The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-29

4 ~ " VIII - McCHul1fT Tor you % NuINnCnA
Az he ooseessiona. The King's Iona iaoa
fell longer sul and his brow OlOudso Tor
all his Minister'S jRuntineas. He was no
fool. and he knew that this was idings Of
evil moment. Let a remedy be found for
It. was all he said, and the Count-D Duke as
he left the room looked dOleful, as II he saw
the beginning OF his own eclipse. which.
indeed. soOn followed.
Let m pass TO a chapter on the moral
ind social decadence in Madrid at the
period IG44-oO. when the reign of Philip
Nv. was drawing to an end Mr.. Hume
informs ~ That there exist descriptions
and accounts Of life at Philips court 40
minute and Photographic in their fidelity
"a TO provide absolutely Trustworthy ma
teTial for, a true comparison OF the condi-
aion of affairs after hve-and-twenty years
81 a caianiitOus reign with that which had
existed on the Kings accession. IL In
well that this In so, for the picture hero
presented Of life in the Spanish capital
near the end Of Philips reign In so gloomy
that the historian who ventured to pro-
duce IL without full contemporary warrant
would be accused NJ bias and exaggeration.
At tho beginning Of the reign. although
the mass Of the people were already sunk
in poverty, there Wss a fairly numerous
class OF mobiles. ~churchmen and officials
still rich with royal grants and Govern
mem plumber. In lO96-0O. on the other
hand. the mobiles themselves had been
bled to n state OF bankruptcy. They and
the Churc were supposed TO he exempt
from taxation. but the demands made
upon them, and especially upon the mobiles.
for funds for the wars, had ended by re-
duoing most of them to the same poverty
stricken condition as their interiors in
rank. The financial and mercantile classes
had lost all confidence. for the arbitrary
seizure Of their property again and again
by the Government and the crushing
taxation on exports. even to Spanish
colonies, had driven them to universal
evasion and contraband. to the further
depletion Of Philips resources. Don Luis
de Haro. who succeeded Olivares " Min
lister, had a revenue OF 100. 900 ducaCs a
year. and a few Of his kinsmen were still
very ,nch and continued to plunder all
they could, though there was indeed
little left to plumber: in addition to these
the only people who had much ready money
to spend were the colonial officials who
had returned home with the booty Of their
Offices.
The idlsness and pretension OF all classes
in thec capital had increased now to such an
extent that practically the whole of the
necessary work had to be done by foreign
ers. In Madrid. which at the time con-
tanned between $50 900 and 800 600 inhabi-
tants. there we're as many as ~, 900 French
subjects dressing as Spaniards and calling
themselves ~Burgundians or WalIoOns to
annn Nka u-ln.aaasrn 70 ,n fC-USwsnz-a
By these people most handicraRts and call
inRs were conducted. the Spanish working
classes being occupied mainly in casual
service, petty traffic and mendicancy. High
way robbery and murder were so frequent
in Madrid as to cause no remark. TT
streets of the capital were more filthy
and dilapidated than they had ever been,
and still the rOwds OF idlers on foot and
in a vast number Of coaches drawn by mules
now, for the horses had been seized for
military service, thronged the prOmenades,
the humber classes elbowing their social
superiors with perfect effrOntery. The fields
adjoining Madrid we're mostly titled, il at
all, and the urban labor also was performed.
by foreigners. the very cloth upon Spanish
backs being made in Holland and England
from Spanish wool. The alternate appre-
citation and debasement Of the coinage had
enormously raised the price Of commOdf-
ties. and especially Of house rent In Madrid:
the houses being still low. shabby and in
c~ommOdious for the most part, owing 10
the claim OF the King to the first floor Of
every house. or its equivalent in money.
What most struck foreigners, however,
and indeed observant Spaniards at this
period was the appalling p~rofigacy still
prevalent. in spite Of the Kings effort to
it. in Madrid. According to q good
authority there we're at this time 10000
women Of evil life in the capital. Mr.. Hume
considers the whole moral situation in
Spain in the middlel OfIthe seventeenth CEN
fury as a social problem which can be ex-
planned only by the lack Of feminine in
iiuence in society at the time and previously.
There had always remained a faint OF Orien-
tai tradition in the treatment Of women in
IN Iberian peninsula. They had been
kept in strict seclusion; they we're for the
most part entirely ignorant and had never
taken an equal social position with men,
usually dining apart from their husbands,
visiting zach other in closed chairs or
coaches and spending their time squatting
on the ground in circles, talking trivialities
or pietism. while the men were rarely ac-
companied by their womankind in public.
II was therefore nc wonder that in such
a state Of society as his ladieA and modest
m for the most part abandoned the
streets and public places to utter proflighcy,
or that men, deprived Of the ~salutary in
ruenoe exercised by h presence Of good
yomen, sank deeper and deeper into vice.
Al the period for the moment under re-
view the Kings finances were more hope
lessIy involved h ever, especially after
Cromwell joined the French against him..
Philip ~. told the Cortes Of CASTLE In
1864 that out of he 10000 900 ducats voted
by them to him he received only 5000, 900.
From the Indies in all he received In good
years from one and a half to two millions
Of ducats. while about two millions came
from tho eastern realms Of the peninsula.
Out Of a total nominal revenue. then. Of
about eighteen million duCats tie King
got only about eight or nine million, the
rest being either anticipated or intercepted
by peculation. In the year 1854 he confessed
20 an uncovered debt Of 40. OOO. 900 ducats.
IL remains TO be- added that by the Peace
Of the Pyrenees. signed in June. 1850.
60 - a. n--E--