Ecrivez-moi pour me dire quel jour vous aurez reçu cette lettre.”
The affair of the Spanish Marriages, so far as relates to the incidents of the plot itself, and the manner in which it was worked out, has subsided into a matter of no interest, and, save in the material pages of history, has lapsed into oblivion. People have even ceased to discuss the curious question whether or no the marriage of the Duke de Montpensier was a violation of the treaty of Utrecht. One meagre pleasure, however, remains, to read of the various minor difficulties which, in addition to the vis inertiæ of the British Government and the Coburg countermine, M. Guizot, in the course of his machinations, was called upon to encounter.
Some of these he attributes to the peculiar temperament of the people with whose domestic affairs he was meddling:—
“C’est le caractère,” says he, “des peuples du midi, surtout des Espagnols, que le long régime du pouvoir absolu et l’absence de la liberté politique n’ont point éteint en eux l’ardeur des passions, le goût des émotions et des aventures, et qu’ils déploient avec une audacieuse imprévoyance, dans les intérêts, les incidents et les intrigues de leur vie personnelle, la fécondité d’esprit et l’énergie dont ils n’ont pas appris à trouver dans la vie publique l’emploi réfléchi et la satisfaction mesurée.”
And again, writing to Bresson:—
“Je ne connais pas l’Espagne, et je suis fort porté à croire qu’elle ne resemble à aucun autre pays.”
Mons. Guizot was free from some of the more prominent characteristics of his countrymen, and was by nature formed for a cool and keen observer and discriminator. Had he used his observation to the fullest extent, he might have ascribed the peculiarities of Spanish temper to some other, and more original cause, than that to which he assigns them; and, had he combined comparison with that observation, might possibly have been led to the unpleasant conclusion;—Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis.
There is within these realms a people, in blood closely akin to Frenchmen and Spaniards, to whom certain noble qualities, attributed by M. Bresson to the latter, might not unjustly be ascribed:—“La jalousie, l’ambition, et la vengeance, m’écrivait-il (le 11 Mars, 1844) sont les principaux mobiles des hommes qui figurent ici sur la scène politique. Je ne fais exception pour aucun parti; haïr, se satisfaire et se venger, ils ne voient rien au delà.”
In fact, the great Celtic race, in its several divisions, is the same throughout the world—alike unpolitical and ungovernable. Reform succeeds reform; revolution, revolution; all is labour in vain, spent only on forming material for fresh change. Not that we should blame the race for declining to accept even good government from any alien authority had it either the wisdom or the power to construct for itself a stable administration, or the foresight to submit to the necessary control of the authority so created.
The Spanish Marriages affair, though of itself the meanest and most miserable of plots, nevertheless left results behind, the ultimate effect of which has, perhaps, not even yet been felt. Nemesis, however, was not long in overtaking the perpetrators of this striking example of chicanery. The accomplishment of the intrigue—the first overt act, the first great achievement of the reactionary policy adopted by the King of the French and his Minister, both at home and abroad, and notably in the affairs of Italy, as well as of Spain, was, it is no exaggeration to say, one of the main causes of the downfall of the former, as it was the direct cause of his falling despised and unregretted of all.