, 1875-08-11

DIlhS luuCu CUuIlOIG W Apdulou OUuu1OIucTS.
They will reflect that, if the nation had wished
to be honest, no Court or Minister Of Finance
could have forced it to stray into paths that
have won it an unenvia6le fame On the Elk.
changes Of Europe. Meanwhile the one sub
ject about which The Constitutional Committee
could have made suggestions Of real value is
the very subject about which it speaks most
vaguely. The first effort of great Spanish
statesman would be to grant religious toIera.
ton, but the Committee is content to propose
that religious liberty shall be respected"
This may mean anything or nothing. But it
really means, we fear, that freedom Of worship
will depend on the Minister Of the day. So
timid a proposal is the more unworthy because
any Government could induce the next Cortes
to give as much liberty to Protestants as would
satisfy their modest demands, More than
twenty years ago, when the Court Of Queen
ISABELLA was The most bigoted in Europe, q
motion to grant religious federation was lost by
a majority eff only four votes, and since that
time the nation has travelled far on the way of
Liberalism. But the Church is still powerful
even in lis. decay, and the advisers of the KING
ere trying to oUtbid the Carlists for the aid Of
the clergy. AT the same time they dare not
propose 10 revive the old laws Of intolerance,
and hence they are striving to effect d wretch
Ell compromise. But It can please no one.
The Fapal NunoiJi5 naturally angry at any
attempt To tolerate heresy in Catholic Spain,
and the Liberals will d-spise SO S~0warlly a
subseryienc9 to a bigoted priesthood.
Even, how - ven, if the new CJnstit ltion
were a masterpiece of theoretical wisdom it
would be of little avail. The mechanical de-
vices by which a nation guides lis political life
are of trihing Importance compared with the
moral forces that bring them ITO play. Cur
own Constitution i 50 full Of theoretical faults
tbot olr,.t .t,1 80 ,S IA .,,,,L - -, l.z,I-
down under successive dead-locks yet it works
more smoothly than any other piece Of politi-
cal mechanism in the world, because centuries
OF freedom have taught our Parties the neces-
slty Of selt-reStraint, the absolute need Of com.
promise, the tempered wisdom which never
strains a principle to the breaking point. Our
Constitution would not prevent England from
sinking to the state of the Peninsula if her
factions were equally impraoticable, her
people equally destitute Of the very rudi-
ments of political virtue. The most skill
ful devices of state craft cannot give cohesion
to a mass Of warning units. Spain is still suf-
fering, and she will long suffer, for the bigotry
and the folly which cut her off from the freer
intellectual life Of other European countries,
and stamped out the noblest elements of moral
aud religious independence uutil she became
q mass of torpid orthodoxy. Her unity re.
NAMED unbroken 50 long as the isolation
lasted and the ancient beliefs retained their
old VigOr' The OvershadoWing power of the
Church and the majesty of the Throne suficed
to keep the national life unbroken, But she is
no longer separated from the rest of the CONT
nent, and France has destroyed the old unity
of faith. The educated classes are secretly,
and a large part of the working people in the
towns are openly, hostile to the clergy.
Even the peasantry have lost their ancient
@fervour of conviction, aud it is only the people of
the Basque Provinces who represent the Catho-
licism of historic Spain. Yet the d~ecaying
religion has been replaced by no other set of
real convictions, and the general state of feel
ing among the political grades of society is that
of Indifference. Another great national ideal
and bond of union has been destroyed by the
Revolutions which have stripped the Grown of
its s%anctity, and made the passionate loyalty of
other days an impossible virtue. A people
cannot be loyal to a sovereign who is at the
mercy of the guard-room. The destruction of
the old ties of union has given free play to fac
tons who fight only for the morrow, because it
would be folly to look for a longer tenure of
authority. Each acts as if it were a mere
yearly tenant of the State, instead of a pos
SCISSOR. Thus there can be no feeling of per-
manence or security, and the mass of the people
look on hopelessly at the barren struggles of
the political sects. Constitutions can be of
little avail in suck@a state Of social anarchy.
What Spain stands in need offs a change which
must be slow-the moral regeneration Of her