ferred them, knew well by what a precarious, illicit section tenure he was to hold them.
Constitution at the beginning of the fifteenth century. From the view which has been presented of the Castilian constitution at the beginning of the fif- teenth century, it is apparent, that the sovereign was possessed of less power, and the people of greater, than in other European monarchies at that period. It must be owned, however, as before in- timated, that the practical operation did not always correspond with the theory of their respective func- tions in these rude times ; and that the powers of the executive, being susceptible of greater compact- ness and energy in their movements, than could possibly belong to those of more complex bodies, were sufficiently strong in the hands of a resolute prince, to break down the comparatively feeble barriers of the law. Neither were the relative privileges, assigned to the different orders of the state, equitably adjusted. Those of the aristocracy were indefinite and exorbitant. The license of armed combinations too, so freely assumed both by this order and the commons, although operating as a safety-valve for the escape of the effervescing
department. Mariana and Sempere. I allude to the valuable works of Marina, on the early legislation, and on the cortes, of Castile, to which repeated reference has been made in this section,The latter, especially, presents us with a full exposition of the appropriate functions assigned to the several departments of government,and with the parliamentary history of Castile deduced from original, unpublished records. It is unfortunate that his copious illustrations are arranged in so unskilful a manner as to give a dry and repulsive air to the whole work. The original documents, on which it is established, instead of being reserved for an appendix, and their import only conveyed in the text, stare at the reader in every page, arrayed in all the technicalities, periphrases, and repetitions incident to legal enactments. The courseof the investigation is, moreover, frequently interrupted by impertinent dissertations on the constitution of 1812, in which the
