o80 CONVERSATIONS WITH A SPANISH LIBERAL. 



and was born, if I recollect rightly, in the year 1775 ; his age is there- 

 fore not so advanced as you imagine ; he studied at Oviedo, and on 

 the completion of his education he was appointed to a situation in 

 Madrid in the department of the Interpretation de Linguas. The 

 minister of the day, Espinosa, perceiving his talents, employed him 

 on some important missions to London and Lisbon. On the breaking 

 out of the war of independence, he was at Cadiz, and from the year 

 1812 to 1814, he represented his province in Cortes. Here he 

 formed one of the committee charged with framing a new constitu- 

 tion of government for the state, and compiled the famous report 

 delivered by the committee to the Cortes. Such were the talents he 

 displayed, and such the power and impassioned tone of his eloquence, 

 that among the liberals he acquired the name of El divino, or the 

 Spanish Tully. On the return of Ferdinand, Arguelles was arrested ; 

 he conducted his defence, however, with such distinguished ability, 

 that although the judges were appointed five several times, they 

 could not agree in convicting him. Ferdinand at last decided the 

 matter in person, by writing at the bottom of the Autos, ten years im- 

 prisonment in the presidio of Ceuta. Here he remained until the re- 

 volution of 1820, when he was released from confinement, and 

 appointed minister of the interior." 



" So much for the history of his life," I rejoined ; " but what of 

 his talents as a statesman ?" 



" Hitherto, I must confess, he has been distinguished for an over- 

 weening love of innovation, and a haughty contempt for the institu- 

 tions even of those countries which might serve him as models for 

 imitation." 



" From what," I said, " you have just told me, I am not inclined 

 to except even the divine Arguelles* from the sweeping charge of po- 

 litical incapacity, which I have preferred against the public men of 

 Spain so sparingly, brought forward by the events of her revolution. 

 Arguelles appears to me to be ignorant that the state of political so- 

 ciety, to which governments may be expected to approach nearer and 

 nearer as the triumphs of education extend, is not the one which the 

 founders of the school to which he belongs intended to recommend 

 to particular communities as the most eligible they could adopt at 

 present, but as an ideal order of things to which they themselves have 

 a tendency to approach, and to which it ought to be the aim of the 

 legislator to facilitate their progress. When I reflect on the probabi- 

 lity of the destinies of Spain being placed in the hands of a wild 

 theorist like Arguelles, I am tempted to indulge in the most gloomy 

 forebodings." 



" Nor are your anticipations so unfounded, so wild and chimerical 

 even, as they will be designated by a certain portion of your country- 

 men, who, without knowing any thing either of Spain or her people, 

 dream that the progress of reform ought there, as every where else, to 

 advance au grand gallop. Should the ultra-liberal party come into 



* It is related of Arguelles that, on his way to the fortress of Ceuta, he re- 

 fused the pecuniary aid of some Englishmen," saying he would receive nothing 

 from the subjects of a government who had betrayed his country. 



