Identifier: landofdons00willuoft (find matches)
Title: The land of the Dons
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Williams, Leonard, b. 1871
Subjects: Civilization, Spanish Spain -- Social life and customs
Publisher: London, Cassell
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
As yet we can only conjecture,
although his studious and inquisitive disposition
and gentle manners promise not a little. Nomi-
nally, his earliest acts have been the celebra-
tion of a military review, and the publication, in
somewhat tumid terms, of an address to his army
and navy; but it is clear from the wording of
this document that the young King is no more its
author than I am the author of the Letters of Junius.
He has merely appended his signature. Doubtless,
as time progresses, he will prefer his own initiative
to that of interested parties, and appreciate more
directly the peaceable and commercial aspirations
of his people.
Some of the influences in the present condition
of Spain are contradictory and conflicting. She is
not a bankrupt power. She does not seem to be a
moribund power. But it is undeniable that she is in
a state of prostration. Her infirmity may be likened,
not to those attending on old age, but to a sickness
suffered during the prime of life, or even earlier.
For this very reason a valid judgment becomes
more difficult to pronounce; for while in the case
Text Appearing After Image:

(To face p. 370.) (from a photograph by Franzen, Madrid.)

DON ALFONSO THE THIRTEENTH.

THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT. 371

of a patient sinking under natural decline one
may predict with confidence impending dissolution,
in the case of younger patients, valetudinarians
whose strength is fairly battling with disease, it is
only the very skilled, or else the very rash observer,
who will adventure any opinion at all.
Personally, I am not a little hopeful as to Spain's
recovery. Her resources have been taxed, but not
exhausted. Her suffering is great; but her vigor
seems equal to resisting it. Indeed, it is astounding
to consider what she has already survived. I have
briefly exemplified the hideous malady which tor-
mented her, with but little intermission, for over
three hundred and fifty years. The Hapsburg
dynasty and everything about it was rotten and
pernicious. Kings were bad, ministers were bad,
priests were bad, and the common people, by force
of example, were bad also, though less so than
their ruler. Nevertheless, it would be hard to

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