Impressions of Spain. By James Russell Lowell. Compiled by Joseph
B. Gilder. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—Mr. Lowell went to Madrid as American Minister in 1877, and remained there till he was transferred to the Court of St. James in 1880. Whether the American system of rewarding literary achieve- ments by diplomatic appointments works well is more than we should like to pronounce, but it certainly produces some desirable results. If the books of the Foreign Office are rich in such extracts as are here given us they are more worth searching than such records commonly are. Mr. Lowell, it is true, was in Spain at an interesting time. He saw the first marriage of Alfonso XII. to the Infanta Mercedes, daughter of the Due de Montpensier, went to congratulate the King on his escape from the pistol of the assassin Moncasi, and was present again at the second marriage, to which Spain owes the wisest rule that it has had for three centuries. No very special occasion called for the exercise of diplomatic skill, in which, indeed, Lowell was sufficiently proficient. There might have been a war of tariffs, but it was happily avoided. Mr. Lowell's first despatch gives some pungent criticism. on Spanish politica. (It would not have been difficult, we imagine, for the Spanish representative at Washington to retaliate.—if he had seen it.) There is a vigorous expression of disgust at the brutalities of a bull-fight, accentuated by the fact that the Republican simplicity which forbids the use of an official badge exposed the writer to some danger. But the most interesting of the letters is that which describes the funeral of Queen Mercedes. The "Spanish marriage " schemes of Louis Philippe seemed to have reached success, and then by the irony of fate were disappointed for ever, for the granddaughter of France died six months after her marriage. Was there ever so unfortunate a Ulysses ? The crown of his misfortunes is to be represented by a Thersites. The despatches are full of good things. Here is a sarcasm on one of the bull-fight arrangements. The distribution of the tickets had been performed on some principle unheard of out of Spain, and apparently not understood even there, so that every- body was dissatisfied, most of all those who got them."
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