A WORD FOR SPAIN.
London, 23d October 1856. Sni—I have just read-the article on " Spain!: in your valuable journal for this week ; and, although acknowledging its ability and general truth- fulness, particularly with regard to recent events, I must take exception to some of the statements relating to the previous history, of the country.
"Old Spain" has now fallen so low from her high estate, that her well- wishers must be unwilling to allow any doubt to be cast upon het former greatness, or to see any of her sons deprived of the honours they can justly lay claim to. That some of her great statesmen were foreigners is true enough : of what country may not the same be said ? But were not the greatest Span- iards born ? as Ferdinand the Catholic, Mendoza, Ximenez, Philip the Se- cond—being the son of Queen Joanna of Castile. Charles the Fifth can hardly be called a foreigner, particularly as he ascended the throne of Spain when a mere lad, and had always much resided in the country.
If she has produced "soldiers, individual fighters," she has also produced generals as the great captain Gonsalvo de Cordova, the first warrior of his age, the Duke of Alva, Don John of Austria, Cortes, A. de Leyva, and nu- merous others.
Velaaquez, Murillo, and Ribera, were painters of whom any nation may be proud.; and with the exception of Italy I know of no country that can claim greater masters. It is true, they had studied in Italy ; but that country was (and is still) the school for art, and there are few painters with an European reputation that have not been students there. Spain too can lay claim to great men as historians, novelists, and poets. The names of Cervantes, Mariana, Lope de Vega, and Calderon, are imperish- able.
The greatness of the country commenced under the wise and successful government of Ferdinand and Isabella, reached its zenith under their grand- son the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and its gradual decline is to be dated from the death of Philip the Second. The enterprises of these sovereigns were carried out by men of capacity, generally Spaniards; sometimes, however, by natives of her possessions in Italy and the Low Countries. The successors of the latter monarch were feeble sovereigns, who governed through unworthy favourites, that were mostly men of small capacity, more intent upon making their own fortunes than upon the administration of the affairs of the country. Even to the present time has this state of things gone on ; and few in- deed amongst her statesmen of the last two centuries and a half can be con- sidered as rising above mediocrity.
The injury inflicted on Spain by Queen Christina will not soon pass away; and the conduct of her unfortunate and misguided daughter renders the name of Queen Isabella a byword in Europe, and induces little hope that there can be any amendment in the administration of the country while supreme power remains in the hands of this wretched branch of the Bourbons.
Emus HISPANUE.
(Our correspondent has every right which patriotism and a temperate tone can give him, and ranch that he says . be admitted at once. We were drawing very broad distinctions, and did not seek to stand upon indi- vidual cases. We admit the great captain Gonsalvo de Cordova ; Alva is conspicuous for other qualities than generalship ; Cortes we included, and Cervantes. De Vega and Calderon are illustrious in Spanish literature, but have not become European. Nor can Velasquez and Murillo, even with the addition of Ribero., make an independent school for Spain. The greatest, Velasquez, was almost as much a member of the Italian schools as Charles the Fifth was a Spaniard. But if modern Spaniards would feel the same sensitiveness for the honour of their country as our correspondent does, and would take the same historical standards, we should see the dawn of the country's regeneration.—En.]
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