of alcavalas; and the people chafed and fretted by monopolies But the least exceptionable taxes in the Spanish colonies, are thofe which have no other object but to raife money. The Spanish government is one of those which conceives it to be its chief duty to promote the industry of its fubjects, and to direct them in the right path to opulence; and to thefe ends its fixed regulations are made fubfervient. The colonies are facrificed, as ufual, to the mother country; and their heaviest tax is the tribute which they are compelled to pay to the laziness, ignorance, and unskilfulness of Spanish workmen and manufacturers. With the fame well-meaning views, one colony, one province, or one city, is continually facrificed to fome other, and an order often arrives unexpectedly from Madrid, which fufpends the most flourishing trade, and condemus a whole province to idlenefs and want. If there are abufes which would be corrected by a government resident in America, and acquainted with its local neceffities, the Spanish colonies cannot but gain by emancipation. Nor are the fame evils and diforders to be apprehended in Spania America from a change of government, which would follow any disturbances in the Weft India islands, or such as befel the unfortunate colony of St Domingo. The natural aristocracy of the Spanish colonies refides in the country, and consists of men born and educated in the midst of their inferiors and dependants. The people of colour are fober and religious. The African negroes are few in number; and the blacks born in the colonies are reconciled to their fituation, and accustomed to the fame eafy and indolent life with their masters. The Indians are the least of all to be feared. The form of government beft fuited to a people like the Spanish Americans, is monarchy; and if the monarch prefented to them were of the royal family of Spain, or nearly related to it, they would probably submit to him without reluctance. Some of thefe colonies are capable, even in their present state, of forming great and powerful empires. Mexico alone contains more than four millions of inhabitants. Peru, including Potosi and Quito, contains as many. The provinces watered by the Orinoco are lefs populous, and lefs able to maintain their independence without the protection of fome foreign ftate; but fuch is the fertility of those regions, and fo admirably are they situated for commerce, that if emancipated from the mother country, they would advance with the rapidity of the United States. With their present means and refources, they are infinitely less able to maintain an independent government, than the populous and opulent regions of Mexico and Peru. Yet, it is against their colonies colonies that Miranda has directed his efforts. Local and private connexions may have decided his choice; but, whatever be his fuccefs, and nothing has yet appeared to make us augur favourably of his enterprize, we may reft affured, that the colonies which he is endeavouring to emancipate, are unable to defend themselves against the mother country, without the fuccour and protection of England. It is to be hoped, that this fuccour and protection will be either fteadily withheld, or honourably perfifted in; and that the colonists will not be firft encouraged to take up arms against their fovereign, and then abandoned without fcruple to his vengeance. ART. XII. The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, A. D. 1188. By Giraldus de Barri. Tranflated into Englifh, and Illuftrated with Views, Annotations, and a Life of Giraldus, by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, F. R. S. A. S. 2 vol. 4to. NOTHING is fo convenient to philofophers, hiftorians, and an tiquaries, as to have one grand folution for doubts and myfteries of every kind whatfoever fomething which fhall be a maf ter-key for all locks, or rather a panacea for every fpafm of doubt or hefitation, which may affail the inveftigator into antiquity. Two very emphatic words, namely the FEUDAL SYSTEM, were long in reputation as this univerfal talifman, infomuch that, in the days of Triftram Shandy, the origin of trunk-hofe and buttered beer was fatisfactorily referred to this refpectable fource. But as fome invalids are found to prefer the Vegetable Tincture, and others the Balm of Gilead, a great number of later antiquaries have drawn their general arguments, refpecting old cuftoms, from the effect of the Crufades, inftead of the Feudal Syftem. At length, even this fell into difufe; and, the fashion favouring other and more remote fyftems of deduction, it seems now to be allowed, that our modern age owes as little to thefe famous expeditions, in the way of information, as thofe who undertook and conducted them had to boast of real and immediate advantage. It was indeed lucky for these last mentioned perfonages, that their foul's health was what they had primarily and directly in confideration. Certes, imagination can prefent no ftate more uncomfortable for the body, than that of a Norman or English chevalier fheathed in, or rather gridironed upon, his own glowing armour, amid the burning fands of Paleftine, and rendered half mad by an hoff of light-armed Paynims, who, far from allowing Dd2 the the Red-crofs Knights to flake their thirst of vengeance upon their unchriftened perfons, were contented to hover around them, and overwhelm them alternately with clouds of duft and of arrows. Sorry we are for thefe doughty fons of chivalry, that our rigid Calvinifm cannot permit us to hope that they efcaped the fingeing of one whifker in the fire of purgatory, by anticipating its pains in the fultry conflicts of the Holy Land; and that we are compelled to believe that all their reward confitted in the immediate pleafure thereby purchafed, of now and then cutting the throats of a few Saracens, and occafionally rubbing their beards against the real or fuppofed tombstone of a faint or patriarch. As to our own times, according to the later and more fashionable hiftorical creed, the ufe of armorial bearings is the only invention which has defcended to us from the Crufades; and truly, if the fcience of Garter and of Lyon could not have been invented at home, we hardly think it was worth while going fo far to fetch it. We owe, however, one permanent benefit to the influence of these extraordinary expeditions, namely, the industry with which fome few contemporary authors have defcribed people and manners which now no longer exift-a tafk which thefe learned perfons. only undertook, because their fubjects were connected with the hiftory of this holy warfare. Among thefe,. the Welch Itinerary of Girald de Barri is particularly interefting. It contains many curious and minute particulars, refpecting the ftate of the ancient Britons during the twelfth century; and it must be allowed that few motives could either have impelled the author to a tour through Wales at that period, or procured him that respect, forbearance, and protection from the lawlefs chieftains, whofe territories he had to traverfe, excepting his pious errand for preaching the recovery of Palestine. A fplendid tranflation of the Itinerary of Giraldus, while on this expedition, is now before us; and we entertain, both for the original work and the merits of the modern edition, that complacent regard with which it becomes the natives of one elevated region of the island to confider the history of another, allied to it in all the dignity of mountain and wilderness. We could compare the Tweed and the Towy, in the manner of Fluellyn, as undoubtedly there are falmon in both. We might also remind the ancient Britons, that, if they have genealogies, we have pedigrees of a length equally remorfelefs; if they have bards, we have feannachies; if they have Aps, we can boaft of many a Mac; if they have mead, leeks, and cheese, we have cakes, kail, and whisky. We think they could not defire better sympathy. But it is enough, for the prefent, to vindicate our national intereft in Giraldus Cambrenfis, by obferving, that if ever the day shall come, that a steady and rational light shall be cast on Welch ry, its beams must be reflected upon the dark period of our tifh annals. irald Barri, as we learn from a very good fummary of his by Sir Richard Hoare the editor, was defcended, by the father, n a noble Norman family, and, by the mother, from the anit Welch princes. He was born in 1146, at the castle of norbur in Pembrokeshire. The future Archdeacon early dif yed his inclination for the church, by bursting into tears, and uefting to be conveyed thither, when, upon fome hoftile in-. on, all the youth of the caftle rufhed to arms. It is probable, father might think him good for little elfe; and thus, with e grain of the warlike fpirit which was then univerfal, the to-. grapher of Ireland and Wales had been loft to history, and had ent his life in the obfcure, though furious, conflicts of the feuds, the Marches. Having acquired, with eafe and rapidity, fuch arning as the times afforded, he was formally dedicated to the urch, in which he foon attained preferment. His first remarkble feat was in the capacity of legate to the Archbishop of Canerbury, when he fairly combated and overcame the reluctance of he Welch to pay difputed tithes of various kinds, particularly of heese, which must have been a confiderable object in that counry, if we judge of its importance by the anxiety with which it was vindicated. He alfo fignalized his zeal for the church by Tufpending the aged Archdeacon of St David's, who could not (at eaft would not) difcard his concubine; and this proved equally to Girald's honour and profit; for the Archbishop named him to the office and revenues of the fufpended dignitary, burdened, however, with a modicum of provifion for the ancient finner who preceded him. In adminiftering this new office, our hiftorian had a conteft with the Bishop of St Afaph about the right of dedicating a church at Keri, a village on the frontiers of the diocese of St David's. The mode of contefting the point feems not to have been extremely different from that which two contending chieftains would have employed in difputing the title to a manor or lordship; and furnifhes fo extraordinary a picture of the manners of the age, that we cannot refrain from giving our readers the detailed account of this holy ftrife. Girald, learning that the Archbishop meant to steal a march upon him, hurried forwards, like an able general, to preoccupy the ground. On the Saturday he despatched meffengers to two princes of that country, Eineon Clyd and Cadwalhon, requefting them to send some trufty men of their families, provided with horfes and arms, to affift him (if neceffity required) in afferting the rights of the church of St David, as the Bishop of St Afaph was reported to be attended by a Dd 3 frong ftrong body of men from Powys. He flept that night at Llanbift, and, on coming to Keri early on Sunday morning, found that two of the clergy, and partizans of the Bifhop, had concealed the keys of the church: thefe being at length found, the Archdeacon entered the church, and, having ordered the bells to be rung as a token of poffef fion, he celebrated mass with great folemnity. In the mean time, mefsengers arrived from the Bishop, ordering preparations to be made for the dedication of the church. Mafs being concluded, the Archdeacon fent fome of his clergy, attended by the dean of the province, to inform the Bishop, "That if he came to Keri as a neighbour and a friend, he would receive him with every mark of hospitality; but, if otherwise, he defired him not to proceed." The Bishop returned for answer, "That he was coming in his profeffional capacity as Bishop of the diocefe, to perform his duty in the dedication of the church. The Archdeacon and his clergy met the Bishop at the entrance to the churchyard, where a long difpute arose about the matter in question, and each afferted their refpective rights to the church of Keri. To enforce his claims the more, the Bishop difmounted from his horfe placed his mitre on his head, and taking up his pastoral staff, walked with his attendants towards the church. The Archdeacon proceeded to meet him, accompanied by his clergy, dreffed in their furplices and facerdotal robes, who, with lighted tapers and up-raised crucifix, came forth from the church in proceffional form. At length, each began to excommunicate the other; but the Archdeacon having ordered the bells to be rung three times, as the ufual confirmation of the sentence, the Bifhop and his train mounted their horses, and made a precipitate retreat, followed by a great mob, and pelted with clods of earth and ftones. This refolute conduct of the Archdeacon gained him the ap probation of all prefent, and even of the Bifhop himfelf, who was a fellow-ftudent with him at Paris. Vol. I. p. xv. xvi. Whatever honour our author might claim as the champion of the rights of his diocefe, we cannot help thinking that the fight of the two bodies of churchmen, each headed by their dignitary meeting each other with croifes raifed, beginning with a mutual attempt at confecration, and ending in mutual anathemas, till the bells, like a fudden discharge of artillery, completely routed the oppofite party, exceeds in grandeur indeed, but not in decorum, the vulgar ftory of the curates contending who should perform the funeral fervice. Upon another occafion, Girald takes great credit for going to church, on a very stormy day, to abfolve certain excommunicated perfons. He admits, at the same time, that he would have hefitated, had not all the journey been by land; a circumstance which feems rather to diminish the merit as well as peril of his expedition. Moved by thefe merits, the Chapter of St David's chofe Gi raldus |