592 
and oppression, there is more virtue,. 
information, and patriotism in Italy, in 
1825, than there wasin 1800.'° 
SPAIN. = 
‘The state of Spain’ is much’ ‘nore 
frightful.’ This proudest ofnations was 
elated by the applause of Europe for- 
its resistance to Napoleon. Beyond the 
Pyrenees, ‘fanaticism united with the 
love of freedom; and the partizans, 
alike, of the progressive and the retro- 
gressive systems, in the rest of Europe, 
celebrated the success, which the Spa- 
niards owed more to their climate and 
their poverty, than to their talents and 
Bravery... But a discord’ of passions 
raged inthe! Peninsula. ‘The enthu- 
siasm'of all’ was excited; but they acted 
uniler two \opposite impulses. Spain, 
when the old: system was restored’ by 
Ferdinand, could neither remain in her 
an¢ient-barbarism, ignominy and abuses, 
nor emerge from them, in the distraction 
of so, many prejudices. She, neverthe- 
less, attempted a revolution, which was 
neither marked by aly crime, ‘nor sig- 
nalized by any extraordinary develop- 
ment of talent. The fanatical classes, 
who had heretofore'\(in the war against 
Napoleon) advanced the projects of re- 
yolutionists, would advance ‘no ‘more. 
The mass of the people, who had been, for 
ages, in habits of ferocious ignorance and 
dependance, repelled with stupid horror 
the advancement of morality, knowledge 
and liberty ; and the revolutionists did 
notereserve to themselves the power 
ofimaking’ the’ people. sensible of the 
advantages of their liberty. | Confound- 
ing the equilibrium by which their insti- 
tutions "should ‘be ‘sustained, with the 
victory on which they had founded them, 
they annihilated government, instead of 
daring to make themselves ‘masters’ of 
it..They enslaved the prince, without 
reserying to themselves the power of 
satisfying the people; and, by,an over- 
acted moderation, failed either to intimi- 
date the factious,,,or to, impress. their 
own partizans ‘with an idea “that they 
themselves had confidence in their own 
stability. | No*sooner, ‘therefore, were 
they attacked: than conquered, because 
they had'no ration to back them ; and’ 
the populace, which they had not known 
either how, to gain, or to overawe, reign- 
ed. over their nominal rulers. But, do 
not-let us mistake ;—royalty is restored, 
bnti it isthe, populace who. reign—if 
reignit aay. be called; Anarchy is, at 
its height, and Spain is mow in. that 
very stage’ of revolutionary ‘disorder 
Retrospect of the last Twenty-five Years. 
and violence, which in France was 
viewed with so much horror ;—the pe-' 
riod of the utmost degeneracy and fero-~ 
city,—the tyranny of the basest of the 
multitude ;—though she: arrived there 
by a path directly opposite to that 
which was trodden by the revolutionists . 
of France. Mob-anarchy, the worst of 
tyrannies, is the result of a contre revolu- 
tion effected by kings and* ‘ministers, 
under the pretext, and, doubtless, with 
the intention; of” serving the cause of 
royalism. «The powers that rule are not 
to be sought in palaces, but.on'thehigh- 
ways; and the. triumph; of-the;,retro- 
graders.in Spain, has, been so, complete, 
that ,they tremble, themselyes at, the 
victory, they have gained... Even reli- 
gion itself is but arunner to the police; 
and the confessors are called upon to 
divulge, to the authorities, the secrets of 
their penitents.* 
It 
* In this, statement,, we, find;all, liying 
authorities, we, haye, had any, opportunity of 
consulting, unanimously to agree — Spa- 
miards, or those who have viewed, with 
most attention, the affairs of Spain.’ We 
marvel that Lord Liverpool did not (upon 
arecent occasion) find some consolation in 
this cireumstance—somealleyiation from the 
dread he entertained (expressed, we mean) 
of political conspirators having somebody to 
tell their treasons to, who would be’ bound 
by oaths not to tell them again—as if a se- 
cret would be more securely locked up when 
it had been confessed to a priest, than if it 
had been confessed to nobody!!! The fact 
is, that one of the great moral and political 
evils of the system of Catholic confession 
is, not that the pledge of confidence will, 
but that, occasionally, it will not, be kept 
inviolable; and that, under wicked, op- 
pressive and profligate governments, wicked, 
hypocritical and profligate priests (and such 
there are, both Catholic and Protestant) 
will be:made auxiliaries. to the police of 
espionage. .- While human nature is human 
nature, it inevitably. must be so; and we 
never yet found reason to believe that either 
a cowl, or a cassock changed it into any 
thing better. ‘They are’ sworn, it is true, 
not to divulge; but ‘oaths | (prospective 
oaths especially), generally, speaking, are 
binding only upon those who want no 
oaths to bmd them; and instances enough 
might be mentioned, not solitary or indivi- 
dual,” but accumulative instances, to prove 
that’ the maxim is’ not’ less: applicable. to 
clergy than to laity—to.monks and parsons, 
than to-custom-house. officers. and _excise- 
men. And how can we expect that a Spa- 
nish Popish priestshould feel his conscience 
more’ aillicted: by,dispensing with his oath 
to keep, a.confessional secret, than an Trish 
Protestant priest in dispensing with his to 
qe ibn maintam 
