f the poor' and 'guardian of the weak.'

"At present, my dear brother, there is a very formidable question
in our Spain, that of the finances. The Spanish debt is something
frightful to think of; the productive forces of the country are not
enough to cover it--bankruptcy is imminent. I do not know if I can
save Spain from that calamity; but, if it be possible, a
legitimate sovereign alone can do it. An unshakable will works
wonders. If the country is poor, let all live frugally, even to the
ministers; nay, even to the King himself, who should be one in
feeling with Don Enrique El Doliente. If the King is foremost in
setting the example, all will be easy. Let ministries be
suppressed, provincial governments be reduced, offices be
diminished, and the administration economized at the same time that
agriculture is encouraged, industry protected, and commerce
assisted. To put the finances and credit of Spain on a proper
footing is a Titanic enterprise to which all governments and
peoples should lend aid."

* * * * *

Here follow a repudiation of free trade as applied to Spain, and a few
well-turned periods dealing in the usual Spanish manner with the duties
of the ruler, laying down, among other axioms, that "virtue and
knowledge are the chiefest nobility," and that the person of the
mendicant should be as sacred as that of the patrician.

At the close there is a very sensible sentence, affirming that one
Christian monarch in Spain would be better than three hundred petty
kings disputing in a noisy assembly. "The chiefs of parties," continues
the letter, "naturally yearn for honours or riches or place; but what in
the world can a Christian king desire but the good of his people? What
could he want to be happy but the love of his people?"

The letter winds up by the affirmation that Don Carlos is faithful to
the good traditions of the old and glorious Spanish monarchy, and that
he believed he would be found to act also as "a man of the present age."
The last sentence is a prayer to his brother, "who had the enviable
privilege of serving in the Papal army," to ask their spiritual king at
Rome for his apostolic benediction for Spain and the writer.

If this document was written _propria manu_, by Don Carlos, he must be
endowed with higher intellectual faculties than most Kings or Pretenders
possess. It is undeniably clever, and is more progressive than one would
expect from an upholder of t