Narvaez may be said to have thrown off the mask,
and Spain is openly in the hands of an adventurer. He re-enters office sword in hand. The band whornhe has gathered round him show his purpose. When famous housebreakers have any great crime in prospect, they select the-men who are the best fitted to be tools in such desperate enterprises : Ramon Narvaez has chosen his ac- complices on that plan. He has taken the pick of Ultra " Mode- radon," (as that callous and corrupt party have dubbed them- selves,) of Absolutists, and even of Carlists. His Minister of the Interior is a man who has been branded by the Senate with a charge of fraud in some kind of stockjobbing. He professes ex- traordinary loyalty to the Throne. His first steps are significant : he shakes off all the Liberals who had belonged to his Govern- ment ; he weeds the ranks of officers in the army after the fashion of a vicious gardener,—that is, he pulls up the good herbs and leaves the rankest weeds, putting in more of the sort, his crea- tures; he prorogues the Cortes, meaning to dissolve it ; he sus- pends the liberty of the press. He evidently relies on his past successes ; thinks that Spain is quite cowed ; and braves discon- tent with reckless daring. Even France, which is understood to have patronized him formerly, is scandalized at these dangerous excesses. What will follow? It is indeed a fearful question, whether Spain is or is not so thoroughly distracted and demoral- ized that she cannot shake off this Old Man of the Sea who trades in her political degradation.
