230 
tin language, he had made me ac- 
quainted. 
enlightened, and beneficent father, and 
I remained at home with a brother 
three years younger than myself, and 
an infirm mother. Jn obedience to the 
. last counsels of my father, 1 came to 
Salamanca, in order to study medicine. 
Chance threw immediately into my 
hands the Logic of Condillac, translated 
into Spanish. This, and a bad trans- 
lation of Telemachus, inspired me with 
a desire of learning French, a task 
which I speedily accomplished. 
At this period I became an inmate of 
the family with which D. Juan Melen- 
dez Valdez had recently connected 
himself by marriage. He was esteemed 
one of the learned men of the nation, 
and restored our poetry to the lustre it 
possessed in the sixteenth century. His 
counsels, his amiable character, aud his 
books impressed me with a taste for 
the belles lettres, and for the moral and 
political sciences. I resisted with diffi- 
culty the enchantments of the former, 
which were cultivated by several 
friends* of my own age, in order that I 
might give to the latter all the attention 
which I thought likely to procure for 
me an honourable and peaceful destiny 
in civil life. The professor or master 
of the university confirmed me in this 
design, and at the termination of my 
career of study at the university, I ob- 
tained a canon’s chair. This was 
snatched from me by the tyranny of 
him who is the favoured author of the 
disasters which have been endured, and 
will for some time longer be endured 
by a nation which he was never worthy 
to govern, 
The injustice with which government 
treated me appeared so intolerable to 
the Duchess of Alba (a name among us 
for beueficence personified,) that she 
confided to me the management of her 
estates and house in Seville. There I 
lived with my family in great comfort 
and happiness. My greatest enjoyments, 
however, were those which I tasted as 
dispenser of the bounties which she 
scattered with liberal hand among her 
vassals. By her premature death (felt 
asa general misfortune throughout the 
* D. Manuel José Quintana, D. José 
Luis Munarriz, D. Francisco Sanchez 
Barbero, and D. Nicasio Alvarez Cienfue- 
gos: the two first are now in office, and 
have distinguished themselves in the gene- 
ral Direction of Education ; the two last 
have been the unfortunate victims of their 
enlightened patriotism. | 
Memoirs of Nunez, the 
At this time I lost a tender,. 
April 1, 
kingdom,) the best pleasures of life I 
thought were terminated for me, and, 
indeed, there were none to which I 
could return with any relish, except 
reading, for which 1 always preserved 
my early inclination. 
The appearance of your works pub- 
lished in the French language at Paris 
coincides with this epoch; but as I had 
retired from Seville with the profits of 
the trade I had carried on there since 
the death of the Duchess, and was liv- 
ing amidst relations and friends in the 
mountains of Castille, I heard nothing 
of them until the passage of the French 
army through Salamanca to Portugal, 
in 1807, when your Principles of Civil 
and Penal Legislation were brought 
among other books for sale. To describe 
to you their effect upon me is impos- 
sible. Suffice it to say, that in spite of 
the inconsistencies which I found in 
them, and which I have always attri- 
buted to your editor, I saw so much 
light that J hailed as a favourable prog- 
nostic for the prosperity of my country 
the perfidy of the monster who, by irri- 
tating our national honour, set in mo- 
tion our enthusiasm. 
The delight I had formerly tasted in 
dispensing benefits gave place to the 
anticipation of that which I should de- 
rive from seeing diffused through my 
country those principles which teach 
the science of governing, and of intro- 
ducing useful reforms without injury 
to actnal rights. In your works I saw 
the causes of the failure and of the evils 
of the French revolution, which had 
excited our youthful attention. I began 
immediately to inform myself of the 
means by which my country might be 
freed from the horrors which afflicted 
it. I found alleasy by the operation of 
your principles, but unfortunately they 
were unknown in Spain. Even now ait 
acquaintance with them is by no means 
general. Yet, notwithstanding our 
inveterate prejudices on the one side, 
and notions ala Frangaise on the other, 
aknowledge of them is extending it- 
self; and among the Deputies elected 
for the next Cortes I am convinced 
there are many initiated in your pre- 
cious mysteries. 1 hope you will not 
find it inconvenient (o transmit to yeur 
disciple, Nunez, the Code which I am 
assured by our amiable friend Bowring 
you have prepared expressly for Spain. 
Do not doubt that the talents you have 
diffused will be of great service to us; 
that the number of your appreciators. 
will be great among the new deputies 4 
an 
