more than once, come to a halt till some soldiers who were drinking at a rivulet had finished their draught, lest they should be exposed to danger by being for a few moments behind the rest.

It is in consequence of this amazing rapidity of movement, and this attachment of the Basquese, that I should be inclined to listen with distrust to the details of any important loss sustained by the Carlists, so long as they confine their operations to the broken surface of the four provinces. As in the event of Zumalacarreguy being engaged in any general combat, in which he was not likely to be victor -a matter by no means probable, since by his superior speed he is enabled to choose his own ground, and is understood never to go into action except with overwhelming odds in his favour-he has only, on the day going against him, to scatter his troops to every wind of heaven, and send them in a thousand directions to the defiles of the neighbourhood, where, moving at a pace incompatible alike with the dress and the habits of the regulars, they would be in a few minutes safe from pursuit; and, re-organizing themselves amid the security of their fastnesses, assume, in four-and-twenty hours, as formidable a character as ever. The constitutional army has no such resource against misfortune; its existence depends upon its remaining in a mass, and once broken, it would certainly and rapidly be annihilated in detail.

'Another circumstance, highly favourable to the Carlist generals, is the accuracy of their intelligence, and the power which they possess of transmitting immediate orders to the subordinate heads of the scattered corps. In both qualifications were the Christinos deficient. Of intelligence indeed, such as it was, they had plenty, for it is always volunteered when men pay high; and it was said that Rodil gave an ounce of gold for each piece of information: but his officers used to complain that it could not be depended on; and that even where it proved to be true, the commander-in-chief was unable to take advantage of it so as to execute a combined movement—as the orders to the generals of the detached divisions could only be conveyed under the protection of a strong escort, which was occasionally beaten back when amounting to 180 men, and which, even when enabled to proceed, marched only in the day-time, and moved at a snail's pace.

The Carlists were in a very different position. Through the medium of a peasantry, who had been taught by their priests that they were incurring eternal damnation if they neglected any means of advancing the cause of their sovereign, the most detailed accounts were conveyed to the head-quarters of Zumalacarreguy,of the movements of the queen's army; while despatches, sent from one corps to another, instead of loitering along the road at the slow pace of an escort of infantry, were conveyed across the country after the fashion of the fiery cross in the old times of Highland warfare. The bearer of the packet, while it remained in his possession, hurried on with all the speed that wind and limb could muster; and at the moment his

energies

energies became exhausted, he was entitled to put it into the hands of the first peasant whom he met, who, on horseback or on foot, in cottage or in field, was obliged to receive it, and (such was the terror inspired by the denunciations of the monks) to forward it on its course with the same rapidity. In this manner, the orders of the superior officers of the legitimate party were occasionally conveyed sixteen miles within the hour; and their power, either of avoiding or surprising an enemy, increased in a tenfold degree.

But, independently of the information derived from a zealous peasantry, they had a corps of light troops specially attached to the duty of preceding and following the queen's army. These fellows occupied the heights, and by firing signals were able to communicate with each other, and transmit intelligence with wonderful facility. They were, as I was afterwards informed, in full operation on the day on which Rodil's army left Tolosa for Ascoytia, and gave warning to the inhabitants of the latter town of our approach within five minutes after we had entered the gully up which, about a mile and a half from Tolosa, turns the Ascoytia road. The consequence was, that the band of Carlists which occupied the village, and those inhabitants who, from their zeal for legitimacy, might have been objects of suspicion to Rodil, had full time to transport themselves to the mountains, and await in safety amid their fastnesses the moment of our departure.

Of the fortified places possessed by the queen, all, with the exception of Pampeluna and St. Sebastian, might be taken in a few hours by two heavy guns; as those I saw, Eybar, Bergara, Villafranca, and Tolosa, were commanded by heights in the immediate neighbourhood; and I was informed that the others were in a similar situation. But I am not sure that it would be good policy in the Carlists to reduce them if they could, as at present they are said to occupy fifteen thousand men, who, without a single soldier being withdrawn from the legitimate ranks for the purpose, are de facto blockaded by the animosity of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, and dare not, except in force, move three hundred yards from the walls. Occasionally they sally forth in a strong body, and clear the roads for two miles in advance; but though everything gives way before them, they no sooner begin to retrace their steps than their enemies return upon their heels, and by the time they have entered the town the place is as strictly blockaded as before.

'From all these circumstances, were I called on to form an opinion, I should augur ill for the success of the queen in the four provinces. Independently of the hatred of the Basquese-a hatred founded on the triple ground of interest, loyalty, and religion-there exists a bar to her success in the character of the country, which, full of forests and defiles, is impenetrable to any but the natives; and defied the power of Napoleon, at the head of armies much more formidable than any that the Christinos are likely to bring into the field.

'Of the sentiments of the inhabitants towards Don Carlos, in the southern districts of the Peninsula, I had no means of forming an

opinion; but though at present there appears an unanimous feeling in favour of the constitution, it should be recollected, that there are scattered over the surface of the Spanish monarchy eighty-six thousand regular clergy, besides an enormous number of parish priests, most of whom identify the cause of Don Carlos with their own; and who, ruling with almost sovereign power over the minds of an ignorant and prejudiced majority, would be inclined to use their influence on the first occasion on which it could be employed with advantage, for the purpose of producing opposition to the Queen's government.'-p. 256-63.

In these observations, generally, we concur though we must add that we estimate the chances of success of the legitimate party much more highly than our author does. During the last year it appears to us that the war in the Basque provinces has materially changed its character. When our tourist was in Spain, the Carlists acted chiefly on the defensive; and if they attempted bolder measures, were indebted for their happy issue either to their surprising, or overwhelming by numbers, isolated portions of the constitutional army. Since that time-and the fact is remarkable, as arguing an important improvement in the morale and discipline of their troops they have gradually assumed a more forward attitude, and meeting their opponents face to face, in open ground, and on equal terms, have repeatedly engaged and beaten the largest force which the queen's party could bring against them.

It will be recollected, too, that these victories have been obtained over the best officers in Spain. Rodil, the defender of Callao, was opposed to them, and failed; Mina, who, associated as he was in the minds of the Basquese with the recollection of former triumphs, was perhaps the most formidable opponent of Don Carlos, has shared the same fate; and Valdez, their successor, with a higher character than any of his countrymen for professional knowledge, has become distinguished above his predecessors only by the superior amount of his losses, and has, it is said, shut himself up in Vittoria, and resigned to his opponent that which has hitherto been the battle-field of the combatants. If to these successes be added the capture of some of the towns garrisoned by the Christinos-the abandonment of others—the recent daring operations of the Carlist forces in the plains of Catalonia and Old Castile, where till lately they only ventured to show themselves in small and scattered bands-and, above all, the demand made by the government of Isabella for that foreign aid which it is notorious was, but a few months ago, equally unpopular with her ministry and her people-we can entertain little doubt that the legitimate party is rapidly increasing in strength and popularity; and that its Chief, were he opposed only by the arms of his countrymen, and those means of resistance at present within the limits

of

of the Peninsula, would succeed in establishing himself upon the Spanish throne. Nor do we apprehend that even such an occurrence as the death of his gallant general will now materially affect these prospects. At the commencement of the struggle, indeed, such a loss would have been irreparable. Then, mere zeal, or courage, or military skill, however great, would have been insufficient to have raised with success the standard of a fugitive prince, in opposition to a powerful army and an established government, with no other support than that afforded by peasants, without money, without discipline, and almost without weapons. Peculiar talents were necessary. A man was required who was intimate

with the defiles of the wild district in which the combat was to be carried on, and the language of its inhabitants; one who, uniting in his own person the activity and local knowledge of the mountaineer, to military science and acquaintance with the tactics of a regular army, could, as occasion might demand, oppose to a superior enemy either the rapid and isolated movements of the guerilla, or the more extensive and combined operations of civilized warfare. Such was Zumalacarreguy-who, in the early part of his career, superintended the details at once of the civil, of the military, and of the financial departments; and who, if he had then fallen, would have probably carried with him to the ground the cause which was upheld mainly by his energies. But the interests of legitimacy no longer stand on quite so precarious a footing. The presence of Don Carlos in Navarre has naturally tended to gratify the pride of the inhabitants and confirm their loyalty. The machinery of a central government, so necessary to the success of measures by its power of combination, has been set in motion. A commissariat, with ample funds (from whatever quarter they may arise) for its maintenance, has been established; and the army, that main source of success in civil broils, no longer consisting of mere predatory bands, is large, well disciplined, and flushed with victory; and may be increased to an indefinite extent, as the Christinos, by concentrating themselves in Pampeluna and St. Sebastian, have abandoned to the Carlists. Elgoybar, Bergara, Palencia, and the other gun manufactories in the north of Spain; and have, consequently, enabled them to strengthen themselves in that arm in which, of all others, they have hitherto been confessedly most weak.

These circumstances, and the military talents displayed by Eraso in his late victory at Descarga, incline us to doubt very much whether, in case the Spaniards were left to decide their own quarrel, the loss of any one officer, however distinguished, could exercise an important influence on the fortunes of Don Carlos, or prevent his triumphant progress to Madrid. The levies now rais

ing in England, under the auspices of an officer who, though not high in rank, enjoys certainly a high professional reputation~ those levies, under such guidance, may, it is true, change the character of the contest and its result; but whatever be its termination, and whether such aids do or do not secure a victory to the Queen's cause, they afford most unequivocal evidence how little that cause is at heart with the Spanish nation-and they must stamp indelible disgrace on the English party which sanctions their employment a party which has invariably in language asserted the right of every nation to choose its own sovereign-but which, as invariably in practice, has contradicted its theory by its acts, and now, as heretofore, seeks to impose new systems and a strange form of government on a people who neither covet their possession nor are at all fit to profit by them.

We received, after this article had been prepared for the press, a volume entitled Recollections of a Visit to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha, by the Author of Vathek,' from which, had it reached us sooner, we should have given some extracts, strikingly illustrative of what we have said as to the progress of social and mental deterioration in the Peninsula. In fact, such is the perhaps unconscious capacity of Mr. Beckford's genius, that he has in this little volume, professing merely to record the trivial incidents of a fortnight's ramble, presented us with a complete picture of the whole life of Portugal as it was fifty years ago. Ten volumes would not have made the impression more perfect. From the feeble prince, the profligate princess, the jealous minister, the enervate lord, and the more than lordly abbot, down to the coarse but cunning friar, and the careless, credulous, contented peasant -every class and order of society is placed vividly before usquite as satisfactorily, and assuredly quite as amusingly, as they could have been within the scope of a novel of manners.

This narrative, we should observe, was not written at the time to which it refers, but has been recently drawn up from recollection, assisted only by a few short notes. This circumstance has in no respect weakened the freshness and liveliness of its descriptions-but it has cast over the reflections interspersed a tone of sobriety and depth which, to our feeling, much improves the general effect.

ART.