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ARE the feelings of the Spanish nation, conservatory or revolutionary ? 

 This is a question which, since the days of the Barricades, a favorite 

 topic, has by the progress of late events become of considerably in- 

 creased interest. The question is one, not only, well worthy of the con- 

 sideration of all speculators on the future destinies of European society, 

 but its thorough examination is indispensable, to enable them to arrive at 

 a just conclusion on the general bearings of a subject, which necessitates 

 such deep and multerfarious injuiry, of which it forms one of the most 

 prominent and important features, rfe teonft srfr 't joiarn 



There is assuredly not in Europe, a travelled country so little explored 

 as Spain, a people so little understood as its inhabitants, or a sovereign 

 so little known, and at the same time so much misrepresented as 

 Ferdinand the 7th. Of the first, our ideas are imaginative ; when our 

 thoughts wander thither, they necessarily become tinged with romance. 

 We dream of orange groves, of vineyards, of nightingales, of cloudless 

 days, and of Hesperian moonlights. We look upon the nation, as a vin- 

 dictive and an oppressed people, ever watchful for an occasion to throw 

 off their yoke and allegiance, under which they are supposed to groan. 

 The King we preconceive to be a cruel and remorseless tyrant, fond of 

 blood and of human misery. In all this, we completely deceive 

 ourselves. oil j ill* ^ncro^S lo crosqmo: 



Our object however at present, is merely to take a cursory view of the 

 political position of the Peninsula, and by an examination of the strength 

 and spirit of the parties, whose mutual animosity have so long under- 

 mined the prosperity of the country, to arrive at a nearer approach to the 

 truth, than exists in the general and ordinary impressions of those, who 

 have not formed their opinions from personal observation, but to attempt 

 to give a portrait of a country, in all its details, in the space of a few 

 pages, would be to undertake an impossible task ; we therefore propose 

 to ourselves, merely to sketch a slight outline of the predominant 

 features of the subject before us, from which however, the truth of the 

 likeness may stand out as vividly, as from the laboured finishing of a 

 more complete picture. ,n 9ff;Tio tosq 9jrfJ no 



The despotism of the Crown of Spain, takes its date from the reign of 

 Charles V. and was cemented by that of Philip the II. The Americas at 

 that period, poured into the lap of the monarchy, that enormous wealth, 

 which enabled the crown to buy up the liberties of the nation. The 

 court having such Colonial resources at hand, then ceased to assemble 

 the cortes, and that custom, which since the fall of Granada, had been 

 gradually growing into desuetude, would have become in the future, 

 completely lost sight of, had it not been in usage to convoke them once 

 in every reign, for the purpose of swearing allegiance to the reigning 

 King's eldest son, the Prince of the Asturias. The last ceremony*>f this 

 description occurred in the year 1788, when the cortes were convened 

 by Charles the IV. to do homage to Ferdinand, the present monarch. 

 The assemblies, we need hardly state, had nothing in common with the 

 original object of their convention, when as the chronicle of Alonzo the 

 VII. tells us in 1135, " tractaverunt ea guse pertinent ad salutem regni 



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