BOOKS.
PRESCOTT'S PHILIP THE SECOND.* Tins third volume of Mr. Prescott's history contains three sec- tions, each possessing much matter and considerable interest in different ways. The revolt of the Moriscoes and its suppression is rich and picturesque in its details, and has freshness from the story having somewhat fallen out of historical view, owing to its slight relation to European politics. The war against the Turks, which brought about the great sea:fight of Lepanto, is a stirring episode, heroic in its action, and important in its consequences. There is information and interest too in what the author calls the Domestic Affairs of Spain ; although it is rather a picture of Philip as an administrator and art-critic, of his ministers and court, and of the Cortes and clergy, than an exposition of home polities or even administration. In each account, Mr. Prescott displays his wonted indus- try, in inquiry and research, as well as his spirit of impartiality and moderation. The events having little reference to western politics, Philip is not presented as the Papal persecutor and close implacable tyrant, but simply as King of Spain, regarded from the Spanish point of view. Amiable to English readers Philip can never appear, but in this light he looks respectable as an ad.- ministrator conscientiously laborious ; a patient and politic ruler, respected if not venerated by his people, of whose prejudices he fully partook; a bold, almost a warm, opponent of the infidel, and not, it would seem, so cruel in his religious enmity as the clergy, the populace, and some of his nobles. The narrative, espe- cially in the descriptive and warlike portions possesses Mr. Pres- cott's wonted charm of style. A little diffuse it may be •i but not so much so as to impede the movement, or weary the reader ; his pictures may have a shade too much of fancy, more befitting the picturesque chronicler than the modern historian; and his de- scriptions if rigidly analyzed, sometimes contain what speculation or knowledge might show to form a part of the scene rather than what arty one would see in reality. Take for instance the pic- ture of the Ottoman fleet advancing at Lepanto to join battle. "They [the ships] presented, indeed, as they drew nearer, a magnificent array, with their gilded and gaudily-painted prows, and their myriads of pennons and streamers, fluttering gaily in the breeze ; while the rays of the morning sun glanced on the polished scymitars of Damascus, and on the superb aigrettes of jewels which sparkled in the turbans of the Ottoman cdnefs.'
Here the Ottoman fleet could certainly be seen by the distant Christians, as well as the flashing of the sun upon swords or polish- ed armour, but the glittering of the jewels we fancy would not be visible. The fact is Mr. Prescott presents an accumulation of parts to form a whole, and not the impression of the whole itself. Still the style is very attractive ; the images are well selected and clearly presented to the mind ; the language if a little " flowery " is elegant and pleasantly collocated; and, which is more than all, a spirit of animation is everywhere felt. From the nature of the themes there is little scope for political philosophy, except in the Morisco war; and there we think the historian has followed too closely the beaten track of opinion. The cruelty of the continued persecution and final expulsion of the Moors being put aside, almost every writer has censured its poli- tical folly, as depriving Spain of the skill and industry of a large population, as well in agriculture as manufactures ; and traced the decline of Spain to this expulsion. The conclusion is perhaps notwell founded. The power of the Spanish monarchs, for it could hardly be called the power of Spain, was accidental and exotic ; the weakness was inherent in Spaniards and their "antecedents." But economical and material considerations being omitted, as well as the mere poli- tics of ministers without reference to men in the sense of peoples, a grave national question arises as to whether Spain ought or could have permitted the residence of the Moriscoes among them. We think it is Dr. Vaughan who has remarked that polygamy and other Mahometan practices were corrupting the Spaniards who were brought in contact with the Moors, and that Christian ministers might well look with dismay on the probable results. There were other grounds, therefore, than mere bigotry for separating the Moors and Christians ; though breach of treaty and forcible conversion, were not the proper methods of proceeding. The Turks and Greeks as well as English history in Ireland and In- dia, show how difficult it is to amalgamate conquerors and con- quered, even when they are of cognate races and pretty much the same religion : how utterly impossible when they are different in blood, creed, and manners. Mr. Prescott in his rapid preliminary survey of the Arab conquest of and domination in Spain, points out the hostile feelings that must have arisen from seven centu- ries of internecine warfare often of an irregular and clannish eharacter. He also marks warfare, opinions prevalent in that age on • History of the Reign of Philip the Second. King of Spain. By William H. Prescott, Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, of the Royal Ace- . aegis( Mistery at Madrid, ere. Volume III. Published by lioutledge. the duty of religions persecution, and the [so-called] Christian zeal of the Spaniards. He does not, perhaps he could not, on ac- count of time, illustrate the insurrection of the Moriscoes by the Mutiny in India ; though they have many points in common—as the secrecy of the plan, if plan there was—the suddenness of the outbreak—the cruelties of the revolters, and the fury this cruelty excited in the national mind. The difference, and a very im- portant one was this the Spaniards had not only schemed the conversion of the Maimmetans, but had carried it out by mere force, and with scandalous breach of faith. The cruelties of the Moriscoes are probably multiplied and exaggerated ; but no doubt there was enough in reality to account for any extent of retalia- tion under the circumstances. This is but a part of the Moorish doings.
"A simultaneous movement of this kind, through so wide an extent of country, intimates a well-concerted plan of operations ; and we may share in the astonishment of the Castilian writers, that a secret of such a nature and known to so many individuals should have been so long and faithfully kept, in the midst too, of those who had the greatest interest in detecting it, some of them, it may be added, spies of the Inquisition, endowed, as they seem to have been, with almost supernatural powers for scenting out the taint of heresy. It argues an intense feeling of hatred in the Morisco, that he could have been so long proof against the garrulity that loosens the tongue, and against the sympathy that so often, in similar situations, un- locks the heart to save some friend from the doom of his companions. But no such instance either of levity or lenity occurred among this extraordinary people. And when the hour arrived, and the Christians discerned their dan- ger in the menacing looks and gestures of their Moslem neighbours, they were as much astounded by it as the unsuspecting traveller on whom, as he heedlessly journiea through some pleasant country, the highwayman has darted from his covert by the roadside. "The first impulse of the Christian seems to have been very generally to take refuge in the churches ; and every village, however small, had at least one church, where the two races met together to join in the forms of Christian worship. The fugitives thought to find protection in their holy places, and in the presence of their venerated pastors, whose spiritual au- thority had extended over all the inhabitants. But the wild animal of the forest, now that he had regained his freedom, gave little heed to the eill'of his former keeper—unless it were to turn and rend him. "Here crowded together, like a herd of panic-stricken deer with the hounds upon their track, the terrified people soon found the church was no place of security, and they took refuge in the adjoining tower, as a plane cif greater strength, and affording a better means of defence against an enemy. The mob of their pursuers then broke into the church, which they speedily despoiled of its ornaments, trampling the crucifixes and other re- ligious symbols under their feet, rolling the sacred images in the dust, and desecrating the altars by the sacrifice of swine, or by some other act de- noting their scorn and hatred of the Christian worship. "They next assailed the towers, the entrances to which the Spaniards had barricaded as strongly as they could ; though, unprovided as they were with means of defence, except such arms as they had snatched in the hurry of their flight, they could have little hope of standing a siege. Unfortunately these towers were built more or less of wood, which the assailants readily set on fire, and thus compelled the miserable inmates either to surrender or tc i perish n the flames. In some instances they chose the latter, and the litth garrison—men, women, and children—were consumed together on one con mon funeral pile. More frequently they shrank from this fearful death, tai. surrendered at the mercy of their conquerors—such mercy as made them - regret that they had not stayed by the blazing rafters.
"The men were speedily separated from the women, and driven blows and imprecations, like so many cattle, to a place of confinement. this loathsome prison they were dragged out,. three or four at a time after day, the longer to protract their sufferings ; then,' with their pinioned behind them, and stripped of their clothing, they were ti into the midst of an infuriated mob, consisting of both sexes, who a. with swords, hatchets, and bludgeons, soon felled their victim; to ground, and completed the bloody work. "The mode of death was often varied to suit the capricious cruelty of executioners. At Guecija where the olive grew abundant, there was a t vent of Augustine monks, ho were all murdered by being thrown caldrons of boiling oil. Sometimes the death of the victim was atten with circumstances of diabolical cruelty not surpassed by anything recon ..d of our North American savages. At a place called Pitres de Ferreyr-, the priest of the village was raised by means of a pulley to a beam that projected from the tower, and was then allowed to drop from a great heiglit upon the ground. The act was repeated more than once in the presence of his aged mother, who, in an agony of grief, embracing her dying son, besought him to trust in God and the blessed Virgin, who through these torments would bring him into eternal life.' The mangled carcass of the poor victim, broken and dislocated in every limb ) was then turned over to the Moorish women, i
who, with the scissors, bodkins, and other feminine implements, speedily despatched him.'
"The women indeed, throughout this peryecution, seem to have had as rabid a thirst women, vengeance as the men. Even the children were encou- raged to play their part in the bloody drama ; and many a miserable captive was set up as a target to be shot at with the arrows of the Moorish boys. "The rage of the barbarians was especially directed against the priests, who had so often poured forth anathemas against the religion which the Moslems loved, and who, as their spiritual directors, had so often called them to account for offences against the religion which they abhorred. At Coadba, the priest was stretched out before a brazier of live coals, until his feet, which had been smeared with pitch and oil, were burned to a cinder. His two sisters were :compelled to witness the agonies of their brother, which were still further heightened by the brutal treatment which, he saw them endure from their tormentors.
"Fire was employed as a common mode of torture, by way of retaliation, it may be, for similar sufferings inflicted on the infidel by the Inquisition. Sometimes the punishment seemed to be contrived so as to form a fiendish parody on the exercises of the Roman Catholic religion. In the town of Filix the pastor was made to take his seat before the altar, with his two sa- cristans, one on either side of him. The bell was rung, as if to call the people together to worship. The sacristans were each provided with a roll con- taining the names of the congregation, which they were required to call over, as usual, before the services, in order to see that no one was absent. As each Morisco answered to his name, he passed before beard and and dealt him a blow with his fist, or the women plucked his and hair, accompanying the act with some bitter taunt, expressive of their mortal hate. When every one had thus had the opportunity of gratifying his per- sonal grudge against his ancient pastor, the executioner stepped forward, armed with a razor, with which he scored the face of the ecclesiastic in the detested form of the cross, and then, beginning with the fingers, deliberately proceeded to sever each of the joints of his wretched victim.'
Those who noted the feeling which the Indian atrocities excited, when the accounts first arrived in, this country, and have read of the summary proceedings against the natives by Englishmen in India, will not be surprised at the doings of the cool-blooded and cruel Spaniard three hundred. years ago, when long centuries of war and close proximity had nourished a factious kind of hate, and religious persecution, especially against infidels, was recog- nized as a religious duty. Indeed, the wonder is that so many men of moderate, even if only political views were found, and that the Marquis of Mondejar could restain his rude soldiery so long as he did. The whole story of the origin, course, and termi- nation of the Morisco war, is a deeply interesting narrative ; but it is little more than a narrative with obvious reflections.. The whole treatment of the Moors in Spain, from the surrender of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella, if not somewhat earlier, until their final expulsion under Philip the Third, has yet, We think, to be philosophically handled.
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