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MADRID IN 1835.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Sketches of the Metropolis of Spain and its Inhabitants , and of Society and Manners in the Peninsula , by a Resident Officer . In 2 vols Saunders and Otley . 1836 .
At a crisis like the present it is singularly fortunate to obtain a book of authentic reference such as ' Madrid in 1835 / Tfcia work gives what we may fairly presume to be an extremely correct view of the state of Spain so recently as a year since * We do not know any volumes of travels that surpass these in interesting' and accurate description ; and very few that come up to them . They are rich in interest and information . There ia not
a doubt of their popularity . The author is perfectly acquainted with his subject , and is a profound as well as an acute obseryex ; a student of individual character no less than of national peculiarities ; a vivid describer , and a philosophical generalises It is only by the combination of such qualifications that a writer
can convey clear conceptions of the real condition of a great country ; and no era of any country requires more depth and discrimination in an historian to pourtray than that of ita , fallen greatness or impending ruin . The daily occupations , the manners , customs , and amu&enaents of all classes of society , combine to show the habitual Btate of 1
feelingor moral sense of a people ; and we are convinced that no political institutions can be permanent which do not wield a power in accordance with that moral sense . Institutions act upon the national character powerfully , it is true , but fclowlyj and force alone can maintain them when they are opposed to that character . A conviction of this truth has hitherto been the most
subversive of our hopes concerning the regeneration of Spain . Her friends have been used to hear , without the power of contradiction , such opinions as these , — ' Spain is a priest-ridden country , '— heT people are ignorant and oppressed by a degrading superstition , which will continue to preserve the despotic power of the monks , '— monkish influence is akin to the Holy Inquisition , and destructive of all liberty and improvement , ' &c . But our author holds a different language altogether , and it is satisfactory to find that lie has good grounds Tor his opinion . Admitting the utter degradation of the grandees , the gross corruption of the clergy , and the vices of tlie government , he yet bear 9 testimony to the nobleness of the peasantry , and to a sturdy strength in their nature which may indeed retard the
No . 117 .
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Madrid In 1835.
MADRID IN 1835 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 525, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/1/
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