Don Manuel de Roda, an Aragonese by birth, and an eminent lawyer at Madrid, had imbibed very early both the theological and political tenets of the Jansenists. He had been distinguished at the bar by his resolute and virulent opposition to the members of the _Colegios Mayores_. That institution, founded for the education and assistance of poor students, had been perverted from its original intentions: for though no one could be admitted but upon competition and a plurality of voices, it consisted _de facto_ entirely of persons of family. Its members, by the aid of exclusive privileges in the career of the law, by mutual assistance, and a corporation spirit, not unlike that of the Jesuits themselves, had obtained a large portion of ecclesiastical and legal patronage, and enjoyed almost a monopoly of the highest judicial offices in Castile. The members of these colleges were enabled to succeed to the offices of _Fiscal, Oydor_, and other magistracies, without the previous ceremony of passing advocates, which was a gradation none but those who were _Colegiales_ could dispense with. These privileges gave them great influence, and the expense which attended their elections, (especially that of the Rectors of each College, an annual office of great consideration among them,) served as an effectual bar to the pretensions of any who had not birth and wealth to recommend them. It is just, however, to observe, that if they were infected with the narrow spirit of corporations, they retained to the last the high sense of honour which is always the boast, and sometimes the characteristic, of privileged orders of men. It has ever been acknowledged by their enemies, that since the abolition of their exclusive privileges, which Roda lived to accomplish, and, yet more, since their further discouragement by the Prince of Peace, the judicial offices have not been filled by persons of equal character for integrity, learning, and honour. But those who studied the laws without the advantages of an education at the _Colegios Mayores_, were naturally and justly indignant at the privileges which they enjoyed. The boldness of Don Manuel de Roda’s opposition to an order of men so invidiously distinguished, ingratiated him with the lawyers, who, in Spain as elsewhere, constitute a large, active, and formidable body of men. But the same high spirit having involved him in a dispute with a man of rank and influence, his friend and protector the Duke of Alva thought it prudent for him to withdraw from Court; and with a view of enabling him to do so with credit to himself, entrusted him with a public commission to Rome, where he was received as the agent of the King of Spain. He here, no doubt, acquired that knowledge which was so useful to him afterwards in the prosecution of his important design. By what fatality he became minister, I know not. Charles III. must have departed from his general rule of appointing every