TOPICS OF THE DAY.
SPAI N.
WHILE Spain has undergone two changes of government—one of them a military coup d'etat—in the course of three months, Europe proceeds without being influenced by the shock, almost without noticing it. Spain is become of no European importance. Yet it is a fine country; it is inhabited by beautiful races—in some parts ; it has occupied a large place in history, and has been the patron of great movements ; and we cannot even yet forget the aspiratiorus which once rendered the nation illustrious.
The seeming inconsistency is partly occasioned by an historical colloquialism which makes us use the name of a state whether we mean its people, its king, its leading statesmen, its government at large, or its most conspicuous representative in literature art, or science. " Spain " derived an augmented importance from the usage which generally steals something from a country to augment the im- portance of its individuals. In the Peninsula, however, it has been the individual that has accomplished the historical exploits ; the na- tion has contributed comparatively little. Its ancient monuments are those of the Goths, or of the Moors, whom Spain proper expelled ; and that which should have been the commencement of European civilization in the country proved to be its political zenith and the commencement of its decline. It was not the Spaniards who checked the progress of Charles Martel, but the Moors. The works of art which are peculiar to Spain are the architecture and decora- tions of the Moors • the painters who were born in Spain were students in Italy, but Velasquez and Murillo are feeble representa- tives for Spain in the art of Europe. What great book has Spain contributed to the literature of Europe ?—.A. satirical romance. Her grand contribution to science is the discovery of America— by a Genoese protégé, to whom Ferdinand and Isabella lent a very changeable and unintelligent belief. The greatest statesmen of Spain have been foteigners like Charles the Fifth, a Fleming, or Ripperda, a Dutchman. That which Christian Spain brought to the greatest perfection was the ecclesiastical authority and its horrid tribunal—the creatures of Rome. The country itself has produced little. The people, divided into races that could display their bravery against each other, but could not unite as a nation—that could enjoy life, but not give progressive development to the national life—that could nurse local privileges of a negative or obstructive order, but not assert any positive claim in politics or invent any of those demands which become institutions,—the "Spanish people has been passive, or has only followed leaders that dictated the policy and sentiment of the hour. We may be told that after the discovery of America by the Genoese mariner, the Spaniards :sent across the Atlantic men who showed energy in exploration and conquests. Yes, men of that product in which Spain has really been rich—soldiers • individual fighters, knights of fortune captains but not generals, who could. war with the sword rather than with the map or plan. We may be told that after the European settlement of 1815, Spain was a favoured depository of Liberal ideas, whose patriots, like our Harapdens, struck out a constitution, and have fought for it ever since. But even that was an accident—an episode in the gambling of individuals for political power. While Ferdi- nand was in suspense, and Spain was overridden by the French of whom Wellington ridded them, the Cortes acted as a sort of vice- roy for the Spaniards ; during the exercise of their viceregal func- tions, the leading members enjoyed a good deal of power ; when Ferdinand was restored, they were not very willing to surrender what they had earned, and a " constitution " was the means of reconciling the restoration with their own continuance. Ferdi- nand, however' had no ideas of that kind : he expected to be a king with all his privileges ; and the Constitutionalists were strengthened in the fire of civil war, while the Monarchy, associated
with the Inquisition rendered itself as hateful as possible. In those wars were bred many men who became tried partisans of the " Liberal " cause. The Constitution was established, abolished, reestablished, and reabolished under the French intervention of the Due d'Angouleme nephew of Louis Dixhuit. But Ferdinand the Unhappy was mortal, and his death in 1834 gave a new oc- casion for the speculation in constitutions.
Ferdinand had married a Princess of Naples, by whom he had two daughters ; and by his will he left his throne to the eldest, Isabella. Spain is not one of the "Salle lands " ; but it was held by some authorities that the Bourbon family carries with it the Salk law of its own inheritance, and Ferdinand's brother Carlos claimed the throne. Carlos relied upon Divine right; Christina's sole hope for her daughter's succession and her own regency lay with the Liberals ; hence she too became a trader in constitutions ; and hence the Constitution of 1837, which she delayed as long as possible and tried to undermine as soon as possible. Since that day there has been' in name' an incessant fight for "the Constitu- tion"; fact the fight has been for individual ascendancy. This will be seen by simply glancing at the persons who have swayed the destinies of the land as Regent or as Minister.
The first Regent of Spain was the Queen-Mother Christina ;
who, in her widowhood, gave birth to a large i family, and then married the father of her children. She traded well n constitu- tions, jewels, railway speculations, and all that makes princes grow rich ; and she acquired a character in Europe which has been tolerably understood. She married her daughter to a cousin ; a husband—not regarded as the probable father, of a royal line—who consoles himself by dabbling in Court in- trigues ; while the Queen has consoled herself in a manner that made Spaniards, a people proud of genealogy, furious with the Court scandals. Queen Isabella compounded for any earthly, frailties by so much personal devotion as won for her the special approbation of the Holy See ; and she has repaid the Holy See by labouring to procure the repeal of the Mortmam-law which rescued State property from forfeiture to the Church. These four influ- ences—the Queen intrigante, the Queen regnant, the Camarilla husband, and the Confessor—have been more or less permanent through all the changes of Spain.
The second Regent was Espartero. A student designed for the church, he was called into the field as a volunteer by the French invasion ; won promotion by his bravery.; and, fighting on the side of the Viceroy Cortes, became identified with the "Liberal"
sty and policy. He seems to have been sincere ; accident made rich ; and he has always been personally, independent. But, victim to a painful malady, even as a general of cavalry he was rather given to his bed; he never acquired more strategy than cavalry dash; in couneil he compensated for want of positive ideas by compromising and procrastinating. He was always ready when summoned by his sovereign or his country ; held power un- til undermined by Court or colleagues ; fought his ground well -until outvoted on the field of battle by Narvaez in 1843; and was recalled in 1854 to sit at the head of the Council while O'Donnell undermined him.
Narvaez returned in 1843, as the rescuer of Spain from civil conflict. In 1844 he was President of the Council ; and next year he made a constitution a son gre—just liberal enough to keep out the Carlist, reactionary enough to keep in the Soldier Minister and to give him complete controL Narvaez was originally brought into public notice as a soldier of the civil war that began on the death of Ferdinand He was then a captain ; he signalized him- self by the defeat of Gomez, the great Cellist general, and rose to be Captain-General of Old Castille in 1838. Then came out his rivalry with Espartero. General Cordova attempted a reac- tion at Seville, which failed : Narvaez fled to Gibraltar, and thence to France, where he remained till 1843. It was during that first reign of Narvaez that Louis Philippe was permitted to attempt, by insidious process, the same annexation of Spain which Louis the Fourteenth was thwarted in attempting. The question of "the Spanish marriages," however, has not yet been solved; and we may yet see a Philippist dynasty South of the Pyrenees in alliance with the Bonapartes at Paris. But there was an in- fluence which Narvaez neglected to propitiate, and hence his downfall. At the end of October 1850 he met the new Cortes : the Chamber was completely packed by his own followers ; the Progresistas were "nowhere." A monster, however, laid its claw on the Government ; it was the immortal financial "deficit," which had continued to grow under every Government of Spain. A bright idea soon afterwards dawned upon certain high person- ages—that the resources of Spain might be augmented by internal communication, that is, by railways. The schemer Salamanca *game over to England—in 1853, we think—to negotiate shares, the traffic in which would probably have been highly profitable to Queen Christina, But the Minister Manuel de la Concha openly stated in the Cortes, that Salamanca was connected with a high personage, (Queen Christina's paramour Munoz, now made Duke of Rianzares,] who had uttered the words, "it is my will to be the Government myself," Narvaez would not yield to the financial schemes of Queen Christina ; he protested that the Queen-Mother had insulted him, and he resigned on that pretext. But he remained in Madrid, a cloud over his successors and inferiors, until their jealousy sent him, in the name of Queen Isabella, "to study the archives of Vienna" ; a mission which he fulfilled by residing in Paris, and waiting till his next oppor- tunity, in 1856. O'Donnell's puppet Regency began in 1854, when Espartero was nominally placed at the head of affairs. The wretched crea- tures who succeeded Narvaez's first Ministry had tried to make np for incapacity by subserviency to the Court and tyranny to the people. The Cortes were sick of the Court intrigues ; among the malcontents were many of the soldier statesmen who had contributed to the fall of Narvaez in 1851,—such as Serrano, Ros de Olano, Manuel de la Concha, and O'Donnell ; and the Ministry was expelled by insurrection. O'Donnell evaded their generals in the field ; but he felt a want of political strength, and he summoned Espartero. The leader of the Progresistas was amused with "Constituent Cortes," to restore, with "amend- ment," the Constitution of 1837; while O'Donnell, as Minister of War, officered the army with 3foderados, and prepared to restore' the reactionary Constitution of 1845. He had grown rich by wink- ing at the slave-trade in Cuba ; his new " dodge " now succeeded ; Espartero resigned in valetudinarian despair ; and O'Donnell was Prune Minister. But while he had been undermining Espartero, the Court had been using him for ulterior views : he was wanted to clear away the wrecks of the Constitution. The Queen then sent for Narvaez, a stouter and abler head-policeman ; for Queen Christina, whose absence the daughter had always regretted ; and for the Papal influence, restored with the repeal of the Mortmain- law. In his second Ministry, Espartero saved the Queen, the Throne, the Church—everything but his beloved Constitution. O'Donnell's services may be estimated by his declaration when he dictated terms of peace at Manzanares, in 1854, after the affair of Vicalvaro- " We demand the conservation of the Throne without a Camarilla that dishonours it ; the rigorous enforcement of the fundamental laws ; the amelioration of the laws of election and of the press ; the reduction of taxer, founded 011 a strict economy; • • the reform of centralization, so as to give to the people the local independence necessary for the conduct of their local affair' s ; and as a guarantee of all these things, we demand the esta- blishment on solid bases of the Local Militia."
This declaration is a prophetic self-satire of the statesman who intrigued at once to defeat all these things and himself, and crowning evidence of the great fact that in Spain, political principles and national movements are only pretexts for individual trade in statesmanship.
How is it that a country can be so insignificant which was once so great ? Our cursory glance at a few leading facts and persons has in part answered the question. We have shown that the greatness of " Spain " was sometimes the greatness of the man, who only used the country as his estate. The product in which her land has always been fertile, the soldier, achieved greatness for his country While fighting was the grand power. At one time the fighting strength of Spain placed at her command the sources of the precious metals, and then she was magnificent, openhanded, princely. But a nation of soldiers, with manufac- turing capacities only in a corner of its territory, cannot repro- duce wealth ; and when Spain lost her exclusive military hold on the mint of nature, her power, her influence passed away ; the wealth of the soldier state, in its decay, was replaced by the perma- nent and increasing deficit ; and the credit of Spam in Europe about equals that of the ruined nobleman whose bills have be- come worthless, and whose desperation has obliterated even the last trait of self-respect--the desire to keep up the outward show of independence though the reality is gone,
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