does one feel that, with due allowance for a spirit of kindly
caricature, Don Quijote de la Mancha is not only possible, but it is a
type of character as living to-day as it was when the genius of
Cervantes distilled and preserved for all time that most quaint,
lovable, inconsequent, and chivalrous combination of qualities which
constitute a Spanish gentleman. Among her writers, her thinkers, her
workers--nay, even now and then among her politicians--we come upon
traits which remind us vividly of the ingenious gentleman and perfect
knight of romance.

But this estimate of the Spanish character differs a good deal from the
pictures drawn of it by the casual tourist; and it is scarcely
surprising that it should be so. It has been well said that "the
contrast between the ideal of honour and the practice of pecuniary
corruption has always been a peculiar feature of Spain and her
settlements." If we hear one thing oftener than another said of Spain,
it is fault-finding with her public men; the evils of bribery,
corruption, and self-seeking amongst what should be her statesmen, and,
above all, her Government employees, are pointed out, and by none more
than by Spaniards themselves. There is a good deal of truth at the
bottom of these charges; they are the melancholy legacy of the years of
misrule and of the darkness through which the country has struggled on
her difficult way. No one looks for the highest type of character in any
country among its party politicians. The creed that good becomes evil if
it is carried out under one _régime_, and evil good under another, is
not calculated to raise the moral perception; and it is only when a
politician has convictions and principles which are superior to any
office-holding, and will break with his party a hundred times sooner
than stultify his own conscience, that he earns the respect of
onlookers. There are, and have been, many such men among the politicians