CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL. 239 



wish/' continued my friend, with an expression of sadness, " that the 

 other points of the political horizon of my unfortunate country looked 

 equally bright." 



" You allude, I suppose, to the late attack on the convents, insti- 

 gated, as it is said, by the machinations of the communeros, and which 

 led to the arrests of Romero Alpuente, Van Hallen, Palafox, and 

 others ?" 



" I do ; and with deep forebodings do I /observe the rocks, on 

 which was wrecked before our constitutional bark, still rearing their 

 rugged heads amid the strife of our political elements. You are 

 doubtless aware of the conflicting views of the three great parties 

 which divided the Spanish Constitutionalists. The first were the 

 Freemasons, headed by the celebrated Arguelles their object was to 

 establish a kind of statocracy. The second were the anilleros, who 

 wished to gradually modify the constitution by the introduction of a 

 second chamber, numbering in its ranks our present premier Mar- 

 tinez de la Roza, Florida Blanca, the Duke de San Fernando, and 

 many others of distinguished rank and talents. The third and last 

 were the communeros, who based their operations upon the third 

 article of the Constitution, viz. the sovereignty of the people, and 

 whose object it was to organize a popular confederation throughout 

 the Peninsula. The life and soul of this party was and is Romero Al- 

 puente : one whose motto has always been (( Malo pereculosam liber- 

 talem quam quietam servitutem." 



" Before you proceed any further," said I, again interrupting him, 

 " give me first a rapid sketch of this exaltado Romero." 



(f Romero Alpuente, now verging on his eightieth year, was for 

 upwards of twenty years president of the Royal Court of Grenada, 

 He is a man cast in the old mould of Spanish firmness, and possesses 

 talents of the highest order ; but which, unfortunately for the welfare 

 of his country, have been all along devoted to the attainment of a 

 political chimera. During the last days of the Constitutional legime 

 in 1823, he became president of the celebrated Landabarru Club, 

 modelled on the Jacobin clubs of France. How closely they wished 

 to follow in the steps of their French prototypes, you will gather by 

 the following extract of one of Romero's speeches, and which at the 

 same time will paint to the life the character of the man. 



" f During the war of independence,' said he, addressing the as- 

 sembly of Terrorists, ' we had in our favour the hosts of friars who 

 feared they should lose their revenues ; but these are now our greatest 

 enemies. We had also in our favour the aristocrats, who equally 

 feared for their privileges and their vast estates ; they are likewise 

 our enemies. Up to this time men of science and literature rivalled 

 each other in supporting the cause of independence ; but, now the 

 truth must be openly confessed, for some reason or other, one and 

 all of them are our enemies. What then is our remedy ? Do you 

 ask ? We must annihilate them. We must do with them as was done in 

 France, where in one night 1,400 were executed. Then we shall be 

 ourselves again patriots all/ 



" Such is Romero Alpuente, and such are the political doctrines of 

 .his partv." 



