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vengeance, pardon the prejudice and barbarity of past ages! The Gentiles themselves respected the ashes of their dead; but it was reserved for the Inquisition to disturb your repose in the caverns of the earth.'

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The speaker next adverts to the cunning and low policy which the 'Holy Office' has always employed to secure the court favour, by serving the government as the vile instrument of absolute power. 'Who,' says he, does not know that it has lent itself to the caprices and vengeance of the most infamous and voluptuous favourite (Godoy) to be found in our history? This tribunal, so overbearing in its power, so terrible to the weak and defenceless, had not the courage to exert its authority upon this impious wretch-this monster-a compound of every vice, without a single counterbalancing virtue; but it permitted, in the very face of a Catholic court and a Catholic king, not only panegyrics to be passed on him, but his loathsome image to be erected on the altar, by the side of the Cross of Jesus Christ.'

Thirdly, That the Inquisition is prejudicial to the prosperity of the state, the Doctor is of opinion, requires no other proof than the state of the Peninsula since the unfortunate epoch of its establishment-where all the useful sciences, the arts, agriculture, national industry, and commerce have disappeared-where a progressive decay and depopulation have left little more than ten millions and a half of inhabitants, the greater part of whom are poor and miserable; whereas, from the salubrity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and the extent of the country, it is able to maintain more than double that number. He enumerates those men whose eminence for literature or piety has been the cause of their being buried in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and sacrificed to its unrelenting vengeance.

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Philosophers, theologians, historians, politicians, statesmen, orators, poets, labourers, artisans, merchants, even the industrious farmers, who are the support of the nation, could not escape their rod of iron-in a word, men and women, poor and rich, wise and ignorant, innocent and wicked, just and unjust-all classes of the state has this tribunal afflicted with the terrors of its power-it comprehends all-it persecutes all-it destroys all, under the pretext of religion and the support of the Gospel.'

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The Second Article is an extraordinary production, and marks most strongly the altered opinion of the Spanish nation. Indeed we should have feared lest so fine a piece of irony on the flourishing state of Spain,' and so keen a satire on the depraved manners of his countrymen, would subject the orator to some inconveBut Jovellanos had already suffered the dungeon for freedom of speech, under the old order of things, and thought himself secure, amidst the recent changes, in indulging it to the utmost. At what precise time this speech was addressed to the Spanish

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people

people we are not told, but it was, obviously, since the period of the revolution. We shall give a few extracts from this singular and spirited production which, we think, will not be unacceptable to our readers, more especially as they are the effusions of a man who, by birth and education, by his acknowledged talents, and the high situation which he held in the state, is entitled to more than an ordinary degree of attention.

The orator sets out with the broad proposition that all nations of the world, following the steps of nature, have been weak in their infancy, ignorant in their childhood, warriors in their youth, philosophers in their manhood, legislators in their age, and, in their decrepitude, superstitious and tyrannical. These truths, proved, as he says, by all history, had induced him to conclude that Spain was arrived at the last stage of existence, and sinking rapidly into the grave; but his arrival in Madrid had happily removed all his doubts, and presented to him the most astonishing spectacle which the universe could afford.

'It offered to my sight Spain, weak and infantine, without population, without industry, without riches, without a patriotic spirit, and even without any acknowledged government: some fields waste and without cultivation; some men dirty and indolent; some people miserable and immersed in ruin; some citizens mere tenants of their city; and a constitution, which might more properly be called, an olla of all constitutions.

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It represented to me, Spain, as a child, without instruction, and without knowledge; a brutal mob; a nobility which makes a boast of its ignorance; some schools, without principles; some universities, the faithful depositaries of the prejudices of barbarous ages; some teachers of the tenth century; and some rewards destined for the subjects of the Emperor Justinian, and of Pope Gregory the Ninth.

"It offered to me Spain as a youth, to appearance, full of a martial spirit, of fire and bravery, a body of general officers, sufficient to command all the armies of the world; and, were there but soldiers in proportion, who might conquer all the regions of the universe; a multitude of regiments, which, although deficient in men, are inured to the military fatigues of curling their hair, bleaching their uniform, regulating their paces to the tune of a country-dance, expending powder in salutes in the meadows, and oppressing their fellow-citizens.

'It has shewn me Spain as a man, wise, religious, and skilled in all the sciences-a metropolis, with more churches than houses; more priests than laymen; more altars than kitchens; nay, in the dirty gateways, and in the meanest wine-houses, pasteboard puppets, images of wax, fonts of holy water, and sacred lamps.'

In this manner he runs over the deplorable state of things in which he found debauched young churchmen mounting the pulpit of the Divine Being,' to teach sacred knowledge;-the inspired

writings

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writings translated through French versions; foreign languages stu died by those who were ignorant of their own; preachers and lawyers without learning, whose briefs and sermons are fit only to wrap up pepper and spices; physicians whose wisdom is proved by the wealth of their apothecaries. He found Spain, old and peevish, quoting law upon every occasion. The Castilian legislature, he tells us, recognizes for its origin an age in which the sword and the spear were the supreme law; in which bishops commanded armies, and, instead of sheep, nourished wolves and leopards;'-but it is to Philip the Great that the legislation of Spain owes the many inexhaustible springs, which, from day to day, have been enriching it with more judges than laws, and more laws than human actions; it is to him that all the branches of government and justice are directed by one only hand, like the mules of a coach;'-to him, that a new law is enforced in the twinkling o an eye, whilst the observance of an old one costs the dispute of a century; to him it owes that extraordinary circumspection of tribunals which hang twenty citizens in a day, and afterwards debate on unharnessing the mules from a carriage.' To him Spain owes its finance, its monopolies, its customs and its excise; to him, that every village possesses its municipal code, its municipal contribu tions, and its statutes, which are the basis of public happiness.'

'It is certainly,' he continues, ' a great satisfaction to set out on a journey quite unconcerned, and proceed on the road until you meet a guard, stationed, for collecting the toll; to arrive pierced with cold and wet, at an inn, and there to have to look for a dinner from the monopo lizers of wine, oil, meat, salt, and other necessaries of life; to lead your horse to a manger, and in addition to a payment for straw, to have to pay likewise for the right of tying him there; to procure a fanega of barley and to go to the corregidor to have it measured; to purchase a pellejo of wine, and to pay the price of a permit for taking it out of the town; not at all to know whether you shall sleep in your own bed or a gaol, because the alcalde has the power of making you pass a miserable might there, without assigning any reason.'

The decrepitude of Spain was presented to his view in the horri ble superstitions by which the very souls and understandings of the people were chained down; in the degraded state of morality and religion ;

'But,' checking himself suddenly, what,' he exclaims, am I about? how have I transformed my office of panegyrist into that of censor; and where I had purposed to defend my country, taxed it with the most abominable defects! No, my countrymen! it is not my desire to make you blush; I only wish to shew that Spain is, at the same time, in her infancy, her childhood, her youth, her manhood, and her old age. I well know your merit; and in this august amphitheatre, where alone

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the Spanish people celebrate their assemblies, I behold your exquisite taste, your delicate sensibility.'

'Bull-feasts are the links of our society; the food of our patriotism; the seminaries of our political manners. These feasts, which characterise us among all the nations of the earth, embrace as many agreeable and instructive objects, as it is possible to desire; they temper our excessive parsimony, enlighten our tender understandings, sweeten our humane inclinations, divert our laborious application, and prepare us for generous and magnanimous actions. The arts and sciences combine to render them perfect, and they materially assist in improving the arts and sciences; they procure, even for the lower order, the blessings of ease and diversion, and prevent the evils of toil and labour; they encou'rage hospitals which (to the honour of modern nations be it related) they not only supply with medicines for the relief of the sick, but also with sick for the consumption of the medicines, which are the two indispensable requisites to their prosperity; they mortify the body with fatigue and patience under inconvenience, and fortify the mind by the most dreadful and tragic scenes.

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Who, accustomed in cold blood to see a man suspended on the horns of a bull, his entrails falling through an immense wound, and his blood overflowing the whole place; a wounded horse that has thrown his rider, writhing and struggling in the agonies of death; a troop of affrighted bull-fighters, flying from an enraged animal, pierced with darts; the tumultuous shouting of an innumerable multitude, mingled with the harsh grating sounds of warlike instruments, augmenting the confusion ;-who, I say, after this, would be moved at a battle or a defeat who will not conceive sublime ideas of our nobles, eager to patronise these barbarous spectacles; to honor the bull-fighters; to reward desperation and madness; and to vie with each other, in protecting the most villanous characters in the republic ?—who would not be delighted with the numerous assemblage of both sexes, crowded together, without reserve; tavern-keepers and grandees; barbers and dukes; courtezans and matrons; laymen and clergy-where luxury, profligacy, shamelessness, libertinism, stupidity, and, in short, every vice which disgraces human nature, hold their court? There the licentious fop inflames the incautious damsel, by indecent words and gestures; there the base husband places his wife by the side of her gallant; there the cowardly bully musters up all his insolence; there the smutty blacksmith utters words even more indecent than himself, and the impudent fishwoman makes a boast of her effrontery; there the pressure, noise, heat and dust, joined with the aromatic sweets of tobacco, wine and garlic, are sufficient to cause suffocation.

'Who will not acknowledge the innumerable benefits of these feasts? Were it not for them, the tailor, ironmonger, and shoemaker, would pass their Mondays in the vulgar labour of their trades; mothers would not have a plea for leaving their houses and children to the neglect of some hireling; in it they would lose a most barbarous market of modesty; physicians, a most fruitful seminary for diseases; husbands, a scene of their own iniquity and dishonour; wives, an opportunity of

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improving themselves in prodigality and extravagance; ecclesiastics, an excuse for spending among sinners the price of their sins; philosophers, a most perfect compendium of human weakness; magistrates, the sure means of destroying all idea of civil liberty; tradesmen, the consolation of beholding the death of animals which, if living, would find them constant employment; and the whole kingdom, the advantage of seeing the most fruitful lands (which should be exclusively appropriated to diversion and amusement) laid out in pasture.'

After running over, in the same strain, the instruction which all ranks and descriptions of people receive at a bull-feast, he exclaims

'O magnificent feasts! O useful feasts! O delectable feasts! O pious feasts! O feasts which are the most perfect crown of our wisdom! Strangers abominate you, because they know you not; but Spaniards prize you, for they alone can appreciate your value!

'If Rome lived contented with "bread and arms"-Madrid feels quite satisfied with " bread and bulls!"

"O happy Spaniards! who, content with your own estate, envy not that of others, who, accustomed to govern nobody, obey all! Pursue these enlightened maxims-despise (as you have hitherto done) the idle babbling of envious strangers-abhor their turbulent maximscondemn their free opinions-prohibit all their books, which have not passed the "holy table”—and sleep in peace, lulled by the hisses that deride you!'

ART. X. A Letter on the Conduct and Situation of Denmark, from a Dane to an Englishman; written 30th May, 1813. London: Richardson. pp. 48.

THE pamphlet before us may appear almost too slight for notice;

but such publications, like small shot, sweep away numbers who are not assailable by more powerful ordnance; and the press can furnish nothing so worthless on political subjects as not to attract some degree of attention. Who the author is we pretend not to know, but we shrewdly suspect, in spite of his expressions of goodwill towards England, (in which he apparently resides at this moment,) that his feelings on that subject are in unison with the bulk of his countrymen; and though, as a foreigner, we may pardon the obscurities of his style, and the insincerity of his professions, as a Dane we should counsel him not again to take up his pen in defence of his country.

The most respectable adherents to the ancient order of things in France were compelled, during the horrors of the Revolution, to seek refuge in Great Britain. They were received on their arrival, and have been since maintained, with a degree of attention and kindness worthy of that generous spirit so characteristic of the English nation. This race has, however, nearly disappeared; old

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