His exchequer, so full when he ascended the throne as to excite the awe of contemporary financiers, was reduced before his death to a net income of some four millions of dollars. His armies; which had been the wonder of the age in the earlier period of his reign for discipline, courage, and every quality on which military efficiency depends, were in his later years a horde of starving, rebellious brigands, more formidable to their commanders than to the foe. Mutiny was the only organised military institution that was left in his dominions, while the Spanish Inquisition, which it was the fell purpose of his life from youth upwards to establish over the world, became a loathsome and impossible nuisance everywhere but in its natal soil. If there be such a thing as historical evidence, then is Philip II., convicted before the tribunal of impartial posterity of every crime charged in his indictment. He lived seventy-one years and three months, he reigned forty-three years. He endured the martyrdom of his last illness with the heroism of a saint, and died in the certainty of immortal bliss as the reward of his life of evil. ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: A despot really keeps no accounts, nor need to do so All Italy was in his hands Every one sees what you seem, few perceive what you are God of wrath who had decreed the extermination of all unbeliever Had industry been honoured instead of being despised History is but made up of a few scattered fragments Hugo Grotius Idle, listless, dice-playing, begging, filching vagabonds Ignorance is the real enslaver of mankind Innocent generation, to atone for the sins of their forefathers Intelligence, science, and industry were accounted degrading Labour was esteemed dishonourable Man had no rights at all He was property Matters little by what name a government is called Moral nature, undergoes less change than might be hoped Names history has often found it convenient to mark its epochs National character, not the work of a few individuals Proceeds of his permission to eat meat on Fridays Rarely able to command, having never learned to obey Rich enough to be worth robbing Seems but a change of masks, of costume, of phraseology Selling the privilege of eating eggs upon fast-days Sentiment of Christian self-complacency Spain was governed by an established terrorism That unholy trinity--Force; Dogma, and Ignorance The great ocean was but a Spanish lake The most thriving branch of national industry (Smuggler) The record of our race is essentially unwritten Thirty thousand masses should be said for his soul Those who argue against a foregone conclusion Three or four hundred petty sovereigns (of Germany) Utter want of adaptation of his means to his ends While one's friends urge moderation Whole revenue was pledged to pay the interest, on his debts