The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-09-30
CHI AR ES TON,
MORNING. SEPTEMBER 80. 1853
The Spanish Uprising.

There is little hope that the armed up
rising in Spain will lead to either an advsn-
tageous dynastic change, or the adoption of
liberal and enlightened policy, because
there is no reason for believing that the
Spanish people have emancipated them
selves from that blind devotion to antiquity
and custom which has held them in bondage
for more than fourteen centuries. Their rev.
erence for their Kings has been blind
loyalty, their reverence for their clergy has
been 8 senseIess bigotry; but these leading
principles have Influenced the Spanish
mind, have governed the march of Spanish
history, and haye made liberty and progress
alike impossible, =,
When Spain had able rulers the country
prospered; when she had weak ones the
country declined. In three reigus after the
death of PH1L1p II, the most powerful mon
archy in the world was depressed to the
lowest point Of debasement, was insulted
with impunity by foreign nations, was re-
duced more than once to bankruptcy, was
stripped of her fairest- possessions, was
held up by schocl-boys and moralists as an
evidence Of the uncertainty Of human af-
fairs, and was exposed to the humiliation
of seeing her territories mapped out and
divided by a treaty in which she took no
share, but the provisions Of which she was
unable to resent. The immediate cause Of
the losses and disasters of Spain was un-
doubtedly bad government and unskilful
rulers; but the real and overriding cause
was the existence Of that loyal and rever-
entail spirit which made the people submit
to what any other country would have
spurned, and, by accustoming them to place
extreme confidence in individual men, re-
duced the nation to that precarious posi-
ton in which succession of incompetent
princes was able to overthrow the edifce
which competent ones had built up. =
At the close of the seventeenth century,
happiness and prosperity, liberty and re-
straint, were equally unknown, and when
the Austrian dynasty was succeeded by the
Bourbon dynasty, what had once been the
most powerful monarchy in the world be-
came little else than province Of France.
Paris then ruled Spain. The Spaniards
were incapable of ruling, inasmuch as they
were ignorant of war and of politics, and
upon the accession of PHILIP V, A. D. 100,
foreigners were invited to take charge of
the most importsnt departments Of the gov
ernment. Being taken from the Spaniards
the government now began to show some
signs of vigor. The clergy were forced to
contribute to the State s1.all portion of
their enormous Wealth. bold step for
Spain and one on which, at that time, no
Spaniard would have ventured. An alli-
ance was concluded with the Mohammedans,
and many other and similar steps were
taken by the government, whose indefati-
gable e1ertions would deserve our warmest
praise, if we did not know how impossible
it is for any government to enlighten ma
tion, and how absolutely essential it is that
the desire for improvement should, in the
first place, proceed from the people them
selves. No progress is real unless it is
spontaneous. The movement, to be effec-
tive, must emanate from within, and not from
without; it must be due to general causes
acting on the whole country, and not to the
mere will of few powerful individuals.
The whole policy Of Spain, from the time
that PHILIP V came to the throne, was en-
lightened and wise. The government, in
truth, was far in advance of the people; and
at the close of the reign of CHARLES III, in