The limited Monarchy Party--or _Moderados_--though the most respectable in talents, consists but of a few educated Nobles, and a small portion of the Mercantile and learned Professions--some few even of the clergy; but amongst the mass of the people it has no supporters whatever; for amongst the lower orders the term is not understood. The leaders of this party--like the _Gironde_ in France--were carried away by the breakers of reform, as they swept onwards with increasing volume; and the unprincipled men who have since usurped the direction of affairs,--with all the vanity of a Mirabeau, but without one spark of his talents,--imagine they shall be listened to, when they bid the flowing tide to advance no further:--but, though they would not object to, nay, though they _desire_, the establishment of a Republic, yet they too will find Spanish Robespierres and Talliens to dispute their power. To others, however, I abandon the wide field of inquiry these questions open; the following pages, whatever glimmerings of light they may throw upon the subject, being devoted to the description of but a small portion of this ill used, ill governed, but most interesting country. The part I have selected--namely, Andalusia--whilst it differs very materially from the rest of the Spanish peninsula, claims in many respects the first place in the estimation of the traveller, whatever may be his _taste_ or the direction of his inquiries. If the Moorish monuments be the object of his research, he will find they have been scattered with a more profuse hand throughout Andalusia than in any other part of the peninsula; the lofty mountain chain which forms the northern boundary of the province[6] having for some considerable time arrested the Christian arms, after the rest of Spain had been recovered from the Mohammedans; whilst the yet more rugged belt that encircles Granada presented an obstacle which retarded the entire reconquest of the kingdom, for upwards of two centuries and a half. During that long period, therefore, the Moslems, driven within the limits of so diminished a circle, were necessarily obliged to enlarge and multiply their towns, to cultivate with greater care their fields and orchards, and to strengthen, in every possible way, the natural defences of their territory; and thus, their remains, besides being more numerous _there_ than in other parts of Spain, furnish specimens, of the latest as well as of the earliest date, of their peculiar style of architecture. Should matters of more general interest have drawn the Traveller to Spain, he will still find Andalusia laying especial claim to his attention; History ascribing to each mountain pass and every crumbling ruin the fame of having been the scene of some desperate conflict between the various ambitious nations that, before the Saracenic invasion, successively sought the possession of this fertile region.