ment of the Moors, and of the influence which they exercised over the Christians. By a foolish policy, however, common to all Musulman conquerors, they neglected to amalgamate the vanquishers and the vanquished; and throughout all their successes they oppressed the nations whom they held tributary to them, by whom they were hated in return. It was by these means that they supplied the Spaniards, who had taken refuge in the mountains, with powerful allies in the Moorish provinces.

These mountaineers, who had preserved the religion, the laws, the honour, and the liberty of the Visigoths, together with the use of their Roman language, did not all speak the same dialect. In Catalonia the Provençal or Limousin, which so long engaged our attention, was spoken. In Asturias, in old Castile, and in the kingdom of Leon, the Castilian prevailed; and in Galicia, the Gallego, whence the Portuguese had its origin. In Navarre, and in some parts of Biscay, the Basque was still preserved; a Celtic dialect, or, according to others, of African or Numidian origin, prior to the conquests of the Romans, which never intermingled with the Spanish language, nor exercised any influence over its literature. When the Christians, profiting by the extinction of the Caliphate of the Ommiades of Cordova, and the division of the Musulmans into a number of petty principalities, began, posterior to the year 1031, to recover Spain from the Saracens, they introduced into

the South the language which they had preserved amidst the mountains; and Spain was divided into three longitudinal portions, of which the inhabitants of each spoke a separate language. The Catalan, in the states of Aragon, extended along the Mediterranean, from the Pyrenees, to the kingdom of Murcia; the Castilian occupied the centre of the country, and extended likewise from the Pyrenees to the kingdom of Grenada; while the Portuguese was spoken from Galicia to the kingdom of Al

garves.

The Christians who had preserved their independence amidst the fastnesses of the mountains, were illiterate and rude men, though highspirited, courageous, and incapable of bearing the yoke. Each valley regarded itself as a separate state, and attempted by its own strength to render itself respected abroad, and to maintain its laws and manners at home. These valleys had received Visigoth Kings, Counts who administered justice, and led the troops to battle. Their authority continued to subsist after the destruction of the monarchy, but they were rather considered as military leaders, and as protectors of the people, than as masters. Every man by defending his own liberty, became cognizant of his own rights. Every man was aware of the power with which his own valour endowed him, and exacted towards himself the same respect which he paid to others. A nation

composed for the greater part of emigrants, who had preferred liberty to riches, and who had abandoned their country, in order that they might preserve amidst the solitude of the mountains their religion and their laws, were not likely to recognize, to any great degree, the distinctions which fortune created. The son of the governor of a province might often be seen clothed in very homely garments; and the hero by whose valour a battle had been gained, might be found reposing in a hut. The dignity of the people of Castile, which is observable even amongst the beggars, and their respect for every citizen, whatever may be his fortune, are peculiarities in Spanish manners, which may no doubt be referred to the period of which we are speaking. The forms of the language, and the usages of society established at this period, became an integral part of the national manners, and display their ancient dignity even at the present day.

Civil liberty was preserved as perfect in Spain, as it can be under any constitution. The nation. seemed to have created kings, in order that the authority, which necessarily devolved upon the sovereign power might be circumscribed within narrower limits. Their object was to provide themselves with able captains, with judges of the lists, and with chieftains who might serve as models to a gallant nobility; but they yet watched with jealousy any attempts to extend the royal

prerogative. Judges were appointed, to whom the nation might appeal under ordinary circumstances, and legal forms were established, by which the people were authorised to resist by force abuses of power. All classes were admitted to an equal share in the representation, and every Spaniard was taught to place a due value on his privileges as a citizen, and on his nobility as a Visigoth. The Court, the general nobility, and the equal balance of ranks, of which no one was suffered to feel degraded, preserved in the manners, the language, and the literature of the Spaniards, a kind of elegance, and a tone of courtesy and high-breeding, with somewhat of an aristocratical character of manners, which the Italians lost very early, because they owed their liberties to a democratical spirit.

When political liberty was once properly appreciated, religious servitude could not long continue to exist; and the Spaniards therefore, until the time of Charles V., maintained their independence, in a great degree, against the church of Rome, of which they subsequently became the most timid vassals, when once deprived of their free constitution. The religious independence of the Spaniards has been little remarked upon, because the native writers of the present day are ashamed of the fact, and have endeavoured to conceal it, while foreign authors have formed their opinion of that nation from its

situation during their own time. We shall, however, have occasion to remark, in examining the early Spanish poets, that even in the wars with the Moors, as early as the eleventh century, they ascribe to their heroes a spirit of charity and humanity for their enemies, as a quality highly honourable to them. All their most celebrated men, as Bernard de Carpio, the Cid, and Alfonso VI., had combated in the ranks of the Moors. About the twelfth century, as we have already said in treating of the Troubadours, the kings of Aragon granted free liberty of conscience in their states to the Paulicians, and to the sectaries, who afterwards acquired the name of Albigenses. They likewise took arms in their defence in that deadly crusade which was headed by Simon de Montfort; and Peter II. of Aragon was slain, in 1213, at the battle of Muret, fighting against these crusaders, in the cause of religious toleration. In 1268, two princes of Castile, brothers of Alfonso X., quitted the banners of the infidels, under which they had served at Tunis, to give their assistance, at the head of eight hundred gentlemen of Castile, to the Italians, who were endeavouring to throw off the tyranny of the Pope, and of Charles of Anjou. At the conclusion of the same century, (1282) Peter III. of Aragon, voluntarily exposed himself to the thunders of the Church, in order to rescue Sicily from the oppression of the French. He and his