240 CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL. 



" Among whom/' I rejoined, " I am rather surprised to find the 

 celebrated Palafox, the hero of Sarago9a. 



" The prestige of his name, rather that his personal co-operation, 

 is, I believe," answered my companion, t( all that the communeros 

 wanted ; for he is as contemptible a politician as he was formerly for- 

 midable as a warrior. But to return to my former review of the 

 great parties in the constitution. The communeros, you perceive, in 

 spite of the sword, the scaffold, exile, and the dungeon, like the 

 infatuated Bourbons, n'ont wen appris ni rien oublie. They still shew 

 a front still cling with blind fondness and obstinate pertinacity to 

 that constitution, which, however beautiful in theory, was, in its 

 practical application, found so ill adapted to the prejudices and the 

 spirit of the Spanish people, that, like a tender exotic transplanted 

 from its native clime, it soon sickened and died. 



" This party, however weak it may be, will, nevertheless, singu- 

 larly embarrass the Queen's government ; for to attain its ends it will 

 not scruple, like the republicans of France, to coalesce for a time with 

 the Carlists. To steer the vessel of state through the shoals that 

 surround her course, will require the arm of a political Hercules. Of 

 the critical position in which the Ministry find themselves placed, you 

 may form some idea by the late measure submitted to the Cortes, by 

 the Finance Minister, Torreno, and which has spread ruin and con- 

 sternation through almost every Bourse in Europe." 



" Consternation indeed !" I replied. " This measure of Torreno 

 has been in the financial, what the Russian campaign was in the 

 military world, ' une vraie debacle ;' ruin and suicide have been the 

 order of the day ; and, egad ! if report lies not, that royal stock- 

 jobber Louis Philippe, and your Minister Torreno, have between them 

 carried off an immense booty." 



" Si non e vero e ben trovato" rejoined the Spaniard, with a smile, 

 " Mais revenons a nos moutons. This financial measure of Torreno' s, 

 which has been assailed with such universal obloquy and vitupe- 

 ration by men who vainly dreamt that the destinies of a great 

 nation were to be sacrificed to the interests of a few stockjobbers and 

 gambling speculators, has proved its author to be at once a great 

 statesman and a clever financier. I see you smile," said the Spa- 

 niard, " but fortunate will it be for the foreign creditor, if the mea- 

 sure in its present form passes the Cortes. My own opinion is, and 

 it is based upon a knowledge of the men who form the committee of 

 finance, that it will be thought to go too far, and, instead of recog- 

 nizing one-half the debt as an active stock, they will stop short at a 

 quarter." * 



" So that," I replied, " the Cortes, from whose wisdom the rege- 

 neration of Spain was so anxiously looked for, will be the grave of 

 her honour and good faith." 



" Heaven forfend the thought ! But you are, I perceive, de- 

 ceived by the fallacious arguments of the disappointed bondholders, 

 who, of course, view this question rather as stockjobbers than as 

 political philosophers, who maintain the impossibility of our de- 

 veloping our resourses otherwise than by the aid of foreign loans, 

 which, by our violation of national faith, will be henceforward as. 



