at the property and life
of a citizen did not belong to himself but to the king. Besides,
religion filled everything; it was the sole end of existence, and the
Spaniards meditating always on heaven, ended by accustoming themselves
to the miseries of earth. Do not doubt but the excess of religion was
our ruin, and came very near exterminating us as a nation. Even now we
are dragging along the consequences of this plague which lasted for
centuries. To save this country from death what had to be done? The
foreigners had to be called in, and the Bourbons came. See how low we
had fallen that we had not even soldiers. In this land, even if we
were wanting in other advantages, we could from the earliest days
reckon on good warlike leaders; but look, in the war of succession we
had to have English and French generals, and even officers, for there
was not a Spaniard who could train a cannon or command a company; we
had no one to serve us as a minister, and under Philip V. and Fernando
VI. all the Government were foreigners, strangers called in to revive
the lost manufactures, to reclaim the derelict lands, to repair the
ancient irrigation channels, and to found colonies in the deserts
inhabited by wild beasts and bandits. Spain, who had colonised half
the world after her own fashion, was now re-discovered and colonised
by Europeans.[1] The Spaniards seemed like poor Indians, guided by
their Cacique the friar, with their rags covered with scapularies and
miracle-working relics. Anti-clericalism was the only remedy against
all this superstition and ruin, and this spirit came in with the
foreign colonists. Philip V. wished to suppress the Inquisition and to
end the naval war with the Mussulman nations which had lasted for a
thousand years, depopulating the shores of the Mediterranean with the
fear of the Barbary and Turkish pirates. But the natives resisted any
reform coming from the colonists, and the first Bourbon had to desist,
finding his crown in danger. Later on his immediate successors, having
deeper roots in the country dared to continue his work. Carlos III.
in his endeavour to civilise Spain laid a heavy hand on the Church,
limiting its privileges and curtailing its revenues, being careful of
earthly things and forgetful of the heavenly. The bishops protested,
speaking in letters and pastorals 'of the persecutions of the poor
Church, robbed of its goods, outraged in its ministers, and attacked
in its immunities,' but the a