has had a wider fame than any
other in the whole range of secular literature, and which for delicate
humour, exquisite pathos, and deep ethical sentiment, remains to-day
without a peer or a rival. If Philip II. was a Spaniard, so, too, was
Cervantes.

Spain could not be free, for she violated every condition by which
freedom is secured to a people. "Acuteness of intellect, wealth of
imagination, heroic qualities of heart and hand and brain, rarely
surpassed in any race and manifested on a thousand battle-fields, and in
the triumphs of a magnificent and most original literature, had not been
able to save a whole nation from the disasters and the degradation which
the mere words Philip II. and the Holy Inquisition suggest to every
educated mind." Nor could Spain possibly become rich, for, as Mr. Motley
continues, "nearly every law, according to which the prosperity of a
country becomes progressive, was habitually violated." On turning to
the Netherlands we find the most complete contrast, both in historical
conditions and in social results; and the success of the Netherlands in
their long struggle becomes easily intelligible. The Dutch and Flemish
provinces had formed a part of the renovated Roman Empire of Charles
the Great and the Othos. Taking advantage of the perennial contest for
supremacy between the popes and the Roman emperors, the constituent
baronies and municipalities of the Empire succeeded in acquiring and
maintaining a practical though unrecognized independence; and this is
the original reason why Italy and Germany, unlike the three western
European communities, have remained fragmentary until our own time.
By reason of the practical freedom of action thus secured, the Italian
civic republics, the Hanse towns, and the cities of Holland and
Flanders, were enabled gradually to develop a vast commerce. The
outlying position of the Netherlands, remote from the imperial
authorities, and on the direct line of commerce between Italy and
England, was another and a peculiar advantage. Throughout the Middle
Ages the Flemish and Dutch cities were of considerable political
importance, and in the fifteenth century the Netherland provinces were
the most highly civilized portion of Europe north of the Alps. For
several generations they had enjoyed, and had known how to maintain,
civic liberties, and when Charles and Philip attempted to fasten upon
them their "peculiar institution," the Spanish Inquisition, they were
ripe