dam, antiquarian, facile in every language of Europe, and deeply interested in whatever concerns Baptist History, is now searching the archives of the courts of the Netherlands, from 1525 to 1560, for records concerning Baptists. Already he has found much that throws light on our history, and he expects soon to give the result of his studies to the public. We await them with great interest. Within a few months, on one of the dusty shelves of a great European library, has been discovered a pamphlet, written by a nobleman of Augsburg, in 1526, entitled "A True History of the Baptists." Of course the authorities removed his head from his body, for daring to think and write on such a subject.

There is a future for Baptists. Their history shall have its resurrection. God grant that every Baptist may heed Dr. Cramp's last words (pp. 584-589).

If it is true that the Apostolic churches were Baptist churches, they were the purest Baptist churches the world has ever seen; yet out of them, by a gradual fall, by fellowship with the world, by love of display and worldly ways and practices, has come the awful apostasy that has clouded and cursed the world for centuries. Are we better than those early churches? Only by the Holy Spirit and by a close walk with Jesus, by the profession and preaching of the true faith, by the unmutilated administration of the ordinances, by the faithful exercise of discipline in our churches, shall we hand down, bright and clear, the unspeakably precious truths we have inherited. In simple intelligent reliance on God's word of grace let us strive to set that forth by word and work. As we look back through the centuries, we see the Saviour's words written in a noon of living rays, "not one jot or tittle shall pass away till all be fulfilled," we catch the spirit of Hubmeyer's strong assurance, "Truth is immortal," (Die Wahrheit ist untödlich,) we must pray, while souls remain in darkness, the prayer of Hetzer, “O God, set free the captives!" ("O Gott, erlös die Gfangnen!")

UPLAND, PA.

HOWARD OSGOOD.

WITH

ITH the Atlantic Telegraph giving daily bulletins from the Constituent Cortes, it would be useless for a quarterly publication to attempt a chronicle of the revolution; and a very slight acquaintance with the complicated nature of the problem now working out by the Spanish nation is enough to deter any sensible writer from playing the role of the prophet. But perhaps a brief review of the historical causes that have concurred to make Spain what she is, will enable us to form a truer estimate of the national tendencies than would otherwise be possible, and to appreciate the meaning and significance of what is transacting, as it were, before our eyes. We do not indeed believe, with some enthusiastic votaries of the philosophy of history that it is possible in any such degree "rerum cognoscere causas" as to give some foresight of what is yet future. The complexity of physical and moral agencies is too great to enable any but an omniscient mind or a mind inspired by the Omniscient to read in them with accuracy the character of coming events. History is full of surprises, and Spanish history abounds in them. But what was startling to the contemporary observer, resolves itself to the retrospective student as an orderly and natural result of recognizable causes.

The Spanish monarchy dates from the fifteenth century. The Ibe

rian peninsula has been conquered successively by the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, and the Saracens. The Romans, as was their wont, so impressed themselves upon the country and its language, that few traces of their predecessors are discernible, though there are believed to be some remnants of the ancient Cantabrian tongue in the Basque language spoken by the Biscayans and other tribes on the northern border of the kingdom. Under the Roman dominion, down to the sixth century, the country enjoyed a season of tranquility and prosperity, though sharing with other provinces in the evils which marked the "decline and fall" of the empire. The peninsula was overrun in the sixth century by the Vandals and other Gothic tribes, among whom in the following century the Visigoths became supreme. But their dominion was not long undisturbed. In the year 711 a Moorish army invaded the kingdom, defeated the Visigoths in a great battle, killed their king, and soon overrunning the whole country drove them to the fastnesses of the mountains. From these retreats they gradually descended and recovered portions of the lower countries. The kingdom of Leon was founded about the middle of the eighth century, and as the strength of the Moors declined several independent states were formed. Castile and Aragon, the most powerful of them, gradually absorbed most of the others. The union of these crowns by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, the conquest of Granada, the last possession of the Moors, and of that portion of the kingdom of Navarre lying south of the Pyrenees, made Spain a united monarchy, which the conquest of Naples and the discovery of America made also the most powerful in Europe. Charles the First (the Fifth, of Germany,) joined to his Spanish heritage that of Austria and the Netherlands. Philip the Second conquered Portugal, and was the husband of Queen Mary of England. There can be no doubt that at that time, and relatively to other European states, Spain was more powerful than any empire has since been. Macaulay has strikingly depicted the colossal figure with a few strokes of his pen:

The empire of Philip the Second was undoubtedly one of the most powerful and splendid that ever existed in the world. In Europe, he ruled Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands on both sides of the Rhine, Franche Comtê, Roussillon, the Milanese, and the Two Sicilies. Tuscany, Parma, and the other small states of Italy, were as completely dependent on him as the Nizam and the Rajah of Berar now are on the East India Company. In Asia the king of Spain was master of the Philippines and of all those rich settlements which the Portuguese had made on the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, in the Peninsula of Malacca, and

The nar

in the spice islands of the Eastern Archipelego. In America, his dominions extended on each side of the equator into the temperate zone. There is reason to believe that his annual revenue amounted, in the season of his greatest power, to a sum near ten times as large as that which England yielded to Elizabeth. He had a standing army of fifty thousand excellent troops, at a time when England had not a single battalion in constant pay. His ordinary naval force consisted of a hundred and forty galleys. He held, what no other prince in modern times has held, the dominion both of the land and of the sea. During the greater part of his reign, he was supreme on both elements. His soldiers marched up to the capital of France; his ships menaced the coasts of England. It is no exaggeration to say that, during several years, his power over Europe was even greater than that of Napoleon. The influence of the French conqueror never extended beyond low-water mark. rowest strait was to his power what it was of old believed that a running stream was to the sorceries of a witch. While his army entered every metropolis from Moscow to Lisbon, the English fleets blockaded every port from Dantzic to Trieste. Sicily, Sardinia, Majorica, Guernsey, enjoyed security through the whole course of a war which endangered every throne on the Continent. The victorious and imperial nation which had filled its museums with the spoils of Antwerp, of Florence, and of Rome, was suffering painfully from the want of luxuries which use had made necessaries. While pillars and arches were rising to commemorate the French conquests, the conquerors were trying to manufacture coffee out of succory and sugar out of beet-root. The influence of Philip on the Continent was as great as that of Napoleon. The Emperor of Germany was his kinsman. France, torn by religious dissensions, was never a formidable opponent, and was sometimes a dependent ally. At the same time, Spain had what Napoleon long desired in vain, ships, colonies, and commerce. She long monopolized the trade of America and of the Indian Ocean. All the gold of the West, and all the spices of the East, were received and distributed by her. During many years of war, her commerce was interrupted only by the predatory enterprises of a few roving privateers. Even after the defeat of the Armada, English statesman continued to look with great dread on the maritime power of Philip.'

But in this case, as in others which history records, the increase of the royal power neither implied nor caused a corresponding increase of prosperity to the nation. The union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile was not a union of the two kingdoms. Both were limited monarchies, both possessed representative assemblies, and the people of both were warmly attached to their ancient liberties. The fact, however, that the royal power was concentrated, while the legislative power and parliamentary privilege were divided between the

1 Review of Lord Mahon's History of the War of the Succession in Spain.

two assemblies of the two nations, would have made it easy, had there been no change of the balance of power, for the sovereigns to thwart, to humble, and finally to suppress, the assemblies by which they were constitutionally restrained. By opposing the Cortes of one kingdom to those of the other, taking advantage of their mutual jealousies, it was possible essentially to limit their power and to extend the authority of the crown. This policy was pursued by Ferdinand, whom the death of Isabella left in sole authority over their joint dominions. The discovery of America and the important conquests gained on both continents, immensely strengthened the royal power without augmenting that of the Cortes. In vain they asserted their ancient privileges, and the people in vain rose to support them. The veteran armies of Charles the Fifth, and of Philip the Second, proved too much for undisciplined popular enthusiasm. Free institutions decayed, and finally perished, during the reign of the first king of the Bourbon dynasty. Monarchy became absolute, maintaining its supremacy by the sword. Parliamentary rights and privileges were obsolete, and known only to antiquaries. That a people is surely degraded by the loss of political freedom, is a truism which scarcely needs to be articulately stated. The facility with which free constitutions have since been adopted and cancelled, readopted and again rejected, not on their merits, not by outward constraint, but upon the impulse of intrigues in the court or in the army, is sufficient evidence of a decayed public spirit, and an ill omen for that Spanish Republic which (at the present writing) in lack of an available candidate for the throne, seems to impend.

But nations whose political activity is suppressed, may avert some of the worst effects, by increased enérgy of action in other directions. Even the pursuit of material gain is better than utter mental torpidity. Spain has some important natural advantages, the improvement of which might have done more for the increase of wealth than all the spoils of her foreign conquests. Her soil, in the Southern provinces, and on the slopes descending from the mountains towards the sea, yields a various and bountiful return for tillage. There are extensive tracts of broken and comparatively sterile surface which have for centuries been the pasturage ground of flocks that furnish their fine wools to the commerce of the world. Silk is largely produced. Her forests might have been of great extent and value but for the ignorant recklessness with which they have been swept away. Besides the grape and its choice vintages, there is an abundance of semi-tropical fruits and nuts, and the finer varieties proper to the temperate zone. The mineral resources of the kingdom are great.