fifteenth century, to introduce the Salic law into Spain, which is related as follows by an ancient Spanish historian. "In 1475, which was the first year of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, there was at Segovia a certain contestation between the king and the queen, to know which of the two ought to succeed to the kingdoms of Castille and Leon,—the queen, a daughter of king John II, or the king, a son of John king of Aragon, a descendant in the male line from John I, king of Castille and Leon. Those who took part with the king wanted to introduce into Castille and Leon a new law, similar to that of the Salic law of the French, which excludes females from the royal patrimony. The queen's party, which was that of justice, supported her right by the laws of the kingdom and by the ancient histories. . . . . Sentence was pronounced in favour of queen Isabella."*

What Ferdinand the Catholic had not been able to do, was partially accomplished by Philip V, immediately after the treaty of Utrecht had fixed the crown in his race. He abolished the ancient cognatic succession, according to which, in the same line, the eldest was preferred to the juniors, and the males to the females,-in different lines, the females of the direct or nearest line prevailed over the males of the more distant line; and he established in its stead the agnatic succession, which was calculated to hinder a fair kingdom from going out of his family. Nevertheless, out of respect to Spanish traditions and maxims, he admitted, in default of all males of whatever line or degree, the succession of females so long as there were any. This was a semi-Salic law, which gave the preference to male descendants over all the females and their descendants, although the females and their descendants were of better degree and nearer line. This act was approved in a general

Garibay, compendio historial, etc. tit. i, lib. xviii. I have borrowed this indication from M. Laboulaye, De la condition des femmes, p. 496.

assembly of the cortes, and, far from any European power objecting to it, its application appeared to be tied to the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht, as we shall shew further on.*

In 1789, for motives which have remained secret, but which tended perhaps to the establishment of a foreign influence, in Spain, there was an intention of re-establishing the law of the Partidas. It then, however, went no farther than a state of proposition. A petition presented to king Charles IV by the cortes, as well as the draught of a new pragmatic on the part of the king, were only printed in 1830, and the novisima recopilacion, or official compilation of the laws existing in Spain, published by order of king Charles IV himself in 1805,† reproduced the decree of Philip V, of the year 1713, without any observation or correction.

The constitution of 1812, decreed by the cortes, formally abrogated the auto accordato of Philip V, and the return to the laws of the Partidas was proclaimed in it. We know that this unexecuted constitution was itself abolished by Ferdinand VII, after the evacuation of the Spanish territory in 1814. From that moment a return was made to the application of the law of 1713.

We know also that on the 29th of March, 1830, Ferdinand VII promulgated the decree projected in 1789 by Charles IV; this new decree was sanctioned by the cortes, and its legality was acknowledged by England, France, and the other powers of Europe.

In was, therefore, to this ancient law of the Partidas

* See this act translated into French in the appendix, No. II. The text is in the second volume of the Novisima recopilacion de las Leyes de España, p. 4, et seq. Madrid, 1805-29, 6 vols. 4to.

† Novisima recopilacion de las Leyes de España, dividida en xii libros en que se reforma la recopilacion publicada por el señor don Felipe II, en el año de 1567, reimpresa ultimamente en el de 1775, y se incorporan las pragmaticas, cedulas, decretos, ordenes, y resoluciones reales, y otras providencias no recopiladas, y expedidas basta el de 1804. Mandata formar por el sen or don Carlos VI. Empresa en Madrid, año 1805-29, 6 vols. 4to.

that the different dynasties which have reigned in Spain owed the inheritance of the crown. In 1496, the heiress of Castille, Joanna the Mad, carried the throne by marriage into the house of Hapsburg, and her son thus joined in one the states of the four houses of Burgundy, Aragon, Castille, and Austria. This son was Charles V. Before the house of Austria, two French dynasties had reigned in Spain, by virtue of the law of succession of females, and a third French dynasty, that of Bourbon, followed in the place of the house of Austria.

§ II. THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN SPAIN.

The establishment of the house of Hapsburg in Spain, dragged that rich and powerful country out of its natural sphere of activity. In fact there is a moral and geographical cogeniality between France and Spain, and consequently also in the political system of the two peoples. Spain was civilized by the Roman law, like Gaul. She received through France the commerce and ideas of Europe; although separated by a great chain of mountains, Spain has at all times mixed her races and her destinies with those of France. Her language, of Latin stock like the French language, claims identity with the langue Romane of the Middle Ages and with the vulgar tongue still spoken in the south of France. If France has given dynasties to Spain, in their turn the Spanish dynasties have possessed great fiefs in the south of France. France has remained Catholic like Spain, perhaps with a character less exclusive, which arises from the geographical position of the two countries, from the particular genius of the two nations, and from the accidents of their political history. The Spanish law was drawn from the same sources as the French law. Spanish literature has exercised a remarkable influence on French literature, and in their turn the literature and political doctrines of France have caused in some measure a revolution in Spain. The two countries evidently move in the same circle of interests and

ideas, although in different degrees. Their constant friendship is a necessary friendship. France serves as a barrier to Spain against the aggressions of the continent; she receives in exchange a valuable protection for her southern frontier; for, open to the north and to the east, if to these dangers be joined the fears of an attack from the south, her territorial safety is threatened, and her political force in Europe is lessened. The alliance or enmity of the two peoples is for both a cause of peril or of prosperity.

In the eyes of Spain, a French dynasty represented that grand interest of the south, in which she is so deeply engaged. In the eyes of France an Austrian dynasty beyond the Pyrenees was a permanent threat and an intolerable danger. France has struggled during two centuries, with various vicissitudes, to restore the concord which the accession of the house of Austria had broken between her and Spain; she has spared no effort to attain the aim of this policy, now consecrated by three centuries, and always dear to the two nations. Francis I was a prisoner at Madrid; but the grandson of Louis XIV went to reign in the Escurial, and this great event was only the natural accomplishment of the destiny of the two peoples. The cause of Philip V was embraced by Spain as the cause of national independence and prosperity, and public good sense has always shown to France the friendship of Spain as a French interest of the first order.

France was powerfully supported in the pursuit of her private interest, by the interest of Europe itself; for if the house of Austria threatened us by the Pyrenees and by her possessions even on the French territory, where she had a footing by Roussillon, Flanders, Artois, and Burgundy; she also predominated over and weighed upon Europe by her German states, by the Low Countries, by Italy, and by the resources of her rich colonies, a formidable power, indeed, which the ambitous Charles V dreamt of increasing further, to the great peril of the political liberty of Europe. Bowed down under the weight of

so vast a monarchy, and discouraged by a check which France had given to him, Charles retired from the

world and shared his states between two heirs. During his whole reign, France and England had been at the head of the leagues formed against him, yet the struggle had been without success.

Separated from the branch established in the hereditary estates of Austria, the Spanish branch of Hapsburg remained not the less a formidable neighbour for France. She pressed always on the kingdom from three sides. Her exclusive Catholicism gave her a great influence over French Catholicism during the troubles of the Reformation. Philip II, whose influence weighed upon France during several years, attempted even to impose his dynasty upon that kingdom. Everybody knows the glorious resistance of Henri IV, and the energy with which the national feelings declared against this attempt at usurpation. Louis XIII, guided by Richelieu, continued the sentiments of Henri IV, leagued with Holland, Germany, Sweden and Savoy, against the house of Austria, and inflicted. heavy blows upon it. England followed the same policy, in supporting the insurrection of the Low Countries. The Spanish house of Austria became insensibly weakened in this struggle; its blood appeared even to degenerate, whilst the house of Bourbon gained in strength and influence what the other lost in vigour and authority. Europe was then divided between the desire of being delivered from the despotism of the one and the fear of undergoing the yoke of the other.

A great juridical phenomenon at this moment made its appearance in the west,-a phenomenon unknown to the ancient world and to the world of the Middle Ages.

The various states of Europe had been led by dif ferent circumstances and by the analogous developement of the conditions of their sociability, to frequent intercommunications and to alliances of common interest, whether for the affairs of the reformation, or

C