political body, weighty in the affairs of Europe. He was ambitious; and to accomplish his ends scrupled at nothing. There was no sin he dared not commit, no wrong he dared not inflict, provided the proximate result should accord with his desires. He was less bound by superstition than the average of the age; he was thoughtful, powerful, princely. Both were personages magnificent, glorious, who achieved much good and much evil, the evil being as fully chargeable to the times, which placed princes above promises and religion, above integrity and humanity, as to any special depravity innate in either of them. And what was the immediate result of it; and what the more distant conclusion; and how much after all were Spaniards indebted to these rulers? First Spain enwrapped in surpassing glories! Spain the mistress of the world, on whose dominions the sun refuses to go down. Fortunate Ferdinand! Thrice amiable and virtuous Isabella! And next? Do we not see that these brilliant successes, these gratified covetings are themselves the seeds of Spain's abasement? Infinitely better off were Spain to-day, I will not say had she not driven out her Moors and Jews, but had she never known the New World. How much soever of honor Isabella may have brought upon herself by her speculations in partnership with the Genoese, for the self-same reason, resulting in the great blight of gold and general effeminacy that followed, Spain's posterity might reasonably anathematize her memory could they derive any comfort therefrom.