seems impossible to establish them. In that country, men have so long been accustomed to pay implicit deference to the Crown and the Church, that loyalty and superstition have usurped the place of those nobler emotions, to which all freedom is owing, and in the absence of which, the true idea of independence can never be attained.

More than once, indeed, during the nineteenth century, a spirit has appeared, from which better things might have been augured. In 1812, in 1820, and in 1836, a few ardent and enthusiastic reformers attempted to secure liberty to the Spanish people, by endowing Spain with a free constitution. They succeeded for a moment, and that was all. The forms of constitutional government they could bestow; but they could not find the traditions and the habits, by which the forms are worked. They mimicked the voice of liberty; they copied her institutions; they aped her very gestures. And what then? At the first stroke of adverse fortune, their idol fell to pieces. Their constitutions were broken up, their assemblies dissolved, their enactments rescinded. The inevitable reaction quickly followed. After each disturbance, the hands of the government were strengthened, the principles of despotism were confirmed, and the Spanish liberals were taught to rue the day, in which they vainly endeavoured to impart freedom to their unhappy and ill-starred country.328

329 In Spain, the voice of the people has always been opposed to the liberal party, as many writers have observed, without being aware of the reason. Mr. Walton (Revolutions of Spain, London, 1837, vol. i. pp. 322, 323) says of the Cortes, " Public indignation hurled them from their seats in 1814; and in 1823 they were overpowered, not by the arms of France, but by the displeasure of their own countrymen," &c. See also p. 290; and Quin's Memoirs of Ferdinand the Seventh, London, 1824, p. 121, where it is mentioned, that "in all the towns through which the King passed, the multitude, excited by the friars and clergy, overturned the constitutional stone, and uttered the most atrocious insults against the Constitution, the Cortes, and the Liberals." Compare Sempere, Histoire des Cortès, p. 335, and Bacon's Six Years in Biscay, p. 40. Indeed, a very intelligent writer on Spanish affairs in 1855, asserts, with, I believe, perfect truth, that Spain is " un pays où les populations sont toujours à coup sûr moins libérales que les gouvernemens." Annuaire des Deux Mondes, 1854, 1855, Paris, 1855,

p. 266.

What makes these failures the more worthy of observation is, that the Spaniards did possess, at a very early period, municipal privileges and franchises, similar to those which we had in England, and to which our greatness is often ascribed. But such institutions, though they preserve freedom, can never create it. Spain had the form of liberty without its spirit; hence the form, promising as it was, soon died away. In England, the spirit preceded the form, and therefore the form was durable. Thus it is, that, though the Spaniards could boast of free institutions a century before ourselves, they were unable to retain them, simply because they had the institutions and nothing more. We had no popular representation till 1264;329 but in Castile, they had it in 1169,330 and in Aragon in 1133.331 So, too, while the earliest charter was granted to an English town in the twelfth century,332 we find, in Spain, a charter conferred on Leon as early as 1020; and in the course of the eleventh century the enfranchisement of towns was as secure as laws could make it.333

The fact, however, is, that in Spain these institutions, instead of growing out of the wants of the people, originated in a stroke of policy on the part of their rulers. They were conceded to the citizens, rather than desired. by them. For, during the war with the Mohammedans, the Christian kings of Spain, as they advanced southwards, were naturally anxious to induce their subjects to settle in the frontier towns, where they might face and repel the enemy. With this object, they granted charters to the towns, and privileges to the inhabitants.334

329 Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. i. p. 566.

330 Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. xlviii.

331 Ibid., vol. i. p. xcvi.

332 Hallam's Middle Ages, ninth edition, London, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 153-157, which must be compared with Hallam's Supplemental Notes, London, 1848, pp. 323-327.

333 Ibid., vol. i. p. 373. Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. pp. xlv. xlvi.

334Ce fut alors que les successeurs de Pélage descendirent de leurs montagnes dans les plaines, de leurs forteresses perchées sur des rocs inaccessibles dans les villes populeuses, le long des fleuves, dans de fertiles vallées et sur

And as the Mohammedans were gradually beaten back from the Asturias to Granada, the frontiers changed, and the franchises were extended to the new conquests, in order that what was the post of danger, might also be the place of reward. But, meanwhile, those general causes, which I have indicated, were predetermining the nation to habits of loyalty and of superstition, which grew to a height fatal to the spirit of liberty. That being the case, the institutions were of no avail. They took no root; and as they were originated by one political combination, they were destroyed by another. Before the close of the fourteenth century, the Spaniards were so firmly seated in the territories they had lately acquired, that there was little danger of their being again expelled;335 while, on the other hand, there was no immediate prospect of their being able to push their conquests further, and drive the Mohammedans from the strongholds of Granada. The circumstances, therefore, which gave rise to the municipal privileges had changed; and as soon as this was apparent, the privileges began to perish. Being unsuited to the habits of the people, they were sure to fall, on the first opportunity.336 Late in the

les côtes de la mer; ce fut alors que la ville d'Astorgue revint du pouvoir des Arabes à celui des Asturiens et chassa toute la partie musulmane de ses habitants; ce fut alors, enfin, que commencèrent en Espagne ces concessions de franchises municipales par lesquelles les rois et les seigneurs chrétiens cherchèrent à attirer des populations chrétiennes dans les lieux d'où ils avaient chassé les Musulmans." Fauriel, Histoire de la Gaule Méridionale, Paris, 1836, vol. iii. p. 215. See also Sempere, Monarchie Espagnole, vol. ii. pp. 256, 257.

335 On the increasing confidence of the Spaniards in the middle of the fourteenth century, see an interesting passage in Mariana, Historia de España, vol. iv. pp. 172, 173.

336 The deputies of the towns did, in fact, eventually overthrow their own liberties, as a Spanish historian truly remarks. "Il n'est pas étonnant que les Monarques espagnols tâchassent d'affermir leur autorité autant que possible, et encore moins que leurs conseillers et leurs ministres coopérassent à leurs desseins. L'histoire de toutes les nations nous offre de nombreux exemples de cette politique; mais ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable dans celle d'Espagne, c'est que les députés des villes qui auraient dû être les plus zélés défenseurs de leurs droits, conspirèrent ouvertement contre le tiers-état, et tentèrent d'anéantir les restes de l'ancienne représentation nationale." Sempere, Histoire des Cortès d'Espagne, p. 213. It strikes one as singular, that M. Sempere should never have inquired, why this happened in Spain, and not elsewhere. A later writer, reflecting on the destruction of the

fourteenth century, their decline was perceptible; by the close of the fifteenth century, they were almost extinct; and, early in the sixteenth century, they were finally overthrown.337

It is thus that general causes eventually triumph over every obstacle. In the average of affairs, and on a comparison of long periods, they are irresistible. Their operation is often attacked, and occasionally, for a little time, stopped by politicians, who are always ready with their empirical and short-sighted remedies. But when the spirit of the age is against those remedies, they can at best only succeed for a moment; and after that moment has passed, a reaction sets in, and the penalty for violence has to be paid. Evidence of this will be found in the annals of every civilized country, by whoever will confront the history of legislation with the history of opinion. The fate of the Spanish towns has afforded us one good proof; the fate of the Spanish Church will supply us with another. For more than eighty years after the death of Charles II. the rulers of Spain attempted to weaken the ecclesiastical power; and the end of all their efforts was, that even such an insignificant and incompetent king as Charles IV. was able, with the greatest ease, rapidly to undo what they had done. This is because, during the eighteenth century, while the clergy were assailed by law, they were favoured by opinion.

municipal element by the royal authority, gives a solution, which, like many other so-called solutions, is merely a statement of the same fact in different words. "Al fin la autoridad real logró alcanzar un gran predominio en el gobierno municipal de los pueblos, porque los corregidores y alcaldes mayores llegaron á eclipsar la influencia de los adelantados y alcaldes elegidos por los pueblos." Antequera, Historia de la Legislacion Española, Madrid, 1849, p. 287. This, instead of explaining the event, is simply narrating it afresh.

337 The final destruction of popular liberty is ascribed by many writers to the battle of Villalar, in 1521; though it is quite certain that, if the royalists had lost that battle, instead of gaining it, the ultimate result would have been the same. At one time, I had purposed tracing the history of the municipal and representative elements during the fifteenth century; and the materials which I then collected, convinced me that the spirit of freedom never really existed in Spain, and that therefore the marks and forms of freedom were sure, sooner or later, to be effaced.

The opinions of a people invariably depend on large general causes, which influence the whole country; but their laws are too often the work of a few powerful individuals, in opposition to the national will. When the legislators die, or lose office, there is always a chance of their successors holding opposite views, and subverting their plans. In the midst, however, of this play and fluctuation of political life, the general causes remain steady, though they are often kept out of sight, and do not become visible, until politicians, inclining to their side, bring them to the surface, and invest them with open and public authority.

This is what Charles IV. did in Spain; and when he took measures to favour the Church, and to discourage free inquiry, he merely sanctioned those national habits which his predecessors had disregarded. The hold which the hierarchy of that country possess over public opinion, has always been proverbial; but it is even greater than is commonly supposed. What it was in the seventeenth century, we have already seen; and in the eighteenth century, there were no signs of its diminution, except among a few bold men, who could effect nothing, while the popular voice was so strong against them. Early in the reign of Philip V., Labat, who travelled in Spain, informs us, that when a priest performed mass, nobles of the highest rank deemed it an honour to help him to dress, and that they would go down on their knees to him, and kiss his hands.338 When this was done by the proudest aristocracy in Europe, we may suppose what the general feeling must have been. Indeed, Labat as

339Ceux qui servent la Messe en Espagne, soit Religieux, ou Seculiers, ne manquent jamais d'aider le Prêtre à s'habiller, et le font avec beaucoup de respect. Les plus grands Seigneurs s'en font honneur, et à mesure qu'ils présentent au Prêtre quelque partie des ornemens, ils lui baisent la main. On se met à genoux pour donner à laver au Prêtre pendant la Messe, et après qu'il a essuyé ses doigts, celui qui lui a donné l'eau demeurant à genoux lui présente le bassin retourné, sur lequel le Prêtre met sa main pour la lui laisser baiser. Au retour à la Sacristie, il ne manque pas d'aider le Prêtre à se déshabiller, après quoi il se met à genoux pour recevoir sa bénédiction, et baiser sa main." Labat, Voyages en Espagne et en Italie, Paris, 1730, vol. i. p. 36.