PREJUDICES.
Soon after the accession of Charles the Third to the crown of Spain, his subjects were prohibited by a severe edict from wearing flapped hats and long cloaks; caused an insurrection that obliged him to flee from Madrid, after witnessing the massacre of nearly one hundred of his Walloon guards ; and might have ter- minated in a revolution, but for a speedy revocation of the edict, and banishment of his ministers. An eminent writer introduces the history of the occurrence by observing, " that it is easier to conquer half the world, than to subdue a single prejudice or error ; most nations having a superstitious attachment to those habitudes which they derive from their ancestors, that seemed to come along with them into the world, and with which they were nursed and brought up."
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