Nor do I say that Aristocracy is the enemy most difficult to find and come at. Demoralization in Democracy is harder to find and come at; for demoralization in Democracy is a disease, and lurks,--Aristocracy is a foe, and stands forth--bold; Demoralization is latent, and political doctors disagree about it,--Aristocracy is patent, and men of average sense soon agree about it. But the statement is that Aristocracy, based upon oppression, is, of all foes to liberty the most vigorous, of all foes to rights the most noxious, and of all foes to nationality the most corrosive. Other battles may be longer;--but the battle with Aristocracy is the sharpest which a nation can be called upon to wage,--and as a nation uses its strength during the contest--and _as it uses its wits after the contest_--so shall you find its whole national life a success or a failure. For my proofs I shall not start with _a priori_ reasoning:--that shall come in as it is needed in the examination of historical facts. You shall have the simple, accurate presentation of facts from history--and plain reasoning upon these facts--and from Ancient History, rich as it is in proofs, I will draw nothing!--all shall be drawn from the history of modern States--the history of men living under the influence of great religious and political ideas which are active to-day--and among ourselves. Foremost among the examples of the normal working of an Aristocracy based upon the subjection of a class, I name SPAIN. I name her first--not as the most striking example, but as one of those in which the evil grew most naturally, and went through its various noxious phases most regularly. The fabric of Spanish nationality had much strength and much beauty. The mixture of the Barbarian element with the Roman, after the Roman downfall, was probably happier there than in any other part of Europe. The Visigoths gave Spain the best of all the barbaric codes. Guizot has shown how,[1] as by inspiration, some of the most advanced ideas of modern enlightened codes were incorporated into it. The succeeding history of the Spanish nation was also, in its main sweep, fortunate. There were ages of endurance which toughened the growing nation,--battles for right which ennobled it;--disasters which compacted manliness and squeezed out effeminacy. This character took shape in goodly institutions. The city growth helped the growth of liberty, not less in Spain than in her sister nations. Cities and towns became not merely centres of prosperity, but guardians of freedom.[2] Then came, perhaps, the finest growth of free institutions in Mediæval Europe. The Cortes of Castile was a representative body nearly a hundred years before Simon de Montfort laid the foundations of English parliamentary representation at Leicester.[3] The Commons of Arragon had gained yet greater privileges earlier.