eart not to say, that this protection was afforded her not a
whit the less warmly and permanently, for having been instrumental
(however unconsciously) in saving the life of Hewitt.

A GLANCE AT THE PENINSULA.[29]

In England, where politics are so generally and largely discussed, where
in fact they form the only subject upon which most men appear disposed or
competent to converse, it is not uncommon to meet with persons well
informed concerning the social and political state of the principal
European countries. But we have frequently observed, that even amongst
those who display the most varied knowledge of this kind, there are very
few who either possess or pretend to any thing like a thorough
appreciation of the affairs of the Peninsula. Yet there are obvious
reasons why Englishmen ought to be more conversant with Spanish affairs
than with those of any other European state--our nearest neighbours,
perhaps, excepted. Here is a country about which we have been fighting or
diplomatizing, almost without intermission, since the commencement of the
present century; a country to which, by its intestine broils and frequent
political changes, the attention of the English public has been
continually directed, while that of the monied and commercial classes has
been specially attracted to it by the frequent fluctuations and consequent
speculation in what are facetiously termed Spanish _Securities_, and by
the oft-revived but hitherto fallacious expectation of a commercial
treaty. When these sources of interest are considered, it does seem
singular that so few persons should have thought it worth while to
investigate the real state of Spain in all its various relations; and that
of those who have gone thither with that view, none should have produced a
book fully elucidating Spanish affairs to the numerous classes in England
which are more or less interested in them. The probable cause of this is,
that no country has been so difficult to follow and comprehend through all
its countless changes; an indispensable key to which is a thorough
knowledge of the national character. On the other hand, that knowledge is
doubly difficult to obtain at a period when, as now, the people and the
institutions of Spain are in a state of transition.

It is a truism which, at first sight, looks like a paradox, that
contemporary history is the most difficult to write. Time, which, in its
more extended lapse, destroys and obliterates--previo