666 SPAIN AND HER FACTIONS. 



system of espionnage, have effectually barred up the ordinary avenues 

 to information of the real sentiments of those classes ; the liberality of 

 their political opinions may be easily gathered, by observing those they 

 entertain on commercial and such other subjects of policy, on the dis- 

 cussions of which there may be no restrictions. The commercial system 

 of Spain, being an almost universal code of monopoly, the merchantile 

 community not only labour under all its immediate disadvantages, but 

 are likewise borne 'down by the lamentable sterility of the national re- 

 sources, resulting from the same cause. This system, they are all aware, 

 is inseparably linked with the existence of the present order of things; 

 they know that its withering influence on their industry is part of the 

 policy of the crown, which thus gains two objects : the profits arising 

 from the government monopolies, and prices paid by contractors for 

 similar restrictive advantages in other branches of commerce ; and the 

 preservation of the vital principle on which hinges the duration of its 

 despotism, namely, the depression of the tiers etat. The merchantile 

 classes are also, by their habits of mind aud acquaintance with foreign 

 countries, divested of many of the prejudices, which clog the under- 

 standings of most of their fellow countrymen, and, by the same reason, 

 understand the tactics of the government in compressing their activity 

 and enterprize, and, it may be enferred, resent it. This feeling, as far 

 as it is political, as we have before observed, is not openly expressed ; 

 but we have had occasions of hearing it privately entertained, by persons 

 who, " d premier abord" professed to maintain opposite opinions on 

 those subjects, where they were not altogether mute. The merchantile 

 classes, therefore, with the exception of those few commercial houses 

 which, holding contracts, or possessing monopolies, are linked in with 

 the government and dependent on its stability, are by interest and un- 

 derstanding, anxious for a reform in the state. A small portion of the 

 grandeza are looked up to as imbued with liberality of sentiment ; their 

 numbers, and the extent of their liberalism, are, we are inclined to 

 think, but very limited ; nor are we enabled to point out any grandees 

 of the first class, with the exception, perhaps, of the Prince of Anglona 

 and the Marquess de las Amarillas, in whom we can hope to find a bias 

 towards a popular government, however restricted the representation or 

 the constituency, the legislative rights of the one, or the elective fran- 

 chise of the other.* The experience of even these noblemen, may pro- 

 bably have given a distaste for such things. 



There are, doubtless, thousands of persons in low circumstances, and 

 sub-officers in the army, who would be glad, as the history of the late 

 revolution has shewn, to see a political convulsion in the state, that 

 would tend to overset the exclusive system, which now debars all ad- 

 vance in the military service, to those whose blood may not happen to 

 be of the privileged colour ;t and would, as a necessary concomitant to 



cited by the jeers of some royalists at a taverna. Antonio Miyar, a bookseller, 

 was also hanged, for being found in company with Captain Marcuartu, who was in 

 correspondence with Mina, and who, when the alguazils entered his house to arrest 

 him, lept from his window into the street and escaped, leaving the unfortunate 

 Miyar to satiate their baulked vengeance. He was executed on suspicion. 



* Both these noblemen were exiled for their services to the nation during the 

 constitutional regime. The Marquess was arrested in July, 1812, on the accession 

 of the San Miguel administration, on account of the revolt of the royal guards. 



f The service is not quite so select as it was, when ten cadets were promoted to 

 commissions, to one subaltern from the ranks. To have a portion of sangre azul 



