books for his mental enjoyment. The character of the gaoler may be conceived from the fact of his not being able to distinguish a work from a volume. Jovellano's friends are not allowed to relieve his solitude with a variety of books, even to the number contained in the governor's instructions; for he reckons literary works by the piece, and a good edition of Cicero, for instance, appears to him a complete library.

From this restoration to favour, the Prince of the Peace has been gradually and constantly gaining ascendancy. The usual titles of honour being exhausted upon him, the antiquated dignity of High-Admiral has been revived and conferred upon him, just at the time when your tars have left us without a navy. Great emoluments and the address of Highness have been annexed to this dignity. A brigade of cavalry, composed of picked men from the whole army, has been lately given to the High-Admiral as a guard of honour. His power, in fine, though delegated, is unlimited, and he may be properly said to be the acting Sovereign of Spain. The King, by the unparalleled elevation of this favourite, has obtained his heart's desire in a perfect exemption from all sorts of employment, except shooting, to which he exclusively de

*See Note K.

votes every day of the year. Soler, the minister of finance, is employed to fleece the people; and Caballero, in the home department, to keep them in due ignorance and subjection. I shall just give you a sample of each of these worthies' minds and principles.-It has been the custom for centuries at Valladolid to make the Dominican Convent of that town a sort of bank for depositing sums of money, as it was done in the ancient temples, under similar circumstances of ignorance of commerce and insecurity of property. Soler, being informed that the monks held in their hands a considerable deposit, declared "that it was an injury to the state to allow so much money to lie idle," and seizing it, probably for the Queen, whose incessant demands form the most pressing and considerable item of the Spanish budget, gave government-paper to the monks, which the creditors might sell, if they chose, at eighty per cent discount.-Caballero, fearing the progress of all learning, which might disturb the peace of the Court, sent, not long since, a circular order to the Universities, forbidding the study of moral philosophy: "His Majesty," it was said in the order, "was not in want of philosophers, but of good and obedient subjects."

Under the active operation of this system,

the Queen has the command of as much money and patronage as she desires; and finding it impracticable to check the gallantries of her cher ami, has so perfectly conquered her jealousy as to be able not only to be on the most amicable terms with him, but to emulate his love of variety in the most open and impudent

manner.

I wish to have done with the monstrous heap of scandal, which the state of our Court has unavoidably forced into my narrative. Much, indeed, I leave untold; but I cannot omit an original and perfectly authentic story, which, as it explains the mystery of the King's otherwise inexplicable blindness respecting his wife's conduct, justice requires to be made public. The world shall see that his Majesty's apathy does not arise from any disgraceful indifference for what is generally considered by men as a vital point of honour; but that the peace and tranquillity of his mind is grounded on a philosophical system-I do not know whether physical or moral-which is, I believe, peculiar to himself.

The old Duke del I (on the authority of whose lady I give you the anecdote) was once with other grandees in attendance on the King, when his Majesty, being in high gossipping humour, entered into a somewhat gay conver

sation on the fair sex. He descanted, at some length, on fickleness and caprice, and laughed at the dangers of husbands in these southern climates. Having had his fill of merriment on the topic of jealousy, he concluded with an air of triumph-"We, crowned heads, however, have this chief advantage above others, that our honour, as they call it, is safe; for suppose that queens were as much bent on mischief as some of their sex, where could they find kings and emperors to flirt with? Eh?"

IN giving you a sketch of private life at Madrid, I shall begin by a character quite peculiar to the country, and well known all over Spain by the name of Pretendientes, or place-hunters. Very different ideas, however, are attached to these denominations in the two languages. Young men of the proudest families are regularly sent to Court on that errand, and few gentlemen destine their sons either for the church or the law, without calculating the means of supporting them three or four years at Madrid, as regular and professed place-hunters. The fact is, that, with the exception of three stalls in every cathedral, and in some collegiate churches, that are obtained by literary competition, there is not a single place of rank and emolument to which Court interest is not the exclusive road. Hence the necessity for all who do not possess an independent fortune, in