s that
contained the original documents on which the Gonzalez MS. was founded.
The work thus bought by the French government was transferred to the
Archives des Affaires Etrangeres, then under the direction of M. Mignet.
The manuscript could not be in better hands than those of a scholar who
has so successfully carried the torch of criticism into some of the
darkest passages of Spanish history. His occupations, however, took him
in another direction; and for eight years the Gonzalez MS. remained as
completely hidden from the world in the Parisian archives as it had been
in those of Simancas. When, at length, it was applied to the historical
uses for which it had been intended, it was through the agency, not of a
French, but of a British writer. This was Mr. Stirling, the author of
the "Annals of the Artists of Spain,"--a work honorable to its author
for the familiarity it shows, not only with the state of the arts in
that country, but also with its literature.

[Sidenote: MEMOIRS OF CHARLES.]

Mr. Stirling, during a visit to the Peninsula, in 1849, made a
pilgrimage to Yuste; and the traditions and hoary reminiscences gathered
round the spot left such an impression on the traveller's mind, that, on
his return to England, he made them the subject of two elaborate papers
in Fraser's Magazine, in the numbers for April and May, 1851. Although
these spirited essays rested wholly on printed works, which had long
been accessible to the scholar, they were found to contain many new and
highly interesting details; showing how superficially Mr.

Stirling's predecessors had examined the records of the emperor's
residence at Yuste. Still, in his account the author had omitted the
most important feature of Charles's monastic life,--the influence which
he exercised on the administration of the kingdom. This was to be
gathered from the manuscripts of Simancas.

Mr. Stirling, who through that inexhaustible repository, the Handbook of
Spain, had become acquainted with the existence of the Gonzalez MS.,
was, at the time of writing his essays, ignorant of its fate. On
learning, afterwards, where it was to be found, he visited Paris, and,
having obtained access to the volume, so far profited by its contents as
to make them the basis of a separate work, which he entitled "The
Cloister Life of Charles the Fifth." It soon attracted the attention of
scholars, both at home and abroad, went through several editions, and
was received, in short