ment had become general in Europe, that a considerable portion of it should pass into Spain, precisely because that country was among those that afforded the greatest field for its exercise, and stood most in need of its assistance. The friends of liberty in Spain were enlightened and encouraged and inspired by the enterprise and success of the friends of liberty in England, France, and America. The principle of improvement which had sprung up at home, and which, under other circumstances, might not have proved strong enough to resist the influence of vicious institutions, and might have withered and died away under their continuing pressure, was cherished and strengthened from abroad. With such aid it continued to act with increasing effect, and the country was at length in a situation to take advantage of any favourable circumstance that might present itself for obtaining an improvement in its political institutions. Hence, when the convulsions of the French revolution extended into Spain; when Bonaparte had finally, in a moment of something more than his habitual wantonness and wickedness, kidnapped the royal family, and garrisoned all the strong places with his troops, there was found a mass of population, intelligence, and character, competent to resist this

aggression, and to give the invader such a reception as he had little calculated upon.

For, while the nation had been advancing in industry, wealth, and population, the government had taken very little, if any, share in this course of improvement. The gleam of intelligence and humanity, that appeared in the cabinet after the war of the succession, departed with the individuals from whom it emanated, without having produced any effect on the form or spirit of the existing institutions. And at no period in the history of Spain had the cabinet exhibited a more disgusting spectacle of imbecility and iniquity, than at the one immediately preceding the French invasion. It must have fallen at the first attack from within or without; and if the shock had not been given by a foreign invader, the spirit of improvement would have displayed itself very shortly in the form of internal convulsions.

Hence, too, when the king, upon his return, rejected the constitution and dissolved the cortes, the whole effective part of the nation separated itself from him, and entered spontaneously into a virtual, and, very soon after, into an actual secret association against his government. The whole peninsula was divided into regions and districts, all regularly organized for the purpose of correspon

dence and communication. This vast organization appears to have assumed at first, in order to disguise its objects the better, the garb of masonry; and hence arose the fury, with which the inquisition at that time denounced and persecuted all masonic societies. It comprehended almost every person of consideration in the country, (excepting the higher clergy,) a great part of the public functionaries, governors of provinces, and nearly all the officers in the army. The postmasters were also generally in the same interest; and I have been assured by a person, who was himself an active member of this association, that, for a length of time, the whole correspondence of the country regularly passed through the hands of its agents, and was opened and examined by them, the government itself not thinking it necessary at that time to exercise any such police. So vast an intrigue could not wholly escape the attention of the ministry, however infatuated and feeble. It was denounced and detected, its papers were seized, vast numbers of its members were arrested and impris oned, and others compelled to flee the country. Still the association continued in a more secret shape. The several abortive conspiracies that occurred from time to time were only imprudent or precipitate attempts, inspired by the great

general design; and its existence was sufficiently manifested by the simultaneous movements that finally occurred at once in aid of the last successful enterprise, at so many different points of the peninsula. These secret proceedings, anterior to the public revolutionary events, are not yet within the domain of history, and are imperfectly known in their details, but I can vouch, from information derived immediately from unquestionable authorities, for the correctness of the general facts here stated, the most important of which are also recorded in the best memoirs of the Spanish revolution.

These circumstances then seem to account sufficiently for the occurrence of a revolution in favour of liberty in Spain, notwithstanding its apparent state of hopeless degradation. It is highly satisfactory to be able to consider this important event as the result of general causes, and not merely as the wild enterprise of a few revolted regiments. Had it been a movement of this description, it might have been quelled with the same expedition, with which it was undertaken; and have left no more traces in the history of the country, than an occasional revolt of the janizaries does in Turkey. If we are at liberty to regard it as founded in the condition and feelings of the nation, there is reason to hope that it

will result in the ultimate establishment of liberal institutions, whatever convulsions may attend its progress.

The military and political events of this revolution are of too recent occurrence, and of too public a character to require a recapitulation here. Its immediate results are so uncertain, and in a course of such rapid accomplishment, that it would be at once rash and useless to pretend to conjecture their character. It can hardly be denied, even by its enemies, that the revolution has thus far been conducted with extraordinary wisdom and moderation; and that the excesses on the side of the friends of liberty, considering the difficulties of their position, and the provocations they have received, have been very trifling. If it could be hoped that the enemies of the new system, who are principally the higher clergy, would abstain from their treasonable machinations against it, there might be much reason for indulging the expectation, that this great reform would be carried through, in the same discreet and temperate spirit, in which it was begun. Unfortunately, it appears probable that these counter revolutionary attempts are rather increasing than diminishing; and it is also morally certain, that the king himself is ill advised enough to give his confidence to secret counsellors, instead of his constitutional and responsible