Spain had passed through many centuries without knowing of any other religion than the Catholic. She still preserved in all its force and vigor, the idea that the king should be the first to observe the laws; that he could not rule the people according to his caprice; that he ought to govern by principles of justice and views of public expediency. Saavedra, in his Devises, thus expressed himself:—
"1st. Laws are vain when the prince who promulgates them does not confirm and uphold them by his own life and example. A law will appear lenient to the people when observed by its author.
"In commune jubes si quid, censesve tenendum,
Primus jussa sibi, tunc observantior æqui
Fit populus, nec ferre vetat, cum videri ipsum
Auctorem parere sibi.
"The laws promulgated by Servius Tullius were not only intended for the people, but also for kings. The disputes between the monarch and his subjects were to be settled in conformity with these laws, as Tacitus relates of Tiberius: 'Although we are not subject to the laws,' said the emperors Severus and Antonius, 'let us conform our lives to these laws.' The monarch is bound by the law not merely from the fact of its being a law, but from the very reason upon which it is founded, when it is natural and common to all, and not particular and exclusively destined to the right government of subjects; for in this case the observance of the law merely concerns the subject, although the monarch, if it should so happen, is bound to obey it, in order to render it tolerable to others. Such appears to have been the meaning of the mysterious command given by God to Ezechiel, to eat the volume, that others seeing him the first to taste the laws and declare them good, might be induced to imitate him. The kings of Spain are so far subject to the laws, that the Treasury, in causes relating to the royal patrimony, is absolutely subject to the same laws as the least of his subjects; and in doubtful cases, the Treasury is condemned. Philip II. thus ordained it; and on an occasion in which his grandson Philip IV., the glorious father of V. A., was personally brought to judgment in an important trial of the Chamber, before the royal council, the judges had the noble determination to condemn him, and his majesty had the rectitude to hear the sentence without expressing any indignation. Happy empire, in which the cause of the monarch is always the least favored!"
Sufficient attention has not perhaps been paid to the merit of the industrial organization introduced into Europe from the earliest ages, and which became more and more diffused after the twelfth century. I allude to the trades-unions, and other associations, which, established under the influence of the Catholic religion, commonly placed themselves under the patronage of some Saint, and had pious foundations for the celebration of their feasts, and for assisting each other in their necessities. Our celebrated Capmany, in his Historical memoirs on the Marine, Commerce, and the Arts of the ancient City of Barcelona, has published a collection of documents, very valuable for the history of the working classes and of the development of their influence on politics. Few works have appeared in foreign countries, in the latter part of the last century, of such great merit as that of our fellow-countryman, published in 1779. One very interesting chapter of this work is devoted to the institution of trades-corporations. I give here a copy of the chapter, which I particularly recommend to the perusal of those persons who imagine that nothing had been thought of in Europe for the benefit of the laboring classes, of those who are so foolish as to look upon that as a means of slavery and exclusivism, which was in reality a means of encouragement and of mutual support. It also appears to me that, by reading the philosophical remarks of Capmany, every sensible man will be convinced that Europe, from the earliest ages, has possessed systems adapted to the encouragement of industry, to the preservation of it from the fatal agitations of those times, to secure esteem for it, and to the legitimate and salutary development of the popular element. It will be no less useful to present this sketch to certain foreign writers, continually occupied with social and political economy, and who, nevertheless, in compiling the history of that science, have not even been acquainted with a work so important for every thing connected with the middle ages of Europe, from the eleventh to the eighteenth century.
"Of the institution of the Trades-Corporations and other Associations of Artisans at Barcelona.