merous Conservatives outside
Spain to the Royalist cause, was the belief entertained that the success
of Don Carlos would lead to the re-assertion of clerical preponderance,
would destroy liberty of conscience as understood in most European
nations, and would set up a political priesthood. The manifesto of Don
Carlos does not deal with those points in the full and categorical
manner desirable. I was told there were two parties in the Carlist camp,
the clerical and--for want of a better name, let it be called--the
non-clerical The former, the Basques, and those who gave Carlism its
great primary impulsion, were as zealously Roman Catholic as ever Manuel
Santa Cruz was. They looked forward to the re-acquisition of the
ecclesiastical domains and the re-establishment of the Catholic Church
in all its ancient supremacy of wealth and power. The non-clericals knew
that the Basques, even assuming them all to be Carlists, were but
660,000 in number, a small minority of the population, and that the
existence of a State unduly influenced by a Church--things temporal
controlled by personages bound to things spiritual--was antagonistic to
the feelings of the majority of Spaniards.

Having met a nobleman distinguished for his services to Carlism, I put
it to him bluntly, "Would Don Carlos on the throne mean a relapse into
religious bigotry?"

He answered me with candour, "I am a Roman Catholic, and if I thought so
I should be the last man to lend a penny to his cause."

"But," I urged, "that is the general impression in England, where he is
trying to negotiate a loan, and if it is left uncorrected it does him
injury. Why does he not repel the impeachment?"

"The truth is," he said, "Don Carlos has made too many public
explanations."

I returned to the charge, challenging my acquaintance to deny that many
of the supporters of Don Carlos would fall away if they had not the
thorough belief that his cause was as much identified with the triumph
of Roman Catholicism as with that of legitimacy. His reply was not a
denial, but an admission of the fact, with the addition that in war one
must not be too particular as to the means of enlisting aid, and
stimulating the enthusiasm of supporters, which is an argument as true
as it is old. Don Carlos, in his manifesto, goes on the assumption that
the Republicans are all atheists, or something very like it. It is only
fair to let the Republicans speak for themselves, and explain what is
the R