Chapter VIII (9)

[1530] The very year in which the Concordat became law, Mr. Hoskins, the
well-known traveller in Africa, a gentleman evidently of
considerable intelligence, published, on his return from Spain,
an account of that country. His work is valuable, as showing the
state of public feeling just before the Concordat, and while the
Spanish clergy were still suffering from the well-intentioned,
but grossly injudicious acts of the liberal party. 'We visited
these churches on a Sunday, and were surprised to find them all
crowded to excess. The incomes of the clergy are greatly
reduced, but their fortunes are gradually reviving.' _Hoskins'
Spain_, London, 1851, vol. i. p. 25. 'The priests are slowly
re-establishing their power in Spain,' vol. ii. p. 201. 'The
crowded churches, and, notwithstanding the appropriation of
their revenues, the absence of all appearance of anything like
poverty in the chapels and services, prove that the Spaniards
are now as devout worshippers, and as zealous friends of the
Church, as they were in her palmy days,' vol. ii. p. 281.

[1531] 'La loi de désamortissement promulguée le 1^{er} mai, 1855,
ordonne, comme on sait, la mise en vente de tous les biens de
main-morte, et en particulier des biens qui restent encore à
l'église.' _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1855, 1856, p. 310. See
also _Annuaire_, 1854, 1855, p. 274. For an account of other
steps taken against the Church in the spring and summer of 1855,
see _Costa y Borras_, _Observaciones sobre la Iglesia en
España_, Barcelona, 1857, pp. 119, 286, 292; and respecting the
law of the 1st of May, see p. 247.

[1532] 'Aussi le premier mot d'ordre de l'insurrection a été la défense
de la religion.' _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1854, 1855, p. 275.

[1533] _Annuaire des Deux Mondes_, 1856, 1857, pp. 315-317, 324-331,
336.

The reader will now be able to understand the real nature of Spanish civilization. He will see how, under the high-sounding names of loyalty and religion, lurk the deadly evils which those names have always concealed, but which it is the business of the historian to drag to light and expose. A blind spirit of reverence, taking the form of an unworthy and ignominious submission to the Crown and the Church, is the capital and essential vice of the Spanish people. It is their sole national vice, and it has sufficed to ruin them. From it all nations have grievously suffered, and many still suffer. But nowhere in Europe, has this principle been so long supreme as in Spain. Therefore, nowhere else in Europe are the consequences so manifest and so fatal. The idea of liberty is extinct, if, indeed, in the true sense of the word, it ever can be said to have existed. Outbreaks, no doubt, there have been, and will be; but they are bursts of lawlessness, rather than of liberty. In the most civilized countries, the tendency always is, to obey even unjust laws, but while obeying them, to insist on their repeal. This is because we perceive that it is better to remove grievances than to resist them. While we submit to the particular hardship, we assail the system from which the hardship flows. For a nation to take this view, requires a certain reach of mind, which, in the darker periods of European history, was unattainable. Hence we find, that, in the middle ages, though tumults were incessant, rebellions were rare. But, since the sixteenth century, local insurrections, provoked by immediate injustice, are diminishing, and are being superseded by revolutions, which strike at once at the source from whence the injustice proceeds. There can be no doubt that this change is beneficial; partly because it is always good to rise from effects to causes, and partly because revolutions being less frequent than insurrections, the peace of society would be more rarely disturbed, if men confined themselves entirely to the larger remedy. At the same time, insurrections are generally wrong; revolutions are always right. An insurrection is too often the mad and passionate effort of ignorant persons, who are impatient under some immediate injury, and never stop to investigate its remote and general causes. But a revolution, when it is the work of the nation itself, is a splendid and imposing spectacle, because to the moral quality of indignation produced by the presence of evil, it adds the intellectual qualities of foresight and combination; and, uniting in the same act some of the highest properties of our nature, it achieves a double purpose, not only punishing the oppressor, but also relieving the oppressed.

In Spain, however, there never has been a revolution, properly so called; there never has even been one grand national rebellion. The people, though often lawless, are never free. Among them, we find still preserved that peculiar taint of barbarism, which makes men prefer occasional disobedience to systematic liberty. Certain feelings there are of our common nature, which even their slavish loyalty cannot eradicate, and which, from time to time, urge them to resist injustice. Such instincts are happily the inalienable lot of humanity, which we cannot forfeit, if we would, and which are too often the last resource against the extravagances of tyranny. And this is all that Spain now possesses. The Spaniards, therefore, resist, not because they are Spaniards, but because they are men. Still, even while they resist, they revere. While they will rise up against a vexatious impost, they crouch before a system, of which the impost is the smallest evil. They smite the tax-gatherer, but fall prostrate at the feet of the contemptible prince for whom the tax-gatherer plies his craft. They will even revile the troublesome and importunate monk, or sometimes they will scoff at the sleek and arrogant priest; while such is their infatuation, that they would risk their lives in defence of that cruel Church, which has inflicted on them hideous calamities, but to which they still cling, as if it were the dearest object of their affections.

Connected with these habits of mind, and in sooth forming part of them, we find a reverence for antiquity, and an inordinate tenacity of old opinions, old beliefs, and old habits, which remind us of those tropical civilizations which formerly flourished. Such prejudices were once universal even in Europe; but they began to die out in the sixteenth century, and are now, comparatively speaking, extinct, except in Spain, where they have always been welcomed. In that country, they retain their original force, and produce their natural results. By encouraging the notion, that all the truths most important to know are already known, they repress those aspirations, and dull that generous confidence in the future, without which nothing really great can be achieved. A people who regard the past with too wistful an eye, will never bestir themselves to help the onward progress; they will hardly believe that progress is possible. To them, antiquity is synonymous with wisdom, and every improvement is a dangerous innovation. In this state, Europe lingered for many centuries; in this state, Spain still lingers. Hence the Spaniards are remarkable for an inertness, a want of buoyancy, and an absence of hope, which, in our busy and enterprizing age, isolate them from the rest of the civilized world. Believing that little can be done, they are in no hurry to do it. Believing that the knowledge they have inherited, is far greater than any they can obtain, they wish to preserve their intellectual possessions whole and unimpaired; inasmuch as the least alteration in them might lessen their value. Content with what has been already bequeathed, they are excluded from that great European movement, which, first clearly perceptible in the sixteenth century, has ever since been steadily advancing, unsettling old opinions, destroying old follies, reforming and improving on every side, influencing even such barbarous countries as Russia and Turkey; but leaving Spain unscathed. While the human intellect has been making the most prodigious and unheard-of strides, while discoveries in every quarter are simultaneously pressing upon us, and coming in such rapid and bewildering succession, that the strongest sight, dazzled by the glare of their splendour, is unable to contemplate them as a whole; while other discoveries still more important, and still more remote from ordinary experience, are manifestly approaching, and may be seen looming in the distance, whence they are now obscurely working on the advanced thinkers who are nearest to them, filling their minds with those ill-defined, restless, and almost uneasy, feelings, which are the invariable harbingers of future triumph; while the veil is being rudely torn, and nature, violated at all points, is forced to disclose her secrets, and reveal her structure, her economy, and her laws, to the indomitable energy of man; while Europe is ringing with the noise of intellectual achievements, with which even despotic governments affect to sympathize, in order that they may divert them from their natural course, and use them as new instruments whereby to oppress yet more the liberties of the people; while, amidst this general din and excitement, the public mind, swayed to and fro, is tossed and agitated,--Spain sleeps on, untroubled, unheeding, impassive, receiving no impressions from the rest of the world, and making no impressions upon it. There she lies, at the further extremity of the Continent, a huge and torpid mass, the sole representative now remaining of the feelings and knowledge of the Middle Ages. And, what is the worst symptom of all, she is satisfied with her own condition. Though she is the most backward country in Europe, she believes herself to be the foremost. She is proud of every thing of which she should be ashamed. She is proud of the antiquity of her opinions; proud of her orthodoxy; proud of the strength of her faith; proud of her immeasurable and childish credulity; proud of her unwillingness to amend either her creed or her customs; proud of her hatred of heretics, and proud of the undying vigilance with which she has baffled their efforts to obtain a full and legal establishment on her soil.

All these things conspiring together, produce, in their aggregate, that melancholy exhibition to which we give the collective name of Spain. The history of that single word is the history of nearly every vicissitude of which the human species is capable. It comprises the extremes of strength and of weakness, of unbounded wealth and of abject poverty. It is the history of the mixture of different races, languages, and bloods. It includes almost every political combination which the wit of man can devise; laws infinite in variety, as well as in number; constitutions of all kinds, from the most stringent to the most liberal. Democracy, monarchy, government by priests, government by municipalities, government by nobles, government by representative bodies, government by natives, government by foreigners, have been tried, and tried in vain. Material appliances have been lavishly used; arts, inventions, and machines introduced from abroad, manufactures set up, communications opened, roads made, canals dug, mines worked, harbours formed. In a word, there has been every sort of alteration, except alterations of opinion; there has been every possible change, except changes in knowledge. And the result is, that in spite of the efforts of successive governments, in spite of the influence of foreign customs, and in spite of those physical ameliorations, which just touch the surface of society, but are unable to penetrate beneath, there are no signs of national progress; the priests are rather gaining ground than losing it; the slightest attack on the Church rouses the people; while, even the dissoluteness of the clergy, and the odious vices which, in the present century, have stained the throne, can do naught to lessen either the superstition or the loyalty which the accumulated force of many centuries has graven on the minds, and eaten into the hearts of the Spanish nation.

* * * * *

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

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The table below lists all corrections applied to the original text.

p. v: minority of Louis XIII -> XIII.
p. 3: _Geoffroy Saint Hilaire_ -> _Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire_
p. 6: vol. iv. p. 511, 4to. -> 4to,
p. 10: vol. xviii. pp. 431-436: -> 431-436;
p. 10: _Hist. de la Sorbonne_ -> _Hist. de la Sorbonne_,
p. 11: _Benoist_ -> _Benoist_,
p. 12: vol. xi. pp. 30, 77, 131. -> 131;
p. 23: _Mably's Observations_, vol. iii. p. 220: -> 220;
p. 24: humane and enlightend -> enlightened
p. 24: Historiettes de Tallement -> Tallemant
p. 25: prevents them from doing so. - > so.'
p. 27: read the contemporay -> contemporary
p. 29: endeavoured to instil -> instill
p. 30: innocence of a religious life. -> life.'
p. 30: Hist. of Louis XIII. -> XIII
p. 31: convoked at Mantes -> Nantes
p. 32: _Mém. de Retz_, vol -> vol.
p. 32: vol. v. pp. 51, seq. -> 51 seq.
p. 34: Tallemant des Reaux -> Réaux
p. 35: fils aîné de l'Eglise -> l'Eglise'
p. 35: _[OE]conomies Royales_ -> _[OE]conomies Royales_,
p. 36: prix que ce fust -> fut
p. 37: 'Sismondi says, under -> Sismondi
p. 37: Felice Hist. -> Felice's Hist.
p. 40: livre ii. chap -> chap.
p. 41: interests were alogether -> altogether
p. 41: Element ist zurückge reten -> zurückgetreten
p. 42: with infinte -> infinite
p. 49: vol. xi. p. 450, vol. xii. p. -> pp.
p. 53: conscientiously be tolerant. -> tolerant.'
p. 54: Lettres d'un Français -> François
p. 56: processions whorever -> wherever
p. 60: Tallement des Réaux -> Tallemant des Réaux
p. 62: Béarn démanderent aussytost -> aussytôt
p. 63: Mem. de Montglat -> Mém. de Montglat
p. 63: Mém de Montglat -> Mém. de Montglat
p. 75: 'The Edict of Nismes -> The
p. 78: Hist. des Mathemat. -> Mathémat.
p. 78: vol. ii. pp. 419-421 -> pp. 419-421;
p. 79: _Thomson's Hist. of the Royal Society_, p. 364: -> p. 364;
p. 80: greatest mathemetician -> mathematician
p. 83: tout ce qu -> qui
p. 88: p. 432. Compare vol -> vol.
p. 88: _Berkeley's Works_, vol -> vol.
p. 90: _[OE]uvres de Descartes_, vol. ii -> vol. ii.
p. 91: _[OE]uvres_, vol -> vol.
p. 91: 8vo. 1847 -> 8vo., 1847
p. 91: _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol. ii, pp. 220 -> vol. ii. p. 220
p. 91: Auf das innigste verbunden -> 'Auf
p. 94: 242, 342, 498 -> 242, 342, 498,
p. 95: _Lettres de Patin_, vol. iii. p. 153: -> p. 153;
p. 95: _Mosheim's Eccles. Hist._ vol. ii. p. 258: -> p. 258;
p. 95: _Leslie's Nat. Philos._ p. 121: -> p. 121;
p. 97: Hist de l'Edit de Nantes -> Hist.
p. 100: _Hunt's Hist. of Newspapers_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
p. 110: faith, of sceptism -> scepticism
p. 111: vol. i. pp. 5, 64: -> 64;
p. 114: Mills's Hist. of Chivalry -> Mills' Hist. of Chivalry
p. 115: Brougham's Polit. Philos -> Philos.
p. 117: Compare, _Meyer_ -> Compare _Meyer_
p. 120: canaille, dès qu on -> qu'on
p. 121: Les états-généraux -> 'Les états-généraux
p. 122: began to excercise -> exercise
p. 123: énergique de la centralisation') -> centralisation'
p. 123: couvent ni collége -> collège
p. 125: 1843, _in_ -> in
p. 125: _Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol, -> vol.
p. 129: p. 118: _Saint Aulaire_ -> p. 118; _Sainte-Aulaire_
p. 135: which deprived knightnood -> knighthood
p. 136: _Hist. de France_ -> _Hist. de France_,
p. 137: _Milice Françoise_ -> _Milice Française_
p. 137: vol. ii. p. 582; _Sully_ -> _Sully_,
p. 137: vol. iv. pp. 27, 28, 152, -> 152;
p. 143: Collier's Eccles. Hist -> Hist.
p. 144: (reprinted London, 1842), p -> p.
p. 149: 401, 476: -> 476;
p. 149: p. 78; Hutchison's -> Hutchinson's
p. 150: Mem. de Retz -> Mém. de Retz
p. 152: part. i. pp. 28, 29 -> part i. pp. 28, 29
p. 153: _Carlyle's Cromwell_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
p. 154: laid, the slighest -> slightest
p. 158: Holland the linke-boy -> link-boy
p. 158: part. i. p. 167. -> part i. p. 167.
p. 166: _Mém. d'Omer Talon_, vol. iii. p. 6.; -> p. 6;
p. 168: Saint Aulaire -> Saint-Aulaire
p. 168: _Mém. de Retz_ vol. 1. -> vol. i.
p. 169: _Mém. de Motteville_ -> _Mém. de Motteville_,
p. 170: vol ii. p. 357 -> vol. ii. p. 357
p. 178: Capefigue's Louis XIV -> XIV.
p. 178: tyranny of the clergy -> clergy.
p. 179: the feet of others -> others.
p. 180: vol. v. pp 887-889 -> vol. v. pp. 887-889
p. 181: _Hist. de l'Economie Politique_, vol. ii, -> vol.
p. 181: les plus industrieux," -> industrieux,'
p. 182: brillant d'une clarte -> clarté
p. 187: apostles of knowlege -> knowledge
p. 190: _Philos Pos._ -> _Philos. Pos._
p. 190: vol. ii. pp. 627, 628 -> vol. ii. pp. 627, 628.
p. 191: _Aubrey's Letters_. -> _Aubrey's Letters_,
p. 191: vol ii. p. 624. -> vol. ii. p. 624.
p. 192: et de Boörhaave -> Boerhaave
p. 195: part. ii. p 42 -> part. ii. p. 42
p. 199: _Hist. de la Médecine_, vol -> vol.
p. 200: _Royal Society_. -> _Royal Society_,
p. 201: corner-stone of the Linnean -> Linnæan
p. 201: Gesch der Botanik -> Gesch. der Botanik
p. 207: _Ibid._ xxiii. p, 496. -> p. 496.
p. 207: vol. xxxvi p. 42 -> vol. xxxvi p. 42.
p. 208: state of degradation.' -> degradation.
p. 209: both in 1639. _Biog. Univ_ -> _Biog. Univ._
p. 211: was only saved by -> 'was only saved by
p. 211: Lock, who was -> Locke, who was
p. 212: Lady Mary Wortley Montague -> Montagu
p. 213: Hist. des Francais -> Français
p. 213: _Duclos_, _Mémoires_, vol -> vol.
p. 214: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
p. 215: sur la poésie épique. -> épique.'
p. 216: ses amitiés, il n'etait -> n'était
p. 217: vol. i. 341 -> vol. i. p. 341
p. 218: _Le Blanc_, _Lettres_, vol. 1. -> vol. i.
p. 218: _Corresp._ vol. 1. p. 352; -> vol. i. p. 352,
p. 219: Mém de Morellet -> Mém. de Morellet
p. 220: _Biog Univ._ iii. 253 -> _Biog. Univ._ iii. 253
p. 221: _Biog. Univ._ l. 42. -> _Biog. Univ._ i. 42.
p. 221: _Murray's Life of Bruce_, 121, -> 121;
p. 223: _Biog. Univ._ xlviii. 217. 218. -> 217, 218.
p. 227: vol. ii. p. 291.' -> 291.
p. 228: even from the king himself. -> himself.'
p. 234: croire que les ministrès -> ministres
p. 238: by Reboulet, in 1752: -> in 1752;
p. 238: Anomalies, de l'Organisation -> Anomalies de l'Organisation
p. 241: _Biog. Univ._ xi. 314 -> xi. p. 314
p. 242: Vie de Rosseau -> Rousseu
p. 242: Quel est aujourd'hui -> 'Quel est aujourd'hui
p. 242: _Grimm_. _Corresp._ -> _Grimm_, _Corresp._
p. 243: de cachet pour enleve -> enlever
p. 245: vol. i. p. 141, vol -> vol.
p. 246: Les reproches d'avoir -> 'Les
p. 248: first heard in France -> France.
p. 253: vol. iii. pp. 178, 179: -> 179;
p. 253: Dieu d'être protestants. -> protestants.'
p. 259: the most obnoxious laws -> laws.
p. 262: to ecclesiastical dogmas, -> dogmas.
p. 265: et regna dix ans -> et régna dix ans,'
p. 265: conseillers, pour sçauoir -> sçavoir
p. 266: vol. viii. p. 101-117 -> vol. viii. pp. 101-117
p. 270: _Méthode pour étudier l'Histoire_ -> _l'Histoire_,
p. 271: undergone from the griping -> gripping
p. 271: la cour.' _Le Long_ -> _Le Long_,
p. 273: _François, in Mémoires_ -> _François_, in _Mémoires_
p. 275: _Etablissement de Louis_ -> _Etablissement de Louis XIV_
p. 276: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
p. 277: Madame de Sevigné -> Sévigné
p. 277: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
p. 283: Lettres de Sevigné -> Sévigné
p. 283: _Lettres de Sévigné_, vol -> vol.
p. 283: stated by Sismondi -> _Sismondi_
p. 293: Charles XII, l'homme -> 'Charles
p. 300: descriptions de siéges -> sièges
p. 301: combats et des siéges -> sièges
p. 303: _Milman's History of Christianity_, 1840, vol -> vol.
p. 303: _in [OE]uvres de Voltaire_ -> in _[OE]uvres de Voltaire_
p. 303: History of the Church. -> Church
p. 311: article on Chronology, vol -> vol.
p. 318: livre xiv. chap. ii, -> chap. ii.,
p. 320: _[OE]uvres de Turgot_, vol -> vol.
p. 326: intuitives Erkenntniss klärer -> klarer
p. 326: an sichgleich -> an sich gleich
p. 330: Mém. sur Lebrun -> Le Brun
p. 330: _Brougham's Men of Letters_, vol, -> vol.
p. 334: letter written in 1751 -> 1751.
p. 335: Lavallé -> Lavallée
p. 339: Staüdlin -> Stäudlin
p. 352: Hist. du Jacobin -> Jacobin.
p. 352: vol. ii. pp. 250 350 -> 250, 350
p. 353: their awowed -> avowed
p. 360: L'imagination est la -> 'L'imagination
p. 391: _Bichat sur la Vie_, pp. 23-25 -> 23-25.
p. 391: (vol. ii p. 8) -> (vol. ii. p. 8)
p. 395: environ huit mille espèces; -> espèces;'
p. 398: Hence the remóval -> removal
p. 404: à son histoire.' _Georget_ -> _Georget_,
p. 407: vol. x. p. 341, vol -> vol.
p. 412: Mém. sur Marie Antoinette -> Mém. sur Marie-Antoinette
p. 416: _Mahon's Hist. of England_, vol -> vol.
p. 432: frightful desolation there. -> there.'
p. 440: 509, 561. _Lafuente_ -> _Lafuente_,
p. 445: Isabella may be -> 'Isabella may be
p. 446: vol. i. p. 23, London, 1857 -> 1857.
p. 450: vol. xxxiv, p. 273. -> vol. xxxiv. p. 273.
p. 453: One of the most -> [60] One of the most
p. 454: et action necessaire. -> necessaire,
p. 454: devinast le reste. -> reste,
p. 459: je vous l'ai déja -> déjà
p. 459: vous conduise, je na'i -> n'ai?
p. 471: tenement or pelting farm. -> farm.'
p. 472: _Historia de Felipe Tercero_ -> _Historia de Felipe Tercero_,
p. 473: desmedido.' _Lafuente_ -> _Lafuente_,
p. 480: _Ibid._ vol. ii, -> vol. ii.
p. 481: de su santo servido. -> servido,
p. 483: decayéron en España. -> España.'
p. 489: M. Janer or to M. Lafuente.' -> Lafuente.
p. 494: evidence, says, "Il -> says, 'Il
p. 496: people. It is ou -> our
p. 496: expectations were ulfilled -> fulfilled
p. 502: _Theorica de Comercio_. -> _Theorica de Comercio_,
p. 510: et point de frein. -> frein.'
p. 510: 'In 1681, the French -> In
p. 510: de la reine, de même. -> même.'
p. 512: _Historia de España_ -> _Historia de España_,
p. 520: a clerk under Orri -> Orry
p. 520: l'incapacité des sujets -> 'l'incapacité
p. 527: Ellis' Original Letters -> Ellis's Original Letters
p. 529: parce que les systémes -> systèmes
p. 533: London, 1831, vol -> vol.
p. 533: son médecin particulier, -> particulier.'
p. 539: Dublin, 1781, pp. 227-229 -> 227-229.
p. 546: ecclesiastical power[26] -> power[264]
p. 547: vol. v. p. 295. Paris -> 295, Paris
p. 553: Civilizacion, Española -> Civilizacion Española
p. 553: atropellada en su inmunidad. -> inmunidad.'
p. 556: Historia de -> del
p. 560: Reinado de Carlos III -> III.
p. 568: the regularity of them -> their
p. 568: Looking at their -> them
p. 574: que les gouvernemens. -> gouvernemens.'
p. 575: Prescott's History of Ferdidinand -> Ferdinand
p. 587: order of people, a peace -> piece
p. 590: De même que le froc -> 'De même que le froc
p. 591: vol. ii. p. 281 -> 281.
p. 595: but leaving Spain unscathed -> unscathed.