Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/99

lxxxi CASTILE. Ixxxi monarch, who, notwithstanding his limited prerog- ative, assumed the anomalous privilege of transact- ing public business with the advice of only one branch of the legislature, and of occasionally dis- pensing altogether with the attendance of the other, might, by throwing his own influence into the scale, give the preponderance to whichever party he should prefer ; and, by thus dexterously availing himself of their opposite forces, erect his own authority on the ruins of the weaker. — How far and how success- fully this policy was pursued by Ferdinand and Isabella, will be seen in the course of this History. SECTION I. Since the political principles and bias of the author were of an oppo- site character to Marina's, they frequently lead him to opposite conclusions in the investigation of the same facts. Making all allow- ance for obvious prejudices, Sem- pere's work, therefore, may be of much use m correcting the erro- neous impressions made by the for- mer writer, whose fabric of liberty too often rests, as exempliiied more than once in the preceding pages, on an ideal basis. But, with every deduction, Ma- rina's publications must be consid- ered an important contribution to political science. They exhibit an able analysis of a constitution, which becomes singularly interest- ing, from its having furnished, to- gether with that of the sister king- dom of Aragon, the earliest exam- ple of representative government, as well as from the liberal princi- ples, on which that government waa long administered. VOL. I.