found impossible to procure sailors enough to man even the few ships which were required. 167 The charts which had been made, were either lost or neglected; and the ignorance of the Spanish pilots became so notorious, that no one was willing to trust them.168 As to the military service, it is stated, in an account of Spain, late in the seventeenth century, that most of the troops had deserted their colours, and that the few who were faithful were

167 "A century ago, Spain had been as supreme at sea as on land; her ordinary naval force was 140 gallies, which were the terror both of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. But now" (1656), "in consequence of the decline of commerce and fisheries on the coast, instead of the numerous squadrons of the Dorias and Mendozas, which were wont to attend the movements of the first great John of Austria and the Emperor Charles, the present High-Admiral of Spain, and favourite son of its monarch, put to sea with three wretched gallies, which, with difficulty, escaped from some Algerine corsairs, and were afterwards nearly shipwrecked on the coast of Africa." Dunlop's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 549. In 1663, "Il n'y avait à Cadix ni vaisseaux ni galères en état d'aller en mer. Les Maures insultaient audacieusement les côtes de l'Andalousie, et prenaient impunément les barques qui se hasardaient à une lieue de la rade. Le duc d'Albuquerque, qui commandait les forces navales, se plaignait hautement de la position humiliante dans laquelle on le laissait. Il avait demandé avec instance qu'on lui donnât des matelots et des soldats pour mettre sur les vaisseaux; mais le Comte de Castrillo, président du conseil de finances (de la hacienda) avait déclaré qu'il n'avait ni argent, ni la possibilité d'en trouver, et conseillait de renoncer à l'armée navale." Mignet, Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, vol. i. pp. 315, 316, Paris, 1835, 4to, from contemporary manuscripts. Even in 1648, Spain had "become so feeble in point of naval affairs as to be obliged to hire Dutch vessels for carrying on her American commerce." Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 435, Lordon, 1805, 4to. And, to complete the chain of evidence, there is a letter in the Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 86, Oxford, 1773, folio, written from Madrid in June 1640, stating that, "For ships they have few, mariners fewer, landmen not so many as they need, and, by all signs, money not at all that can be spared." The history of Spain during this period never having been written, I am compelled, in my own justification, to give these and similar passages with a fulness which I fear will weary some readers.

169 And when they did, it was to their own cost, as Stanhope found, at the beginning of his career as British minister to the court of Madrid, in 1690. See his letter to Lord Shrewsbury, in Mahon's Spain under Charles II., London, 1840, p. 3. "We were forced into a small port, called Ferrol, three leagues short of the Groyne, and, by the ignorance of a Spanish pilot, our ships fell foul one with another, and the admiral's ship was on ground for some hours, but got off clear without any damage." Indeed, the Spanish seamen, once the boldest and most skilful navigators in the world, so degenerated, that, early in the eighteenth century, we find it stated as a matter of course, that "to form the Spaniard to marine affairs, is transporting them into unknown countries." The History of Cardinal Alberoni, London, 1719, p. 257.

clothed in rags, received no pay, and were dying of hunger.169 Another account describes this once mighty kingdom as utterly unprotected; the frontier towns ungarrisoned; the fortifications dilapidated and crumbling away; the magazines without ammunition; the arsenals empty; the workshops unemployed; and even the art of building ships entirely lost.170

While the country at large was thus languishing, as if it had been stricken by some mortal distemper, the most horrible scenes were occurring in the capital, under the eyes of the sovereign. The inhabitants of Madrid were starving; and the arbitrary measures which had been adopted to supply them with food, could only produce temporary relief. Many persons fell down in the streets exhausted, and died where they fell; others were seen in the public highway evidently dying, but no one had wherewithal to feed them. At length the people became desperate, and threw off all control. In 1680, not only the workmen of Madrid, but large numbers of the tradesmen, organized themselves into bands, broke open private houses, and robbed and murdered the inhabitants in the face of day.171 During the remaining

169 "Le peu de soldats qui résistaient à la désertion, étaient vêtus de haillons, sans solde, sans pain." Mémoires de Louville, edit. Paris, 1818, vol. i. p. 72. "Dans l'état le plus misérable." p. 43. Compare Lafuente, in the reign of Philip IV. (Historia, vol. xvi. p. 519), "los soldados peleaban andrajosos y medio desnudos ;" and D'Aulnoy, in 1679 (Relation du Voyaye d'Espagne, vol. i. p. 168), "Il est rare que dans tout un regiment, il se trouve deux soldats qui ayent plus d'une chemise."

170 Ruinosos los muros de sus fortalezas, aún tenía Barcelona abiertas las brechas, que hizo el duque de Vendoma; y desde Rosas hasta Cadiz, no habia Alcazar, ni Castillo, no solo presidiado, pero ni montada su artillería. La misma negligencia se admiraba en los puertos de Vizcaya, y Galicia; no tenian los almazenes sus provisiones, faltaban fundidores de armas, y las que habia, eran de ningun uso. Vacios los arsenales y astilleros, se habia olvidado el arte de construir naves, y no tenia el Rey mas que las destinadas al comercio de Indias, y algunos galeones; seis galeras, consumidas del tiempo, y del ocio, se ancoraban en Cartagena." Bacallar, Comentarios de la Guerra de España, vol. i. p. 43. Another eye-witness describes "the best fortresses consisting of ruined walls, mounted with here and there a rusty cannon, and the man thought an able engineer who knew how to fire them." Ripperda's Memoirs, second edition, London, 1740, p. 227.

171

Dunlop's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 224, 225. In 1680, Madame de Villars, the wife of the French ambassador, writes from Madrid, that such was the

twenty years of the seventeenth century, the capital was in a state, not of insurrection, but of anarchy. Society was loosened, and seemed to be resolving itself into its elements. To use the emphatic language of a contemporary, liberty and restraint were equally unknown.172 The ordinary functions of the executive government were suspended. The police of Madrid, unable to obtain the arrears of their pay, disbanded, and gave themselves up to rapine. Nor did there seem any means of remedying these evils. The exchequer was empty, and it was impossible to replenish it. Such was the poverty of the court, that money was wanting to pay the wages of the king's private servants, and to meet the daily expenses of his household.173 In 1693, payment was suspended of every life-pension; and all officers and ministers of the crown were mulcted of one-third of their salaries.174

The

state of affairs there, that her husband thought it advisable that she should return home. Lettres de Madame de Villars, Amsterdam, 1759, p. 169. A letter written by the Danish ambassador in 1677, describes every house in Madrid as regularly armed from top to bottom; "de haut en bas." Mignet, Négociations relatives à la Succession, vol. iv. p. 638, Paris, 1842, 4to. deaths from starvation are said to have been particularly numerous in Andalusia. See Tapia, Civilizacion Española, vol. iii. p. 167. "En Andalucia especialmente moria mucha gente de hambre, y el consulado de Sevilla envió una diputacion para representar que aquella ciudad habia quedado reducida á la cuarta parte de la poblacion que habia tenido cincuenta años antes." On the state of the people generally, in 1680, compare Lettres de Villars, pp. 145, 152, 161.

Aux

172 Point de libertés et point de frein." Mém. de Louville, vol. i. p. 68. 173 In 1681, the French ambassadress writes from Madrid, "Je ne vous parle point de la misere de ce royaume. La faim est jusques dans le palais. J'étois hier avec huit ou dix camaristes, et la Moline, qui disoient qu'il y avoit fort longtems qu'on ne leur donnoit plus ni pain ni viande. écuries du roi et de la reine, de même." Lettres de Madame la Marquise de Villars, Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 216, 217. The year after Charles II. died: "Il n'y avoit pas de fonds pour les choses les plus nécessaires, pour la cuisine, l'écurie, les valets de pied," &c. Millot, Mémoires du Duc de Noailles, vol. ii. p. 26, ed. Petitot, Paris, 1828. Among other reckless expedients, the currency was so depreciated, that, in a letter from Martin to Dr. Fraser, dated Madrid, March 6th, 1680, we hear of "the fall of money to one fourth part of its former value." Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. v. p. 187, Aberdeen, 4to, 1852.

174"The king has taken away, by a late decree, a third part of all wages and salaries of all officers and ministers without exception, and suspended for the ensuing year, 1694, all pensions for life granted either by himself or his father." Letter from the English ambassador, dated Madrid, November 18th, 1693, in Mahon's Spain under Charles II., London, 1840, p. 40. This

Nothing, however, could arrest the mischief. Famine and poverty continued to increase ;175 and, in 1699, Stanhope, the British minister then residing in Madrid, writes, that never a day passed in which people were not killed in the streets scuffling for bread; that his own secretary had seen five women stifled to death by the crowd before a bakehouse; and that, to swell the catalogue of misery, upwards of twenty thousand additional beggars from the country had recently flocked into the capital.176

If this state of things had continued for another generation, the wildest anarchy must have ensued, and the whole frame of society been broken up.177 The only

is also stated in Millot, Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 359, Paris, 1828; "retranchant le tiers des dépenses de sa maison, et des appointemens de ses officiers tant militaires que civils." In the preceding reign, the pensions had been stopped, at all events for a time. In 1650, Sir Edward Hyde writes from Madrid, "there is an universal stop of all pensions which have been granted formerly." Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii. p. 538, Oxford, 1773. The next step which was taken was a proposal, in 1667, to tax the salaries of the members of the Councils of Castile, Arragon, &c.; but this idea was abandoned, until at length, they, like all other public servants, came under the comprehensive edict of 1693. See the letter from the French ambassador to Louis XIV., dated Madrid, June 2d, 1667, in Mignet, Négociations, vol. ii. p. 128, Paris, 1835, 4to. The only chance of recovering the history of Spain in the seventeenth century, is by collating these and similar documents with the meagre notices to be found in Spanish writers. 175 In 1695, the miserable poverty in this country." Travels through Spain, performed by a Gentleman, London, 1702, p. 62. And, in the same "L'Espagne, manquant de tout, d'hommes, et d'argent." Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 402. "L'Espagne, presque anéantie." p. 424.

year,

176 See the letters in Mahon's Spain under Charles II., pp. 138-140. On the 21st of May, "We have an addition of above 20,000 beggars, flocked from the country round, to share in that little here is, who were starving at home, and look like ghosts." On the 27th of May, "The scarcity of bread is growing on apace towards a famine, which increases, by vast multitudes of poor that swarm in upon us from the countries round about. I shifted the best I could till this day, but the difficulty of getting any without authority, has made me recur to the Corregidor, as most of the foreign Ministers had done before; he, very courteously, after inquiring what my family was, gave me an order for twenty loaves every day; but I must send two leagues, to Vallejas, to fetch it, as I have done this night, and my servants with long guns to secure it when they have it, otherwise it would be taken from them, for several people are killed every day in the streets in scuffles for bread, all being lawful prize that any body can catch."

66

My secretary, Don Francisco, saw yesterday five poor women stifled to death by the crowd before a bakehouse."

177 Even M. Lafuente, who, having used scarcely any of the authorities which I have quoted in the last few pages, can have no adequate idea of the utter wretchedness of Spain, confesses that "Jamás monarca ni pueblo

chance of saving Spain from a relapse into barbarism, was that it should fall, and fall quickly, under foreign dominion. Such a change was indispensable; and there was reason to fear, that it might come in a form which would have been inexpressibly odious to the nation. For, late in the seventeenth century, Ceuta was besieged by the Mohammedans; and as the Spanish government had neither troops nor ships, the greatest apprehensions were entertained respecting the fate of this important fortress; there being little doubt, that if it fell, Spain would be again overrun by the infidels, who, this time, at least, would have found little difficulty in dealing with a people weakened by suffering, half famished, and almost worn out.178

Fortunately, in the year 1700, when affairs were at their worst, Charles II., the idiot king, died; and Spain fell into the hands of Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV. This change from the Austrian dynasty to the Bourbon, 179 brought with it many other changes. Philip, who reigned from 1700 to 1746,180 was a Frenchman, not only by

alguno se vieron en tan lastimosa situacion y en tan mísero trance como se hallaron en este tiempo" (1699) "Carlos II. y la España." Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xvii. p. 426, Madrid, 1856.

Le roi d'Espagne man

178 "Les Maures d'Afrique assiégeoient Ceuta. quait non-seulement de troupes, mais de vaisseaux pour transporter le peu de secours qu'il pouvoit y envoyer: Louis XIV lui fit offrir les troupes et les vaisseaux dont il auroit besoin. Il s'agissoit non-seulement de conserver Ceuta, mais de plus Oran; par conséquent d'empêcher la prise de deux places dont la conquête facilitoit aux Maures un retour en Espagne." Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy, vol. i. p. 46, ed. Paris, 1828. Respecting the attacks made on Ceuta, from 1696 to 1698, see Ortiz, Compendio de la Historia de España, vol. vi. pp. 556, 557, 561.

179 A celebrated modern writer has made some remarks upon this, which are too apposite to be omitted. "Con el siglo xvii. acabó tambien la dinastía austriaca en España, dejando á esta nacion pobre, despoblada, sin fuerzas marítimas ni terrestres, y por consiguiente á merced de las demas potencias que intentaron repartir entre sí sus colonias y provincias. Así habia desparecido en poco mas de un siglo aquella grandeza y poderío, aquella fuerza y heroismo, aquella cultura é ilustracion con que habia descollado entre todas las naciones." Biografia de Ensenada, in Navarrete, Opúsculos, vol. ii. p. 5, Madrid, 1848.

180 Except during the short interregnum of Louis, in 1724, which only lasted a few months, and during which, the boy, though called king, exercised no real power, and Philip remained the actual ruler. "Aun el nuevo rey no resolvia negocio de consideracion sin asenso de su padre." Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vii. p. 374.