“I have the last census of Spain here, and perhaps you
may like to give the Courier a statement of the
| 148 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
| Population. | Males from the Age of 16 to 50. | |
| Asturias | 364,238 | 80,554 |
| Galicia | 1,142,630 | 225,454 |
| These Provinces are what we call Biscay. | ||
| Alava | 67,523 | 15,367 |
| Guipuzcoa | 104,491 | 23,343 |
| Vizcaya | 111,436 | 25,801 |
| ———— | ||
| 400,519 |
These are the provinces which have asked assistance; but there is probably a French force at Ferrol, which may, for awhile, keep part of Galicia in awe. The people are a hardy race, and most of them good shots, because there are no game laws, plenty of game, and wolves in the country. Probably every man has his gun. One hardly dares indulge a hope; but if Europe is to be redeemed in our days, you know it has always been my opinion that the work of deliverance would begin in Spain. And now that its unhappy government has committed suicide, the Spaniards have got rid of their worst enemy.
“This account of Lisbon, which has just reached me, may
also fitly appear in the Courier,
for the edification of Roscoe and such
politicians;—‘Every private family has a certain number of French
officers and soldiers quartered upon them, who behave with their accustomed
insolence and brutality. The ladies of one family very naturally, upon the
intrusion of these unwelcome guests, retired to their own apartments, where
they proposed remaining; but these civilised Frenchmen required their presence,
and
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 149 |
“Were I minister, I would send half the regular army without delay to Spain; the distance is nothing,—a week would be but an average passage; and these seas are not like the German Ocean, where so many brave men have been sacrificed in useless expeditions during stormy seasons.
“Of public affairs enough! We have had a bilious fever
in the house, which was epidemic among the children of the place. Herbert has suffered severely from it; I
thought we should lose him. The disease has reduced him very much, and left him
in a state of great debility. Keswick is scarcely ever without some kind of
infectious fever, generally among the children. When these things get into a
dirty house, they hardly ever get out of it; and I attribute this more to the
want of cleanliness than to the climate. But ague is beginning to re-appear,
which had scarcely been heard of during the last generation;—this is the
case over the whole kingdom, I believe. What put a stop to it then, or what
brought it back now, is beyond the reach of our present knowledge.
| 150 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
“I have read that play of Calderon’s since my return: its story is precisely as you stated it, and in the story the wonder lies. Are we not apt to do with these things as naturalists do with insects?—put them in a microscope, and exclaim how beautiful!—how wonderful!—how grand!—when all the beauty and all the grandeur are owing to the magnifying medium? A shaping mind receives the story of the play and makes it terrific;—in Calderon it is extravagant. The machinery is certainly most extraordinary; and most extraordinary must the state of public opinion be, where such machinery could be received with the complacency of perfect faith,—as undoubtedly this was, and would be still in Spain.
“At last I have got all my books about me, and right
rich I am in them—above 4000 volumes. With your Germans, &c., there
is probably no other house in the country which contains such a collection of
foreign literature. My Cid will
be published in about six weeks. Brazil is not yet gone to press,—
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 151 |
“This is the moment for uniting Spain and Portugal; and the greater facility of doing this in a commonwealth than in a monarchy would be reason enough for preferring that form of government were there no other. Portugal loses something in importance and in feeling by being incorporated in the Spanish monarchy; it would preserve its old dignity by uniting in a federal republic,—a form which the circumstances of Spain more especially require, and its provincial difference of laws and dialects. Each province should have its own cortes, and the general congress meet at Madrid,—otherwise, that city would soon waste away. No nation has ever had a fairer opportunity for reforming its government and modelling it anew. But I dare say this wretched cabinet will be meddling too much in this, and too little in the desperate struggle which must be made;—that we shall send tardy and inefficient aid—enough to draw on a heavier French force, and not enough to resist the additional force which it will occasion.
“The crown, like the Ahrimanes of the earth, will sacrifice any thing rather than see the downfal of royalty.
“That best of all good women, Mrs. Wilson, has borne the winter better than any former one since we have known her.
“I am thinking about a poem upon Pelajo, the restorer of Spain. Do you wish to serve me? Puff
| 152 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
