Statesmen sat in these--statesmen who devised curbs for monarchs, and forced monarchs to wear them. The dispensing power was claimed at an early day by Spanish Kings as by Kings of England;--but Hallam acknowledges[4] that the Spaniards made a better fight against this despotic claim than did the English. The Spanish established the Constitutional principle that the King cannot dispense with statutes centuries before the English established it by the final overthrow of the Stuarts. Many sturdy maxims, generally accounted fruit of that early English boldness for liberty, are of that earlier Spanish period. "No taxation without representation" was a principle asserted in Castile early, often and to good purpose. In Arragon no war could be declared,--no peace made,--no money coined without consent of the Cortes.[5] The "Great Privilege of Saragossa" gave quite as many, and quite as important liberties to Arragon as were wrested from King John for England in the same century. Such is a meagre sketch of the development of society at large. As regards the other development which goes to produce civilization--the development of individual character, the Spanish peninsula was not less distinguished. In its line of monarchs were Ferdinand III., Alfonso X., James II., and Isabella;--in its line of statesmen were Ximenes and Cisneros--worthy predecessors of that most daring of all modern statesmen, Alberoni. The nation rejoiced too in a noble line of poets and men of letters.[6] Still more important than these brilliant exceptions was the tone of the people at large. They were tough and manly.[7] No doubt there were grave national faults. Pride--national and individual--constantly endangered quiet. Blind submission to Ecclesiastical authority was also a fearful source of evil! Yet, despite these, it is impossible not to be convinced, on a careful reading of Spanish history, that the influence which tore apart States,--which undermined good institutions,--which defeated justice,--which disheartened effort,--which prevented resistance to encroachments of Ecclesiasticism and Despotism--nay, which made such encroachments a _necessity_--came from the _nobility_. The Spanish nobility had risen and become strong in those long wars against the intruding Moors,--they had gained additional strength in the wars between provinces. They soon manifested necessary characteristics. They kept Castile in confusion by their dissensions,--they kept Arragon in confusion by their anti-governmental unions. Accustomed to lord it over inferiors, they could brook no opposition,--hence all their influence was Anarchic; accustomed to no profitable labor of any sort, their influence was for laziness and wastefulness;--accustomed to look on public matters as their monopoly, they devoted themselves to conjuring up phantoms of injuries and insults, and plotting to avenge them. Every Aristocracy passes through one, and most Aristocracies through both of two historic phases.