18.30.] 



MINA. 



WE give a very curious paper on the exploits of the Spanish patriots 

 in their late attempt. Their adventures would make a good figure in a 

 romance ; and Mina's two stags deserve to flourish on the stage, as well 

 as any dog of Montargis. The refugees had no force. What were 

 two thousand men, without cavalry or artillery, to invade a kingdom ? 

 or how could they wonder if the peasantry dreaded to join them, 

 when they went so obviously to destruction ? The patriots must wait ; 

 they have yet lost nothing; their time will assuredly come. Human 

 nature will at length rise against the stupid severity of the government, 

 and the gross tyranny of the priests. The patriots then will be called for ; 

 and then they will be necessary, popular, and irresistible. 



THE CAMPAIGN OF THE SPANISH CONSTITUTIONALISTS. 



THE question which naturally occurs to the generality of Englishmen 

 who are not deeply conversant with the state of Spanish affairs, is 

 " Why do not the Spanish people, like the French, rise spontaneously 

 to arms against their oppressors ?" To enter into a full and satisfactory 

 solution of this query, would carry us beyond the limits which we can 

 for the present assign to the subject ; and we shall accordingly remit to 

 a future number the task of demonstrating the several causes which 

 militate against an electric and simultaneous rising up of the Spanish 

 nation. But whatever may be the obstacles to be surmounted, the 

 dangers to be incurred, or the trial to be undergone, before a regenera- 

 tion can be effected in SpaL:, neither those obstacles, dangers, or trials 

 can present a pretext, much less an efficient reason, for apathy and inac- 

 tivity on the part of those who feel any interest in the affairs of their 

 country. A false argument is continually adduced by the advocates of 

 the present ruinous and humiliating system of government in the Penin- 

 sula, when they wish to paralyze the efforts of the noble-minded, or 

 destroy the sympathy which those efforts may generate in kindred spirits 

 in foreign countries. They say, " The Spanish people are content with 

 the existing order of things; why, then, disturb the tranquillity of the 

 land by attempts, the probable results of which will only be to entail a 

 long train of calamities on the inhabitants ? Why endeavour, by violent 

 means, to introduce into the nation institutions which the mass of the 

 public can neither understand nor appreciate ?" These questions may, 

 at the first blush, startle and perhaps convince those who are not disposed 

 to give the subject sufficient reflection. The validity of this argument 

 once established, it will go to prove that Spain is doomed to continue for 

 ever in the same deplorable state ; for there is no earthly reason why the 

 question and concomitant answer should not be supplied a century hence 

 with the same justice and propriety as at present. Are evils to be cured 

 by letting them have full scope to prey upon the patient ? or is the 

 enlightenment of nations to be obtained by keeping individuals in a close 

 and jealous oppression ? Wait till the mass of the people becomes less 

 gross in their ignorance less fanatic in their superstition. But how is 

 this to be obtained ? Is it by making no efforts whatever to open the 

 eyes of the said people?' or is the miracle to be accomplished by divine 

 interposition ? or, perhaps, the enlightment of the mass of the Spanish 

 nation is to be achieved by carefully removing from their reach all the 



