notwithstanding the legislation of liberal govern

ments?

The example of Spain admirably illustrates our argument.

Since the time of Charles V. that country has been despoiled of the institutions which (for the sake of abbreviation) we shall style "the representative system;" the absolutism of Philip II. and of his successors, who were subjected to the influence of the Renaissance, the political absurdities of the Bourbons, and the liberal doctrines of the present century, have all done their best to corrupt the Spanish nation.

Everything that could have been done has been done to effect the political destruction of a beautiful country inhabited by the most energetic race in Europe. Our argument is, that this people offered resistance, precisely because they were strongly attached to the Catholic Church.

For more than 700 years (the total existence of ancient Rome) the Catholic Goths of Spain, having taken refuge in the caverns of the Asturias, watched, prayed, and fought to preserve their own homes, and at the same time those of Europe, from the corroding

1 Liberals, in Spanish, liberales. The word took its origin from the country of Cervantes.

contact of Islamism; their national assemblies were councils, and their laws, so deeply imbued with the spirit of religion that they were called by ecclesiastical names, were democratic in the Christian sense of the word.

For more than seven centuries this magnificent race of giants continued a struggle which in the end resulted in victory.

Scarcely, however, had they freed themselves by their undaunted courage from the yoke of the Mussulmans, than they were obliged for the space of three centuries to submit to the yoke of royal absolutism; and before long the last traces of their ancient institutions remained only in the mountainous district of Navarre.

But the Catholic faith was still cherished, like coals beneath the ashes.

At the beginning of this century Napoleon wishing to take possession of the country, used the following words: “Spain is a country of monks and priests, a country of cowards; I shall make an easy conquest of it."

History relates what took place: the Spanish people at that trying epoch of their national history proved themselves the worthy descendants of the conquerors

of the Mussulmans; Catholic Spain inflicted the first mortal blow on the absolutism of Napoleon, at that time threatening the whole continent of Europe.

Since then the different shades of the liberal party who have held power, have reduced the country of Isabella the Catholic to its present condition.

The mass of the Catholic population have resisted in our day, and we have an intimate conviction that Spain, brought up and nurtured by the maternal hand of the Church, will become once more in its religious unity one of the first nations of the human race. Its literature excels that of every Protestant country in the world in depth, in moral riches, and æsthetic splendour; its painters and architects figure in the first rank in the Pantheon of artists; and it possesses a body of clergy whose bishops astounded the assembled Fathers at the Ecumenical Council of 1870 by their prodigious knowledge of science and theology. It possesses monuments which are like poems in stone; it has held the commerce of the entire universe in its power; it has spread humanity throughout half the world, and has alone founded more colonies than every other nation put together. Many persons allege that its present diminished power and grandeur is the result of its close alliance with the Church, but

the assertion is an historical absurdity; it is the liberal party, with their self-complacent spirit of dictation and their enlightened following of socialists and atheists, who have momentarily arrested civil growth in a land so rich and fruitful, in the country of the Asturian Goths, of the Cid and the Romanceros, of Murillo, Velasquez, Lope de Vega, of Calderon and Cervantes, in the adopted country of Christopher Columbus and Fernando Cortez, in the land of the burial-place of Charles V., and the cradle of St. Ignatius and Balmez. We take the following quotation from an excellent work of this latter, entitled, "El Protestantismo comparado con el Catolicismo,"1 "Protestantism and Catholicism compared together: "

"We may expect much from the right instinct of the Spanish nation, from her proverbial gravity, which so many misfortunes have only augmented, and from that fact which teaches her so well how to discern the true path to happiness, by rendering her deaf to the insidious suggestions of those who seek to lead her astray. Although for so many years, owing to a fatal combination of circumstances and a want of harmony between the social and political order, Spain has not been able to obtain a government which understands her feelings and instincts, which follows her inclinations, and promotes her prosperity, we still cherish the hope that the day will come when from her own bosom, so

1 This work has been translated into English under the title of "European Civilization." Published by Burns and Oates.

D

fertile in future life, will come forth the harmony which she seeks and the equilibrium which she has lost.

In the meantime it is of the highest importance that all men who have Spanish hearts in their breasts, and who do not wish to see the vitals of their country torn to pieces, should unite and act in concert to preserve her from the genius of evil.

Their unanimity will prevent the seeds of perpetual discord from being scattered on our soil—will ward off this additional calamity, and will preserve from destruction those precious germs whence may arise with renovated vigour our civilization, which has been so much injured by disastrous events.

The soul is overwhelmed with painful apprehensions at the thought that a day may come when religious unity will be banished from among us—that unity which is identified with our habits, our customs, our manners, our laws; which guarded the cradle of our monarchy in the cavern of Covadonga, and which was the emblem on our standard during a struggle of eight centuries against the formidable Crescent.

That unity which developed and illustrated our civilization in times of the greatest difficulty; that unity which followed our terrible tercios, when they imposed silence upon Europe; which led our sailors when they discovered the New World, and guided them when they for the first time made the circuit of the globe; that unity which sustains our soldiers in their most heroic exploits, and which, at a recent period, gave the climax to their many glorious deeds in the downfall of Napoleon.

You who condemn so rashly the work of ages, you who offer so many insults to the Spanish nation, and who treat as barbarism and ignorance the regulating principle of our civilization, do you know what it is you insult?

Do you know what inspired the genius of Gonsalva, of Ferdinando Cortez, of the conqueror of Lepanto?

Do not the shades of Garcilazo, of Herrera, of Ercilla, of