Uninformed on the Belgian character, despising the state of manners, and ignorant of the language, no sympathy attached him to the people.

He brought with him to the throne all the hostile prejudices of a foreigner, without one of the kindly or considerate feelings of a compatriot.
Spain, where this young prince had hitherto passed his life, was in some degree excluded from European civilization.

A contest of seven centuries between the Mohammedan tribes and the descendants of the Visigoths, cruel, like all civil wars, and, like all those of religion, not merely a contest of rulers, but essentially of the people, had given to the manners and feelings of this unhappy country a deep stamp of barbarity.

The ferocity of military chieftains had become the basis of the government and laws.

The Christian kings had adopted the perfidious and bloody system of the despotic sultans they replaced.