On what do you rely for security against these dangers?  On public opinion?  You might as well calculate upon the constancy of wind and weather in this uncertain climate.  On the progress of knowledge? it is such knowledge as serves only to facilitate the course of delusion.  On the laws? the law which should be like a sword in a strong hand, is weak as a bulrush if it be feebly administered in time of danger.  On the people? they are divided.  On the Parliament? every faction will be fully and formidably represented there.  On the government? it suffers itself to be insulted and defied at home, and abroad it has shown itself incapable of maintaining the relations of peace and amity with its allies, so far has it been divested of power by the usurpation of the press.  It is at peace with Spain, and it is at peace with Turkey; and although no government was ever more desirous of acting with good faith, its subjects are openly assisting the Greeks with men and money against the one, and the Spanish Americans against the other.  Athens, in the most turbulent times of its democracy, was not more effectually domineered over by its demagogues than you are by the press—­a press which is not only without restraint, but without responsibility; and in the management of which those men will always have most power who have least probity, and have most completely divested themselves of all sense of honour and all regard for truth.

The root of all your evils is in the sinfulness of the nation.  The principle of duty is weakened among you; that of moral obligation is loosened; that of religious obedience is destroyed.  Look at the worldliness of all classes—­the greediness of the rich, the misery of the poor, and the appalling depravity which is spreading among the lower classes through town and country; a depravity which proceeds unchecked because of the total want of discipline, and for which there is no other corrective than what may be supplied by fanaticism, which is itself an evil.

If there be nothing exaggerated in this representation, you must acknowledge that though the human race, considered upon the great scale, should be proceeding toward the perfectibility for which it may be designed, the present aspects in these kingdoms are nevertheless rather for evil than for good.  Sum you up now upon the hopeful side.

Montesinos—­First, then.  I rest in a humble but firm reliance upon that Providence which sometimes in its mercy educes from the errors of men a happier issue than could ever have been attained by their wisdom;—­that Providence which has delivered this nation from so many and such imminent dangers heretofore.

Looking, then, to human causes, there is hope to be derived from the humanising effects of Literature, which has now first begun to act upon all ranks.  Good principles are indeed used as the stalking-horse under cover of which pernicious designs may be advanced; but the better seeds are thus disseminated and fructify after the ill design has failed.