Spain in 1830, vol. 1

by Henry D. Inglis

Vegetables are rather dearer than in England, especially potatoes.

Fruit is always excellent and cheap. A melon, such as cannot be seen either in France or England, costs 5d.; these are the Valencia melons, extremely pale, and of the most exquisite flavour. The finest Muscatel grapes are 1½d. per lb.

I have mentioned in a former chapter, that the bread of Spain is, without exception, excellent; and it is nowhere finer than in Madrid. The finest, is called pan de Majorca; but this bread is made partly with milk, and is not fitted for general use; the bread used by the better classes, is the pan Frances, very ill named, because it is much superior to any French bread. The lower orders, and many too among the middle classes, use pan Candeal, in which there is no leaven, and no salt.

I must not omit the mention of fuel; this is an expensive article in winter to a stranger who is not accustomed to sit without a fire. The American minister told me, that his fuel cost him 20s. per day in the month of August.

There is only one thing in Madrid remarkably cheap; that is, the keep of horses. From the same authority I may state, that the keep of a horse does not exceed 20l. per annum. The usual food of horses is cut straw, and a little barley; and it appears that they thrive well upon this regimen: but in Spain, horses are lightly worked, no one travelling with his own horses, but invariably with mules hired for the purpose.

CHAPTER IX.
STATE OF PARTIES, AND POLITICAL PROSPECTS.

In dedicating a chapter to the consideration of the state of parties, and the probable political prospects of Spain, I am anxious to avoid the imputation of any assumption of superior knowledge, or exclusive information. My knowledge upon these subjects has no farther claim to superiority than that which arises from its having been gathered upon the spot: this ought, no doubt, to count for something; both because a resident in a country is better situated for judging of the authenticity of information, and is able to avail himself of a greater number of sources; and because, from personal observation, many helps are obtained. During the several months that I remained in Madrid, my acquaintance lay among men of all parties. With Carlists, Royalists, and Liberals, I was upon terms of equal intimacy; and I never found, among men of any party, the least backwardness in speaking privately the sentiments of their party; or in avowing its views, and speculating upon its prospects. Many have been so candid as to avow themselves hypocrites. Military men in Madrid, and at Barcellona, sworn to support the government, have admitted to me that they were Carlists,—associated in private societies of that party which held their meetings every second night: and employées in Toledo, dependents upon the existing government, who, in that hot-bed of ultraism, found it prudent even to pretend some sympathy with the opinions of the Carlists, have told me in confidence, that they were neither Loyalists nor Carlists, but Liberals. From this it may be gathered, that a person residing in Spain, and unsuspected of any improper object, may, without much difficulty, learn the opinions and views of men of different parties. The conclusions which I may occasionally draw, many may think erroneous. I will only say, that I am unconscious of being biassed by prejudice; and whatever I set down shall be based as much as possible upon fact and observation.

I left England in the belief that there existed in Spain two great parties,—the Constitutionalists, and the adherents of the government; the latter party indeed somewhat divided,—and comprising many shades of opinion, ranging from absolutism, to a point somewhere between that and moderation. But this estimate I discovered to be very erroneous. I found three parties in Spain: the Absolutists, there denominated Carlists; the Government party, there called the moderate party; and the Liberals. The most influential of these parties is, beyond all question, the first. Reckoning the total population of Spain, this party is by far the most numerous; it comprises the great mass of the lower orders throughout Spain; and in many parts, almost the whole population,—as in Toledo, the towns and villages of the Castiles, and the provinces of Murcia and Catalunia. It comprises, with few exceptions, the 130,000 friars, and a great majority of the clergy, and it comprises a considerable proportion of the military, both officers and privates; but chiefly the former. With such components, it is evident that this party does not depend for its power, solely upon its numerical superiority. Every one knows, that there is uncounted wealth in the convents and churches of Spain. I do not speak merely of the wealth in jewels, and golden urns, and images, locked up in Toledo, and Seville, and Murcia, and the Escurial, and elsewhere,—though much of this would, without doubt, be made a ready sacrifice to the necessities of the party; but also of the more available riches, well known to be possessed by many orders of friars; among others, by the Carthusians, the Dominicans, and Hieronomites. Hundreds of the convents in Spain have no possible way of consuming their revenues—for it is a fact, that the poor orders are invariably the most numerous; and we generally find a very limited fraternity in those convents whose revenues are the largest. In the Carthusian convent, at Granada, there are only nine monks; and the land for more than half a league round, and comprising numerous country houses, and hamlets, is the property of this convent. In the Convento de los Reyes, in the neighbourhood of Valencia, there are indeed twenty-seven monks; but one of their number admitted to me, that the revenues of the convent exceeded 500,000 reals, (5000l. sterling): and in the neighbourhood of Murviedro, (the ancient Saguntum), there is another convent of Carthusians, which owns seven villages, and a tract of land as rich as any in Spain, nearly a league square, and which contains only seven monks.

In place of three of these examples, as many hundreds might be given. The same monk who admitted to me the amount of the revenues of the Convento de los Reyes, said, in reply to my question as to what they did with so much wealth, that “times of need might come;” and there can be little doubt that other friars might make a similar reply. Nor can it be doubted, that many of the reputed poor orders, who live upon charity, have no need of it. The prayers, blessings, and other godly offices of the Franciscans, bear the highest value in the market of superstition; and in those convents in which the visitor dare not put money into the hands of the friar, I have frequently been reminded, that a certain little golden saint, or silver virgin, accepted the pecetas which were laid upon their altars. This cannot be considered a digression, because it explains another source of influence, besides physical strength, possessed by the apostolicals.

It scarcely requires that I should adduce any proof of the fact stated, that the lower orders, and the friars, are attached to the party of Carlists. The present government of Spain is considered by the friars to be guided too much by moderate principles. They perceive that they lose a little ground; and, shut out as they are in a great measure, from commerce with the world, they are ignorant of the pace at which the world moves: and the secret is breaking upon them but slowly, that the strength of governments lies in free institutions. They still fancy that men are to be governed by the scourge and the cowl; and believe that another Philip II. would elevate the fortunes of Spain, and raise up all the props of the Roman Catholic faith. I have myself heard one of the monks in the Escurial say, that the king was no friend to them: and then, pointing to the urn of Philip, pass an eulogium upon his virtues and piety. If any other proof were needed, of the attachment of the friars to the Carlist party, the circumstance mentioned in a former chapter might be stated; that the chief of the Franciscan order was detected in a conspiracy to overturn, or at least to overawe the government. I need say nothing of the lower orders, because, with few exceptions, they and the friars are one.