wakened country rejoiced in the
only prosperous days it had known in modern times before the
disestablishment. Europe was ruled by philosophic kings and Charles
III. was one of them. The echo of the English revolution still
vibrated through the world; the monarchs now wished to be loved and
not feared, and in every country they struggled against the ignorance
and brutality of the masses, bringing about progressive reforms
by royal enactment and even by force. But the great evil of the
monarchical system was its heredity, the power settled in one family,
for the son of a clever man with good intentions might be an imbecile.
After Charles III. came Charles IV., and as if this were not
sufficient, in the year of his death the French revolution broke out,
which made all the kings in Europe tremble, and the Bourbons of Spain
quite lost their heads, which they were never able to recover. They
went astray, wandering from the right way, throwing themselves once
more into the arms of the Church as the only means of avoiding the
revolutionary danger, and they have not yet returned, nor will they,
to the right track. Jesuits, friars and bishops became once more the
counsellors at the palace, as they still are, as in the times when
Carlos II. concocted his military and political plans with a council
of theologians. We have had false revolutions which have dethroned
people, but not ideas. It is true we have advanced a little, but
timidly, with halting footsteps and disorderly retreats, like one who
advances fearfully, and suddenly, at the slightest noise, rushes back
to the point of departure. The transformation has been more exterior
than interior. The minds of the people are still in the seventeenth
century; they still feel the fear and cowardice engendered by the
inquisitorial bonfires. The Spaniards are slaves to their very marrow;
their pride and their energies are all on the surface; they have not
lived through three centuries of ecclesiastical servitude for nothing.
They have made revolutions, they are capable of rebelling, but they
will always stop short at the threshold of the Church, who was their
mistress by force and remains so still, even though its power has
vanished. There is no fear of them entering here. You may remain quite
easy, Don Antolin, though in justice many accounts might be required
of her from the past. Is it because they are as religious as formerly?
You know that this is not the case, though they complai