THE greatest triumphs of Castelar, the famous Spaniard, have been mainly achieved before the Spanish parliamentary assembly. He has long been the acknowledged first orator of that presence. Every deputy readily makes way for him. Place to Caste

lar" is a motto of the assembly. His eloquence has been familiar to Spain now (1887) for twenty years, but it is still considered an event in Madrid to hear him speak. His friend, the Italian Edmonds de Amicis, in his "Spain and the Spaniards," has thus graphically described him as he appears before the Cortes: "On the day he is to speak the President arranges

matters so that his turn comes when the tribunes are

crowded and all the deputies are in their places; the newspapers announce his speech the evening before, so that the ladies may procure tickets. Before speaking he is restless and cannot keep quiet one instant. He enters the chamber, leaves it, re-enters, goes out again, wanders through the corridors, goes into the library and turns over the leaves of a book; rushes into the café to take a glass of water; seems to be seized with a fever; fancies he will not know how to put the words together, that he will be laughed at or hissed; not a single lucid idea of his speech remains in his head-he has confused and forgotten everything. How is your pulse?' his friends ask smilingly. When the solemn moment

arrives, he takes his place with bowed head, trembling and pallid as a man condemned to death, who is resigned to losing in a single day the glory acquired with so many years of fatigue. He gives a glance around him and says, 'Senores.' He is saved. His courage returns. His mind grows clear, and his speech comes back to him like a forgotten melody. The President, the Cortes, the tribunes disappear. He sees nothing but his gestures, hears nothing but his own voice, and feels naught but the irresistible flame which burns within him, and the mysterious force which sustains and upholds him." His eloquence is music; he has harmony in his mind and follows it. One must hear

him in order to credit the fact that human speech without poetical measure can so closely approach to the harmony of song. He speaks by the hour, and not a single deputy leaves the room; not a person moves in the tribunes; not a voice interrupts him; not even when he breaks the regulations has the President sufficient courage to interrupt him. He displays at his ease the picture of his republic clothed in white and crowned with roses, and the monarchists do not dare protest, because, so clothed, they too find it beautiful. Castelar is. master; he thunders, lightens, sings, rages, and gleams like fireworks,makes his auditors smile, calls forth shouts of enthusiasm, and goes away with his head in a whirl."