perous career which has just been noticed, the Spanish throne was invariably filled by very able and intelligent princes. Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V. and Philip II., formed a line of sovereigns not to be matched in any other country for a period of equal length. By them, the great things were effected, and by their care, Spain apparently flourished. But, what followed when they were withdrawn from the scene, showed how artificial all this was, and how rotten, even to the core, is that system of government which must be fostered before it can thrive, and which, being based on the loyalty and reverence of the people, depends for success not on the ability of the nation, but on the skill of those to whom the interests of the nation are intrusted. Philip II., the last of the great kings of Spain, died in 1598, and after his death the decline was portentously rapid.79 From 1598 to 1700, the throne was occupied by Philip III., Philip IV., and Charles II. The contrast between them and their predecessors was most striking.80 Philip III. and Philip IV. were idle, igno which I have marked with italics, the first is a clumsy, though common, attempt to explain complicated phenomena by a metaphor which saves the trouble of generalizing their laws. The other passage, though perfectly true as regards Spain, does not admit of that universal application which M. Sempere supposes; inasmuch as in England, and in the United States of America, national prosperity has steadily advanced, even when the rulers have been very incapable men. 79"With Philip II. ends the greatness of the kingdom, which from that period declined with fearful rapidity." Dunham's History of Spain, vol. v. p. 87. And Ortiz (Compendio, vol. vii., Prologo, p. 6) classes together "la muerte de Felipe II. y principios de nuestra decadencia." The same judicious historian elsewhere observes (vol. vi. p. 211), that if Philip III. had been equal to his father, Spain would have continued to flourish. Several of the more recent Spanish writers, looking at the heavy expenses caused by the policy of Philip II., and at the debts which he incurred, have supposed that the decline of the country began in the latter years of his reign. But the truth is, that no great nation ever was, or ever will be, ruined by the prodigality of its government. Such extravagance causes general discomfort, and therefore ought not to be tolerated; but, if this were the place for so long an argument, I could easily show that its other and more permanent inconveniences are nothing like what they are commonly supposed to be. so "Abstraido Felipe III. en devociones, amante Felipe IV. de regocijos, mortificado Carlos II. por padecimientos, cuidáronse poco ó nada de la gobernacion del Estado, y confiáronla á validos altaneros, codiciosos, inca rant, infirm of purpose, and passed their lives in the lowest and most sordid pleasures. Charles II., the last of that Austrian dynasty which had formerly been so distinguished, possessed nearly every defect which can make a man ridiculous and contemptible. His mind and his person were such as, in any nation less loyal than Spain, would have exposed him to universal derision. Although his death took place while he was still in the prime of life, he looked like an old and worn-out debauchec. At the age of thirty-five, he was completely bald; he had lost his eyebrows; he was paralyzed; he was epileptic; and he was notoriously impotent. His general appearance was absolutely revolting, and was that of a drivelling idiot. To an enormous mouth, he added a nether jaw protruding so hideously that his teeth could never meet, and he was unable to masticate his food.82 His ignorance would be incredible, if it were not sub paces, y de muy funesta memoria." Rio, Historia del Reinado de Carlos III., Madrid, 1856, vol. i. p. 33. 81 Saus espérance de posterité." Millot, Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 419. Incapaz de tener hijos." Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vi. p. 560. See also Mémoires de Louville, vol. i. p. 82; and the allusions in Lettres de Madame de Villars, edit. Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 53, 120, 164. She was ambassadress in Spain in the reign of Charles II. M. Lafuente, who, if I rightly remember, never quotes these interesting letters, and who, indeed, with very few exceptions, has used none but Spanish authorities, ventures nevertheless to observe that "La circunstancia de no haber tenido sucesion, falta que en general se achabaca mas al rey que á la reina," &c. Historia de España, vol. xvii. pp. 198, 199, Madrid, 1856. According to the biographer of the Spanish Queens, some persons imputed this to sorcery, "y aun se dijo si intervenia maleficio." Florez, Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas, vol. ii. p. 973, Madrid, 1761, 4to. 82 In 1696, Stanhope, the English minister at Madrid, writes: "He has a ravenous stomach, and swallows all he eats whole, for his nether jaw stands so much out, that his two rows of teeth cannot meet; to compensate which, he has a prodigious wide throat, so that a gizzard or liver of a hen passes down whole, and, his weak stomach not being able to digest it, he voids it in the same manner." Mahon's Spain under Charles II., London, 1840, p. 79; a very valuable collection of original documents, utterly unknown to any Spanish historian I have met with. Some curious notices of the appearance of Charles II. in his childhood may be seen, published for the first time, in Mignet's Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, Paris, 1835-1842, 4to, vol. i. pp. 294, 295, 310, 396, 404, 410, vol. ii. p. 130, vol. iii. pp. 418, 419, 423. See also vol. iv. p. 636, for an instance of his taciturnity, which was almost the only mark of sense he ever gave, "Le roi l'écouta, et ne lui répondit rien." stantiated by unimpeachable evidence. He did not know the names of the large towns, or even of the provinces, in his dominions; and during the war with France he was heard to pity England for losing cities which in fact formed part of his own territory.83 Finally, he was immersed in the most grovelling superstition; he believed himself to be constantly tempted by the devil; he allowed himself to be exorcised as one possessed by evil spirits; and he would not retire to rest, except with his confessor and two friars, who had to lie by his side during the night.8+ Now it was that men might clearly see on how sandy a foundation the grandeur of Spain was built. When there were able sovereigns, the country prospered; when there were weak ones, it declined. Nearly every thing that had been done by the great princes of the sixteenth century, was undone by the little princes of the seventeenth. So rapid was the fall of Spain, that in only three reigns after the death of Philip II., the most powerful monarchy existing in the world was depressed to the lowest point of debasement, was insulted with impunity by foreign nations, was reduced more than once to bankruptcy, was stripped of her fairest possessions, was held up to public opprobrium, was made a theme on which school-boys and moralists loved to declaim respecting the uncertainty of human affairs, and, at length, was exposed 83"Le Roy demeuroit dans une profonde ignorance et de ses affaires, et même des Etats de sa couronne ; à peine connoissoit-il quelles étoient les places qui lui appartenoient hors du continent d'Espagne.". "La perte de Barcelone lui fut plus sensible qu'aucune autre, parce que cette ville, capitale de la Catalogne, et située dans le continent de l'Espagne, lui étoit plus connue que les villes de Flandre, dont il ignoroit l'importance au point de croire que Mons appartenoit au roi d'Angleterre, et de le plaindre lorsque le Roi fit la conquête de cette province." Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy, vol. i. pp. 19, 23, edit. Petitot, Paris, 1828. 67 84 Fancying every thing that is said or done to be a temptation of the devil, and never thinking himself safe but with his confessor, and two friars by his side, whom he makes lie in his chamber every night." Mahon's Spain under Charles II., p. 102. On account, no doubt, of this affection for monks, he is declared by a Spanish historian to have possessed a corazon pio y religioso." Bacallar, Comentarios de la Guerra de España, vol. i. p. 20. The best notice of the exorcism will be found in Lafuente's Historia de España, vol. xvii. pp. 294-309, where there is an entire chapter, headed "Los Hechizos del Rey." to the bitter humiliation of seeing her territories mapped out and divided by a treaty in which she took no share, but the provisions of which she was unable to resent.85 Then, truly, did she drink to the dregs the cup of her own shame. Her glory had departed from her, she was smitten down and humbled. Well might a Spaniard of that time who compared the present with the past, mourn over his country, the chosen abode of chivalry and romance, of valour and of loyalty. The mistress of the world, the queen of the ocean, the terror of nations, was gone; her power was gone, no more to return. To her might be applied that bitter lamentation, which, on a much slighter occasion, the greatest of the sons of men has put into the mouth of a dying statesman. Good reason, indeed, had the sorrowing patriot to weep, as one who refused to be comforted, for the fate of his earth, his realm, his land of dear souls, his dear, dear land, long dear for her reputation through the world, but now leased out like to a tenement or pelting farm.86 It would be a weary and unprofitable task to relate 85 "La foiblesse de l'Espagne ne permettoit pas à son roi de se ressentir du traitement dont il croyoit à propos de se plaindre." Mémoires de Torcy, vol. i. p. 81. Or, as an eminent native writer bitterly says, "Las naciones estrangeras disponiendo de la monarquia española como de bienes sin dueño." Tapia, Civilizacion Española, vol. iii. p. 167. se" This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, the losses and disasters of Spain during the seventeenth century. The immediate cause of them was undoubtedly bad government and unskilful rulers; but the real and overriding cause, which determined the whole march and tone of affairs, was the existence of that loyal and reverential spirit which made the people submit to what any other country would have spurned, and, by accustoming them to place extreme confidence in individual men, reduced the nation to that precarious position in which a succession of incompetent princes was sure to overthrow the edifice which competent ones had built up. 87 The increasing influence of the Spanish Church was the first and most conspicuous consequence of the declining energy of the Spanish government. For, loyalty and superstition being the main ingredients of the national character, and both of them being the result of habits of reverence, it was to be expected that, unless the reverence could be weakened, what was taken from one ingredient would be given to the other. As, therefore, the Spanish government, during the seventeenth century, did, owing to its extreme imbecility, undoubtedly lose some part of the hold it possessed over the affections of the people, it naturally happened that the Church stepped in, and, occupying the vacant place, received what the crown had forfeited. Besides this, the weakness of the executive government encouraged the pretensions of the priesthood, and emboldened the clergy to acts of usurpation, which the Spanish sovereigns of the sixteenth century, superstitious though they were, would not have allowed for a single moment.88 Hence the very 87 The Spanish theory of government is well stated in the following passage in Davila's Life of Philip III. The remarks apply to Philip II. Que solo havia gobernado sin Validos ni Privados, tomando para sí solo, como primera causa de su gobierno, el mandar, prohibir, premiar, castigar, hacer mercedes, conocer sugetos, elegir Ministros, dar oficios, y tener como espiritu, que andaba sobre las aguas, ciencia y providencia de todo, para que nada se hiciese sin su saber y querer; no sirviendo los Ministros mas que de poner por obra (obedeciendo) lo que su Señor mandaba, velando sobre cada uno, como pastor de sus ovejas, para ver la verdad con que executan sus Mandamientos y Acuerdos." Davila, Historia de Felipe Tercero, lib. i. pp. 22, 23. 8 Even Philip II. always retained a certain ascendency over the ecclesi |