No nation in the world is more innately democratic than Spain--none,
perhaps, so attached to monarchy; but one lesson has been learned,
probably alike by King and people--that absolutism is dead and buried
beyond recall. The ruler of Spain, to-day and in the future, must
represent the wishes of the people; and if at any time the two should
once more come into sharp collision, it is not the united people of this
once-divided country that would give way. For the rest, so long as the
monarch reigns constitutionally, and respects the rights and the desires
of his people, there is absolutely nothing to fear from pretender or
republican. At a recent political meeting in Madrid, for the first time,
were seen democrats, republicans, and monarchists united; amidst a
goodly quantity of somewhat "tall" talk, two notable remarks were
received with acclamation by all parties: one was that Italy had found
freedom, and had made herself into a united nationality, under a
constitutional monarch; and the other, that between the Government of
England and a republic there was no difference except in name--that in
all Europe there was no country so democratic or so absolutely free as
England under her King, nor one in which the people so entirely governed
themselves.

Among the many mistaken ideas which obtain currency in England with
regard to Spain, perhaps none is more common or more baseless than the
fiction about Don Carlos and his chances of success. A certain small
class of journalists from time to time write ridiculous articles in
English papers and magazines about what they are pleased to call the
"legitimatist" cause, and announce its coming triumph in the Peninsula.
No Spaniard takes the trouble to notice these remarkable productions of
the fertile journalistic brain of a foreigner. There are still, of
course, people calling themselves Carlists--notably the Duke of Madrid