Such being the condition of the Spanish government, we are naturally led to ask ourselves, “What are its prospects?” Is it to be expected that a government, without one element either of virtue or of strength--without the physical strength that may long support a bad government--and without the moral strength of virtue, will be able long to maintain itself? One naturally answers,--“No,” the thing cannot be; the whole system requires ploughing up, and it is impossible that there should not be a change, and that speedily!! But the question is, what change? After the French revolution broke out, a change of government in Spain was generally expected throughout both France and England; but the expectations upon this subject were certainly grounded upon an erroneous notion of the state of public feeling in Spain. I have no party to serve in giving my opinion; it is formed, I think, without prejudice, upon what I have seen and heard while in the country; and I feel a confident persuasion, that the change hoped for by every friend of mankind, is still at a distance; and that the present government must yield to the _strongest_ of the two parties that seek its downfal. Spain, I believe, has yet to pass through a fiery trial, before her days of freedom and happiness arrive: the change first to be expected, is one from despotism and weakness to greater despotism and greater strength: and this will be a new reign of terror. I am not stating my own opinion merely, but the opinion of the most thinking and best informed classes in Spain--liberals, as well as Carlists and royalists. With many, it is a miracle that the party of Carlists have not, long ere now, obtained the upper hand; a fact only to be accounted for, from the uncertainty that prevails as to the sentiments of the army. I recollect reading, in one of the French or English newspapers, a statement, that about the time the constitutionalists prepared to enter Spain, the minister sent for the different commanding officers of the guards stationed in Madrid, and demanded of them whether they could answer for their respective regiments; and that the reply was, they could answer for themselves only: this statement was true, but the interpretation put upon the answer was erroneous. The government had at that time greater fears of the Carlists than of the Constitutionalists; and the meaning of the officers, when they said they could answer only for themselves, was not--according to the interpretation annexed to the statement--that the troops were supposed to be of liberal sentiments, but that it was feared they might be attached to the Carlists. The conspiracy for elevating that party,--detected during the autumn,--cannot be supposed to have crushed it. I know that after that period, meetings of its partizans were regularly held; the intrigues of the clergy still continued in active operation; and subsequently to that period, the birth of a