Note 109 — Chapter XII · SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

[The count de Toreñoh says of him: “No sooner did he hold out protection to wise and esteemed men than he humbled them. At the same time that he was encouraging a special science, establishing a new professorship, or supporting some measure of improvement, he allowed the marquis Caballero, a declared enemy to advancement and learning, to trace out a scheme of general public instruction to be adopted in all the universities, which was incoherent and unworthy of the century, permitting him also to make serious omissions and alterations in the codes of law. Although he banished from the court and exiled all those whom he believed to be opposed to him, or who displeased him, as a general rule he did not carry his persecutions any farther, nor was he by nature cruel; he showed himself cruel and hard only with respect to the illustrious Jovellanos; sordid in his avarice, he sold, as if in public auction, offices, magistratures, dignities, sees, sometimes for himself, sometimes for his mistresses, sometimes to satisfy the caprices of the queen.”]