But
at present I think it likely that they will stop, lest the business
should be taken out of their hands,--and lest that body, in which
remains the only life that exists in Spain, and is not a fever, may with
their property lose all the influence necessary to preserve the
monarchy, or, being poor and desperate, may employ whatever influence
remains to them as active agents in its destruction.
[Sidenote: Castile different from Catalonia and Aragon.]
The Castilians have still remaining a good deal of their old character,
their _gravedad, lealtad_, and _el temor de Dios_; but that character
neither is, nor ever was, exactly true, except of the Castilians only.
The several kingdoms which compose Spain have, perhaps, some features
which run through the whole; but they are in many particulars as
different as nations who go by different names: the Catalans, for
instance, and the Aragonians too, in a great measure, have the spirit of
the Miquelets, and much more of republicanism than of an attachment to
royalty. They are more in the way of trade and intercourse with France,
and, upon the least internal movement, will disclose and probably let
loose a spirit that may throw the whole Spanish monarchy into
convulsions.
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