of loose character, who are smuggling wine in bladders concealed under their dress through the barriers of Paris, and who being sounded by the officers with their iron instruments, (to the utter horror and amazement of their protector, who takes them for persons of condition,) flood the floor of the vehicle with contraband wine and to that other still more amusing scene, in which the hero, compelled to go and meet his father at the diligence as he arrives from the country, is obliged by a singular train of circumstances to repair thither without an indispensable part of his attire. An old shabby roquelaure is all that the elegant Deligny can procure to repair the deficiency, which, closely pinned down in front and so straight that he can scarcely walk, gives rise to a series of delicate distresses as he traverses the quarter of Paris in which he finds himself in this situation, and the Bureau des Messageries. The misery of the poor fellow is of that kind which it is permitted to laugh at; and certainly, among the petits malheurs of life, there are not many more ludicrous than the condition of poor Deliguy, stuck fast in a cabriolet, from which he dare not descend for fear he may not be able to command the requisite quantity of stride.

Before we dismiss the little library of the author's works heaped up on the table before us, we must make one remark on the extraordinary dislike which the writer seems to entertain against our countrymen. In nearly every one of his novels we meet en passant with an Englishman, who is simply introduced to be despised. Fair satire we should not object to; our countrymen are not wanting in absurdities, especially on the continent, and we therefore lament that Paul should not only show his dislike, but his utter ignorance of the English character. Did he know us better, one of two things would infallibly take place-either that his skilful pen would sketch some truly ludicrous and amusing satires of our infirmities, and thus contribute to their cure, or that this dislike, which is now a mere ignorant bugbear, would melt away before a due appreciation of the many sterling and valuable qualities that, without vanity, we may lay claim to, as going to compose a national character.

f

ART. VII.1. Noticias historicas de Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, consagradas a sus respetables Cenizas. I. M. de A. M. Palma. 1812. 4to...

2. Memorias para la vida del Excelentisimo Señor Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, y noticias analiticas de sus obras, por Don Juan Agustin Cean Bermudez. Madrid. 18146, AMONGST the Spanish authors of modern times, Jovellanos stands pre-eminent. Equally celebrated as a writer and as a patriot, no one is more generally admired at home, or better known abroad. Whatever may be the opinion formed of the soundness of some of his principles, or the wisdom of some of his actions, his first-rate talents and his solid virtues stand confessed by Spaniards of all parties and denominations; and it is his peculiar felicity that he has preserved his literary and moral fame untainted in the midst of conflicting opinions and political convulsions, of the intrigues of courts and the shocks of popular parties, in all which he largely mixed, either as the minister of an absolute king, or as the magistrate of a people in a state of revolution. His works have found their way into foreign countries, and met with approbation from the most fastidious critics. During the contest for the throne of Spain, the government of Joseph Bonaparte made it a point to gain him over to their side. In England, the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews have concurred in praising him; Dr. Southey has expressed his admiration of his writings and character; and Lord Holland, besides keeping his bust by the side of that of Fox, is known to pride himself upon having been the friend of the illustrious original. Such unanimity of applause must have been extorted by more than ordinary merit, and we trust it will not be thought a proof of partiality on our part that we add our mite to so valuable a stock, and give our testimony to declare Jovellanos a truly great and good man.

It is a misfortune of this celebrated writer that we possess no collection of his works. The only edition of his elegant compositions, the Elogios, has been long out of print. Of his touching and eloquent appeal to his fellow-countrymen there is but one wretched edition. His Informe sobre Ley Agraria has been, indeed, reprinted; yet of the few editions of this work, one alone is tolerable in point of typographical beauty or correctness. Some of his poetry has been published without his name. Thus the Spanish scholar who may feel anxious to peruse the writings of the best and most celebrated author of modern Spain, must undergo the trouble of looking for them in separate collections.

Many circumstances will account for this neglect. During the

latter part of the reign of Charles IV., or let us rather say, of his favourite, the notorious Godoy, Prince of the Peace, it was almost treason to mention the name of Jovellanos. The Spanish revolution of 1808 removed, indeed, that obstacle, since the subject of the present article was a member of the Junta Central, to whom the government of Spain was entrusted. But those were times of great political excitement, when nothing literary inspired the least, interest; and nothing therefore was published that did not bear upon the events of the day. At the restoration of peace and absolute government in 1814, the writings of Jovellanos became obnoxious to the ruling party; for, though far from containing the sentiments of a bold innovator, still they were not calculated for the meridian of a country where the Inquisition had been reestablished. The new Spanish revolution in 1820 was certainly favourable to the publication of a collection of our author's works, and we wonder that it was not attempted. We cannot believe that the present Spanish government will tolerate the diffusion of principles such as are avowed and maintained in the works in question, and we entertain but few hopes of seeing that collection of them which we desire and recommend, unless the foreign press should give us one under the superintendence of some Spanish emigrant.

Nor has Jovellanos been more fortunate in finding a biographer to record the events of his interesting and chequered life. The two works which we have placed at the head of the present article cannot boast of great literary merit. The first is eloquent and declamatory, but it does not say much of Jovellanos; it only treats of the events of his latter days, where the opinions he maintained, and the principles upon which he is supposed to have acted, are made use of by his biographer to record his own political sentiments. This little book was published in the Isle of Majorca, and never attained great circulation in Spain. It could not, however, escape the vigilance of the Inquisition, in whose prohibitory edicts it was set down immediately after the restoration of that odious tribunal. The second work, or Memoirs, comes from a man thoroughly acquainted with his subject, since Jovellanos had been his patron in his youth, and his friend in his maturer years. But Don Juan Agustin Cean Bermudez, though a laborious, is a very bad writer. His account of Jovellanos is a dull, inelegant, unphilosophical, nay, a truly ludicrous piece of composition. It can only be looked to as containing the dates of the most remarkable events in the life of his illustrious subject, and a catalogue of his various writings. To appreciate Jovellanos either as a statesman or as an author, Don Juan Agustin Ceun Bermudez was wholly incompetent; even for the humbler and

easier task of writing a panegyric he appears totally unfit, and under his clumsy hands, El Señor Don Gaspar (as he often very absurdly calls his hero) cuts, indeed, a sorry figure.

Don Gaspar de Jovellanos was born in Gijon, in the province of Asturias, on the 5th of January, 1744. He was the fourth son of an ancient and noble family. Having been originally destined for the church, he began his studies in the University of Oviedo, from which he was removed to that of Avila, and afterwards to that of Alcala, where he entered a college exclusively intended for young men of noble birth. As the civil and canon law were included in his studies, his proficiency in those sciences suggested the idea of altering the future destination of the young student, and Jovellanos embraced the legal instead of the ecclesiastical profession. According to the fashion of those times, a man of his rank in life was not permitted to plead as an advocate; but in the multiplicity of the Spanish courts of law there was an abundance of places on the bench to be disposed of amongst the lawyers of noble birth, as soon as they left college, and underwent the necessary examination. Jovellanos was made Alcalde del Crimen, or a member of the criminal branch of the Audiencia, or provincial court of law of Seville.

Before proceeding to his destination, young Jovellanos was introduced to the President of the Consejo, a place then held by the famous Count de Aranda. This Spanish grandee stood at that time in the height of his credit and power. His connections with the French philosophers, or Encyclopedistes, were well known, from the circumstance of Voltaire's having devoted an article of his Dictionnaire Philosophique to praise him. His talents are thought to have been of a very high class, though a good judge (Madame de Staël) who knew him well, has spoken of him as of a man whose mind was narrow, and whose intellect was very limited, but who made up for these deficiencies by the firmness and energy of his character. He was a reformer after the manner of the aristocratical and monarchical reformers of the eighteenth century; violent and despotic, a great enemy of the clergy and the influence of Rome, fond of innovation, but nowise friendly to popular controul, or indeed to any sort of opposition. The suppression of the Jesuits in Spain and South America is an act highly creditable to his abilities and courage, and though in the eyes of a member of a free community it must appear under the character of a most tyrannical and unjust measure, some apology for it may be found in the circumstances of Spain, where the

By the word noble a very different meaning is conveyed in Spain from that which we give to it in England. It is something like the French noblesse under the ancien regime.

hand of despotism alone could destroy the mighty fabric and defences of an ecclesiastical establishment, supported on one side by the prejudices of the public, and on the other side mainly depending upon foreign power and influence. Count de Aranda seems to have marked out Jovellanos for one of his new school, and a co-operator in his plans of reformation. It was by his advice that the young judge ventured to lay aside that useful appendage to a lawyer's head-a wig. No less powerful support than that of De Aranda was required to countenance this bold step; the bolder, in as far as it presented Jovellanos under the dangerous form of an innovator. In truth, his innovations extended somewhat farther than his dress and personal appearance. While the generality of the inhabitants of Seville were wondering at a judge young and fashionably attired, comely in his person, polite and lively in his conversation; in short, unlike his old, crabbed, slovenly and morose colleagues in every respect; it was noticed by more attentive and profound observers, that this same remarkable individual paid great attention to the fine arts, and showed the talents of a connoisseur; that he was not merely a lover but a cultivator of poetry-things all unusual and hitherto deemed improper in a man of his profession; that not contented with administering the law faithfully and impartially, he was actuated by a spirit of free inquiry, and as a consequence of all this, that far from thinking things as they stood to be absolute perfection, he thought that reform in many points was required, a reform moreover originating from and grounded on theoretical and philosophical principles. That these considerations should have afforded matter of lamentation to the wiseacres of those times is no more than might be expected; that instead of their being a bar to the promotion of the young reformer, they materially contributed to his advancement, is a fact honourable to those who then governed Spain. But the continental governments of those days were friendly to reform, and heedless of consequences, which indeed they neither anticipated nor foresaw. Whether they have acted wisely, even as far as their own interest is concerned, in retracing their steps, is a matter which time alone can and will decide.

Jovellanos advanced rapidly in his professional career through the various mazes of the complicated system of the Spanish judicial establishment. He at last attained the quiet and dignified station of a member or councillor of the Council of Military Orders, a strange tribunal or body, whose business it was to superintend all matters either judicial or administrative relating to the members of the four orders of military knighthood. Thus settled in the metropolis of Spain, Jovellanos, during his residence