Book Description

Excerpt from The Quarterly Review, Vol. 208: Comprising Nos. 414, 415; January and April, 1908 It is especially in regard to the earlier times, for instance those Of the Moorish invasion and conquest, on which the labours Of men like Don Eduardo Saavedra have thrown so much light, that this complaint may with justice be made. But it is also true Of later periods; indeed Spain, which had so much interest for the genera tion which had lived through the Peninsular War, and for its successor, has been unaccountably neglected by English writers during the last fifty years. It was a curiously complex character which was manifested by the Spanish people when, at the begin ning Of the nineteenth century, we find them ground down under their alien rulers, with a feeble, though amiable, king completely in the hands Of his contemptible wife and her paramour, Godoy; the heir to the throne at one moment conspiring against his father, at another grovelling in a feigned repentance and betraying his fellow conspirators, to shield himself, more base and false than it is possible to conceive, and yet the idol Of the people, who credited him with every virtue because they saw in him a saviour from the disgrace which overhung the court. The state Of ignorance was appalling. For four centuries Spain had been ground under the iron heel Of the Inquisi tion, every impulse to enlightenment trodden under foot, and the grossest superstition not only encouraged but actually enforced under cruel conditions. Such was the country which Charles IV left when he and his ignoble son, in whose favour he had abdicated, became prisoners to Napoleon, and the nation rose, in spite Of its treacherous rulers, in defence Of country and liberty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.