vely for its emoluments, that Lopez has been at three
different times a minister of the crown, and retired thrice from that
government, of which he was always the most influential member,
without any permanent office, or title, or decoration; without even a
cross or a riband to display upon his breast, in a country where
those favours are most extensively distributed. Even from the
premiership of the provisional government, by which high titles and
orders were lavishly disseminated amongst the leading instruments of
a successful national movement, and from the side of a Queen whose
majority had been just proclaimed, he withdrew into private life in a
strictly private capacity, without a charge upon the pension list for
himself or any of his connexions--without an inscription in the court
list or a _real_ of the public money. Five hundred different
lucrative and permanent offices were at his disposal, but he
preferred a practising lawyer's independence."

This would be rare praise in any country; in Spain it must be almost
without parallel. In striking contrast stands the character of Don Luis
Gonzalez Bravo, or Brabo, as he affects to write himself, who succeeded
Olozaga in the premiership, for which post he united some of the most
singular disqualifications ever possessed by a prime minister.

Spain, while imitating the fashions of England and France in dress and
suchlike petty particulars, has also thought proper to copy certain
political peculiarities of those two countries. Thus, while La Jeune
France vapours in long-bearded and belligerent splendour, under the
special patronage of a Joinville, and Young England peeps out, gentlemanly
and dignified, from beneath the aegis of a less high-born, but, in other
respects, equally distinguished character, La Joven Espana, emulous of
their bright example, ranges itself under the patronage of the
disreputable editor of a scurrilous journal. It is difficult for us in
England to imagine the state of things existing in a country where such a
person can head any party or section, however insignificant, in the
legislative assembly, and still more difficult to conceive any amount of
satirical and vituperative talent placing within his grasp the portfolio
of prime minister.

Bravo's first introduction to public notice, was as member of the
"_Trueno_," or Thunder Club--a society that amused itself, of evenings, b