PORTUGAL, OLD AND YOUNG..
Tins book may be described as a long historical essay. It is written to prove that Portugal is in the truest and most modern sense of the word a nation and not an artificially divided portion of Spain, and that she not only has had, but must continue to have, an influence on the fortunes of Europe in general and of England in particular. " While rejoicing over the enrolling of the Portuguese in the ranks of the faithful one may he curious to know how they canto to bo there." Mr. Young remarks that it is because of their intense " nationalism," and because it is of such a markedly Western type. Nationalism, " as expressed in popular opinion," is drawn, he believes, to the side of the Allies, The moral element in nation- ality can hardly be exaggerated, and he maintains that in literature, in art, in architecture, and in some respects even in language Spain and Portugal are markedly distinct—the Portuguese differing from the Spaniards as the Irish differ from the Scotch, and on much the same linos :-
" All trace of the Moorish governing caste Inca disappeared from the Portuguese stook, such types as suggest it being of later origin • but in the south there are only too obvious traces of the imported negro slave. The Spaniard and the Inquisition have disappeared, leaving nothing but a heritage of hate and atheism; while the Jew has survived centuries of prescription and persecution, even where the latter has forced him to abandon his religion and mingle as a ' new Christian ' with the Portuguese population. For instance, tie, town of Braganca, the ancient seat of royalty, on the north-east frontier, is still remarkable for its Jewish types, the descendants of refugees from Spain ; while the whole Portuguese race owes mush to the strong Jewish strain that runs through every class from the lowest to the highest. When King Joseph in a pious mood proposed that in the interests of religion and society all Jews be made to wear white hats, Pornbal, his minister, replied next day by appearing with two—one, as he explained, for Joseph, and the other for himself. To this strong strain of Jewish blood can be attributed, indeed,
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the curious oounter-current of radioalkon and nationalism in the otherwise ultra-clerical and conservative upper class of Portugal."
Portuguese is a language which has been kept fluid by the constant influence of other tongues. It is conglomerate, and differs from Spanish as much as Spanish differs from Italian. The physical facts that Portugal is joined to Spain and cut off from the world at large are less potent than at first appears. The sea has welded Portugal to the New World and to Europe in a very true sense, and the stormy wastes which divide Portugal from Spain are a barrier which make an insufficient impression upon the outsider.
Our author is in love with the country of which he writes, and ho has the power of rousing an answering feeling in his reader r- "' By the soul only the nation shall be great and free,' and it would hardly be too much to say that if one could analyee the soul of Portugal one would find that the real religion of the nation was humanity, the religion of which the cult is chivalry and the creed courtesy."
The courtesy of the Portuguese is not like the cold dignity of the Spaniard:—
The reason why a Portuguese is good coinpany and a Spaniard is not, is not only that the former is humorous and cordial, for the Spaniard can be witty and companionable too if he likes, but that the point of view from which the Portuguese approaches you is different. The Spaniard feels that he is in Spain, the Portuguese feels that you are in Portugal ; the Spaniard condescends to you as a foreigner, the Portuguese collogues with you as a fellow man." In their major as in their minor characteristics, Mr. Young con- stantly emphaeiees hie theory that the Portuguese and Spaniards are poles apart. The former are notably humane, so long at any rate as they are in their own country. Their treatment of " foreigners, inferiors, criminals, or animals " compares favourably with that of any Latin country. They have, ho admits, a bad record in their colonies ; but democratic Portugal has set its face against cruelty, and the Portuguese people, says their apologist, have hitherto had little to do with the government of the colonies. In Portugal the Inquisition had a less terrible success than in Spain, or rather it was more constantly resented, and created a more fervent and undying hatred towards itself and all that it stood for. The Spanish form of bull-fighting has never been tolerated in Portugal.
Now and then as we read we are tempted to wish that our author had written as a traveller and not as an historian. At times we find his political history rather dull, and indeed it would be nearly impossible in a short space to render the kaleidoscopic changes of political fortune in modern Portugal other than confusing ; but his descriptions of the country, his criticism of its literature, and his translations of its songs are charming. Where is the man of leisure who after reading the following passage will not determine to visit Portugal, among the pleasant things we are all going to do " after the war "r Whoeverlands at Oporto goes "straight into the eighteenth century," and if he takes the train thence to Brags he goes " into the Middle Ages." Suoh a change of century moans a change of air for the soul :- " The tourist finds that as he goes deeper into the country he goes further hack into the past. After he has explored the eighteenth- century life of the port he lands at, the mediaeval manners of the provincial town he reaches by rail, and the Roman ways of life of the country-side he walks through, he will not be surprised to find pre- historic survivals if he penetrates as far inland as the ranges on the Spanish border. The bold explorer who should reach the remote valleys of the Monte de Outer.), where live beehive hut-dwellers dressed in skins, will find himself back in the dim grey dawn of the world. For this great mountain barrier between Portugal and Spain is, indeed, a fearsome place, and it is easy enough for the lonely traveller there to believe in even more surprising survivals than the wolves and bears or the hut-dwellers and cavemen he will see there. There are eerie tales of mysterious presences still holding power in these high passes. More than one engineering project is said to have been abandoned owing to these uncanny influences."
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