Insolvent state of the Government--The Duke of Lerma--His position
in the State--Origin of his power--System of bribery and
trafficking--Philip III. His character--Domestic life of the king
and queen.

A glance at the interior condition of Spain, now that there had been more
than nine years of a new reign, should no longer be deferred. Spain was
still superstitiously regarded as the leading power of the world,
although foiled in all its fantastic and gigantic schemes. It was still
supposed, according to current dogma, to share with the Ottoman empire
the dominion of the earth. A series of fortunate marriages having united
many of the richest and fairest portions of Europe under a single
sceptre, it was popularly believed in a period when men were not much
given as yet to examine very deeply the principles of human governments
or the causes of national greatness, that an aggregation of powers which
had resulted from preposterous laws of succession really constituted a
mighty empire, founded by genius and valour.

The Spanish people, endowed with an acute and exuberant genius, which had
exhibited itself in many paths of literature, science, and art; with a
singular aptitude for military adventure, organization, and achievement;
with a great variety, in short, of splendid and ennobling qualities; had
been, for a long succession of years, accursed with almost the very worst
political institutions known to history. The depth of their misery and of
their degradation was hardly yet known to themselves, and this was
perhaps the most hideous proof of the tyranny of which they had been the
victims. To the outward world, the hollow fabric, out of which the whole
pith and strength had been slowly gnawed away, was imposing and majestic
still. But the priest, the soldier, and the courtier had been busy too
long, and had done their work too thoroughly, to leave much hope of
arresting the universal decay.

Nor did there seem any probability that the attempt would be made.

It is always difficult to reform wide-spread abuses, even when they are
acknowledged to exist, but when gigantic vices are proudly pointed to as
the noblest of institutions and as the very foundations of the state,
there seems nothing for the patriot to long for but the deluge.

It was acknowledged that the Spanish population--having a very large
admixture of those races which, because not Catholic at heart, were
stigmatized as miscreants, heretics, pag