NUMBERS OF THE LIVING AGE WANTED. The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY LITTELL & GAY, BOSTON. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers. the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. But we do not prepay postage on less than a year, nor where we have to pay commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. Second The Complete Work, 20 46 32 50 66 Any Volume Bound, 3 dollars; Unbound, 2 dollars. The sets, or volumes, will be sent at the expense of the publishers. PREMIUMS FOR CLUBS. For 5 new subscribers ($40.), a sixth copy; or a set of HORNE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, unabridged, in 4 large volumes, cloth, price $10; or any 5 of the back volumes of the LIVING AGE, in numbers, price $10. From The Fortnightly Review. THE THISTLE. PART III. So went the spring and so came and went (A rapturous river of gleams and glooms!) Had rippled and roll'd, lay clouds of mould Hard and bald; and between them grew Coarse aftergrowths grim, bristly, and bold; And the beast of the field had the residue. The primrose, cowslip, and violet Were gone, like gleams, from the grass. The white Anemone's constellations, set, Had left the earth dark as a starless night For good, or for ill, now the summer was gone. No one admired him, no one praised, But also no one maltreated, him. And the roaming beasts of the field that grazed The twice-cropt grass where their wandering whim Led them, lazy, from spot to spot, Shunn'd the Thistle, and harm'd him not. That effulgent star on the bleak earth under The Thistle laugh'd, greeting the earth and heaven. And he blossom'd his whole heart out of his bosom, And all was forgotten save all that was given. Lyrical Fables by R. Lytton. From Tinsley's Magazine. RETRORSUM. As he who nears his native shore, Will climb again each mountain height, And rest him by each murmuring stream, And will re-live each day and night As in a dream : So now my soul, that draweth nigh To the still threshold of its home, To scenes that in the distance lie, Would backward roam; Would tread the lanes in childhood trod, The fields through which two lovers strayed, Or turn to sit by that green sod Where Maggie's laid; Would live once more the long-past life, With all its hopes, with all its fears; Would strive again the bitter strife, Would weep the tears. Ah, idle dream! Each passionate grief Hath lost its power, hath lost its pain; The heart though wounded finds relief, Nor weeps again. In vain I roam the empty halls, Whence life and vigour long have flown; Mid festive scenes and festooned walls, I walk alone. Yet one there is, and strangely sad, That in gay scenes aye walks with me, Whose looks are grave, as though she had No heart for glee. O, ask me not her name! She lives, From The Cornhill Magazine. SPAIN: HER SOCIAL CONDITION. vasion by our Wellington of France at the close of the Peninsular War. Yet, WHEN we ventured, some time ago, long before that time, France was essenupon a sketch of Spain and her Revolu- tially compact an advantage often dwelt tion,* the extent of the subject compelled upon by her enemy, but admirer, Fredus to confine ourselves almost exclusively erick the Great. Spain, on the other to questions of history and politics. On hand, is, even to-day, rather a cluster of that occasion we pointed out, as the key provinces than a kingdom, as the late to Spain's political condition, the combi- Revolution has assisted to show. An nation varied by antagonism of old Andalusian, for instance, is as much a obsolete Spanish backwardness with a stranger in Catalonia as an Englishman; continual adoption of French adminis- while a Castilian considers the Andaluz a trative and executive reforms. We dwelt trifler, and the Catalan a boor. The old much on the long comparative isolation, differences of language exist with wonderancient and modern, of the country, and ful tenacity, after centuries of nominal glanced at the fact that this very isolation unity. Basque, of course, stands by itself, unfitted her for using the improving and and no Spaniard from other quarters preenriching elements which she is gradually tends, or attempts, to understand it; but receiving from other states. But, natur- the dialects of Latin origin are still ally, we had but scanty space for com- flourishing in mutual unintelligibility. The menting on her social condition, a basis Andalusians what with Moorish and gipsy underlying and determining the political influences, and a natural turn for jocose condition of Spain, as of all other lands. slang, speak in a style which puzzles their The present paper is intended as a sequel brother Spaniards from sea to sea. The to the paper referred to above, and to de- Catalans, even in Barcelona, are as little velop and illustrate points which we left to be understood, in their turn, as Frenchimperfectly handled, or not handled at all. men or Italians. The Valencian tongue is The traveller who takes up one of the neither Catalan nor Andalusian; while to ex-sovereign's sovereigns, the isabelino, and all the provinces, except the Castiles, Cassees her ex-Majesty described as "Queen tilian is rather a language of the Court, of the Spains," does not always under- the Government, and the literature, than stand how true the old-fashioned title is. a familiar language spoken with purity Ford will have taught him, in that admir- even by the upper classes. able work which is really almost degraded Language, however, is only one of many by the title of a Handbook, that the his- provincial differencès. The types of chartorical provinces were divided in imita- acter are as distinct as the types of tion of the French departments. But six-speech. The Castilian is a serious gentleteen years have passed since Ford pub- man, who deplores the levity of the age, lished his last edition; and the historical and looks upon the recent French disasprovinces still stand out, in spite of rail- ters as provoked by the frivolity of ways, more distinct from each other, po- Frenchmen. He it is who represents (on litically and morally, than is the case in a sadly reduced scale) the old hidalgo, any other kingdom; the division into de- from whom our Elizabethan forefathers partments having done scarcely anything took their ideal of the don. When he towards facilitating general unity. Few exaggerates his peculiarities, from the acciEnglishmen know that, even in France, dent of being a blockhead, he becomes the and as late as after the French Revolu-“Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical tion, provinces like Languedoc still re- Spaniard," of Love's Labour's Lost. There tained sufficient independence to appor- have been speakers in the existing Cortes tion their own taxation; and that one quite absurdly pompous enough to talk, of the causes which finally welded the like that grandee, of "the posteriors of south of France to the north was the in- this day, which the rude multitude call Liv. Age. No. 1402. 15 April, 1871. the afternoon." The Castilian, however, makes himself respected by all other Spaniards. He is still, in the general de- the provinces of Spain as the differences cadence, a kind of representative of the of land-tenure and local customs. These nation; and the vainest provincial whom exist, not as between province and provthe Revolution has sent to the Cortes hes-ince only, speaking of the historical provitates at the effect which his untutored ac- inces, but within such provinces themcent may produce upon the Castilian ear. selves. They have come down from reThe Andaluz, again, is a clever, lively fel-mote times, and have survived modern low, more sociable than most Spaniards, changes; while the commercial code (for and, when enterprising, more speculative instance) is almost entirely modelled upon in commerce. A good Andulusian trading that of France. The general effect of the family will send its sons to Oscott or Ston- diversities we have pointed out, strengtheyhurst to get a generous culture, while a ened, as these are, by diversities of inCatalan family is content if their youth terest, is to retard seriously the progress picks up in England or Germany on a hum- of the country as a whole. Andalusia, bler scale enough knowledge of modern lan- which exports wines, is friendly to free guages to make him useful in the ware-trade. Catalonia, which manufactures house and at the desk. The Andaluz is cotton goods, loathes the very name. A an orator and journalist, like Castelar or Madrid republican is " unitarian," because Gonzalez Brabo. He is often found in he regards his city as the centre of Spain the army, where he is a trifle empty, but which ought to keep Spain together. A genial and polite. When a duller type of Barcelona republican is "federal," because Spaniard is jealous of the Andal uz, he in- he thinks, as a Catalan, that Catalonia variably assures you that he is insincere ought to govern herself. Meanwhile, that he has nothing here. And at this Madrid does not hold the kind of moral point the speaker strikes his breast, with position in the eyes of Spaniards which that love of gesticulation which is so com- London does in that of Englishmen, or mon among all varieties of the Spanish Paris in that of Frenchmen. True to its breed. The Spaniard of the north, say origin, it is the seat of the government, of Bilbao, is rather a favourite with for- rather than the head of the nation in a eigners, and takes to them as kindly, and high sense. The provincials know, of more to the purpose, than the Andalusian. course, that it is the centre of fashion, He is improving, as a commercial man, and of what literature or art exists in the more rapidly than the men of the Med-kingdom. They know, only too well, that iterranean, thanks to the bracing influ- it is the fountain of patronage. ences of the northern races and the north- do not, to use a familiar phrase, look up ern sea. The Catalan's position in the to it. Madrid is very proud of itself, but group is easily defined - he is the shop- Spain is by no means so proud of Madrid. keeper of the Peninsular. There are There is a keen jealousy of the capital, many thousand Catalans so employed in which is regarded as enriching itself at Madrid; while those who stay at home the expense of the provinces. The first keep up the typical characteristics by liv- money raised for the payment of anybody ing, as much as their eagerness to make goes to Madrid officials. Concessions for money will allow them, entirely among enterprises in all parts of Spain, are themselves. They are industrious, espe- granted at Madrid. That city, therefore, cially if measured by the Spanish standard; is only a kind of station from which Spain cunning, close-fisted, indifferent to culture is ruled; and this centralization, which in all its forms, inhospitable, provincial ought to stimulate and assist the local enin short, they represent the prose of ergies of the whole country, does as much Spain, of which the poetry is embodied in to retard as to foster them. A scheme the traditions and legends, the letters and that might benefit Cadiz, Sarragossa, or art, of the Castilles and Andalusia. any other city, is jobbed at Madrid to the It would be impossible, in the space of political friends or fellow-conspirators of a mere essay, to deal adequately with a minister; the provincial city distrusts such other points of unlikeness between lit; and the scheme falls to the ground, But they after a few victims (often foreigners) have for the hoja de servicios, the roll of services, suffered severely in purse and temper. of every officer in the army. The collecSuch is the action of the defective unity of tion will be very instructive. With a Spain, where head and body have not yet proper attention to dates, his Majesty will learned to work together, and where the be able to know the politics of almost limbs hang loosely and stragglingly; at every important officer in the service. once a cause and an effect of the feeble- Each step of promotion will be found to ness of the whole organization. synchronize with some pronunciamento, rising, or revolution. There are officers, each stripe of lace on whose sleeves represents a successful conspiracy of one kind or another; sometimes the betrayal of a conspiracy, which is worse. Whatever else changes in Spain this militarismo never changes. And, we may add, without intending any sarcasm in particular, that the internal duty of keeping order and directing politics is the only European duty that a Spanish army can now perform. A force of some eighty thousand men, officered and armed as the Spanish army is, could not venture into the arena, where closed with each other the giants of last summer. Indeed no Spanish general has seen real war, war of the Crimean or the 1870 stamp. It always puzzles a foreign observer, first, how they get so many decorations, and, secondly, how they pay for them. What, then, secures such degree of unity as the country does posess, in however defective a form? To this we answer, the action of two bodies - the army and the Church. In another age we should have put the Church first; but the Church is not all that it was, whereas the army is more important than ever. The army holds society together, and binds to one another, as it were with a sword-belt, the discordant and dissimilar provinces. The supreme government of Spain, general and local, is always military. Every province is ruled by a captain-general, with a staff; under whom is a second head, segundo cabo; and this officer is the real master; the superior, even of the civil governor, who is supposed to have the direction of civil affairs. We are at a loss, after some years' residence in Spain, to know what a captain-general cannot do. He can set aside the municipal elections of a great When an army, however, discharges town, and keep in the old town council such transcendent internal function as the (ayuntamiento) because he likes their poli- Spanish army, the question of its compositics better. He can move his troops tion becomes one of interest. The compowhere he pleases, billeting them where sition of that army is less aristocratic than he pleases. He can suppress a newspaper. it used to be. The wonderful aristocracy He can arrest and imprison anybody he of hats has all but deserted the last branch likes (as indeed the civil governor can of the public service which even degeneralso), "on suspicion," and bring him be- ate aristocracies quit. This is, perhaps, no fore the tribunals, at his leisure. These great loss; but the general result is to things happen sometimes on the pretext lower the social standard of the whole of martial law, but also without it; and body of officers nevertheless. The best offithey happen under the Constitution pro-cers, in all senses, are those of the artillery duced by the Revolution of 1868, and sup- and engineers. They have a severe trainposed to endow Spaniards with all the most inalienable rights of the human race. Spain, in fact, is, in one sense, always under "martial law." Every ministry, of every colour, has a soldier for its head. Naturally, therefore, in Spain, the army is a political career. Soldiership there is what public life and parliamentary life are in England, a regular mode of rising in the state and influencing the state's policy. The present king, we believe, has called ing at their colleges, into which they pass |