IMPRESSIONS OF 
 SPAIN 
 
 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 JOSEPH B. GILDER 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 A. A. ADEE 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK 
 1900
 
 IT was over twenty-one years ago that 
 * the late James Russell Lowell arrived 
 in Madrid as American Minister at the 
 Spanish Court ; yet no clearer insight into 
 the state of affairs in Spain at the present 
 day can be had, than is to be obtained 
 from the reading of his official despatches 
 to the Secretary of State at Washington. 
 By knowledge of the history and the lan- 
 guage of the country, he was exceptionally 
 equipped for the mission to which Presi- 
 dent Hayes appointed him, and in a com- 
 paratively short time he had acquainted 
 himself with the social and political con- 
 ditions then prevalent, so that his com- 
 ments on men and measures are invaluable 
 to anyone desirous of tracing the causes 
 
 111 
 
 prefatory 
 IP.ote
 
 IV 
 
 lPretator\? IFlotc 
 
 ptefatorB 
 ■BAotc 
 
 of conditions prevalent to-day. To read 
 Washington Irving's despatches of fifty 
 years ago and Mr. Lowell's of thirty years 
 later, is to be struck by the similarity of 
 the conditions they reveal, and also by 
 the close resemblance between the con- 
 ditions in 1845 and 1878 and those of 
 the present year of grace. 
 
 Mr. Lowell's first despatch from Spain is 
 dated Monday, 20 Aug., 1877. It notes his 
 arrival at Madrid on the preceding Tuesday, 
 and that Mr. A. A. Adee, "our Charge 
 d' Affaires, of whose zealous kindness I can- 
 not say too much," met him at the frontier, 
 and promptly arranged for his own audi- 
 ence of leave-taking and Mr. Lowell's 
 audience of reception on Saturday, Aug. 
 18.' "At the request of Sefior Silvela, Min- 
 ister of State, the Minister of the Interior 
 very courteously placed at our disposal the 
 
 ' Mr. Adee, the beginning of whose service in the 
 State Department antedated this episode by several 
 years, has been since 1886 Second Assistant Secretary 
 of State.
 
 pretators IRote 
 
 private travelling carriage of Senor Canovas 
 del Castillo, who is at present absent from 
 Madrid." 
 
 Arrived at La Granja, where the Court 
 was summering, our Minister was kept 
 waiting twenty minutes beyond the hour 
 appointed for his audience with the King. 
 The Introducer apologised, and Mr, Lowell 
 said that he was personally satisfied, but 
 that it should be remembered that it was 
 not he "but the United States that were 
 kept waiting." It transpired that the King 
 had been waiting all the time in the audience 
 chamber, and it was then the Minister's 
 turn to apologise, which he accordingly 
 did. During their brief stay at La Granja, 
 both Mr. Lowell and Mr. Adee were treated 
 by the King and his suite with marked 
 courtesy, one of the pleasantest features of 
 their sojourn being a dinner en familie 
 with the royal family. 
 
 Mr. Lowell's official correspondence teems 
 with references to and illustrations of Spain's 
 
 Iprefatorg 
 1»ote
 
 VI 
 
 lPretator>? Bote 
 
 prefatory 
 ■Roto 
 
 good-will toward the United States. One 
 evidence of this was her enthusiastic recep- 
 tion of Gen, Grant ; another, her refusal to 
 impose retaliatory duties when a special 
 tonnage tax had been imposed by us on 
 Spanish vessels entering our ports ; others 
 still were furnished by the gift of testi- 
 monials to American officers who had 
 saved Spanish lives or property. On i 
 Feb., 1878, Mr. Lowell wrote, in reference 
 to the case of the whaling schooners Ellen 
 R/:ipah, Rising Sun, and Edward Lee : 
 "The Spanish Government has acted with 
 extraordinary promptness in the matter, if 
 I may judge by the experience of my col- 
 leagues here, thus giving a further proof of 
 its disposition to maintain friendly relations 
 with the United States." Again, on 14 
 March, 1879, he acknowledged the receipt, 
 in behalf of the Historical Society of St. 
 Louis, of a photograph of King Alfonso 
 with autograph below, "set in a very hand- 
 some frame of iron enamelled with gold
 
 Iprefatoii^ IRote 
 
 vu 
 
 and silver — a species of work peculiar to 
 Spain." 
 
 Whereas many if not all of Washington 
 Irving's despatches were written in his 
 own handwriting throughout, all but three 
 of Mr. Lowell's are in the handwriting of 
 the secretary, bearing only the Minister's 
 signature. On these three occasions the 
 necessity of being his own secretary was 
 imposed by his own kindness in granting 
 special holidays to Mr. Dwight Reed, for 
 whose health and happiness he shows a 
 generous solicitude. 
 
 The letters which have been chosen for 
 reproduction here are those in which our 
 Minister describes the domestic politics of 
 Spain; the King's first marriage, at the age 
 of twenty-one, to his cousin Mercedes ; the 
 attempt upon his life ; his bereavement ; 
 and his marriage to the Austrian Arch- 
 duchess, Maria Cristina. 
 
 J. B. G. 
 
 iPrefatoriB 
 IHote
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 IX 
 
 Introduction .... 3 
 
 I. The Domestic Politics of Spain . 2} 
 
 II. The King's First Marriage . -33 
 HI. The Death of Queen Mercedes . 7s 
 IV. Attempted Assassination of the 
 
 King 87 
 
 V. General Grant's 'Visit to Spain . 95 
 
 VI. The King's Second Marriage . loi 
 Index 10s 
 
 dontcnts
 
 
 INTRODUCTION
 
 Impressions of Spain 
 
 HutroDuctfon 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER, and in particular a 
 '**■ genial one, shrewd to observe, and 
 yet indulgent to, the foibles of his fellows, 
 whom he surveys in the light of an amused 
 and charitable introspection of his own na- 
 ture, is apt to make a good diplomatist. 
 Of this type was Franklin, the precursor 
 of a distinguished line of American repre- 
 sentatives at foreign courts taken from the 
 walks of letter-craft. High in the ranks of 
 these stood Lowell. 
 
 When, therefore, the relations of our 
 country to Spain had reached a stage of 
 comparative repose; when, after long tur- 
 
 1Fntro^uc■ 
 tfon
 
 Ilmpressions of Spain 
 
 UntroSuca 
 tion 
 
 moil and change, regular in its very incon- 
 stancy, the Celtiberian nation had wiped 
 out old scores at home, pacified its unruly 
 province beyond the sea, and addressed 
 itself to the cultivation of civil well-being 
 and progress, it was entirely fitting that our 
 Government should turn from the employ- 
 ment of soldier-diplomatists like Sickles, 
 and wily masters of profoundest jurisprud- 
 ence like Gushing, as its envoys, and revert 
 to the policy which, in 1842, on the eve of 
 the girl-queen Isabel's assumption of the 
 reins of government in her own thirteen- 
 year-old right, had prompted the selection 
 of Washington Irving as Minister to the 
 Gourt of San Fernando. 
 
 Sickles and Gushing had borne the heat 
 and burden of the long diplomatic campaign 
 that opened with the Guban revolution of 
 1868 and closed with the establishment of 
 the judicial rights of our citizens in Spain 
 and its insular possessions, by the signature 
 of the Gushing-Galderon protocol in Janu-
 
 Barnes IRussell Xowell 
 
 ary, 1877. During most of these nine years 
 tile political aspect of Spain had been ka- 
 leidoscopic. From the downfall and flight 
 of Isabel 11., September 30, 1868, to the 
 restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in the 
 person of her son, Alfonso XIL, the land 
 had seen its governments come and depart 
 like shadows, its fields harried by the wars 
 of the Carlists and the communists, and 
 Cuba, the boasted Ever Faithful Island, 
 wasted by the ten years' rebellion of Yara. 
 To the provisional triumvirate of Prim, 
 Serrano, and Topete, which took hold of 
 power on Isabel's dethronement, succeeded 
 the regency of Serrano, under which a new 
 monarchical constitution was framed, and 
 the unlucky search for an exotic king 
 begun. 
 
 The candidacy of Hohenzollern having 
 served for naught save to set France and 
 Germany at war, more expedient counsels 
 prevailed in the election and enthronement 
 of Amadeo of Savoy at the beginning of 1 870. 
 
 1^Mtro^uco 
 tion
 
 1Impre5Sions ot Spain 
 
 UntroSuce 
 tion 
 
 Despite his sturdy devotion to the tenets of 
 constitutional rule and his undying honesty 
 of purpose in all that becomes the man of 
 honour and the stainless monarch, the Italian 
 prince's alienship was a fatal bar to his con- 
 quest of the love of an intensely national 
 race, so that at the last, disheartened by 
 the hopelessness of the task, and confronted 
 by the need of an arbitrary dissolution of a 
 hostile parliament and a resort to the tradi- 
 tional electoral methods of Castile to prop 
 up a tottering power by the facile return of 
 a subservient C6rtes, Amadeo abdicated on 
 February 1 1, 1873. The Senate and Cham- 
 ber of Deputies, by an act of sheer usurpa- 
 tion, dissolved their separate constitutional 
 existence, and declared themselves as form- 
 ing in common union a constituent assembly 
 to frame a government as the self-appointed 
 delegates of the people. The short-lived 
 republic was the outcome. Its first presid- 
 ent, that grandly incorruptible statesman 
 Estanislao Figueras, was succeeded in mid-
 
 James IRussell ^Lowell 
 
 June by Francisco Pi y Margali, a man of 
 dreamy theories and amiable lack of grip; 
 on July 1 8th by Nicolas Salmeron, the most 
 practical of the fleeting line; and on Sept- 
 ember 7th by Emilio Castelar, the orator, 
 whose rule was troublous enough. To the 
 remittent agony of the Carlist rebellion, 
 which rose anew to confront the young 
 republic, had been added the cantonal risings 
 of July, when the southern and eastern pro- 
 vinces and even isolated towns proclaimed 
 independent statehood and clamoured for a 
 federation. To oppose this movement, due 
 as much to Castelar's former teachings as 
 to any other motive, it became necessary 
 to revive the eras of militarism, from which 
 Spain had already too long suffered. On 
 September 21st, the Assembly suspended 
 its sittings until January, conferring the su- 
 preme dictatorship, during the interval, 
 upon Castelar's council of ministers. On 
 January 2d, Castelar resigned his office to 
 the assembled Cortes and invited a vote 
 
 UntroSuco 
 tion
 
 Umpuessious of Spain 
 
 Untro&uca 
 t«on 
 
 of confidence, which was overwhelmingly 
 rejected. The next night, January 3, 1874, 
 while the Assembly was deliberating the 
 choice of still another president, the repub- 
 lic fell by the coup d'etat of General Pavia, 
 who set up the presidency-dictatorship of 
 Serrano in its stead. A year later, the 
 shards and scraps of the political kaleido- 
 scope took a fresh arrangement through 
 the rude jolt given by Marshal Martinez de 
 Campos, who, on December 29, 1874, set 
 up the Bourbon standard at Sagunto, and, 
 backed by the whole army, placed Alfonso 
 Xll. on the throne, with Canovas del Cas- 
 tillo as regent until His Majesty should re- 
 turn from his school-days' exile. 
 
 Throughout all these changes the people 
 of Spain seem to have been the first to 
 acquiesce, as they were the last to be 
 consulted by the metropolitan makers of 
 regents, presidents, and kings. Like their 
 Gallic neighbours, anything was welcome 
 to the masses that might not bode increased
 
 James TRussell Xowell 
 
 strife and taxation, and each successive ad- 
 ministration took office with the reassuring 
 promise of reform and stability. Hence, 
 as Mr. Gushing wrote of the accession of 
 Alfonso, "it did not appear at all extraor- 
 dinary to the Spaniards, on waking up, to 
 find that the republic had vanished and the 
 monarchy returned with the dramatic celer- 
 ity of a change of scenery at the opera. 
 . . . The people are beginning to con- 
 ceive that revolutionism, as a principle or 
 theory of government, is the climax of 
 nonsense and absurdity, seeing that it is to 
 convert the desperate remedy for a mortal 
 disease into the daily food of its life, and 
 thus, under pretence of curing the occa- 
 sional ills of the body politic, to condemn 
 it to inevitable death and dissolution. In a 
 word, weary of empiricism, demagogy, and 
 anarchy, Spain seeks refuge once more in the 
 hoped-for repose of its traditional institu- 
 tions of religion and hereditary monarchy." ' 
 
 ' Mr. Gushing to Mr. Fish, January 5, 1875. 
 
 Untrofeucs 
 tion
 
 lO 
 
 llinpressions ot Spain 
 
 littrobuca 
 tlon 
 
 In a little more than six years Spain had 
 endured as many changes in the form of 
 government, having tried the provisional 
 committee, the regency, the elective mon- 
 archy, the republic, the dictatorship, and 
 the restored hereditary monarchy. During 
 the ten and a half months of the republic, 
 five presidents had been installed, not to 
 mention the sixteen hours' phantom, Pedre- 
 gal, whose insignificance set Madrid agape, 
 and who retired before the street clamour 
 " Quien es Pedregal ? " without even form- 
 ing a cabinet. Carlism and cantonalism 
 had wasted the land and burdened its peo- 
 ple with dread and debt. The Cuban war 
 still dragged on, in spite of endless sacrifice 
 of life and treasure and the concession of 
 emancipation and political reforms. As 
 worse could hardly be expected to come, 
 the revived monarchy under a native sov- 
 ereign might at least be a presage of better 
 things, such as a union of the contending 
 internal factions of the realm, and an era of
 
 Raines IRussell Xowell 
 
 1 1 
 
 tranquillity and dedication to normal pur- 
 suits. The hope proved not wholly vain. 
 The next few years saw the country in 
 peace at home, while across the seas the 
 fires of insurrection in Cuba were visibly 
 waning before the peculiarly persuasive 
 treatment of Martinez de Campos, who 
 finally, in 1877, brought about the truce of 
 Zanjon. 
 
 It was under these favourable conditions 
 that Mr. Lowell went to Spain in August, 
 1877, there to remain until his transfer to 
 the London mission in January, 1880. No 
 grave international responsibility confronted 
 him. The only cloud on the good relations 
 of the United States and Spain, the K/r- 
 ginius quarrel, had been dispelled through 
 the settlement effected by his predecessor. 
 In the Spanish eye he came, not to continue 
 the disputatious and aggressive diplomacy 
 of Sickles and Cushing, but to revive the 
 amiable traditions of Washington Irving's 
 day. With the natural confusion of sur- 
 
 llntro&uca 
 tlon
 
 12 
 
 flmpvessions of Spain 
 
 1Intro^uc« 
 tion 
 
 names on the paternal and maternal side, 
 which in Castilian usage are combined in 
 one double appellation, the leading govern- 
 ment organ welcomed "the poet Russell, 
 equally with the diplomatist Lowell." He 
 was even familiarly greeted by some as 
 "Jose Bighlow," with the hopeful anticipa- 
 tion that a fresh volume of dialectic verse 
 might result from his Spanish experiences; 
 while others, more lately informed, trusted 
 that he would, from his Window, survey 
 with kindly philosophic gaze the more lov-- 
 able and human side of the Spanish char- 
 acter. 1 think he himself planned to leave 
 some enduring record of his sojourn. His 
 maturer mind did not gratefully accept the 
 measure of intellectual power which a re- 
 version to the aphoristic critical standard of 
 John P. Robinson would have imposed. 
 Possessing a singularly well-grounded ac- 
 quaintance with the Castilian tongue and 
 literature, he looked wistfully forward to 
 revisiting the Spain of his youth, the land
 
 Barnes IRussell Xowell 
 
 13 
 
 where the traditions of Fernando and Isabel 
 still lingered, to associating in the flesh with 
 modern Santa Teresas, Luis de Leons, Cal- 
 derons, and Quevedos on a footing of close 
 intimacy, and to collecting the matter for 
 some great literary work. The Spain of 
 to-day, unstable, frivolous, and wholly re- 
 miniscent, without the will or the physi- 
 cal power to revert to dimly remembered 
 heights of greatness, was to be to him a 
 sore disillusionment. 
 
 His reception was as congenial to his 
 simple nature as it was flattering to his 
 vanity as a writer. His induction to court 
 life was not among the stately surroundings 
 of the Palacio Real, but at the summer seat 
 of San Ildefonso, the famed Granja. The 
 monarch he met was a laughing boy, full of 
 easy-going camaraderie, happy in the double 
 flush of royal honours and of love's young 
 witcherv. His first court meal was an un- 
 conventional family dinner where the prattle 
 of Alfonso and his cousin Mercedes over- 
 
 tut i-o6uca 
 
 tion
 
 14 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 Introbuca 
 tion 
 
 bore mere statecraft and political science. 
 His first intimate associate was Manuel Sil- 
 vela, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, an 
 accomplished man of letters, more prone to 
 discuss a play of Lope's than a commercial 
 treaty, through whom he gained instant en- 
 trance into the charmed circle of the literati, 
 and set up his court among them as an 
 acknowledged leader. The friendship of 
 Lowell for Silvela lasted throughout his 
 mission. He was fortunate, too, in win- 
 ning the close friendship of that keen- 
 sighted statesman, Canovas, not only by 
 far the ablest of Spain's nineteenth-century 
 leaders, but one of the foremost premiers of 
 Europe, of whose political "omnipotence" 
 he quaintly writes. 
 
 No great historical event marked the 
 career of Spain during Lowell's stay. He 
 witnessed, on January 2), 1878, the love- 
 match of the boy-king with his girl-cousin 
 Mercedes, a natural sequel to the love-mak- 
 ing of the Granja family dinner of the pre-
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 15 
 
 ceding August. Five months later lie, a 
 sincere mourner among mourners, attended 
 the funeral pageant of the young queen, 
 who in her brief but sunny throne-life had 
 by her sweetness and tact overcome the 
 resentful distrust with which the people at 
 first received the daughter of the disliked 
 Montpensier, and won the love of a gen- 
 erous nation.' On November 29, 1879, 
 he saw the union of Alfonso with that 
 true-hearted and devoted wife and mother, 
 the Archduchess Maria Christina of Aus- 
 tria, who, later, in 1886, after the young 
 king's death, was to ascend the throne 
 as dowager queen regent during the min- 
 ority of the posthumous heir, Alfonso XIII., 
 the present King of Spain. Between- 
 whiles Lowell joined in the ceremonial 
 congratulations to His Majesty upon his 
 unharmed escape from the bullets of the 
 
 1Intl:o^ucB 
 tion 
 
 ' For an account of the attractive personality of young 
 Mercedes, see the reminiscences by Henrietta C. Dana 
 entitled " A Queen at School," in The Century for 
 April, 1878.
 
 i6 
 
 ■flmpressions of Spain 
 
 '8ntro^uc= 
 t(on 
 
 anarchists Moncasi and Otero. He duly 
 advised the Department of State of all these 
 happenings, investing each with the charm 
 of his exquisite style. At times, lacking 
 weightier matters of discourse, he did not 
 disdain to rehearse gravely some passing 
 tattle or whispered scandal of the court, or 
 to relate some humorous incident, better 
 fitted for the editorial fourth column of a 
 metropolitan daily than for the shelves of a 
 staid foreign office. His habit of making 
 his departmental reports delightful reading 
 is seen in the despatches reproduced in the 
 following pages. Even the repulsive dry- 
 ness of a negotiation for commercial reci- 
 procity did not daunt him; he found in the 
 Spanish presentation of the case the text for 
 a homily on Castilian sensitiveness. All this 
 shows how great a loser the world has been 
 by Lowell's failure to make an ever-living 
 book about Spain. Like many men to 
 whom composition is a pastime and a de- 
 light, the Hamlet-like habit of putting off
 
 Samcs IRussell Xovvell 
 
 17 
 
 sober tasks to a more convenient season 
 was uppermost, and, in his iialf-indolent, 
 half-satiated enjoyment of what each day 
 brought to him, he unconsciously adopted 
 as his motto the Spanish saw he often 
 quoted, Mahaiia es otro dia (" There is an- 
 other day to-morrow "). His private letters 
 to his intimates, some phrased in choice 
 Castilian, had in them the meat and marrow 
 of a dozen books. 
 
 Lowell wrote little of the domestic politics 
 of Spain, perhaps appreciating the difficulty 
 of making clear to an alien mind that which 
 is and ever must be incomprehensible to 
 the Castilians themselves, and none the 
 less so to the alien observer. He hints as 
 much in the exordium of the long despatch 
 which follows. Necessarily lacking the 
 knowledge of the true springs of national 
 impulse deep down in the heart of the 
 masses, he dealt with the surface indica- 
 tions, and analysed the character and mo- 
 tives of the men on top, whose peculiarities 
 
 1Fntro^uca 
 Hon
 
 1 8 
 
 Umpressions ot Spain 
 
 llntroCiucs 
 tion 
 
 most caught his attention. He gave away 
 no state secrets, for he had none to give. 
 His kindly nature forbade any wounding 
 comment or trenchant imputations, — for 
 which unhappily there is as much room in 
 Spain as in any other land whose latter-day 
 history is made up of political drifts and 
 eddies, — but with epigrammatic facility he 
 has hit off ^ personal traits and suggested 
 personal motives, always speaking ex ra- 
 ihedra with the same lofty impartiality as 
 though dissecting the bygone rivalries and 
 intrigues of Athens or Rome. One can 
 hardly fail to see that criticism like this is 
 of all time ; that the puppets and the scene 
 may change, while the action goes on ; that, 
 after all, the story and the moral are merely 
 those of the world-old struggle between 
 the ins and the outs; and that the winning 
 by partisans of their master's good grace 
 is, to quote Lowell's words, but the indiffer- 
 ent shifting of a cloud of gnats "from the 
 head of one passer-by to that of another."
 
 Barnes IRussell Xowell 
 
 19 
 
 Analysis like this throws no light on the 
 great problems of racial destiny. It cannot 
 compute the cyclic movements of peoples. 
 But it is charming reading all the same, as 
 much so as a study from the essayist's Win- 
 dow at Cambridge. 
 
 A. A. Adee. 
 
 ■flntrc6uc= 
 tion 
 
 .•^.1 
 
 V
 
 THE DOMESTIC POLITICS OF SPAIN 
 
 21
 
 THE DOMESTIC POLITICS OF SPAIN 
 
 23 
 
 26 August, 1878. 
 
 T HAVE always been chary of despatches 
 * concerning the domestic politics of 
 Spain, because my experience has taught 
 me that political prophets who make even 
 an occasional hit, and that in their own 
 country, where they are presumed to know 
 the character of the people and the motives 
 likely to influence them, are as rare as great 
 discoverers in science. Such a conjunction 
 of habitual observation with the faculty of 
 instantaneous logic that suddenly precipi- 
 tates the long accumulations of experience, 
 whose angles may be measured and their 
 classification settled, can hardly be expected 
 
 Domestic 
 polittce
 
 24 
 
 Umpressions ot Spain 
 
 Out6f^c 
 Unflucnces 
 
 of an observer in a foreign country. Its 
 history is no longer an altogether safe 
 guide, for, with the modern facility of inter- 
 communication, influences from without 
 continue to grow more and more directly 
 operative ; and yet wherever, as in Spain, 
 the people is almost wholly dumb, there is 
 no means of judging how great the infiltra- 
 tion of new ideas may have been. Where 
 there is no well-defined national conscious- 
 ness with recognised organs of expression, 
 there can be no public opinion, and there- 
 fore no way of divining what its attitude is 
 likely to be under any given circumstances. 
 Spaniards especially have been so hab- 
 ituated to sudden changes and to revolu- 
 tions that began in a corner that they are 
 apt to reckon confidently on the probability 
 of one. In what 1 shall say I shall not re- 
 peat what Spaniards have said to me, but 
 shall give my own conclusions from a 
 study of the press, and from what 1 have 
 been able to gather from the impressions of
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 25 
 
 intelligent foreigners who have been travel- 
 ling in Spain, with favourable opportunities 
 of learning what the state of feeling really 
 is, at least in the large cities. 
 
 There are many parties, with more or 
 less distinctly outlined principles or opin- 
 ions ; but the will, the ideas, the aspirations, 
 I might almost say the very life, of all these 
 is, I think, more completely in Spain than 
 in most other countries, personified in cer- 
 tain leaders with whom selfish ambitions 
 are apt, sooner or later, to take the place 
 of principle, and whose partisans uncon- 
 sciously substitute them for the interests of 
 the country. It is almost always the prob- 
 able action or inaction of certain leaders 
 that the newspapers discuss, though there 
 is no lack of ability for the treatment of 
 more comprehensive questions. The con- 
 centration of all national life in the capital 
 tends to intensify the personal rivalries, 
 jealousies, and animosities of these leaders 
 by the immediate contact of competitors, 
 
 H /lOultls 
 pUcits of 
 llea^et9
 
 26 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 ' Empleos 
 mania " 
 
 and by the sight of men in power who 
 perhaps started from a lower level than 
 themselves. If we add to this an unmis- 
 takable tinge of Orientalism, and a very large 
 infusion in the upper and middle classes of 
 the most intense, restless, aspiring, and un- 
 scrupulous blood of all, the Jewish, perhaps 
 we should rather wonder at the moderation 
 than the passion of Spanish politics. It 
 should be remembered also that the Spanish 
 people (the elections being a sham) have 
 no regulated and constitutional method of 
 expressing their will, and that repression 
 has its natural result of intensifying the de- 
 sires it thwarts, and not only of justifying 
 the means by the end, but of gradually sub- 
 stituting the one for the other. 
 
 The empleomania , which is the dry-rot 
 of Spain, as it threatens to become of the 
 United States, supplies every leader with a 
 momentarily devoted band of adherents, 
 ready to transfer themselves at any moment 
 to a more promising chief, as a cloud of
 
 James IRussell Xovvell 
 
 27 
 
 gnats shifts indifferently from the head of 
 one passer-by to that of another. There 
 are always at least three pretenders to the 
 seat of power — the ousted line of the royal 
 family, the Conservatives, and the radical 
 Republicans. Don Carlos is for the present 
 out of the question, because he is out of 
 funds, and the Republicans have no osten- 
 sible strength in the Cortes, so that the 
 former cannot brew a civil war, nor the latter 
 aspire to defeat, and so to change, the 
 ministry by those parliamentary methods 
 which are assumed to be in practice, and 
 all the motions of which are performed 
 with the gravity of Roman augurs. The 
 parties which make any show in the Cortes 
 are the Moderados (Tories), Moderados- 
 Histdricos (High Tories and Ultramon- 
 tanes), and the Constitucionalistas , who 
 demand the adoption of the more liberal 
 constitution of 1869, These are all royalists 
 of different shades, or profess to be so, 
 though the last-named have decided repub- 
 
 Ubrcc 
 1ftin5s of 
 tRoTBalists
 
 28 
 
 IFmpressions of Spain 
 
 Opposftfoii 
 
 lican leanings, and could easily reconcile 
 themselves with a republic which should 
 put them in power. 
 
 The government of Sefior Canovas, of 
 course, permits and even favours the elec- 
 tion as deputies of a few opponents who 
 are harmless, like Senor Castelar; but real 
 opposition in the Cortes there is none. By 
 real opposition I mean one based on prin- 
 ciple and with any chance of carrying 
 through a single measure of its own, or 
 defeating one of the government. This 
 seems to be one of the chief dangers of 
 Senor Canovas's position, and that in two 
 ways : first, by begetting that blind trust 
 in absolute power which in the possessor 
 of it insensibly substitutes will for reason ; 
 and, second, because legitimate discontent 
 that is not supplied with safe vents will be 
 sure to make or seek dangerous outlets. 
 
 The fact that all parties of the nominal 
 opposition are announcing their intention, 
 with more or less emphasis, to practise what
 
 Barnes IRussell ^Lowell 
 
 is decorously called "a policy of absten- 
 tion " at the approaching elections, shows 
 that for the moment, at least, the actual 
 government has the game in its own hands. 
 The question for a looker-on is merely 
 whether the wisest advantage is taken of 
 the powerful hand. 
 
 So far as I can judge with my present 
 means, Senor Canovas del Castillo seems to 
 me at present not only the ablest politician 
 in Spain, but in many important respects 
 capable also of being her most far-seeing 
 statesman. He has the great advantage 
 (especially rare here) of being familiar with 
 history and with the great principles which 
 underlie it. He is by far the strongest 
 parliamentary debater in the Cortes, the 
 only one who goes straight to the question 
 and never wanders from it. Sefior Castelar 
 is no doubt more eloquent; but his speeches 
 always, in my judgment, obscure his subject 
 with a rainbow-tinted mist, through which 
 the most familiar objects look strangely 
 
 29 
 
 // 
 
 Scnor 
 Canovas 
 
 Del 
 Castillo
 
 3° 
 
 •ffmpressious ot Spain 
 
 Scfloc 
 
 Canovas's 
 
 "GGleafi 
 
 point 
 
 unreal. His principles of action (I might 
 almost call them principles of diction) have 
 always, like the goddess of Homer, a con- 
 venient cloud into which they withdraw at 
 need from mortal apprehension. But if the 
 use of speech be to move men rather than 
 to persuade them, he is, I am ready to be- 
 lieve, the greatest of contemporary orators, 
 and comparable with the greatest of any 
 period, especially with Lamartine in 1848. 
 He says many sensible, many wise things, 
 but they seem with him rather acquired 
 than intuitive. 
 
 The weak point, then, in Senor Canovas's 
 position is his omnipotence, for this, with- 
 out omniscience to steady it, is almost sure 
 to become headstrong and contemptuous of 
 conciliation. He has, and justly, a very 
 high conception of his own ability, and of 
 his services to the country; but I think 1 
 have seen symptoms of the degeneration 
 of this sense of his own value into a belief 
 that he is indispensable. This is sometimes
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 31 
 
 the most fatal dementia of those whom 
 Dens vult perdere. 
 
 I am speaking of a country, it should be 
 remembered, which has adopted constitu- 
 tional forms, but has never acquired the 
 habitude of constitutional procedure when 
 shorter methods seem for the moment more 
 effective or convenient. The policy of 
 Sehor Canovas is, on the whole (under the 
 convenient euphemism of liberal-conserva- 
 tive), a reactionary one, and seems in dan- 
 ger of becoming more so. This may be 
 the result of a real conviction in his own 
 mind resulting from the errors and excesses 
 of the short-lived republic; or he may be 
 acting on the belief that such a conviction 
 is strong enough and general enough in the 
 public mind to form the secure basis of a 
 policy; or it may have had its origin in a 
 miscalculation of the strength of the reac- 
 tionary movement in France. In either case 
 it is mistaking the eddy for the current. 
 Either of these may be supposed to be the 
 
 H1Rea 
 
 actional-^ 
 
 police
 
 32 
 
 llmpressions of Spain 
 
 Bn 
 
 SMniniso 
 
 tratlon in 
 
 tbc Hir 
 
 motive of Senor Canovas, the politician. 
 But I think that we may both charitably 
 and probably assume a different one for 
 Sefior Canovas, the statesman. I will sup- 
 pose that he reasons thus : " The great need 
 of the country is repose and a stable ad- 
 ministration. These are the preliminary 
 conditions of reform, a reform of which 1 
 see the need and wish the success as much 
 as any man. The problem, therefore, is to 
 establish a government liberal enough in 
 form to keep the Republicans from rising, 
 and repressive enough in fact to keep the 
 Tories from plotting." 
 
 The objection to a policy which for the 
 moment may neutralise both parties, but 
 satisfies neither, is that, in military phrase, 
 the administration which pursues it is in 
 the air. It has no solid base and no re- 
 serves of strength. During his three years 
 of power Senor Canovas has failed to form 
 a party. He has been governing by a 
 league of incongruous factions which con-
 
 5ames IRussell Xowell 
 
 33 
 
 sented to unite upon him as the readiest 
 temporary expedient, and will drop away 
 from him the moment the leaders think 
 they see a chance of realising their own 
 special political opinions, or of getting into 
 power without him. His cabinet is incon- 
 gruous (as a cabinet of compromise cannot 
 foil to be), and therefore weak, while all its 
 mistakes are sure to be laid at the door of 
 its chief. 
 
 The dynasty, I hear from all quarters, and 
 not from Spaniards alone, does not strike 
 root. Discontent, mainly due to economic 
 derangements, resulting sometimes from 
 general causes, sometimes also, it is true, 
 from unwise, unequal, or too often corrupt 
 administration, is universal. Taxation is so 
 excessive that in many provinces hundreds 
 (the newspapers say thousands) of farms 
 are abandoned to the tax-gatherer. The 
 Biscayan provinces are full of resentment 
 at the abolition of their ancient privileges, 
 and against Senor Canovas as the author of 
 
 Causes of 
 S)t8content
 
 / 
 
 34 
 
 ■Cbc flDi6= 
 Me Classes 
 IRepubUcan 
 
 Ifmpressions ot Spain 
 
 it. I need not say that in Spain, more than 
 anywhere else, discontent is likely to take a 
 political turn, which means, for the most 
 part, a violent one. When the feeling is 
 general, even though without definite ob- 
 ject, it begets prominciamentos by offering 
 them the chances of success. Though, as 1 
 have said, the instincts (or perhaps I should 
 say the habits) of absolutism are still pre- 
 dominant, yet the last forty years have made 
 a great change in the Spanish people. The 
 middle classes have become intelligent, rich, 
 and conscious of their value and of the 
 power which results from it. They would 
 be content, or at any rate, quiet, under a 
 constitutional monarchy, where the elec- 
 tions, the press, education, and religious 
 belief were free ; but they are republicans 
 in theory and in their habits of life. 
 
 In considering the chances of a change 
 of ministries, another element is to be taken 
 into consideration, and that is the personal 
 preferences of the King. Senor Canovas
 
 5ames IRussell Xowell 
 
 35 
 
 has been governing, it is true, by what 
 seem to be parliamentary methods, and has 
 the support of an apparent parliamentary 
 majority. But the whole arrangement is 
 artificial, and the majority represents no 
 definite opinions either in the Cortes or the 
 country, unless we understand by a definite 
 opinion the determination to have no opin- 
 ions at all. The supporters of Senor Cano- 
 vas look on him as a plank in shipwreck to 
 which they are content to cling for the 
 present, but every one of them with the 
 hope or intention of making a bridge of it, 
 one of these days. Intrigues are going on 
 continually, and as the King, of course, has 
 the right of dismissing and summoning 
 ministers, these intrigues, as always hith- 
 erto in Spain, centre around the palace. 
 It is true that theoretically the calling of 
 new counsellors should follow a parliament- 
 ary defeat of the old; but as the majority 
 in the Cortes is purely factitious, it can 
 never play the part of a reality, and accord- 
 
 HnHts 
 
 mospberc 
 
 of llntrigue
 
 36 
 
 llmpressions ot Spain 
 
 ■Cbc *ing'g 
 £^ucatton 
 
 ingly it is very natural for one who is out 
 and wishes to be in to argue, and not very 
 hard to persuade himself, that the sic volo, 
 sic j'libeo, of the King is at least as good as 
 that of Senor Canovas. 
 
 The King is intelligent and well-meaning, 
 but can hardly be expected at his age to 
 take a very comprehensive view of politics. 
 Ministerial writers are fond of pointing to 
 the advantage he has had in an education of 
 exile. But such an education has also its 
 very great disadvantages. While it may 
 enable him to know more of the world 
 (though this is doubtful in the case of a 
 prince), it has prevented his becoming ac- 
 quainted with his own country. It has 
 put him under personal obligations (such 
 as no ruler should permit) to those who 
 were faithful to him in evil days. It may 
 have habituated him to intrigue, with all 
 its dangerous and debasing consequences. 
 His country may have come to seem a 
 stake to be played for, rather than the
 
 James IRusscll Xowell 
 
 37 
 
 noblest and most exacting of responsi- 
 bilities. 
 
 The newspapers have been discussing 
 nearly all summer the possibilities and 
 probabilities of a change, and what is called 
 the sohicion Posada Herrera ; that is, the 
 formation of a new cabinet, with that gen- 
 tleman as its head, has been constantly 
 cropping out, and in various quarters. I 
 confess that I attached no great importance 
 to it until the Epoca, a conservative paper 
 hitherto Canovist through thick and thin, 
 took it up a few days ago, and published in 
 the form of a correspondent's letter the 
 report of a conversation with Senor Posada 
 Herrera, in which, while expressing the 
 greatest deference for Senor Canovas del 
 Castillo, he pointed out what he thought 
 his mistakes of policy; thereby, of course, 
 sketching by implication the course which 
 a cabinet of his own selection would be 
 likely to pursue. It is now whispered that 
 the whole affair is an intrigue of the Duke 
 
 H possible 
 Solution
 
 38 
 
 Unipressions of Spain 
 
 General 
 Scrrano'6 
 Httttufte 
 
 of Sexto, governor of Don Alfonso when a 
 boy, and now his mayordomo mayor, an 
 office which brings him into continual and 
 intimate contact with the King. . . 
 
 A far more important piece of news just 
 beginning to be whispered, and to which I 
 give more credit, is the reported going over 
 of General Serrano (the Duke of La Torre) 
 to the Republicans, under some arrange- 
 ment with Sagasta, leader of the Constitu- 
 tionalists. Serrano is said to retain his 
 influence and popularity with the army ; 
 he has been regent; is a man who reminds 
 one of Marshal MacMahon, but with more 
 good sense and more sympathy with mod- 
 ern ideas. Meanwhile, as some confirma- 
 tion of the Serrano-Sagasta rumour, Sefior 
 Castelar, who had given rise to very fierce 
 newspaper polemics in the democratic press 
 by a privately circulated letter of which 1 
 have a copy, is inculcating reconciliation 
 and union through his special organ. El 
 Globo.
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 39 
 
 Senor Canovas is fertile in resources, and 
 it remains to be seen wliat his course will 
 be, and how much strength the status quo 
 still has in the country through the fear of 
 possible disorder. My own conclusion is 
 that, sooner or later (perhaps sooner rather 
 than later), the final solution will be a con- 
 servative republic like that of France. Should 
 the experiment there go on prosperously a 
 few years longer, should the French Senate 
 become sincerely republican at the coming 
 elections, the effect here could not fail to be 
 very great, perhaps decisive. In one re- 
 spect the Spanish people are better prepared 
 for a republic than might at first sight be 
 supposed. I mean that republican habits 
 in their intercourse with each other are and 
 have long been universal. Every Spaniard 
 is a cahallcro, and every Spaniard can rise 
 from the ranks to position and power. 
 This also is in part, perhaps, an inheritance 
 from the Mohammedan occupation of Spain. 
 Del rey ninguno abajo is an ancient Spanish 
 
 H 3Bit of 
 propbcc?
 
 40 
 
 IFmpressions of Spain 
 
 Censorsbip 
 
 of tbe 
 
 press 
 
 proverb implying the equality of all below 
 the king. Manners, as in France, are dem- 
 ocratic, and the ancient nobility here as a 
 class are even more shadowy than the 
 dwellers in the Faubourg St.- Germain. 
 
 In attacking Senor Canovas, the opposi- 
 tion papers dwell upon the censorship of 
 the press, upon the reestablishment of mon- 
 archism under other names, and upon the 
 onerous restrictions under which the free 
 expression of thought is impossible. The 
 ministerial organs reply to the first charge 
 that more journals were undergoing sus- 
 pension at one time during the Liberal ad- 
 ministration of Sehor Sagasta than now ; 
 and this is true. The fact is that no party, 
 and no party leader, in Spain is capable of 
 being penetrated with the truth — perhaps 
 the greatest discovery of modern times — 
 that freedom is good, above all, because it 
 is safe. Sehor Canovas is doing only what 
 any other Spaniard would do in his place; 
 that is, endeavouring to suppress opinions
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 41 
 
 which he believes to be mischievous. But 
 of the impolitic extreme to which the prin- 
 ciple is carried under his administration, 
 though, I suspect, without his previous 
 consent, the following fact may serve as an 
 example: 
 
 Sefior Manuel Merelo, professor in the 
 Instituto del Cardenal Cisneros, published, 
 in 1869, a compendium of Spanish history 
 for the use of schools. In speaking of the 
 revolution of 1868, he wrote: "It is said 
 that the light conduct [/as liviandades] of 
 Queen Isabel II was one of the causes of 
 this catastrophe." After an interval of nine 
 years he has been expelled from his chair, 
 and his book suppressed. 
 
 If any change should take place, which I 
 confess I do not expect, but which in a 
 country of personal government and pro- 
 nunciamentos is possible to-morrow, I think 
 the new administration will find that, with 
 the best intentions in the world, a country 
 which has been misgoverned for three cen- 
 
 Ube Efa 
 
 duccn's 
 
 "Kvtans 
 
 fcaecfl"
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 H IRovcI 
 TOlcapon 
 
 turies is not to be reformed in a day. At 
 tile same time I believe Spain to be making 
 rapid advances toward the conviction that a 
 reform is imperative and can only be ac- 
 complished by the good will and, above all, 
 the good sense of the entire nation. There 
 are strong prejudices and rooted traditions 
 to be overcome, but with time and patience 
 I believe that Spain will accomplish the es- 
 tablishment of free institutions under what- 
 ever form of government. 
 
 20 October, 1877. 
 
 In one of my late despatches (No. 10) I 
 mentioned my belief that Spain was dis- 
 posed to make a weapon of her commercial 
 system. Whatever be the deliberate views 
 of the government, it is quite certain, 1 
 think, from the tone of the press, that pub- 
 lic opinion urges strongly in that direction. 
 If Spain were richer and more powerful, — 
 if she were as rich and powerful as, with her 
 resources, she ought to be, — perhaps this 
 would not be so, or at least not to the same
 
 James IRussell 3Lo\vell 
 
 43 
 
 degree; but, as it is, tlie national pride is 
 sensitive in proportion to the country's de- 
 cline in prosperity at home and consideration 
 abroad, and pardonably enough seeks in the 
 application of differential duties that which 
 is denied in more noisy if less important 
 fields. 
 
 If the armies and navies of Spain no 
 longer weigh as once in the political scales 
 of Europe, her custom-houses at least may 
 continue to inspire the foreigner with a 
 wholesome respect, and her scale of duties 
 may still put her on a level with her most 
 powerful rivals in diplomacy and war. 
 
 I am not condemning this as a weakness; 
 for all national criticism in bulk is mislead- 
 ing and foolish, and I look upon the belief 
 of Spaniards that Spain ought to be great 
 and strong as the most promising agency of 
 her future regeneration. 
 
 This sensitive nerve of theirs has just 
 been jarred by the announcement, in a let- 
 ter from Washington, that "by a decree of 
 
 TIbc Uarlff 
 as a Club
 
 44 
 
 Hinpi'cssious of Spain 
 
 crcc of 
 
 tbc ipresfs 
 
 Dent " 
 
 the President, dated September 7, an addi- 
 tional tonnage duty of fifty cents the ton 
 (making eighty cents in all) has been laid 
 on all Spanish vessels entering American 
 ports." I had no information whatever on 
 the subject, nor could any be found in such 
 files of American papers as the legation 
 possessed. I knew, of course, that "a de- 
 cree of the President " showed an ignor- 
 ance of our Constitution worthy of certain 
 English ministers of fifteen years ago, and 
 that the so-called "decree" could be no- 
 thing more than the putting in force by the 
 Secretary of the Treasury of some provi- 
 sion in a previous act of Congress which 
 he was authorised to do Upon a certain con- 
 tingency. Under the circumstances, 1 was 
 not sure whether 1 ought not to think the 
 whole story an invention. But as, whether 
 true or not, it was making much excitement 
 here, 1 thought best to inquire by telegraph, 
 as I did two days ago. 1 found the Spanish 
 government as much in the dark as 1 was.
 
 James IRussell %o\vcli 
 
 45 
 
 The opposition press naturally enough 
 made the most of the affair, and advocated 
 immediate retaliation, hinting at a certain 
 want of national spirit in the ministry. The 
 ministerial papers, no better informed than 
 the rest of the world on a subject about 
 which nobody knew anything whatever, 
 were, of course, unwilling to be behind- 
 hand in patriotism, and equally so to advo- 
 cate any inconsiderate action. Both parties 
 are now agreed in counselling that an equiv- 
 alent tonnage duty should be laid upon 
 American vessels to the Peninsula and Ba- 
 learic Islands. The Madrid Society of Polit- 
 ical Economy, which is spoken of as a 
 body of much weight, has also appointed a 
 committee to wait upon the ministry with 
 a similar recommendation. Thus all parties 
 seem to be agreed that only one course is 
 consistent with the dignity and interest of 
 Spain. This is the more natural as the 
 protectionist party is powerful here, and 
 the ablest of the opposition journals, the 
 
 B Uempest 
 inaZeapot
 
 46 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 Senor 
 Silvela's 
 
 ImpLircial, is a fervent believer in tiie 
 virtues of a high tariff. I ought to add 
 that the tone of all the newspapers I have 
 seen has been perfectly dispassionate and 
 courteous. 
 
 In the absence of any more exciting po- 
 litical topic, this piece of news from Amer- 
 ica assumed a somewhat disproportionate 
 importance and gave some uneasiness to 
 the ministry, who were sincerely anxious 
 to preserve the most friendly relations with 
 the United States. The minister of state 
 at once made inquiries by telegraph of the 
 Spanish representative at Washington. His 
 answer was that such a tonnage duty had 
 been laid on Spanish vessels, and that he 
 would send further particulars in writing. 
 
 Yesterday Mr. Silvela called upon me, and 
 it was evident that the affair was giving him 
 a great deal of annoyance. He repeated 
 what I have already told you concerning 
 the attitude of the press and the current of 
 public opinion. He said that the ministry
 
 5ame5 IRussell Xowell 
 
 47 
 
 were exceedingly reluctant to adopt any 
 measure of retaliation, and would not do so 
 unless their hands were forced by consider- 
 ations of policy which they could not dis- 
 regard. He again spoke of the great effort 
 they had made to promote friendly feeling 
 on the part of the* United States in the pay- 
 ment of the indemnity in cash, when every 
 peseta — nay, every real — was a matter of 
 consequence to them, and when they were 
 making every possible exertion and sacrifice 
 to put their finances in a more tolerable 
 condition, even to the extent, he added, 
 with a smile, of laying a tax of twenty-five 
 per cent, on all official salaries. He wished 
 me to observe the analogy between their 
 situation and that of the United States 
 immediately after the Civil War. . . . 
 He urged the advantage to both Spain and 
 the United States of a treaty of commerce 
 and navigation, for which the occasion was 
 favourable. . . . 
 
 1 should not have thought it worth while 
 
 Spain's 
 ifrienfclTg 
 gccUng
 
 48 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 Spanish 
 
 Scnsttlves 
 
 nese 
 
 to write at so much length about this mat- 
 ter, were it not that it occupies public 
 attention here, and might, I think, if left 
 unexplained, give a wrong impression of 
 the feelings and intentions of the President 
 toward Spain. It must be remembered 
 that in spite of the advances made by Spain 
 toward an understanding of true political 
 principles, — and I think they are great, — the 
 old tradition of personal government is still 
 rooted in men's habits of thought, and this 
 leads insensibly to an attribution of mo- 
 tives and designs which have often no 
 foundation in reason or reality. At the 
 same time, by crediting the President with 
 powers and functions which do not belong 
 to him, false expectations are raised as to 
 what he may do motu propno, and the 
 necessary disappointment of these produces 
 that irritation which is not possible against 
 an abstraction. Spain, also, in the peculiar 
 difficulties of her position, is sensitive, and 
 perhaps suspicious, beyond what would be
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 49 
 
 natural under other circumstances. I can- 
 not but believe it the wish of the President 
 that every obstacle to a good understanding 
 which can honourably be removed may be 
 removed,' and that every reciprocation of 
 good feeling which can properly be made 
 may be made, as for the common interest 
 of both countries. In addition to what 
 Mr. Silvela asked me to remember, I could 
 not help recalling that of the western Eu- 
 ropean powers certainly none fulfilled her 
 obligations toward us during our Civil War 
 more faithfully than Spain. 
 
 20 May, 1879. 
 
 1 have the honour to report that we have 
 a new minister of state in place of the Mar- 
 quis of Molins, who resumes his former 
 post as ambassador at Paris. This is the 
 Duke of Tetuan, nephew of the celebrated 
 O'Donnell, and who has been minister at 
 Lisbon and Vienna. 
 
 I think there is every reason to be satis- 
 
 ' The duty was removed by President Hayes. 

 
 Hn 
 Bmiabic 
 /Dinistec 
 
 fied with the change. The duke is a very 
 amiable man, with excellent intentions, 
 who told me at our first official reception 
 that he "should try to be a continuation of 
 Mr. Silvela." Nothing would be more 
 satisfactory to the whole diplomatic body 
 here than this. 
 
 I feel quite sure that my official relations 
 with the new minister will be agreeable, 
 and that he will do for us whatever a per- 
 son in his position can. I said to him that 
 I thought the importance of the friendship 
 of the United States to Spain was hardly so 
 fully understood here as it should be. He 
 said in reply: "1 think / appreciate its 
 value," adding, with a smile, "my wife 
 was a Cuban."
 
 II 
 
 THE king's first MARRIAGE 
 
 51
 
 II 
 
 53 
 
 THE KINGS FIRST MARRIAGE 
 
 13 December, 1877. 
 
 WESTERDAY the diplomatic body re- 
 * ceived official communication of the 
 intended marriage of the King with his 
 cousin the Princess Mercedes, daughter of 
 the Duke of Montpensier. Thus the famous 
 Spanish marriages of thirty years ago, which 
 helped to dethrone Louis Philippe, have 
 borne fruit at last, and one of his grand- 
 children will share, though she cannot oc- 
 cupy, the throne of Spain. The result is 
 not precisely what was intended, but comes 
 nearer to being so than mortal plans or 
 prophecies commonly do. The King is 
 very intelligent and performs all his cere- 
 
 Spanisb 
 ^arvijigcs
 
 54 
 
 1Iniprei?5ion5 of Spain 
 
 H %ovc 
 /natcb 
 
 monial functions with grace. The Princess 
 is good looking, of suitable age, and has 
 been well and sensibly brought up. The 
 match is said, by those best entitled to 
 know, to be one of affection on both sides, 
 and so seldom does love contrive to win 
 his way into a palace under any disguise, 
 that I am quite ready to believe he has 
 managed it at last. Malice, no doubt, 
 would contrive to find ground in this case 
 also for some suspicion of a dynastic ar- 
 rangement, based on the hope of an Orlean- 
 ist restoration in France by the management 
 of the Duke of Broglie. It is so hard, how- 
 ever, to make out the truth of history, even 
 after it has been written with seeming 
 clearness in events, that it is hardly worth 
 while attempting to divine the precise bear- 
 ing and significance of such parts of it as 
 do not contrive to get written at all. If 
 any such hope conduced to the present 
 matrimonial arrangement, it has been ap- 
 parently baffled by the admirable self-re-
 
 5ame5 IRussell Xowell 
 
 55 
 
 straint of the French people. It would 
 certainly have been a very natural and even 
 praiseworthy hope, if ever entertained, 
 from a Spanish point of view, but that it 
 had any influence at all in the affair is no- 
 thing more than a surmise that has some- 
 times suggested itself to my mind during the 
 last few months. At any rate it is a truce, 
 not a peace, that nas been arrived at in 
 France, and that as the result rather of a 
 drawn battle than of a victory. 
 
 The royal wedding is to take place on 
 the 23d of next month, with as much as 
 possible of traditional Spanish ceremony 
 and modes of public rejoicing. Meanwhile, 
 as a natural preliminary, the price of every 
 thing has doubled in Madrid, and the city 
 is reckoning, in what is generally called by 
 Europeans a very American spirit, on the 
 profit to be made out of the strangers v/ho 
 will be tempted into its net. 
 
 Before this reaches you, you will doubt- 
 less have received an official communi- 
 
 mwecs 
 
 Hmerlcan 
 Spliit
 
 56 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 Congratus 
 
 (ating tbe 
 
 IKing. 
 
 cation through the Spanish Minister at 
 Washington. 
 
 3 February, 1878. 
 
 Immediately on receiving the President's 
 telegram congratulating the King upon his 
 approaching marriage, I communicated the 
 substance of it to the Minister of State and 
 asked for an audience that I might present 
 it in person to His Majesty. On Monday 
 (the 2ist ultimo) accordingly I was received 
 by King Alfonso in private audience and 
 delivered my message, at the same time 
 adding that it gave me particular pleasure to 
 be the bearer of it. The King in reply 
 desired me to convey to the President his 
 great pleasure in receiving this expression 
 of sympathy from the Chief Magistrate of 
 a people with which he wished always to 
 maintain and draw closer the most friendly 
 relations. A very gracefully turned com- 
 pliment to the messenger followed. 
 
 The King, 1 may add, performs all these 
 ceremonial parts of his function with a
 
 James IRusscll Xowell 
 
 57 
 
 grace, tact and good humour which have 
 struck me as indicating a singularly agile 
 intelligence as well as an amiable character. 
 
 I think that this act of courtesy on the 
 part of the President has really given pleas- 
 ure here, and has not been entirely lost in 
 the throng of special ambassadors who 
 have been despatched hither with numer- 
 ous suites to pay the royal compliments of 
 the occasion. 
 
 As these special ambassadors had been 
 received in public audience, 1 had some 
 doubt whether 1 ought to consent, as being 
 in this case the immediate representative 
 of the President, to be received privately. 
 But the time was too short for much con- 
 sideration. The audience was to be at 
 half-past one o'clock, and I received notice 
 of it only the night before. Had it been a 
 letter of the President, I should have in- 
 sisted on its being received publicly. As it 
 was, I thought it most prudent and grace- 
 ful to admit the distinction between Ex- 
 
 terfal
 
 58 
 
 llmpressions of Spain 
 
 Zbc Slows 
 
 Ooing 
 
 Sespatcbs 
 
 Sag 
 
 traordinary Ambassadors sent with great 
 pomp to bring gifts and decorations, and a 
 mere Minister Plenipotentiary, especially as 
 it would have otherwise been impossible 
 to deliver the message at all before the 
 wedding. 
 
 The difficulty was heightened by my 
 having only just risen from a very severe 
 attack of illness, which made it necessary 
 for me to economise my strength in order 
 to take any part at all in the ceremonies. 
 
 6 February, 1878. 
 
 In these days of newspaper enterprise, 
 when everything that happens, ought to 
 happen, or might have happened, is re- 
 ported by telegraph to all quarters of the 
 world, the slow-going despatch bag can 
 hardly be expected to bring anything very 
 fresh or interesting in regard to a public 
 ceremonial which, though intended for po- 
 litical effect, had little political significance. 
 The next-morning frames of fireworks are
 
 Samcs IRussell Xowell 
 
 59 
 
 not inspiring except to the moralist, and Ma- 
 drid is already quarrelling over the cost and 
 mismanagement of a show for the tickets to 
 which it was quarrelling a week ago. Yet 
 a few words will not be out of place upon 
 a royal holiday which but yesterday divided 
 the attention of the world with the awful 
 historical tragedy of the East and the mo- 
 mentous social problems which are looming 
 in the West. Nowhere in the world could a 
 spectacle have been presented which recalled 
 so various, so far-reaching and in some 
 respects so sublime associations, yet rend- 
 ered depressing by a sense of anachronism, 
 of decay, and of that unreality which is all 
 the sadder for being gorgeous. The Ro- 
 man amphitheatre (panem et cir censes), 
 the united escutcheons from whose quar- 
 tering dates the downfall of Saracenic civil- 
 ization and dominion in Spain ; the banners 
 of Lepanto and of the Inquisition fading 
 together into senile oblivion on the walls 
 of the Atocha ; the names and titles that 
 
 ©oifleous 
 tliuealitw
 
 6o 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 HSa33linfl 
 picture 
 
 recalled the conquest of western empires 
 or the long defeat whose heroism established 
 the independence of the United Provinces 
 and proved that a confederacy of traders 
 could be heroic ; the stage-coaches, plumed 
 horses, blazing liveries and running foot- 
 men of Louis Quatorze ; the partisans of 
 Philip III.'s body-guard, the three-cornered 
 hats, white breeches and long black gaiters 
 of a century ago, mingled pellmell with the 
 French shakos and red trousers of to-day ; 
 the gay or sombre costumes from every 
 province of Spain, some recalling the Moor 
 and some the motley mercenaries of Lope 
 de Figueroa ; the dense and mostly silent 
 throng which lined for miles the avenue to 
 the church, crowding the windows with 
 white mantillas, fringing the eaves and 
 ridgepoles, and clustered like swarming 
 bees on every kind of open ground ; all 
 these certainly touched the imagination, 
 but, in my case, at least, with a chill as of 
 the dead man's hand that played so large
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 6i 
 
 a part in earlier incantations to recall the 
 buried or delay the inevitable. There was 
 everything to remind one of the past ; there 
 was nothing to suggest the future. 
 
 And yet I am unjust. There were the 
 young King and his bride radiant with 
 spirit and hope, rehearsing the idyl which 
 is charming alike to youth and age, and 
 giving pledges, as I hope and believe, of 
 more peaceful and prosperous years to 
 come for a country which has had too much 
 glory and too little good housekeeping. 
 No one familiar with Spanish history, or 
 who has even that superficial knowledge 
 of her national character which is all that 
 a foreigner is capable of acquiring, can ex- 
 pect any sudden or immediate regeneration. 
 The bent of ages is not to be straightened 
 in a day by never so many liberal constitu- 
 tions, nor by the pedantic application of 
 theories drawn from foreign experience, 
 the result of a wholly different past. 
 
 If the ninety years since the French Revo- 
 
 Ube Iking 
 an^ 1hi3 
 
 36ri&e
 
 Umpressions ot Spain 
 
 /IDorc than 
 
 a /IDcre 
 
 Sbcw 
 
 lution have taught anything, it is that insti- 
 tutions grow, and cannot be made to order, 
 — that they grow out of an actual past, and 
 are not to be conspired out of a conjectural 
 future, — that human nature is stronger than 
 any invention of man. How much of this 
 lesson has been learned in Spain, it is hard 
 to say ; but if the young King apply his 
 really acute intelligence, as those who know 
 him best believe he will, to the conscientious 
 exercise of constitutional powers and the 
 steady development of parliamentary meth- 
 ods, till party leaders learn that an ounce of 
 patience is worth a pound of passion, Spain 
 may at length count on that duration of 
 tranquility the want of which has been the 
 chief obstacle to her material development. 
 Looked at in this light, the pomps of the 
 wedding festival on the 23d of last month 
 may be something more than a mere show. 
 Nor should it be forgotten that here it is 
 not the idea of Law but of Power that is 
 rooted in the consciousness of the people,
 
 Barnes TRussell Xowell 
 
 63 
 
 and that ceremonial is the garment of 
 Authority. 
 
 Madrid, as you know, being an impro- 
 vised capital, is not the see of a bishop, 
 and accordingly has no cathedral. The 
 Atocha is a small church, and the ceremony 
 there was necessarily private, thus lacking 
 the popular afflitente and the perspective 
 which a building of ample proportions 
 would have given to it. But the splendour 
 of the costumes, especially those of the 
 higher clergy and the heralds at arms, which 
 are the same now as five hundred years 
 ago, gave one the feeling that he saw the 
 original scene of some illuminated page in 
 Froissart. I was struck by the great num- 
 ber of times that the phrase rey catolico de 
 Espana was repeated during the wedding 
 service, and with the emphasis which the 
 officiating prelate, the Archbishop of To- 
 ledo, seemed to lay upon the adjective, the 
 legal title of Alfonso XII. being rey consii- 
 Uicional. I was struck also with the look 
 
 Catoltco"
 
 64 
 
 flmpressions ot Spain 
 
 trbc past 
 
 (Xom(ng 
 
 35ac): 
 
 of genuine happiness in the faces of the 
 royal bride and bridegroom, which strongly 
 confirmed the opinion of those who believe 
 that the match is one of love and not of 
 convenience. 
 
 The ceremony over, the King and Queen 
 preceded by the Cabinet Ministers, the 
 special ambassadors, and the grandees of 
 Spain, and followed by other personages, 
 all in coaches of state, drove at a footpace to 
 the Palace, where Their Majesties received 
 the congratulations of the Court, and after- 
 wards passed in review the garrison of 
 Madrid. By invitation of the President of 
 the Council, the Foreign Legations wit- 
 nessed the royal procession from the bal- 
 conies of the Presidency. It was a very 
 picturesque spectacle, and yet so comically 
 like a scene from Cinderella as to have a 
 strong flavour of unreality. It was the past 
 coming back again, and thus typified one 
 of the chronic maladies of Spain. There 
 was no enthusiasm, nothing more than the
 
 Barnes IRussell Xowell 
 
 65 
 
 curiosity of idleness wj-iicii would have 
 drawn as great a crowd to gape at the 
 entry of a Japanese ambassador. I heard 
 none of the shouts of which I read in some 
 of the newspapers the next day. No in- 
 ference, however, should be drawn from 
 this as to the popularity or unpopularity of 
 the King. The people of the capital have 
 been promised the millenium too often, 
 and have been too constantly disappointed 
 to indulge in many illusions. Spain, iso- 
 lated as in many respects she is, cannot 
 help suffering in sympathy with the com- 
 mercial depression of the rest of the world, 
 and Spaniards, like the rest of mankind, 
 look to a change of ministry for a change 
 in the nature of things. The internal poli- 
 cies of the country (even if I could hope to 
 understand them, as I am studying to do) 
 do not come directly within my province ; 
 but it is safe to say that Spain is lucky in 
 having her ablest recent statesman at the 
 head of affairs, though at the cost of many 
 
 •ffjope 
 S)efe^•re^
 
 66 
 
 llinpressious ot Spain 
 
 H (5l•an^ 
 
 public 
 
 IRcccption 
 
 Other private ambitions. That he has to 
 steer according to the prevailing set of the 
 wind is perhaps rather the necessity of his 
 position than the fault of his inclination. 
 Whoever has seen the breasts of the peas- 
 antry fringed with charms older than Car- 
 thage and relics as old as Rome, and those 
 of the upper classes plastered with decora- 
 tions, will not expect Spain to become con- 
 scious of the nineteenth century, and ready 
 to welcome it, in a day. 
 
 On Thursday there was a grand public 
 reception at the Palace, at which five thou- 
 sand persons are said to have filed before 
 Their Majesties in witness of their loyalty. 
 All palaces since the grand siecle have been 
 more or less tawdry, but that of Madrid 
 has a certain massive dignity, and the 
 throne-room especially has space and height 
 enough to give proper effect to ceremonies 
 of this kind. The young Queen wore her 
 crown for the first time, and performed 
 her new functions with the grace of entire
 
 5ainc5 IRussell Xowell 
 
 67 
 
 self-possession. The ceremony, naturally 
 somewhat tedious in itself, acquired more 
 interest from the fact that the presence or 
 absence of certain personages was an event 
 of more or less political importance. 
 
 In the evening there was a dinner to the 
 special ambassadors and the Diplomatic 
 Corps, followed by a very crowded recep- 
 tion at the Palace of the Presidency, at 
 which all of Madrid that has a name seemed 
 to be present. The fine apartments were 
 crowded until half-past tv/o in the morning. 
 The street on which the Palace stands (the 
 Alcala) was so crammed for its whole length 
 with people, that the carriages of Ministers 
 on their way to the dinner were unable to 
 pass. The mob (and a Madrid mob is no 
 joke) became so threatening that foreign 
 representatives were forced to renounce 
 their privilege of free passage and to reach 
 their dinners in a more roundabout and di- 
 plomatic fashion. It is to the credit of 
 their professional ability that all arrived in 
 
 Driving 
 tbiougb 
 tbc flDob
 
 68 
 
 llmpressious of Spain 
 
 lowell's 
 
 ffirst 
 
 .iGulUfflgbt 
 
 season. I have seen nothing so characteris- 
 tic since my arrival as the wild faces, threat- 
 ening gestures and frightful imprecations of 
 this jam of human beings, which, reason- 
 ably enough, refused to be driven over. 
 
 On Friday took place the first bull-fight, 
 at which every inhabitant of Madrid and 
 all foreigners commorant therein deemed it 
 their natural right to be present. The latter, 
 indeed, asserted that the teleological reason 
 for the existence of legations was to sup- 
 ply their countrymen with tickets to this 
 particular spectacle for nothing. Though 
 1 do not share in the belief that the sole use 
 of a foreign minister is to save the cost of 
 a valet de place to people who can perfectly 
 well afford to pay for one, 1 did all 1 could 
 to have my countrymen fare as well as 
 the rest of the world. And so they did, if 
 they were willing to buy the tickets which 
 were for sale at every corner. The distri- 
 bution of them had been performed on 
 some principle unheard of out of Spain and
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 69 
 
 apparently not understood even there, so 
 that everybody was dissatisfied, most of all 
 those who got them. 
 
 The day was as disagreeable as the Prince 
 of the Powers of the Air could make it, 
 even with special reference to a festival. 
 A furious and bitterly cold wind discharged 
 volleys of coarse dust, which stung like 
 sleet, in every direction at once, and seemed 
 always to threaten rain or snow, but unable 
 to make up its mind as to which would be 
 most unpleasant, decided on neither. Yet 
 the broad avenue to the amphitheatre v/as 
 continually blocked by the swarm of vehi- 
 cles of every shape, size, colour, and dis- 
 comfort that the nightmare of a bankrupt 
 livery stabler could have invented. All the 
 hospitals and prisons for decayed or con- 
 demned carriages seemed to have discharged 
 their inmates for the day, and all found 
 willing victims. And yet all Madrid seemed 
 flocking toward the common magnet on 
 foot also. 
 
 SSuffeted 
 bg tbe
 
 H 
 
 Sbocking 
 
 Spectacle 
 
 I attended oftkially, as a matter of duty, 
 and escaped early. It was my first bull- 
 fight and will be my last. To me it was a 
 shocking and brutalising spectacle in which 
 all my sympathies were on the side of the 
 bull. As 1 came out 1 was nearly ridden 
 down by a mounted guard, owing to my 
 want of any official badge. For the mo- 
 ment 1 almost wished myself the representa- 
 tive of Liberia. Since this dreadful day the 
 1 6, GOG spectators who were so happy as to 
 be present have done nothing but blow 
 their noses and cough. 
 
 By far the prettiest and most interesting 
 feature of the week was the dancing, in the 
 pla^a de armas before the Palace, of depu- 
 tations from all the provinces of Spain, in 
 their picturesque costumes. The dances 
 were rather curious than graceful, and it 
 was odd that the only one which we are 
 accustomed to consider preeminently Span- 
 ish, the cachticha, was performed by two 
 professional dancers. The rest had, how-
 
 Barnes IRusscll Xowell 
 
 71 
 
 ever, a higher interest from their manifest 
 antiquity and almost rudimentary characters. 
 When the dances were over, the deputa- 
 tions were ranged in file, and passed in 
 review by the King and his guests. One 
 was struck t)y the general want of beauty, 
 whether of face or form, in both sexes, 
 and by the lowness of stature. But there 
 was great vigour of body and the hard feat- 
 ures had an expression of shrewdness and 
 honesty. By far the prettiest among the 
 women were those from Andalusia. 
 
 The same evening (Sunday) the King 
 entertained the special ambassadors and 
 diplomatic body at dinner, and this was 
 followed by a reception. A dinner where 
 one is planted between two entire strangers, 
 and expected to be entertaining in an alien 
 tongue, will, one may hope, be reckoned 
 to our credit in another world. The recep- 
 tion had one striking and novel feature, 
 and this was the marching past of the 
 Madrid garrison with colored lanterns and 
 
 JDanclng 
 
 tbc 
 Cacbucba
 
 72 
 
 Umpressions ot Spain 
 
 En^ of tbc 
 jfeetfvitiee 
 
 torches. It was a spectacle of vivid pic- 
 turesqueness. 
 
 Besides these hospitalities there were two 
 performances at the opera, which I did not 
 attend. During the whole week the city 
 was gay with coloured hangings by day, 
 and bright with illuminations (some of 
 them very pretty) by night. 
 
 At last the natural order of things began 
 again. As on all such occasions there had 
 been long and constantly heightening ex- 
 pectation, short fruition, and general relief 
 when all was over. Everybody grumbled, 
 everybody could have managed things bet- 
 ter; and yet on the whole, 1 think, every- 
 thing went off almost better than could 
 have been expected.
 
 Ill 
 
 THE DEATH OF QUEEN MERCEDES 
 
 73
 
 Ill 
 
 THE DEATH OF QUEEN MERCEDES 
 
 75 
 
 3 July, 1S78. 
 
 A T my first interview witli Mr. Silvela 
 -'*' after my return from my furlough, 
 he told me tiiat the Queen was ill. Driving 
 too late, he said, by the side of the lake in 
 the Casa del Campo, she had taken cold; 
 some symptoms of fever had shown them- 
 selves; there were fears lest these should 
 assume a typhoidal character; the symp- 
 toms were complicated and the diagnosis 
 made less easy by her being with child ; as 
 she had already miscarried once, the doctors 
 might order her to keep her bed or a re- 
 clining- chair for months to come ; naturally 
 there was some anxiety, but her youth and 
 
 for tbc 
 ®ueen
 
 76 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 U Cbange 
 foe tbe 
 UUorse 
 
 Strong constitution were greatly in her fa- 
 vour. Mr. Silvela spoke with a great deal 
 of feeling, but certainly did not give me 
 the impression that the case was so verv 
 serious, much less that it was hopeless. It 
 seemed rather to be only a question whether 
 the Queen would be able to hold the recep- 
 tion which had been announced for her 
 birthday (the 24th). 
 
 This was on the 19th of June. Two 
 days afterward I read in the morning paper 
 that the case was putting on a grave look, 
 and that the physicians hitherto in attend- 
 ance (all of them accoucheurs) began to 
 fear that the real disease was gastric fever, 
 all the more to be dreaded in the Queen's 
 case, as one of her sisters had died of it, 
 and one of her brothers, after lingering a 
 year, of the weakness consequent upon an 
 attack of it. I at once went over to the 
 Palace to make inquiries and to inscribe my 
 name in the book placed for the purpose in 
 the Mayordomia Mayor. I did not see Mr.
 
 5ames IRussell Xowell 
 
 77 
 
 Silvela, but Senor Ferraz, the under secre- 
 tary, told me that the Queen's condition 
 was alarming. 
 
 Next day the crowd of inquirers (a crowd 
 embracing all classes) became so great that 
 a separate register for the Diplomatic Corps 
 was placed in the department of state, and 
 regular bulletins began to be issued three 
 times a day. 
 
 Up to this time the situation of the 
 Queen could not have been considered as 
 one of eminent danger, for the Duke and 
 Duchess of Montpensier had not been sum- 
 moned, and the patient was still attended 
 only by the physicians already mentioned. 
 The first consultation at which eminent 
 practitioners from outside the Palace at- 
 tended, took place on the 24th. Meanwhile, 
 the wildest and, I may say, most atrocious 
 rumours were current among the vulgar, 
 so atrocious, indeed, that I will not shock 
 you with a repetition of them. 
 
 From this time forward I went several 
 
 K^umora 
 Current
 
 78 
 
 llmpressions of Spain 
 
 UbeCluecii 
 passes 
 Bwas 
 
 times every day to ask for news at the Pal- 
 ace. Even so late as Tuesday the 2sth the 
 case was not thought desperate. On that 
 day I was assured that it was the opinion 
 of the physicians that if the internal hemor- 
 rhage (which had been one of the worst 
 features of the case) did not recur during 
 the night, recovery was certain. It did not 
 recur, but nevertheless the weakness of 
 the sufferer became so excessive that ex- 
 treme unction was administered early on 
 the morning of Wednesday. After this 
 there was a slight rally, followed by a rapid 
 loss of strength and consciousness, ending 
 in death at a quarter past twelve. 
 
 During the last few days of the Queen's 
 illness, the aspect of the city had been 
 strikingly impressive. It was, 1 think, sens- 
 ibly less noisy than usual, as if it were all 
 a chamber of death, in which the voice 
 must be bated. Groups gathered and talked 
 in undertone. About the Palace there was 
 a silent crowd day and night, and there
 
 3ames IRussell Xowell 
 
 79 
 
 could be no question that the sorrow was 
 universal and profound. On the last day I 
 was at the Palace just when the poor girl 
 was dying. As I crossed the great interior 
 courtyard, which was perfectly empty, 1 
 was startled by a dull roar not unlike that 
 of the vehicles in a great city. It was 
 reverberated and multiplied by the huge 
 cavern of the Palace court. At first I could 
 see nothing that accounted for it, but pres- 
 ently found that the arched corridors all 
 around the square were filled, both on the 
 ground floor and the first storey, with an 
 anxious crowd, whose eager questions and 
 answers, though subdued to the utmost, 
 produced the strange thunder I had heard. 
 It almost seemed for a moment as if the 
 Palace itself had became vocal. 
 
 At the time of the royal marriage I told 
 you that the crowd in the streets was indif- 
 ferent and silent. My own impression was 
 confirmed by that of others. The match 
 was certainly not popular, nor did the bride 
 
 H Ubun^cr 
 
 of '^3u8be^ 
 
 Voices
 
 8o 
 
 llmpressions of Spain 
 
 Sorrow 
 
 an& 
 
 S^mpatbTC 
 
 call forth any marks of public sympathy. 
 The position of the young Queen was dif- 
 ficult and delicate, demanding more than 
 common tact and discretion to make it even 
 tenable, much more, influential. On the 
 day of her death the difference was im- 
 mense. Sorrow and sympathy were in 
 every heart and on every face. By her 
 good temper, good sense, and womanly 
 virtues, the girl of seventeen had not only 
 endeared herself to those immediately about 
 her, but had become an important factor in 
 the destiny of Spain. 1 know very well 
 what divinity doth hedge royal personages, 
 and how truly legendary they become even 
 during their lives, but it is no exaggeration 
 to say that she had made herself an element 
 of the public welfare, and that her death is 
 a national calamity. Had she lived she 
 would have given stability to the throne of 
 her husband, over whom her influence was 
 wholly for good. She was not beautiful, 
 but the cordial simplicity of her manner.
 
 Barnes IRussell Xowell 
 
 8i 
 
 the grace of her bearing, her fine eyes, and 
 the youth and purity of her face gave her 
 a charm that mere beauty never attains. 
 
 Seldom has an event combined more 
 impressive circumstances. Youth, station, 
 love, happiness, promise, every element of 
 hope and confidence, were present to give 
 pathos to the sudden catastrophe. It seemed 
 but yesterday that she had passed through 
 the city in bridal triumph. On that day, 
 as in most Spanish ceremonies of the kind, 
 an empty carriage, called a coche de respeto. 
 was one of the peculiar features of the pro- 
 cession. On the day of the funeral the 
 coche de respeto was the huge vehicle (pro- 
 phetically, as it should almost seem, named 
 de ambos mundos), drawn by eight white 
 horses, in which we had seen her pass a 
 happy bride. Surely the two worlds were 
 never more impressively brought face to 
 face. 
 
 Grief and sympathy were universal, and 
 with these a not unnatural anxiety about 
 
 Hlpatbetlc 
 Catass 
 tropbe
 
 82 
 
 Umpressions ot Spain 
 
 ■Ring's 
 /manliness 
 
 the future. The young King has borne 
 himself with great manliness and self-re- 
 straint, though his face shows deep marks 
 of the trial he has endured and has still to 
 endure. The Duke and Duchess of Mont- 
 pensier receive less sympathy, for, as gen- 
 erally on such occasions, there are not 
 wanting those who see in the Queen's 
 death a blow of retributive justice for the 
 royal marriages of 1846, forgetting into 
 how many obscure households Death may 
 have entered on the same day and left be- 
 hind him the same desolation. 
 
 One cannot help recalling the familiar 
 stanza of Malherbe : 
 
 " Le pauvre en sa cabane qui de chaume se couvre 
 Est sujet a ses lois, 
 Et la garde qui veiile aux barrieres du Louvre 
 N'en defend point nosrois." 
 
 The moment 1 heard of the Queen's death 
 1 sent a note to Mr. Silvela, of which a 
 copy is annexed. I also, on receiving the 
 President's despatch, instantly inclosed to
 
 5ames IRussell Xowell 
 
 him a copy of it. I was very glad tFiat the 
 President thought proper to send it, for it 
 could not fail to be grateful, as, indeed, I 
 am sure it has been. 
 
 To-day at noon the Diplomatic Corps 
 were received in audiences of condolence 
 (painfully trying on both sides) by the King, 
 the Princess of Asturias, and the Duke and 
 Duchess of Montpensier, with their surviv- 
 ing unmarried daughter. The King leaves 
 to-morrow morning for the Escorial, where 
 it is said he will spend a month. 
 
 On the 17th of this month a solemn mass 
 for the repose of the late Queen's soul will 
 be celebrated at the expense and under the 
 direction of the Government. The other 
 foreign ministers here have written to their 
 respective governments, asking to be dep- 
 uted as special envoys for that occasion. 
 I shall accordingly send you a telegram 
 asking whether, in case they should be so 
 deputed, I should assume the same func- 
 tion myself. 
 
 Hu6(cncc6 
 
 of Con^ols 
 
 ence
 
 IV 
 
 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE 
 KING 
 
 85
 
 IV 
 
 87 
 
 ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE 
 KING 
 
 October 29, 187S. 
 T^HE telegraph will have long ago in- 
 
 * formed you of the attempt made last 
 
 Friday (25th) upon the life of the King. 
 
 As the Minister of Foreign Affairs at once 
 
 sent off telegrams to all Spanish ministers 
 
 abroad, I did not think it necessary to send 
 
 a cable dispatch. 
 
 The King was making his entry into 
 
 Madrid on his return from a tour of several 
 
 weeks in the northern provinces, in the 
 
 course of which he had directed the autumn 
 
 manoeuvres of the troops at Vitoria. It was 
 
 his first public appearance in Madrid since 
 
 the death of his Queen on the 26th of June, 
 
 B ^Bullet 
 
 for 
 Blfongo
 
 88 
 
 Umprcssions ot Spain 
 
 Silence 
 of tbc 
 Crow6 
 
 and it was no doubt hoped, if not expected, 
 that the still surviving sympathy with that 
 great calamity would communicate some of 
 its warmth to the crowd v/hich lined the 
 streets through which he passed. In spite 
 of the officially reported enthusiasm, the 
 young monarch's reception in the north had 
 been more than cool. His tour, so far as 
 concerns any political effect, had been so 
 complete a failure that the original route 
 sketched out for him had been changed, 
 and he forbore to visit certain towns rather 
 than run the risk of hostile demonstrations 
 more emphatic than silence. Perhaps Ma- 
 drid would be less indifferent. Friday was 
 a chilly and lowering day, but the profound 
 silence of the throng which had gathered 
 to see the pageant go by added a chill to 
 that of the weather. The official cheers 
 from the Government buildings but empha- 
 sised the general silence. 
 
 The King was passing along the Calle 
 Mayor, and drawing near to the Palace.
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 89 
 
 Hitherto he had gone at a foot-pace, but 
 now, as he said afterwards, "he began to 
 be impatient to get home," and spurred his 
 horse to a trot. Just as he did so, a shot 
 was heard. The King, who showed great 
 coolness, reined up, and faced in the direc- 
 tion from which it came. The would-be 
 assassin, who had moved a few paces from 
 where he had been standing, and had put 
 on the air of an interested spectator, was 
 pointed out by some women who had seen 
 him fire, and at once arrested. No pistol 
 was found upon him (though there were 
 caps and cartridges in his pocket), nor has 
 any since been traced. He is said to have 
 fired twice, but only one ball has been found, 
 and this had apparently rebounded after 
 striking the house opposite. At first it was 
 reported that a soldier had been slightly 
 wounded ; then that the ball had passed 
 through the sleeve of his coat, and now 
 even this seems doubtful. 
 The criminal is a young man named 
 
 "Cbe 
 Criminal 
 Captures
 
 90 
 
 Umpresslons of Spain 
 
 B^ar^OM 
 
 Umposs 
 
 Bible 
 
 Oliva, a Catalonian, and by trade a cooper. 
 He belongs to a respectable family in easy 
 circumstances, who found it impossible to 
 restrain his irregular tendencies, and to give 
 him a career more suitable to their own 
 condition in life. He at once avowed his 
 crime, and with melodramatic dignity an- 
 nounced himself a socialist and member of 
 the International. He denied having ac- 
 complices, though the disappearance of his 
 pistol seems to imply it. It is a curious 
 illustration of the artificial state of politics 
 here, that, although the King would natur- 
 ally be glad to pardon the criminal, it is said 
 that he will be unable to do so lest the 
 whole affair should seem a tragic comedy 
 arranged beforehand between the ministrv 
 and the actors as a test of popular sentiment. 
 On Saturday, the 26th, the King received 
 the felicitations of the diplomatic body. 
 Among other things he said to me, "I al- 
 most wish he had hit me, I am so tired." 
 Indeed, his position is a trying one, and 1
 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 91 
 
 feel sure that if he were allowed more 
 freely to follow his own impulses and to 
 break through the hedge of etiquette which 
 the conservative wing of the restoration 
 have planted between him and his people, 
 his natural qualities of character and tem- 
 perament would make him popular. 
 
 On the same afternoon (Saturday) the 
 Kino: drove out with his sister the Princess 
 of Asturias, himself holding the reins, and 
 without guards. He was well received by 
 the people, though the effect was dampened 
 by the factitious enthusiasm of some sol- 
 diers, who, it is said, had been blunderingly 
 detailed for the purpose by the captain- 
 general of the province. 
 
 The only possible effect, or perhaps I 
 should say consequence, of the event of 
 Friday, would be to make the policy of 
 the present ministry more reactionary and 
 repressive. Already the Poiiiica, the or- 
 gan, as it is called, of Sefior Canovas, is 
 urging such a course, and declaring that the 
 
 witbout 
 
 '&""t3
 
 92 
 
 flmprcssions ot Spain 
 
 /Dr. 
 
 SewarB'8 
 'Cclegram 
 
 act of Moncasi ' is but a symptom of the 
 general feeling of Catalonia, with which 
 province severe measures should be taken. 
 But the majority even of the ministerial 
 press is more sensible and not yet ready to 
 identify political opposition either with 
 regicide or rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Seward's telegram directing me to 
 convey to His Majesty the congratulations 
 of the President and the people of the 
 United States on his providential escape 
 was received on Sunday morning. I at 
 once communicated it to the Minister of 
 State in the note of which a copy is inclosed, 
 and on the following day received Mr. 
 Silvela's reply, a copy and translation of 
 which are also hereto annexed. 
 
 ' The would-be assassin's name was Juan Oliva y 
 Moncasi.
 
 V 
 
 GENERAL GRANT'S VISIT TO SPAIN 
 
 93
 
 V 
 
 GENERAL GRANT S VISIT TO SPAIN 
 
 95 
 
 October 29, 1878. 
 
 {HAVE the honour to inform you that 
 General Grant arrived here on the morn- 
 ing of the 1 8th. At the station he was 
 received by the civil governor of the pro- 
 vince, by a general and two aides-de-camp 
 on the part of the Minister of War, and 
 by the members of this legation. At all 
 the stations on the road he was greeted 
 by the local authorities. Though he ar- 
 rived in Madrid on the day he originally 
 fixed, he had entered Spain three days 
 earlier than he intended, in compliance with 
 an invitation of the King (received through 
 the Spanish consul at Bordeaux) to be pre- 
 sent at the autumn manoeuvres near Vitoria. 
 
 arrival of 
 
 ©eneial 
 
 ©rant
 
 96 
 
 "(Impressions of Spain 
 
 lowcll 
 
 E)ines 
 
 tbc efe 
 
 Ipreeibent 
 
 General Grant while there was presented 
 to the King, dined with him, and rode by 
 his side during one of the reviews. He 
 spoke in very warm terms of the excellent 
 quality, appearance, and discipline of the 
 Spanish troops. 
 
 During his stay here he visited the various 
 museums, the Escorial and Toledo. To 
 the last place I was unable to accompany 
 him on account of an engagement to dine 
 with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 
 Saturday he and Mrs. Grant were received 
 in private audience by the Princess of 
 Asturias. On Monday evening they dined 
 at my house, meeting the president of the 
 council, the ministers of foreign affairs and 
 of war, the civil and military governors, 
 and the principal foreign ministers. After 
 the dinner a reception took place, where as 
 many persons as my house would accom- 
 modate were presented to the General and 
 Mrs. Grant. 
 
 The next day Mr. Canovas del Castillo
 
 Raines IRussell Xowell 
 
 97 
 
 gave a great dinner in honour of General 
 Grant at the Palace of the Presidency, after 
 which the chief guests withdrew to the 
 opera, where the ministerial box had been 
 put at their disposal, and whither Mrs. 
 Grant had gone earlier in the evening. 
 
 General Grant left Madrid on Friday, the 
 25th, at nine o'clock p.m., for Lisbon, the 
 Portuguese Minister here having already 
 telegraphed his coming in order that he 
 should be properly received. In conse- 
 quence of this latter circumstance it was 
 impossible for him to delay his departure in 
 order to take formal leave of the King, as 
 he otherwise would gladly have done. 1 
 made the proper explanations and apologies 
 to His Majesty at our reception next day. 
 
 Every possible attention and courtesy 
 were shown to General Grant during his 
 stay by the Spanish Government, and the 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs took occasion 
 to tell me that these civilities were intended 
 not only to show respect and good will to 
 
 Sfgniflcant 
 CivtUtiea
 
 98 
 
 Hinpressions ot Spain 
 
 -Cbc 
 
 Ocncral's 
 
 ©ratlflcas 
 
 tlon 
 
 General Grant, but to the Government and 
 people of the United States. 
 
 General Grant several times expressed to 
 me very warmly his pleasure and satisfac- 
 tion at the manner in which he had been 
 received and treated. Both he and Mrs. 
 Grant spoke repeatedly of the great enjoy- 
 ment they had had in their visit. 
 
 From Portugal General Grant goes to 
 Cadiz, and thence to Malaga. From Mal- 
 aga he will visit Granada, Cordova, and 
 Seville, going thence to Gibraltar. Mr. 
 Silvela begged me to keep him informed of 
 the General's movements in Spain, in order 
 that the necessary orders might be given 
 for his fitting reception everywhere by the 
 public authorities.
 
 VI 
 
 THE king's second MARRIAGE 
 
 99
 
 VI 
 
 THE KINGS SECOND MARRIAGE 
 
 lOI 
 
 16 November, 1879. 
 
 I HAVE the honour to enclose copy and 
 * translation of the official note commun- 
 icating the intended marriage of the King, 
 and also a copy of my reply. 
 
 Naturally this event does not excite either 
 the sympathies or the animosities awakened 
 by the wedding of twenty-two months 
 ago, and it occurs at a time when the 
 country is saddened by the terrible inunda- 
 tions of Murcia, and public attention dis- 
 tracted by the recent news from Cuba. 
 The young Archduchess is said to possess 
 qualities likely to render her popular, if 
 only she is able to disarm the criticism to 
 which any foreign and perhaps especially 
 
 /IRarla 
 Gbiistina
 
 I02 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 1R0 
 political 
 Signifis 
 cancc 
 
 any Austrian princess will be exposed in 
 Spain. 
 
 The match is declared to have no politi- 
 cal significance whatever, though circum- 
 stances may easily be imagined in which 
 the eagerness of many Spaniards that Spain 
 should follow the example of Italy under 
 the leadership of Cavour might guide it in 
 an importance which it does not intrinsic- 
 ally possess. 
 
 15 December, 1879. 
 
 1 have not deemed it necessary to trouble 
 you with any details of the royal wedding, 
 which differed in no respect from that of 
 two years ago, fully described in my de- 
 spatch at the time. The only notable dif- 
 ference was the presence of the Queen 
 Mother, who naturally absented herself 
 from the former ceremony, in which a 
 daughter of the brother-in-law who had 
 been the main instrument of her dethrone- 
 ment was the bride.
 
 Barnes TRusscll Xowell 
 
 103 
 
 It is a curious fact tliat the ex-Queen was 
 received wiierever she showed herself in 
 public with the most noisy demonstrations 
 of popularity, in marked contrast with the 
 silence with which her son and his Austrian 
 bride were received. This was partly, no 
 doubt, intended to heighten the emphasis 
 of the public indifference toward them, but 
 it was also a proof of her personal popu- 
 larity, which is still very great in spite of 
 all her faults and follies, and perhaps it 
 might be said in consequence of them. 
 
 I do not mention this as having the least 
 political significance, but only as a fact 
 worth recording, and as another proof that 
 the very qualities or defects of character 
 which make those that are marked by them 
 bad rulers, are a large constituent in the 
 affection with which they are regarded by 
 the unthinking. The father of Isabel II., 
 one of the basest men and worst kings 
 that ever lived, was always popular, mainly 
 because he contrived to pass off as careless 
 
 ■(Isabella's 
 pcpulav=
 
 I04 
 
 Umpressions of Spain 
 
 Hn 
 Httiacts 
 
 ivc 
 persona 
 
 alitB 
 
 good humour the cynical want of feeling 
 with which he perpetrated his treacheries, 
 perjuries, and cruelties. 
 
 The new Queen attracts sympathy by 
 the gracious cordiality of her manners, her 
 youth, and the dignity of her bearing. She 
 is good-looking without being beautiful ; 
 she has the projecting chin of her race, 
 though softened in her by feminine delicacy 
 of feature. One seems to see in her a cer- 
 tain resemblance to Marie Antoinette, and 
 she mounts a throne that certainly seems 
 less firm than that of France when her kins- 
 woman arrived in Paris to share what all 
 believed would be the prosperous fortunes 
 of its heir-apparent. Such associations lent 
 a kind of pathos to the unaffected happi- 
 ness which lighted the face of Maria 
 Christina.
 
 
 105 
 
 INDEX 
 
 
 Adee, A. A., iv, 19 
 
 
 Alfonso XII., V, vi, 5, 15-15 ; education, 56 ; congratu- 
 
 Unscr 
 
 lations to, 56; first wedding, 58 ct scq.; bereave- 
 
 
 ment, 82, 83 ; attempted assassination, 87 et seq. ; 
 
 
 second marriage, 10 1 ct seq. 
 
 
 Alfonso XIII., 15 
 
 
 Asturias, Princess of, 83, 91, g6 
 
 
 Atocha, The, 63 
 
 
 Broglie, Duke of, 54 
 
 
 Bull-fight, 68 
 
 
 Campos, Martinez de (Marshal), 8, 1 1 
 
 
 Canovas del Castillo, Antonio, 14, 28-37, 39^ 9'> 9^ 
 
 
 Carlos (Don), 27 
 
 
 Castelar, Emilio, 7, 29, 38 
 
 
 Censorship, 40, 41 
 
 
 Century Magapne, 1 5 
 
 
 Gushing, Caleb (Minister), 4, 9, it 
 
 
 Dana, Henrietta C, 15 
 
 
 Dances, national, 70 
 
 
 Ellen Ri{pah, Rising Sun, and Edward Lee (whaling 
 
 
 vessels), vi 
 
 
 Empleomania, 26 

 
 io6 
 
 Umpressioiis of Spain 
 
 Hiit'cr 
 
 Figueras, Estanislao, 6 
 
 Grant, U. S., vi, 95-98 
 
 Hayes, President, 44, 49, 56, 57, 82 
 Herrera, Posada, 37 
 
 Irving, Washington, vii, 4, 1 1 
 Isabel II. (ex-Queen), 5, 41, 102, 105 
 
 La Granja, v, 15 
 
 La Torre, Duke of. See Serrano 
 
 Madrid Society of Political Economy, 4s 
 
 Malherbe, 82 
 
 Maria Cristina (Queen), vii, 15, 101 
 
 
 
 Mercedes (Queen), vii, 13, 15, 53, 54 ; death, 75 
 
 et seq. 
 
 
 Merelo, Manuel, 41 
 
 
 
 Moncasi, Juan Oliva y, 16, 90, 92 
 
 
 
 Montpensier, Duke of, 53 ; and Duchess, 77, 82, 
 
 83 
 
 
 Pavia (General), 8 
 
 
 
 Pedregal (President), 10 
 
 
 
 I^i y Margall, Francisco, 7 
 
 
 
 Reed, Dwight, vii 
 
 
 
 Republicanism, 39 
 
 
 
 Royalists, 27 
 
 
 
 Salmeron, Nicolas, 7 
 
 
 
 Serrano, General (Duke of La Torre), 5, 8, 38 
 
 
 
 Seward, William H., Secretary of State, 92 
 
 
 
 Sickles, Daniel E. (Minister), 4, 1 1 
 
 
 
 Silvela, Manuel, iv, 46, 50, 82 

 
 James IRussell Xowell 
 
 107 
 
 Spain's friendliness toward United States, vi ; domestic 
 politics^ 23 et seq. ; custom-houses, 43 ; sensitiveness, 
 48 
 
 Spanish marriages, 53 
 
 Tariff as a weapon, 42 et seq. 
 Tetuan, Duke of, 49, 50 
 Tonnage duty on Spanish vessels, 44 
 Treaty of commerce proposed, 47 
 
 yirginius affair, 1 1 
 
 Zanjon, truce of, 1 1 
 
 1In^cr
 
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