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Untitled Article
progress of improvement in some respects , as it has resisted that of corruption in others ; but which presents a grand foundation whereon to base the future destinies of a country . " Madrid and the provincial capitals may possibly give some evidence of the action of a liberal government upon the manners and habits of their inhabitants . But it will require centuries to obliterate from the
minds of the peasantry their ancient traditions , and to make them change their old and cherished way of life . In some respects this tenacity does them honour ; and I trust that , whatever modifications the < lights of the age' and the ' march of intellect' may effect in the general state of Spain , her noble peasantry will never relinquish either their graceful
garb and bearing , or their singular disinterestedness and integrity . Spain is an original and racy land , full of quaint prejudice and ' auld lang syne' memorials , which lend to it a mellow and attractive hue , and invest it with peculiar charms to all who , like myself , are fond of wandering among the ruins , and living with the traditions and recollections of the past .
" If this age of regeneration succeed in working out the happiness and comfort of a noble race , whom centuries of oppression and misgovernment have failed to debase , I shall hail its advent with delight . "Preface , p . 8 .
The power which the monks have been able to wield over this people , the author shows to be that of fear , not of love . The p lan is certainly far from novel . But he maintains that in Spain it is the dominion of wealth over dependent poverty , not of superstition over the prostrate mind . The former hold is insecure indeed when compared with the other ; it is an outward circumstance instead of an inward influence ; its removal is within the power of the legislature , and its pressure once taken off , the spell will be utterly broken . It is here stated that the majority of the secular clergy are well affected to a liberal government , but the monks are perfectly conscious that they have preyed heavily on the " flocks " of their country , and that they cannot expect much forbearance on the part of the u shorn . " Hence their support of Don Carlos , which has been their last
" mortal combat , " and hence , through their influence , the support of his cause by the people . The following passage , which relates to the civil war , is illustrative of the author ' s opinion as to monkish power : — " It must not be supposed , however , that the close union between friar and peasant exhibited in this instance , any more than in otherg , arises from the influence of kindness and fatherly care on the part of the former , calling forth the respect and attachment of tho latter ; fear , J have already said , enters far more into their conduct . The monks
attand precisely in the shoes of rich proprietors or powerful landlords with regard to their tenantry . A great proportion of the soil of the country being ecclesiastical property , the resident inhabitants , who are employed by the monks in the cultivation of their lands , naturally look
Untitled Article
526 Madrid m 1835 .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1836, page 526, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2661/page/2/
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