiasm of the Spaniards, though exalted, was deliberate. It was the confidence of men who had calmly surveyed the mighty power opposed to them; who were prepared to encounter privations, defeats, and disasters; and who were. persuaded, that by bringing constantly into play all their means of annoyance, they should be able to exhaust and weary out, at last, the enemy whom they were unable to subdue by a direct encounter.

The first circumstance of eircouragement, that would naturally occur to the Spaniards, was the geographical position and great extent of their country. Its Peninsular form (for Portugal was not only a congenial and friendly power, but part of the same country) secured it on all sides, except that of the Pyrenees, a natural rampart of no inconsiderable cousequence, from being invaded by land, and combined with the naval superiority of England, the sworn enemy of the ruler of France, opened a safe and sure communication with her colonies, with Great Britain and Ireland, with Sweden; and, in short, with every nation on the face of the earth, that might be disposed to espouse and maintaini the cause of political freedom against unprincipled ambition and agThis confidence of ultimate suc-gression. Although the continent of cess, under circumstances so dis- Europe might not dare to give any dicouraging, is one of the most won rect aid, by declaring war against [N3]

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