field may be classed with the
capitulation of Granada. Both nations confront a future of about equal
promise and may be rated as on equal footing, as this new era of the
world opens to view.

What was this new era? Printing had been invented, commerce had
arisen, gunpowder had come into use, the feudal system was passing,
royal authority had become paramount, and Spain was giving to the
world its first lessons in what was early stigmatized as the "knavish
calling of diplomacy."

Now began the halcyon days of Spain, and what a breed of men she
produced! Read the story of their conquests in Mexico and Peru, as
told with so much skill and taste by our own Prescott; or read of the
grandeur of her national character, and the wonderful valor of her
troops, and the almost marvelous skill of her Alexander of Parma, and
her Spinola, as described by our great Motley, and you will see
something of the moral and national glory of that Spain which under
Charles V and Philip II awed the world into respectful silence.

Who but men of iron, under a commander of steel, could have conducted
to a successful issue the awful siege of Antwerp, and by a discipline
more dreadful than death, kept for so many years, armed control of the
country of the brave Netherlanders? A Farnese was there, who could
support and command an army, carry Philip and his puerile
idiosyncrasies upon his back and meet the fury of an outraged people
who were fighting on their own soil for all that man holds dear. Never
was wretched cause so ably led, never were such splendid talents so
unworthily employed.

Alexander of Parma, Cortez, the Pizarros, were representatives of that
form of human character that Spain especially developed. Skill and
daring were brought out in dazzling splendor, and success followed
their movements. Take a brief survey of the Empire under Charles V:
Himself Emperor of Germany; his son married to the Queen of England;
Turkey repulsed; France humbled, and all Europe practically within his
grasp. And what was Spain outside of Europe? In America she possessed
territory covering sixty degrees of latitude, owning Mexico, Central
America, Venezuela, New Granada, Peru and Chili, with vast parts of
North America, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica and St. Domingo. In
Africa and Asia she had large possessions--in a word, the energies of
the world were at her feet. The silver and gold of America, the
manufactures and commerce of the Netherlands, com